We left Palermo on October 13 for our two-day sail to Tunisia.

Why did we go to Tunisia? The main reason is because it isn’t in Schengen. The other reason is that it is on the southern coast of the Mediterranean Sea/northern coast of Africa and therefore a warm place to spend the winter. Finally, we’d read that Monastir Marina was a very popular marina for cruisers. We had joined a Monastir Group Page on WhatsApp and had already been in communication with a couple of the cruisers. We learned that they get together for a BBQ every Sunday and also enjoy happy hours, coffee, and watching football (soccer) games together. We were pretty excited to get to the marina!

We had to motor the entire way to Tunisia. There was little to no wind. Here are some pictures of our trip to Tunisia, including arriving in the middle of the night, where we anchored outside of the marina until daylight (in fact, not until midday; we slept in and took our sweet time). I should note that we didn’t see land for most of the trip, but the pictures I took include the land because they are more interesting than just looking at water. 🙂

We both still had mild symptoms, but we figured we would no longer be contagious since it had been 10 days since we first developed symptoms. We didn’t spend any time inside with anyone to be extra careful, but we did go out for a glass of wine/beer that first night and ended up being invited to another table and met a few other cruisers. We had already turned down the offer to join the BBQ that night because we wanted to take it easy.

October 16th was our only full day at the marina since we were leaving on the 17th. Before I tell you the saga of trying to get my hands on Tunisian Dinar (TD), I want to share some pictures of the various restaurants (and a gym!) located right by the marina. We will have a lot of options! I plan to make liberal use of the gym.

We were told that they decorate for Christmas at the marina, and we are looking forward to that!!

Okay, we needed TD. Why? Mostly because Michael hired a guy to build a solar arch for Seahike and install it. He needed 40 percent down, in cash, that day. So, I took off to find an ATM. It turned out that the first ATM I found only let me withdraw 300 TD per transaction, and the denominations were all 20s! So, that’s 15 bills for each 300 TD. I made a couple of withdrawals. I tried a different ATM and it let me withdraw 400 TD at a time, so that meant 20 bills. I did this a total of four (five?) times, then decided it made more sense to go to an actual bank. So I did.

I waited my turn, then told the gentleman that I needed to withdraw 2,600 TD. He told me, “that is a lot of money.” I told him I agreed, but we had to pay someone a lot of money in TD because he would only accept cash. He said it was too much cash and I should use the ATM. I explained that the ATMs had a limit and each time I withdrew money I was charged a fee. But he wouldn’t budge.

Then it occurred to me that I had some euros in my purse. I asked him if he would exchange euros for TD. Yes, he would do that. So I gave him just about all of the euros I had. Then he gave me 1,600+ TD. . . . in 20s.

So now I had several big wads of TD. But I still didn’t have enough money. So I made two more withdrawals from the ATM and walked back to the boat.

I will admit that I was quite frustrated by this at first, but after a bit I realized it was actually quite humorous! I have never had a problem withdrawing money before, but it was a bit of an adventure in Tunisia.

We met up with a large group of cruisers for happy hour as soon as I returned. I shared my story with them and they told me that the TD is not a strong currency and Tunisians (or at least Tunisian banks) don’t really want to part with them. They weren’t surprised that they would exchange euros for TD, because the euro is strong. I also learned that there are two ATMs nearby that will each allow you to withdraw 800 TD at a time. I will be visiting them when it is time to pay the dude the remainder of his fee for the solar arch! 🙂 🙂

We already have a marvelous impression of the people at the marina. Plus, we will finally get our solar arch and install our four new solar panels so we can go off-grid for the most part. (We will still need to be hooked up to shore power to run the AC, but we shouldn’t need to run it for some time.)

Here is a view of the sunrise before we took the taxi to the airport: