Tag: Marina Bizerte

‘privileged’‘privileged’



privileged, dictionary:
+ having advantages and opportunities that other people do not have
or
+ able or allowed to do things that other people have no opportunity to do

Visiting Downtown Bizerte, Tunisia

September 19, 2020

Sailing the world, living on a boat by choice, being where we want to be makes us sometimes feel privileged. This feeling evaporates over time, hence the word ‘sometimes’ and is ungrateful to our actual daily experience. Visiting the emerging country Tunisia reminded us, we were and are living privileged. It became even more tangible after visiting the town center and the old port of Bizerte. The night before we had our first dinner out since January (see picture below) in Bizerte. During the dinner we were thinking about how privileged our life is. We could always choose what we do and when.

Big Contrasts

Superyacht “Bold”

Shortly before we wandered out of the marina, a large luxury yacht docks in the marina. The military styled vessel named ‘Bold’ is 85 meters long and owned by a german entrepreneur. You can charter the yacht for 1 million a week. The vessel’s builder and designer dubbed it ‘fuel efficient’. This might be the case when compared to similar sized vessels. Soon 4 tanker trucks with 31,000 liter diesel each drove onto the pier to fill her up. Totaling 124,000 liters and still not full. (124000L equal 33000 US gallons). After that I felt a tad misled by the term ‘fuel efficient’. 
The contrast to the poor downtown soon after couldn’t be illustrated in a bigger way then by walking by a $100,000,000 luxury yacht.

Four trucks with 31000 liter each came to fill ‘er up

Market in downtown Bizerte

I like to photograph people. I like to make them look good on pictures and hope they like the outcome afterwards. This is a miserable combination for a real world photo representing life’s harsher realities. I really don’t like to hold a lens into the face of people in adverse situations – adverse for me, I must add. Bizerte’s market was so exotic, I couldn’t resist making photos. It didn’t matter what my subjective judgement of a good photo was. Unhappy or happy, poor or good life, this was worth recording.

Offering local produce
Some are not so fortunate and cannot offer very much.

Bizerte Town

Bizerte Tunisia Downtown
Going by the buildings, the layout, the riverfront park, Bizerte must have had better times not so long ago

Let’s start the walk to the ‘Vieux Port’ (Old Harbor).

(Since we have seen only the Vieux Port ourselves, here is a good link to all the other interesting sites in Bizerte)

Yes, Tunisia is low income. GDP per capita is only $3500 per year. Don’t let this fool you away from visiting. The people here are welcoming you. They leave you space. They greet you friendly on the streets – unconditionally. There is no follow-up begging or that they know the best restaurant in town, a must visit specially for you. You know what I mean.

We went into the indoor fish market. Noisy, smelly, overwhelming. You don’t want to miss it. It was exotic for us. I have only one simple photo:

I made many photos, so I thought. I pressed the shutter button many times on the iPhone. But……., I held the phone the other way this time and pressed the ‘Off’ button probably 100 times 🙁
One photo only!

Phoenician styled Restaurant ship. Looked pretty cool.
Simple and good life on the old port pier.

Everyday Life

Bizerte Market Day

Selling Most Things You Can Imagine

Mopeds, my old love

Private transport is predominantly a bicycle, or a Moped. Since being a teenager I love Mopeds and ‘MoFas’ (slower Moped). They were our first freedom, allowing us to venture further without exhaustion and in comfort. MoFas needed no driver’s license. The minimum age was 15 and they had a top speed of 25km/h (16mph) had pedals which doubled as a starter and theoretically you could pedal them forward. They were cheap to run. I miss them.

Most Mopeds I saw here looked like they were from the 60s and 70s. 500cc bikes are king. I saw one!

Things which can be repaired are the right stuff

Around Old Port Bizerte

The blankets on the boats are for overnight fishing. We saw the smallest of boats going out overnight, having no engine and a very low freeboard.

The challenges of crossing the street. 

Practically all drivers ignore crosswalks, though they exist. If you are fully on the crosswalk and do not look at the driver, they stop. We guess the driver’s thinking must be ‘the person doesn’t see me, I better brake’. If you look, you better run.
Under no circumstances shall I be liable for any damages arising out of construing this statement  as useful information for crossing streets in Tunisia or anywhere else 🙂

She made it! Crossing the Straits of Gibraltar seemed less perilous.

Back at the boat. A night with thunderstorms. Feels good to be in port.

Sail to TunisiaSail to Tunisia



16 September 2020

Since long Tunisia was on our desired destination list. However, traveling 2020 under the Covid-19 threat is different. Elaborate planning and preparations come before you can leave Europe. We always harbour some fear that they might not allow us to return home. The last 24 hours before leaving the safety of a friendly port always comes with trepidations for us.

Motoring out between the islands after leaving Carloforte (Sardinia, Italy) calmness gently overcomes us. Throw in a light breeze, blue sky and sunshine and hours later we are truly relaxed.

Our major worry are the entry procedures in Tunisia. Complicated further because we want to continue to Sicily within hours. Upon arrival we reevaluate the quick turnaround scenario and risk to stay for some days. This could be troublesome if Corona cases balloon and related closures occur. Our primary worry is that Europe might close their border to Tunisia. Illegal migrants coming from Africa and Tunisia are a considerable risk and we are thinking about that too. 

Our destination is Bizerte on the Northwest corner of Tunisia. Phoenician traders settled the town 1100BC. Bizerte is promising even so 2020 we reduced our cultural program to stay safe.

The distance from Sardinia is 140nm, a distance we often sail in 24 hours, ideal for coming to Tunisia. We don’t want to arrive at night or sail during the night through the coastal waters of Africa.

Preparations:

We have a pre departure checklist we always go through before leaving port. Checking and adjusting the tension of the rudder cables, we found another “hmmmm, not good”.

These pictures are about our Raymarine backup autopilot. They press the top bolt into the quadrant from above. The bolt transmits the action of the autopilot arm to the rudder. The thread of the nut is just 30% engaged. Only removing the quadrant will tell me how easy or difficult it is to repair.

Last minute preparations

No Kinder Chocolate for us. Fueled 160 liters this way 🙂

17. September 2020

Early morning the Admiral works the galley. While I supposedly clear up the deck but make photos 🙂

Underway we take sailing more and more easy these days. We frequently hoist the Genaker alone for downwind sailing. With the right wind strength and direction, it’s efficient and good enough for us. We don’t have to worry about accidental gybes damaging the rig. We can sail deeper (180°) and directly to our destination. Underway we experimented with going 5 to 10° to the wrong side of the wind direction for the genaker. The Genaker took it gently without folding. That makes straight downwind sailing relaxed and fun. Net we loose maybe 0.5knots but who cares.

Genaker sailing

Sailing offshore feels like sailing away from the corona stress. And it’s not a deception. Within 100 miles there is no case when we are underway.

Pitch black night sailing. No moon. Looking up, seeing some stars and the mast top lights. Red is the preferred night light color onboard. It does not disturb your night vision.

18. September 2020

During sunrise the next morning we add the mainsail. The wind changed favorably the direction and increased to 15kts. The added sail speeds us up and we arrive at noontime in Bizerte.

Morning Time: Africa in sight.
Last minute damage. Furling in the genoa for the last time today this little block disintegrates.

5nm north of the port of Bizerte we get hailed via VHF radio by the Tunisian coast guard inquiring about crew size and destination. That was all formality up to that point. We use the northern entrance to the port, which is a shorter distance to the marina. Well, I forgot to change our chart-plotter to show high definition depth lines 🙁 
In the port entrance, deep water mysteriously disappears. 5m, 3m, 1.1m under the keel within seconds. At 3m I idled the engines and at 1.1m REVERSE!!! We didn’t touch the sandy bottom. To the left is the picture of the standard nautical chart. To the right, you see the high definition depth lines.

This is the official nautical chart. We came in from the left going to the right, closer to the green light. We were somewhere between the 14 and 15m depth line 🙁

And while it says 4m, it’s not. Completely silted and shallow. The silting extends much further to the northeast towards the red marker. Looking down from the bow, we both think 10 or 20 meters further and we would have touched Tunisia with our keels first.

Immediately after arrival on the customs dock, they quarantine us. A Border control officer is unhappy about our courtesy (guest) flag. We took the bag which said ‘Tunisia’, but it had a ‘Turkish’ flag inside – not good. The border control gentleman didn’t like that. A marina employee brought us quickly a Tunisian flag. Thanks, Marina Bizerte!

The whole marina is super well organized. This includes customs and immigration. Within an hour we were Covid-19 tested. The lab reported the results 17:00h same day. Wow! The marina manager, Monsieur Mohamed Ali, picked up the Covid-19 test from the laboratory in downtown Bizerte for us the next morning- thank you.

Ben Ammar Mohamed Ali,
Directeur du Port Marina Bizerte

We have seen nothing of Tunisia yet. But going by our positive experience with the arrival formalities, we are happy.

The lab technician lady is born Russian, living in Tunisia. Migration, the constant normal in this world.

PCR testing with a swab. The expectation is worse than the actual sampling.

For a marina next to an industrial port, the water is clean. These jellyfish are 30cm (1 foot) large in diameter. These are non poisonous, we are told. Didn’t try my luck and touch 🙂

Swimming by the side of LUNARA

During quarantine you sit in the cockpit of your boat and just watch the world go by. If you look, you can see. You know what I mean.

I wonder what their talk is about
Fisherman heading out for overnight fishing
Russian Tanker leaving port
Evening fishing. Is he just looking down?
Food supply and entertainment combined.

We close our day by sitting in the cockpit enjoying the view as in the pictures above and have a traditional LUNARA style dinner.

Cheers!