Now That we are Floating Again

What an idyllic sight Richard has captured in this photo. We are the first boat on the right with the sun covers over the blue hull.

But by now we are getting very tired and have got a bit grumpy with each other, until we discover that a wet dish cloth, thrown straight and fast, is a great diffuser.

After much agonising and consideration, we decide to instal solar panels on a stainless steel arch across the stern of Matelot.

We visit the Sanayi to check on progress and find our work well on the way around the corner in the alley.



The Sanayi is two Dolmish rides away from Yacht Marine and is a collection of industrial workshops where anything at all can be fabricated, repaired or altered somewhat. It is where all sailors in Marmaris go to get their work done if possible.




The Kaglioglu Team are the best in the business but are hard negotiators. (that's a stranger getting the treatment in the pic)




And here they are on our boat installing the arch!




AC-DC Marine take care of all our electric and electronic requirements. They are a team of two, Yunus and Erhan, young men who have set up in business for themselves. They come highly recommended and see to it that our new alternator, additional batteries and upgraded charger, solar panels and regulators, and Raymarine nav equipment is all fully functional.

Here they installing sat phone aerial on the arch.




And work and business all done, we have tea with Yunus and say goodbye:





There are plenty of jobs to do as we seem to be pushing a log uphill to be able to leave the marina.

Washing winter cover.....



Getting more money from the cash machine....Richard's job now that Pippy has lost her cash point card!



Socialising....that beer is going to taste good!




Checking the rig, making repairs and installing LED masthead light. In fact the whole boat is changed over to LED lights.



Matelot is now a 'green' boat! Solar panels are pushing out the power so we can disconnect from shore power.

Three New Holes in the Bottom of the Boat!

The Topsides:

Despite having covered the blue gel coat with side curtains during last summer, the white chalky oxidation is very bad and we can clearly see the previous name of the boat on the bow where it has 'come back' with a vengeance.

We spend the whole of our first weekend on the boat cutting and polishing the topsides by hand. We are up at 5 am to beat the heat and work until 7pm each day. By the end of the weekend we are happy with our work and drop the curtain/covers as still have to apply wax. On Monday morning with arms aching and feeling tired, Pippy takes the cover off to find the previous name is still showing really badly and the white patchy chalking is still obvious. We decide we must need more muscle so Richard buys a professional polishing machine from the marina shop. He gets stuck in with it but his arms are a bit tired for some reason and we decide to leave it for the next day.

We have spied a young Turkish boy working on a boat the same colour as ours across the yard and he is getting amazing results without much apparent effort. We find out what polish he is using and go buy some - still not a great result. By Tuesday he tells us he has "finished" his boat and for an agreed sum will be happy to do Matelot. We accept with huge relief. Kennar has to sort out his "insurance" so he can work for us and much to our consternation, disappears for a couple more days. Its not looking very hopeful but one day he pops up again and gets stuck in with the polishing machine. He makes light work of the topsides and we are suddenly transformed from night to day!

Kennar is young and strong and is our life saver on a difficult task!



Our launch date of Friday 17 June is looming closer but now we have to acknowledge we are not going to be ready. We put off our return to the water until Monday 20 June.




How many degrees of separation? Alistair and Pam on SY Fabiola invite us on board for a drink. Richard and Alistair discover they have mutual friends in NZ!









Matelot gets a present - her name on the bow with attitude! We have seen the 'other' name off this time. ...and we are Finished!...... Matelot has been thoroughly cleaned off underneath, given a coat of something with a long name, then 3 coats of navy blue antifoul plus an additional fourth coat all around the waterline. Her boot top has a new coat of a very hard antifoul which can be cleaned off without taking it all off at once. It is grey and smart. We are satisfied that we have done our best for her and are ready to launch.



Wow....!

Some last minute decisions are made and three holes get drilled in the bottom of the boat for future installations.

More Holes and last chance to get it right before we go in the water!



Jes drills the hole for the sea cock for the future watermaker.

Three hours before launching Yunis comes on board and fits a ground plate for an SSB radio. This requires two more holes. Its quite hard to watch the drill going in and looking through to daylight below!


Its Monday 20 June we wait all day for the crane to come for us. In the end we give up in frustration and duck across the yard for a quick swim off the platform opposite. Just as we hit the water we hear the crane moving again and sure enough it is coming for us. We will probably look back on this launching in years to come as our most traumatic ever.

Pippy is up the ladder quickly throwing on some clothes and grabbing the camera.

The noise from under the boat and the feeling of it being jerked around is pretty graphic and the hammers bash out all the wedges holding up the poles around the steel cradle. Matelot shudders as each hammer blow hits then eventually settles into her cradle. When the posts come off the damage is heartbreaking. In every place where there was a post, the paint has been scraped back to the epoxy coats we put on in Slovenia 3 years ago. There are 6-8 patches of damage down each side of the boat.


Richard runs around with a roller and tray of antifoul He tries to repair some of the damage but it is only ever going to be one to two coats in the 15 - 20 minutes we are allowed, whereas before there were 4 or 5.



We are stunned as this has never happened to us before.





We have the engineer on the boat as we are lowered into the water. This is to make sure that work done on the engine at time of layup is all okay. She floats - thank goodness and starts first turn of the key... wonderful. We are held up waiting for a berth in the marina while the crew disappear off for half an hour. The engineer disappears too. When the time comes to follow the Marinara Richard puts the gear shift forward.... nothing happens! He pushes it a bit further and THWACK! We hear the propellor crack open. That does not sound quite right. Once we are settled in the Engineer comes back and works on the 'mechanical clutch' for some time before things sound normal again.

Phew! Richard looks a little drained over his evening beer today.

Malicious Scam

A quick note regarding some people we know who have just had a horrible experience.

Their server in the UK was hacked, their emails diverted, and every contact was sent a message saying they had been mugged in Madrid and needed financial help to get out. The message was: Please send money to this account etc..... We are aware that a lot of people would recognise this instantly as a scam, but just in case we just wanted to say that WE WILL NEVER ASK FOR HELP IN THIS WAY. We would hate to think of people receiving email messages like this while we are blissfully unaware as we sail along - rest assured that we are fine and will have other ways to get in contact if we are ever in dire straights.

The source of the hacker was tracked to Lagos, Nigeria. The problem was very difficult to fix, but now seems to be sorted. Our friends were devastated by the fallout from it. We heard of another person who was back-packing in Asia and did not find out for 3 months as it was that long before he tried to access his emails. In the meantime, quite a few people had been worried into sending money.

Phew!

Love to all xxxx Capn Buck and Pippy

Marmaris - and Back on the Boat at Last!

The photo on the left is the day we arrive with our bags still on the ground. One week later things have changed a little. We have tied the side curtains to the boat next door to get some shade from the blistering sun as we work through the day. Our sense of exhaustion some days is like nothing we recall we have ever experienced before, but have probably forgotten that we felt this way the last time we worked underneath the boat.




On 5 June our journey to Marmaris from Istanbul starts at 4.45 am with our wake up call for the taxi to the airport at 5.30 am. A comical (in hindsight) situation develops as the taxi does not come and the hotel owner appears to have remembered our wake-up call but forgotten to book the taxi. Don't worry he says, your bed is still available tonight! Not what we want to hear. .... At the airport we go through two security checks before boarding. This time we check all our luggage through including back packs and pay the excess baggage fee of $60.00 willingly. Almost no time later, we are circling over Bodrum and see the Med sparkling below us. We have booked a car to take us through to Marmaris and are getting very excited to be so close to our second home again.

Unfortunately our car has not turned up and we watch the free Atlas Jet buses depart for Bodrum town, leaving us at the mercy of the rank of taxi drivers circling like crows in the now deserted airport. One hour later our car appears with apologies for having been waiting at the international airport for us by mistake! The car is comfortable though, air conditioned and roomy, and we gratefully pile in for the two hour drive to our destination. All the familiar landscape passes by - some new roads have been built. We are sooooo excited!

On arrival in Yacht Marin Marmaris, we almost drive right past Matelot as she is tightly jammed in between two large boats in an otherwise nearly empty expanse of concrete which is usually chock a block with boats. In a bit of a daze which goes on for 2-3 days we re-acquaint ourselves with our floating home. She is in very good condition despite having been left for so long. The winter cover has been removed and Jes Holman has been on board and given her a thorough wash down. We can see from odd patches of dirt that she has been covered in deep layers of dust. She rapidly becomes a work zone, with a rolling moving scene of jobs going on.

Pippy enjoys cake and yoghurt for breakfast one day!

The supermarket has improved since we were last here. We buy filled rolls for less than NZD2 each for lunches, the selection of bread is wonderful and there is plenty of f and veg to choose from too.

Today is bottom cleaning day as we take off the old antifoul with wet and dry sandpaper and copious amounts of water, ending up blue from head to foot ourselves in the process.

Richard is so happy as he manually scrapes all the old antifoul off the boot top...***!



Richard has developed a time line and a list of jobs with our deadline of launch date on 17 June. We have acquainted ourselves with the new WestMarine Store in Marmaris and spent enough there to justify a lift back to the boat with all our purchases.


We have an amazing catchup with our old friends Andy and Brenda on Deep Blue. They come into Yacht Marin 2 days after we arrive! Seems like no time has passed since we last saw them.

Each day we take a break in the heat of the afternoon and swim in the really lovely pool here.

Tomorrow we will take a swim in the sea instead. It is taking a little while to adjust to the heat which is absolutely baking with the boat getting much hotter inside while out on the hard stand. It is like crawling into an oven to go to sleep at night - then the mosquitoes pile in for their share of the action. We have purchased a plug in mosquito repeller, but it does not slow them down at all. Tonight we have put a net over our hatch to try to help a bit. Cooking on board without a plug-hole is an interesting experience. The system is... pile up the dishes until there is a bagful and then lower them over the stern and take them on a trolley to the hand wash area and deal to them. The monster Ikea shopping bag has proved very useful for lowering the dishes down to the ground on their way. Oh did we forget to say that we came across a huge Ikea store in Istanbul and Pippy purchased new stainless steel pots - the galley slave will be happy now.

We quickly discover that it is very inexpensive to eat in the restaurant here at under NZD20 for a main course, and even better to go to the Workers Cafetaria where you don't even have to get changed and can eat a huge meal for under NZD10.



A shower and cold beer at the end of each day is a life saver!