TripSailor.com® Sailing Blogs

got back last night to find toilet pump not working, so first thing this morning remove it reseat the valve refit it and all was ok, well that was a result.

8.30  phone call from a friend, he has rebuilt his volvo 2003 but gets no power, give him advice . check throttle control etc, send him relevant data and have heard nothing so assume all is ok, so far things are progressing well, french friend calls round , he has broken hir pressure washer connection, try a couple of ideas but no real solution, ok system D get a piece made, no problem in Tunisia, another friend comes round and needs some bolt threads cleaning, no problem, always help a person in need, do that ,drop some sikaflex off to another friend who needs some for a small repair ,no point in opening a full tube he says, i agree, ok now for the challenge of the day, a 1 year old boat ,everthing electronic and only half working. an out of date wiring diagram ,digital switches and microprocesers, computer settings, bad connections , a real nightmare, 6 hrs later all i seem to have achieved is to get 8 more devices online, starboard and port cabin lights to work from their switch, a headache, and for some reason the vhf does not now function, well tomorrow is another day, i’m now relaxing, having a beer and a moan about computerised boats, actually looking back on my day the best thing was fixing the toilet pump, hmmm not often you can say that.

Arriving in Port Yasmine marina for the first time was a bit of a shock after spending our first year away from the UK in the sleepy little fishing marina of Nazare Portugal and feeling very smug that
the weather was so much better than the UK. We arrived to be met by 40+ degrees of heat and very high humidity and bright sunshine everyday, if we had thought Portugal was hot we were wrong THIS is hot.

On arrival at the marina entrance the wind decided to turn into a real hoolie and we were thinking of going out again and waiting for it to die down but one of the marinaros came out in a rib and directed us to our berth with a lot of nudging from the rib we got  Orizaba berthed safely along with the help of 2 other marinaros who were there to take our ropes with lots of smiles and greetings of welcome. They made what could have been a very stressful situation very simple.

Once we were all tied up and secure the marinaro in the rib took Mike over to customs where he checked us in a customs man came to the boat all very serious looking and checked over that we were all correct and we weren’t carrying anything we shouldn’t be. At that time I was very unsure of the reception Daisy would get as being a Muslim country I had thought they would not be very happy with dogs around but this didn’t seem to be the case with Daisy dog The customs man upon seeing her he gave her a big smile and  was happy to give her a fuss and said she was obviously very tired so he wouldn’t make her get up off her bed so he could check the rest of the boat and all seemed ok to him and please enjoy our stay in Tunisia little did we know our stay would turn out to be indefinite as here we are 5 years later on!!

Orizaba is Spanish meaning Star Mountain it is also the  name of a Mexican volcano.(we should have called her Blood Sweat & Tears) as there was plenty of that in the time it took us to get her ready to sail.But we liked the name and didn’t think it wise to push our luck and change it.
Once we decided to go sailing the process of looking for a suitable boat within our budget started. We found Orizaba in the unlikely setting of a council yard in Staines UK We had looked at various Yachts but until we saw her we could never agree on them Mike would like them and I wouldn’t or vice a versa . Finally we saw Orizaba and both agreed she was the one. Why I will never know as she needed a complete refit and lots of work  She has  done us proud coming across Biscay and on our various trips since. She is also a good work boat and holds all the tools and equipment needed for Mike and myself to provide a good service to the yachts in the marina and despite the fact she is not the biggest yacht in the marina has been the venue for more than one or two excellent bbq’s