By yesterday the storm had passed. Skies were clear and brilliantly blue, and while it was warmer than the previous two days, it was by no means hot. We languidly got ready to go to sea and headed out around 2:00 pm.

The passage was pretty uneventful. Winds varied from 11 -17 knots apparent, always on the nose (which makes real wind speed more like 5 11 knots). The seas were the typical Mediterranean small, sharp swells at rapid intervals. Not the smoothest ride of all time, but certainly not a bad ride, either.

We arrived in Trapani around noon today. From the distance, it looks like a series of blocky mid-rise apartment buildings on a flat of land. A large hill rises in the distance, and the hill is mostly barren, both in terms of construction and foliage. The hill is basically a big mass of brown, much like the hills of southern California at the end of the summer. From the distance, the harbor area looked to be primarily industrial, and the farther into the harbor we ventured, the more industrial it became.

We called in and were told they had space in the marina. The marina is quite small. Someone was standing on the dock, pointing out the spot we were to take. Eric expertly backed in. Christi threw the lines to the man. When he realized that she was slow and not very good with tying the lines, he jumped aboard and took care of it for her. This marina also has two forward moorings per spot.

Eric and our helpful new friend got the lines on and Kosmos situated. We are not sure if the guy works for the marina or if he was just another boater being helpful.

As a side note, Lonely Planet said that the Mafia is especially active in Trapani. When we pulled in, we saw a guy wearing an expensive suit and dark sunglasses standing on a speed boat. Hmmm”¦..

We checked in with the marina, and asked about the procedures for checking back into the EU. The marina attendant directed us to the port police, several blocks east of the marina. When we asked about customs and quarantine, he looked at us blankly and told us he had no clue what we were talking about. All righty then. We pulled out our handy dandy folding bikes and rode over to the police station. There were a few buildings that looked like apartments, but the area looked to be mostly industrial, and mostly newer construction. We passed a parking lot where a few vendors were packing up their wares, obviously there was an open air market earlier in the day.

At the police station, no one spoke English. They looked somewhat confused about what we wanted and told us to come back in an hour. We cycled over to the historic section of town, a few blocks west of the marina. The weather was idyllic. Mid-70’s, sunny, clear azure skies smiling down on us. It felt like San Diego.

We found a small café just on the edge of the historic area and had lunch, then cycled back to the police station. We explained to a new set of non-English speaking people that we were coming from Tunisia and wanted to check in. They seemed reluctant to process the paperwork, and seemed to not understand why we would want to bother checking in, acting as if checking into the country was unnecessary. One of the guys took our passports and vanished for an uncomfortably long time. He did eventually return with the passports, and we were happy to see they were stamped. We asked about customs and quarantine. They seemed to say we didn’t need to bother. OK. Whatever. We had our passport stamped. We’d just have to cross our fingers no issues arise with the boat’s status later.

As is typical, we were tired from the passage and had a quiet night aboard Kosmos. Even though we are always tired when we come in, we think we are even more tired after the short passages. It takes a day or two or three to adjust to the frequent naps round the clock versus a full night of sleep. Our bodies seem to get irritated with us when we go from land mode to boat mode and back again too quickly.