April 15th 2001, Monastir
Ready for another season.
Well we should have been ready for departure for Malta in two days time………but the truth is we are not. First the weather has given us a real blow for the last week, with winds of more than 30 knots, so we were not able to finish the last part of the varnishing (most importantly the mast needs one more coat, only 4 hours work, but still NOT a job when the boat is swinging from left to right) and now finally Roland has fallen sick. First a normal flew, but on top of that, one of his disks in his back has slipped. So NO WAY we can get any of the work finished or take to sea for the journey to Malta. Our suffering continues.
So far for the bad news, the rest is only good news. The new sails are ordered and will be delivered here in Tunisia around May the 8th. So, yes we will go to Malta for the works on Sylphes rudder and autopilot and than return to Monastir to pick up the sails. But what a joy it will be to see her under the new canvas. All beige colour, small panelled and old-fashioned cut, finished with leather, etc, etc.
Marit has not only been busy with polishing all the stainless steel on the boat, but she also got herself entangled in ordering and having Polo-shirts made with the logo of Sylphe embroided on them. Sounds easy, doesn't it. Well it wasn't. She spent going up and down to Sousse three times as that is the only place where they have the computer to make the design and calculate the number of stitches etc. Then together with the girl from that copmpany she went to a T-shirt factory to test and see it is was okay. After that she could do the rest of the shirts here in Monastir as there is one embroiding machine right here in the center. But when we loaded the program into the machine here the Dolphin had suddenly become 22 cm, which is a little too big to be embroided at chesthight on a polo. So back to Sousse, back to yet another factory for testing, etc, etc. BUT the result counts and we have beautifull marine-blue polos with the name and the dolphin on it. So, after two years we finally suceeded as we tried to have it done in Turkey, but did not succeed there.
In the mean time, bookings are coming along just fine. The most beautifull week of the year is sold: St. Tropez. Henk, you will be in for an adventure, better prepare. The other fun part is that SYLPHE will be heading to Croatia this year as Rene and Chantal have booked their trip to start from Dubrovnik. So we add yet another country to the list. I look forward to it. (that will bring the number of counties visisted in the Med to 9, but I know of a yacht that has visisted 22, so still way to go)
For those of you who remember the story of the visa running out in Turkey, I guess that will happen again here in Tunisia. Our visa expires tomorrow, and that was the planned day for our departure. But due to the weather and the sickness that will not happen and the visa will thus expire. Lets see and hope that we get out of this place by thursday. That still brings us in time to Malta, for Marits father who will be arriving on saturday and the boat to be lifted on Monday.
So we are getting Sylphe ready for yet another season, and by god are we looking forward to it. We have never spend such a long time in one place on a mooring (we are here now 4 months), but Monastir, the marina and its staff and Tunisians in general have been very kind and made are stay pleasant, so we will most likely be back here in December for another winter.
Am going back to bed and flat on my back
Love roland and Marit