01/08/09 Over two hours up the mast, threading new cable down.....legs dead with the pressure of bosun's chair, babystay bracket and radome pressing against me - but the steaming light now works and has LED bulb instead of the old filament type.
02/08/09 Happy Anniversary to (my bro) Clive and Babs - still without permanent home following the fire last January. Refitted mainsail cover, sail, lazy jacks and reefing lines, also spliced on new kicking strap.
03/08/09 Into town with Astrid on the 10am dolmuş in search of a new propeller for my outboard - got one from a Yamaha dealer in the industrial area. Picked up some shopping and returned to Orhaniye on the 4.30 dolmuş. Jan on Luturna moved out to anchor in disgust at the treatment received on Iskele Restaurant pontoon, so did My Mermaid.
04/08/09 Fitted new prop to outboard and tried it ......seems to be OK, I guess time will tell. Doug arrived on Magic around noon and we all had a beer together.
06/08/09 Happy Birthday Leah! A bit of a get together of all the crews on the pontoon today, for a BBQ and birthday party on Storm Dodger, followed by a meal and drinks in the restaurant. Owners daughters, Kader and Kismet joined in the fun and generally a good time was had by all.
07/08/09 A special time today at almost twenty-five minutes to one this afternoon......it will be 12:34:56 07/08/09. The last time it happened, King Edward VII was on the throne.
10/08/09 Sailed from Kadir restaurant on the 8th, making the short but very pleasant trip to Selimiye, close hauled at first, then tacking. Tied up to the town pontoon - big mistake! I should have followed my instinct and left immediately but I didn't....and paid the price. What a dump! Firstly, I was on the end of the pontoon and everyone and his brother insisted on coming in at full speed, causing serious wash, snatching of ropes etc. I had the neighbours from hell next door making all kinds of racket into the early hours - and some woman in a restaurant across the water with a hideous hyena laugh, which she exercised every few seconds, had me wishing for a rifle. And they charge you 15 lira per night for the privilege of tying up to a pontoon that I never set foot on! Leaving there first thing this morning made me very happy, especially as we had a good beam reach sail back to Orhaniye and the anchorage off the pontoons.
13/08/09 Seven am dolmuş into town to catch the 9am
fast cat to Rhodes - both Astrid and my visa's are due for renewal. Rhodes was absolutely packed with tourists, several cruise ships were in port - including probably the biggest and ugliest one I've ever seen. It looked more like a huge floating block of flats. Walking along the front, or in the old town was almost impossible because of the hordes of people but thankfully they all thinned out as we made our way through the back streets to 'The Walk In' bar for an early lunch. Met up with Suzanne there and had a good chinwag before venturing up into the new town for some light shopping. The 4.30pm return ferry developed engine problems some way out and reduced power to about 20% whilst the engineers fixed it, which caused the boat to roll around for some time and delayed our arrival back in Marmaris until almost half past seven (should have been back about six o'clock). The wake pictured right at slower speed just after entering Marmaris Bay. Returned to Orhaniye on the 8.30pm dolmuş.
14/08/09 A great evening in Kadir Restaurant with Tony (Full Flight), Davy (Roamer) and Thomas (Viva Solo) all playing guitars and everyone joining in the singing.
16/08/09 Storm Dodger left for a few days sailing with daughter Sarah onboard. I had a lazy Sunday, a beer with Davy late afternoon, then dinner onboard, a film and bed!
17/08/09 I came off anchor and moved onto the pontoon at Kadir - a bit of shuffling around with the laid mooring caused it to wrap around my prop which is a pain! Tony and Pat left onboard Full Flight, bound for Rhodes.
18/08/09 A perfect demonstration of 'how not to approach a pontoon' today - a 50ft yacht backed in at a very strange angle, wrapped Roamer's mooring line around his rudder, slewed around and hit Shibumi with his bow, then drifted backwards into Roam II. Davy, Kathy and I had to re-moor their boat whilst the 4 crew of the offending boat looked on without a word of apology - save for the pathetic excuse..... 'my bow-thruster doesn't work'. Had he approached in a straight line there would have been no need for any bow-thruster. Pretty impressive skill to hit three British flagged boats in one go, knocking one off it's mooring! I won't say anything about the Nationality of the three colour, vertical stripe ensign on it's stern!!
Fiona from Roam II continues to make her recovery ashore in Domino's (she slipped on the pontoon a week ago and broke her leg) and the rest of us are keeping an eye on the boat whilst she and Terry are away. Davy flew home to Ireland during the afternoon and Thomas departed on Viva Solo leaving just Kathy and myself for dinner in the restaurant.
19/08/09 My hull is absolutely encrusted with barnacles again! I discovered this whilst diving under the boat to free the mooring line from the prop, the cockpit now smeared with blood from scrapes to my hand, arm and shoulder. Despite several dives, I was unable to free the rope and eventually enlisted the help of Kader's cousin who had to cut the rope, then re-tie it. Evening saw the surprise return of Storm Dodger - shouldn't have been back for another 2 or 3 days.
22/08/09 Decided to hook up to shore power (first time in months) to give the batteries a boost, and to enable use of a mains fan in vain attempt to combat the oppressive heat of the day (40o +). However, the galvanic isolator immediately showed an earth fault and it was another two hours before the shore junction box was repaired and I could think about breakfast!
27/08/09 A lazy week of socialising with various crews.....Roger, Astrid, Sarah, Leah, Davy, Kathy, David, Bruce....everyone having a go at the 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle that Sarah had started on the restaurant table, with little three year old Kismet doing her best to demolish or eat most of it. Tomorrow, I'm going with Roger to pick up some of his friends from Rhodes whilst Astrid, Jordan, Leah and Mutley (the dog) stay in Orhaniye on my boat.
28/08/09 Seventeen year old Mike Perham yesterday crossed the finish line off Penzance to become the youngest person to sail solo around the World. His bid to complete the voyage non-stop had failed because of 'technical' problems which had made him call into several ports for assistance.....but it's still a great achievement, and he will be arriving in Portsmouth today. Sixteen year old Jessica Watson, from Australia, will be setting out next month in her bid to become the youngest round........ non-stop and un-assisted. Meanwhile, in a much lesser challenge, Roger and I sailed Storm Dodger out of Orhaniye! We made good progress beating to windward out of Hisaronu Korfezi, then a beam reach to Karaburun and into Bozuk Bükü - mooring there and meeting up with Thomas and his crew of Wolfgang and Ottie for dinner in The Sailor's House - a sort of run down restaurant which was actually quite good.
29/08/09 Sailed just after 9am on a broad reach to Rhodos, mooring stern to in Mandraki Harbour just before 1pm. Elizabeth (Eli) and Nadja joined us there and after shopping for provisions and having a spot of lunch, we slipped and made our way westward into a boisterous sea, pounding our way to windward under full sail (reefed main).
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