ALGERIA, August 26-27, 2011 City of Chetaibi

Algerian Water border patrol checking us out

Tuesday’s sail gave us no wind, but lovely sunny skies. Tabarka is located close to the Algerian border and it wasn’t long before we were actually in Algerian waters. This was made clear to us with the approach of a very large military boat complete with guns on the deck. We had been ready for our arrival in Algeria by putting up the Q flag on our port side shroud and the Algerian flag on the Starboard. As we watched this large boat approach us at a fast speed, I tried to take some pictures without being too obvious.

The military boat circled us and hailed us on VHF. Ken had a very pleasant conversation on VHF answering their questions regarding our destination, and nationality of the entire crew. After bidding us a good day, they were gone! Tuesday’s sail gave us no wind, but lovely sunny skies. Tabarka is located close to the Algerian border and it wasn’t long before we were actually in Algerian waters. This was made clear to us with the approach of a very large military boat complete with guns on the deck. We had been ready for our arrival in Algeria by putting up the Q flag on our port side shroud and the Algerian flag on the Starboard. As we watched this large boat approach us at a fast speed, I tried to take some pictures without being too obvious. The military boat circled us and hailed us on VHF. Ken had a very pleasant conversation on VHF answering their questions regarding our destination, and nationality of the entire crew.

After bidding us a good day, they were gone!

We were able to fly the spinnaker in the morning, but by afternoon, we were motoring again. It was a sleepy day with little to do but read, motor and look for dolphins. We arrived in our first Algerian harbor in the city of Chetaibi around 7PM. Tying up along the quay was a bit of a circus and the longer it took, the larger the audience became. Not very often you see an American, RED sailboat come into your small fishing harbor. Language being the biggest challenge, we had several attempts to get the boat secured without hitting bottom along the quay. One gentleman assured me that it was 2 meters deep along side, but we knew we were touching several times. After a few odd try’s, Ken finally dropped anchor with the bow out and we secured the boat alongside a cement fishing dock. We had most of our fenders alongside to protect the boat, and of course, by this time it seemed the entire village was watching our progress.

Our evening audience

The young girls had so many questions for us (ladies)

There was a younger Coastguard representative that helped with our paperwork and soon became our boat guard. It was soon apparent that many wanted their pictures taken in front of the boat and several families tried to place their small children on our deck for this photo opportunity. We had to keep our gateway closed and kindly ask them to stay off the boat. This happened through out the evening and even in the morning before we were up. (in the morning, I awoke to hearing someone on the deck and when I went up, found several young boys scampering off with the Coast Guard rep watching. I think after I asked them to respect us, he kept others from getting on board.

That first night in Algeria, Ken and Fred walked to town to try to secure some food for dinner. Molly, Paula and I stayed behind to “protect” the boat. The entire Quay was filled with people enjoying the evening and watching us. The men did not have any luck getting dinner due to our lack of Algerian
funds and they did not want our US$. After a boat-dinner, Molly, Paula and I walked down the Quay and
had several lovely conversations with some of the younger crowd. They had wonderful questions for us and one particular young girl was very anxious to talk about women’s rights and freedoms. We found our entire reception very warm and they seemed delighted we selected their village to stop for the night.

In the morning we untied early to an almost empty Quay, and motored slowly out to start our next days sail. It was about 7:30AM when we left and we found we were able to sail with the Jib most of the day. Molly and Paula were at the helm most of the day taking us to our next destination, Collo, Algeria.