FOR INFORMATION ABOUT MARMARIS YACHT MARINA HERE
01/09/08 White Rabbits! Into September already - and still the heat continues. Went to the office and sorted out the 'mis-understanding' about renewing my berthing agreement. It seems that the office thought I had left and wanted now to come back......I should have kept my mouth shut and just stayed here free of charge! The management of the marina are not exactly 'on the ball' and the record keeping of boats needs serious overhaul. They have previously lost my documents altogether.......twice!!
03/09/08 Whilst storing away the clutter of marina inactivity onboard, I discovered some long forgotten cans of beer in a locker under the saloon berths......which had emptied themselves into the locker......and did it pen and ink!!! Cleared the locker and dumped the cans, even the full ones, then restored the locker with more important bits and pieces. Roger and Astrid came round for drinks in the early evening before we decided to catch the dolmus to Aktas and the Orange Bar for dinner.
06/09/08 Continuing to clear away the piles of screws, plates, fittings and fixtures, books, clothes, charts, CD's, DVD's, spare parts, tools, ropes, jerry cans, gas bottles........having a guest onboard makes for a lot of work!! I refer to my good friend Ann who will be arriving on Monday evening around midnight for a couple of weeks holiday. Over the last two weeks or so, I've also been making adjustments to my route map which, although it seemed fine in the map view, some discrepancies showed up in the satellite view - like sailing overland! I hope the map views correctly now. Interesting view of Marmaris Marina if you zoom right in.....I think the photo must have been taken in the early part of this year and you can see just how many boats are squeezed onto the hard area. The bay to the east (right) of marina is a restricted area into which private vessels cannot sail and is the home of a Turkish Naval Base. Warships and submarines are clearly visible there.
08/09/08 Not good news today - Roger's engine will not start and further investigation revealed that sea water had in fact, made it's way into the starter motor and flywheel housing when the engine room flooded. It's now a possibility that further damage may have occurred in the gearbox. Ann arrived at the marina around 11pm whilst Roger, Astrid and I were on our way back from Aktas on the dolmus. A few minutes later, we had her bags onboard and were settled into the bar for a welcoming drink!
09/09/08 Re-fitted my returned depth sounder and.........no difference, it still reads 0.0 metres!! So that will be going back to the UK with Ann again. The second unit Ann brought with her works when the transducer is suspended over the side of the boat, but not when it is installed within the hull....a major snag at this moment.
10/09/08 My wi-fi connection is temporarily down.......a broken connector the cause, so no e-mails or web browsing for a couple of days until a new connector can be sourced and fitted. Ann is enjoying her break from the cold and wet of England, sunning herself in the cockpit most of the time.
13/09/08 Spent the afternoon stripping out the alternator and water pump from the engine, replacing drive belts and re-assembling - to be completed later because of a bent tensioning bar on the alternator. Ate in the marina restaurant during the evening, then a few bacardi's onboard Storm Dodger.
14/09/08 Went to the boat jumble and BBQ in the marina garden which was reasonably attended despite being a little early in the year. Suzanne (from Rhodes) was there, so it was good to see her again, also Eve returned from her travels around the Gocek area. It's been two years now since I sailed from Gillingham, many new friends made, lots of miles sailed (though few in my own boat over the last 12 months!) and I still do not miss living in UK one iota!
15/09/08 Roger, Astrid, Ann and myself went into town for breakfast at Domino's and to renew my cruising permit for Turkey (a second trip to the harbour master's office needed tomorrow), and to search for a specific handbag wanted by Ann's daughter Emily! In the evening, with the exception of Roger who was flying back to UK, we went mob-handed to Karen's (Nisroc) birthday bash at the Greenhouse restaurant (next door to Orange), returning shortly after mid-night.
16/09/08 I went back into town to complete my cruising permit and had to wait one and a half hours in an empty harbour master's office - just to get one 'stamp' on my permit - officialdom at it's speediest!! Although it is still very hot, the daily temperatures are now noticeably lower than of late, so walking around town is not as uncomfortable as previously. Chatting over a couple of drinks onboard Storm Dodger with Astrid, Ann, Paul, and Toni during the evening until Astrid fell asleep and we all crept quietly off the boat around 1am.
17/09/08 Wi-fi connection repaired, though the secondary 'cheap' antenna sometimes allowed me to sent short e-mails over the last few days. Attempts to get my engine air filter modified have so far failed, but I think I have found someone who can weld in the required pipework. My depth sounder remains a problem!! So much for saying "white rabbits" at the beginning of the month!
18/09/08 Market Day - and into town with Ann and Astrid for a trek round, buying nothing! On return to the marina, the wind had picked up and it was evident that something was amiss with my stern mooring rope as the bows were much closer to the pontoon and had in fact touched. A quick inspection showed that the mooring rope had parted on the sea-bed and I rigged emergency lines to the boats on either side of me before calling the marina. A diver will be needed tomorrow to reconnect the chain and rope 20 metres below.
19/09/08
Ahoy there me 'earties, it be International Talk Like a Pirate day today, aarrr, and this be Cap'n Billy Ropeburn writin' this 'ere log. There be no further buckin' o' the ship last evenin', she stayed fast 'n' true on 'er moorin'. Today be Calico Ann Read's last day aboard as she be goin' cross the briny to pillage and plunder th' gold 'n' silver of that scurvy dog Dirty Robbin' Brown in the port of London, aye. Sent a native down to Davy Jones's Locker to afix a new moorin' rope afore goin' to the tavern fer a flagon of ale 'n' a feast o' salt pork.
20/09/08 Aaarr, it be a cool evenin'.....oops, that was yesterday wasn't it? Ann's taxi turned up at the travel hoist around 0015 this morning, but we knew that the aircraft was still on the ground at Gatwick and would be for some time yet, so there was no panic to get to the airport. Received text from her on safe arrival in Gatwick, some one and a half hours after the scheduled arrival time. It's a shame we didn't get any sailing done whilst Ann was here, but maybe next time! My 'repaired' depth sounder has gone back to UK yet again and I can get the other one to work by eliminating air from between the mating surfaces. I needed some children's plasticine to make a mould which I could fill with glass fibre resin in which to sit the transducer, so went into town in the afternoon to find some, a journey on which I concluded that I'm an ethnic minority!! On the dolmus were 9 French, 5 German and the Turkish driver - leaving just me as the solitary Englishman! The rain, which has been long forecast for Sunday (tomorrow), started fitfully in the evening and increased overnight.
21/09/08 Woken several times during the night by heavy rain, strong winds and loud thunder cracks. Looking back through the logs, I think the last rain we saw was on the 29th April, so it's been dry for some five months. However, the rain is hammering down now (4am) and the internet has crashed, probably because of the rain, or a lightning strike somewhere, so updates to this log will again have to wait. Dozed a couple of times during the day, spliced some fenders for Astrid, then joined Toni, Astrid, Paul and Jan (Luturna) for happy hour before having a relatively early night. Rhumb Do and I have now been in Marmaris for one year!
25/09/08 More dumping of unwanted gear from the after cabin and other lockers over the last day or two. Today, I made my plasticine dam under the galley sink cupboard, filled it with fibre glass resin and settled the depth transducer into the molten resin lake. When it had set, I powered up the instruments and bingo......a working depth sounder....wow! First time I've had one of those since Sardinia! Astrid and I went to the Pierre Loti in town for our evening meal, risking the threatening dark skies and thunder - and we made it back to the dolmus without getting a drop of rain on us! It was a different story when we arrived back at the marina though - it was pouring down and after taking shelter in the security hut, the guards there took pity on us and loaned us waterproof jackets to get back to our boats. The security guard followed as we splashed through the ankle deep lake covering the hard to our respective pontoons, just to make sure we didn't run off with his coats! Very nice of them to do that though.
27/09/08 Worrying news this morning from Per and Ellie, friends onboard Sybaris anchored just off the marina between Pupa Yacht Hotel and Magic Life.......whilst onboard their neighbouring boat for dinner last night, their boat was boarded and money stolen in a repeat of last months 'burglary' off Orhaniye. This is becoming somewhat of a trend in the area, this being the second one I have heard about in Marmaris Bay [a catamaran anchored off the beach was boarded at night some months ago whilst the owners were onboard, a fight ensued and the 'burglars' ended up in the water, swimming to freedom]. It's a great shame that these occurrences should spoil what is essentially a crime free cruising ground, the Turks pointing the finger of blame at the influx of Russians into the area for this.
28/09/08 Astrid and I caught the 0830 dolmus to Netsel marina to see what their 'boat jumble' had to offer. There were a few good bargains to be had but the whole thing was a very small affair. Still too early in the winter season maybe? Whist there, we said our goodbyes to Kevin on Nisroc, who was fuelling up prior to setting off for Malta and his winter berth. Following that, we made our way to Domino's for a genuine 'English breakfast!' We had another rain shower in the early evening.
29/09/08 I spent the afternoon wriggling into the space behind the cockpit instrument panel, bending myself into contorted shapes in order to fit the galvanic isolator which I bought some months ago, into the shore power supply line. I only managed to get the main unit attached to the bulkhead before it was time for dinner, so tomorrow will be taken up with the wiring and the fitting of the monitor, alarm and display parts of the set-up. Temperatures are most certainly dropping in the evenings now, it will not be very long before fleeces, long trousers and shoes will be needed. Even daytime temps are down, I know everything is relative, and that friends in the UK would probably kill for this weather, but yesterday afternoon's 29o felt decidedly cool - winter is coming!.
30/09/08 Happy Birthday Angie! Repeat of above...crammed myself into the same space and wired up the isolator, cut a hole in the instrument panel for the display unit, then 'loose wired' the whole works and plugged into shore power - and everything worked fine. Then I reversed the shore power polarity and plugged in again - two red lights and an alarm going off - so everything is OK and just needs to have the wiring run behind panels and the monitoring unit screwed in place. I finally gave up the struggle in the evening and wore a warmer top to go over to Storm Dodger for dinner, though I'm not giving up the shorts yet! Paul and Toni's suggestion to go over to the bar and drink ice cold beer didn't inspire me, so I opted out and returned to my boat to watch a DVD.
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