David's Diary: Thursday, October 17, 2002

On Passage to Tunisia

We have had a great visit in Malta. The people were friendly, they all spoke English, there were many boating stores, and we could find our favourite foods in the supermarkets. But it is time for us to make our way to Monastir, Tunisia, which is going to be our home for the winter.

We cleared customs by 8:30 this morning and were off the dock by 9:00. We followed the Maltese coast, passing Sliema and St. Julian's Bay, until we turned into Gozo channel. We passed between the main part of Malta and the island of Gozo. During our stay we learned that 3,000 Canadians (mostly of Maltese descent) have retired to live on the tiny island.

Allen

This is our last passage of the year. We have sailed a lot of miles and seen many things, but we are ready to settle down in one place for a few months. Allen is perched under the dodger in his regular spot. He lives outside and sleeps under the dodger while we are underway.

Kevin

Kevin cannot resist pushing the buttons on all of the electronic navigation equipment. I send him down below to get the manual for the radar/chartplotter and ask him to actually read the manual before he pushes any more buttons on our equipment. Passages can seem long or they can seem short, it just depends how busy we keep ourselves.

Jocelyn Reading

Jocelyn passes the time reading, one of her favourite pastimes. She has over one hundred books in her room and she's read them all -- multiple times. As I look at the three children I can't help but wonder what they will think of our whole adventure in a few years time? How will they have changed? How will Karalee and I have changed? And what will it be like to live in a Muslim country for the whole winter?

Jocelyn cooking on passage

Watches come and watches go. We stand four-hour watches during the day and three-hour watches at night. Jocelyn takes on the job of cooking during passages. We are beating in about 15-20 knots of wind so Dragonsinger is heeled over. It makes moving around down below a challenge and cooking more difficult than usual. Jocelyn copes well and we have our final dinner on passage for 2002 outside in the cockpit.

Sunset about halfway to Tunisia

After dinner the sun sets and we are about halfway through our passage. As darkness arrives we settle the boat for the night. All the lights are turned off to preserve our night vision, Allen goes to sleep for the night, and the off-watch crew tries to catch a little sleep, even if the bed is sloped twenty degrees. By the time the sun rises tomorrow we will be getting close to Tunisia.