Tunisia - The Adventures Begin!

Our first trip abroad ....

We had been dating less than a year and although Lisa had only met Alex and Sally once before, and had never visited a place like Tunisia, she was willing to take the plunge and off we took in the summer of 2000.

We landed in Rome and took the train down to Pompeii (with a night in Naples) before taking the train to Marsala to meet up with Alex and Sally. After a meal aboard the boat, we took a night sail to Tunisia, arriving off the Tunisian coast early the next morning.

Early in the trip we visited Tunis itself, touring the souk from below and above and visiting the (limited) ruins of (Roman, not Punic) Carthage.



Of course we also visited the famous Bardo museum with its amazing Roman era mosaics.

After a couple of nights near Tunis, we started sailing west along the Tunisian coast with stops in Bizerte and Tabaraka.

Eventually, it was time to set our sights for Italy as Lisa and Christos had a flight back from Rome booked for a few days later. The plan was to do a full day (24 hour) sail to get us to southern Italy and then we would make our way to Rome ... but nature had other plans!

The day we set sail, about six hours in a storm brewed up nearby and we were forced to abandon the attempt to get to Italy. Instead, we sailed for the closest port which in this case happened to be the island of Galite.

Galite is a military zone and is usually closed to non-military naval traffic but due to the storm, the harbour of Galite was available for anchor.

After several hours of sailing in progressively worse seas, we arrived well after midnight and found ourselves confronted by a flotilla of bobbing lights; the mast lights of a fleet of fishing boats that had also sought refuge in the harbour at Galite! 

We spent some time weaving among them before finally getting the hook in only to be awoken later that night ... ask Lisa or Christos to tell you the story of Galite ...

Fortunately we had the amazing Captain Spiros, pictured here in his finest form, to lead us through the calm waters, tough waters and  even storms. Love you Captain Spiros!