Tunis to Malta, January 2003

A crack of dawn start had us flying into Tunis at noon on Friday 3^rd January 2003 to lovely weather - our plans to move Zingano from Sidi Bou Said marina to Malta looked very promising.

We were met at the airport by Houcine Ennaceur, a remarkable sailor who, from skippering charter boats to being an officer on petrol tankers, currently heads up the main tug boat at La Goulette, the port for Tunis. But his real love is sailing and he had agreed to prep the boat, help us clear customs and skipper her to Malta... he suggested we did all the work and he would just help us.

We decided on a good night's rest at the Abou Nawas in Gammarth, a lovely hotel with whitewashed lodges set in rolling lawns by the sea, friendly and efficient service and an excellent restaurant. Houcine then took us to the boat but was concerned that a strong North Westerly was forecast and our agents, S&D Yachts in Malta, confirmed that winds of force 7 to 8 were anticipated there.

So we decided to leave Tunis early on Sunday to make the 233 mile run to Malta. Lotfi Aloui came as extra crew. He works at the sailing school at the marina and over the last few weeks had been struggling against the Saharan winds to keep the boat washed and clean for us.

So, just one day to check over the boat day and learn all about her. We were confident that it had been well looked after and the engines serviced and that a jammed reefing block I’d spotted when we surveyed her had been freed. There were some worrying bits and pieces but we had emergency plans and everything else looked fine.

We planned to leave at dawn and Houcine went off to clear us out with the port police. Despite having all the necessary papers in triplicate, the local officer decided he needed the approval of a superior. After some discussion his boss agreed to come to the marina after his supper but an hour and a half later it was clear he wasn’t going to show and so we rescheduled for 5:30am. After very little sleep I was up again at 5am, prepping the lines and warming the engines. Predictably no-one showed up until 6:30 and then, with much stamping of, we were given leave to clear out and set off into a cold dawn with a brisk South Westerly.

Tunis to Malta is a fairly straightforward trip - you head NW for about 35 miles, round Cap Bon (avoiding the shipping lanes), then head SE until you get to Malta's sister island, Gozo. On the way you pass the small Italian island of Pantelleria, handy if you get rough weather but otherwise apparently not worth stopping at. With dire weather warnings coming over the VHF, we cracked on through the night motor sailing at 8 knots, hoping to outrun the front coming over.

It was a cold and fairly lumpy night and Houcine and Lotfi worked incredibly hard and proved excellent sailors and it was hard to get them to take a meal break and let me take a turn at the watch. Léonie sensibly stayed inside (far to cold for her and with three strapping men on board...).

Shortly after dawn we passed round the north side of Gozo with its dramatic cliffs before making for Valletta and Msida marina in Marsamxett Harbour on Malta. Though threatening clouds continued to pass us, the wind never rose above 28 knots and we crossed in about 28 hours.

Congratulating ourselves on a successful run, we rounded up to take down the main just outside the entrance to the harbour and, as I held the nose to the wind, the steering suddenly went failed. But of course it’s a catamaran and with two engines who needs steering? Actually I do... but Houcine was totally unphased and, with Lotfi on the emergency tiller, took us gracefully onto the customs dock.

We had notified our agent and Valletta Port Control of our arrival but certainly didn’t expect a whole welcoming party - with Peter & Adrian from S&D Yachts, Customs, Police and Marina officials. Quite daunting really and, with our Tunisian friends on board, I feared problems clearing in. In reality it was just the opposite and five minutes later I was back on board with passports duly stamped and smiles all round.

We explained our steering and rudder problems to Chris Schembri, the very helpful marina manager of Msida Marina, he offered us a berth next to the customs dock and we were soon tied up snug and safe and could all turn in for a good sleep... though not before Lotfi had given the boat a thorough wash – I’ve never met anyone who works so hard.

Next day we set about fixing the problem. Zingano uses Vectran rope steering, which is supposed to be incredibly strong and tough. Clearly ours wasn’t and appeared to have been corroded by diesel spillage – it’s not really too clever using rope like that which passes directly behind the diesel tank.

Vectran was nowhere to be found on Malta but Adrian from S&D came up with some Dyneema which has nearly equal strength and low-stretch. I’d ordered 25 meters and to strip off the outer layers and get to the core we wanted we set up a ropewalk on the pontoon. Not surprisingly we got some funny looks but quickly discovered a number of British live-aboards on our pontoon, including two young families on catamarans, one also a Fountaine-Pajot with 4 young children.

So now we had our steering cable but that was the easy bit.  In our probings, all the ball bearings had escaped from the wheel hub and Lotfi spent ages searching for them in the bilges... but nylon ball bearings don’t half bounce and predictably some were lost. Finally new ones were obtained but reassembling them became a nightmare. Various suggestions were made but in the end routing out the wheel hub seemed the only conclusion This was not an installation that was intended to be removed! - bad news all round but definitely skilled men's work.

Léonie then suggested that one could assemble the whole thing by taping the bearings in place then pulling the tape out at the last minute (bla-di bla!). Ridiculous, of course, but we decided to humour her and, hey presto, 15 minutes later she had the whole thing assembled. Women do have their uses occasionally. Now at least we were back to square one again and it only remained to thread and tension the cable... but, needless to say, after realising mistakes, re-threading and re-tensioning the system it was hours before we had it reliably operational.

Losing the rudder was a hassle but at least we now understand how it works, have made notes and should be able to fix it again (given an hour or two in a calm harbour...!), though regular inspection and maintenance might be an easier option. It was lucky for us that if didn’t happen at sea.

Stripping off the sails should have been straight forward but, like everything on a boat that hasn’t been sailed much, things may well be seized. And that’s what we found, with several seized nuts and shackles, a couple of which needed drilling out.

Finally our wonderful Tunisian friends were able to sample the delights of Malta for a couple of afternoons before flying home, while we continued to figure out our new home - all the pumps and seacocks, how to get the generator going, if the water-maker was in working order, why the freezer wasn’t working properly etc etc - adding to our growing list of things for S&D Yachts to sort out for us.

Our first voyage on Zingano has confirmed that it’s the ideal boat for us and it was certainly a good call to ask Houcine and Lotfi to help us - I’m not sure we could have done it without them. Many things are a bit daunting and mastering the sheer volume of equipment takes time and we need to be as self-sufficient as possible. That said it was also a good call to line up S&D Yachts as agents to help us with the yard work to be done here. They are on the ball, know who the best sailmakers are, where to source spares, additional electronics etc. This meant we could go home and be confident that things will get done in our absence and the boat will be well looked after. As to Malta, we have seen scarcely anything of it on this trip but did have some good days when we came over in December... and there'll be plenty of time in April.

 Click for the pics