We had a good trip home - doctors, dentists, hospital, haircuts, family - and even the weather was good.We went to London for a couple of days to see our families and go to the Pompei and Herculaneum exhibition at the BM, which was interesting but not astounding. The day we had booked to go to the exhibition the BM was on strike - dilemma! Fortunately for consciences there was no picket and the museum was operating more or less as normal. Sad, but good for us.
Simon warmed up for the trivets (a 100 mile bike ride for the over-50s) with a 92 mile practice ride the Sunday we got home. He got left behind by the others, but chaperoned Bob Fine, who had terrible cramp, back to Leamington. On the real thing, the following Sunday, he rode as a backmarker to make sure that nobody got left behind. Unfortunately, to his great shame and embarrassment, he took his charges on an extra 10 mile detour when he went the wrong way after we found a road closed. The result was that he cycled 126.6 miles, including the ride from and to home, with 6100 feet of ascent. He was knackered!
We flew back to Dalaman on Tuesday, 4 June, arriving at 8.30 pm to find no trace of the taxi we had booked and no record of our booking at the United Blue kiosk, so we had to get an airport taxi at double the price. It was good to get back to the boat to find that the new rigging had been fitted, but it had not yet been tuned, and the new lights had not yet been fitted to the mast. This was a bit frustrating because we had hoped to be able to get straight off.
The riggers did not arrive to finish the job till about 4 on Wednesday afternoon. They tightened up the rigging and one went up the mast to fit the masthead light, but came down to say that there was an electrical problem - only 5 volts at the tricolour connection - and we would have to get an electrician. Jess Holman, our surveyor and supreme Mr Fix it, fixed for the electricians he works with to come next day, Thursday, as soon as they had finished a previous job. They arrived about 4 and fixed the masthead light - it was only a corroded wire end - and decklight. It suddenly looked as though we would be able to get away on Friday morning, so Simon raced into town to pay the riggers and do some shopping, then raced back to arrange with the agent to check out on Friday 7 June. We had to be at the customs quay at 9am, with our old engine to show the customs, which Marlin arranged to bring in their van.
We got to the customs quay at 9 and went through the checking out routine. All was fine until a young customs officer came to inspect our old engine. He did not believe that this was the engine that had come out of our boat because the tag with the maker, Thornycroft, and serial number had long ago detached from the engine.He went scratching away at the paint to find serial numbers and makers' names, but of course the only names were those of the engine maker, Ford, and the maker of the heat exchanger. The head of Marlin came over to try to explain that Thornycroft just put a few bits onto a Ford engine. More and more officials came over until at one time there were 6 customs officers inspecting the engine. They then told us that we would have to crane the engine onto our deck and take it with us, though God know how that would solve their problem. We showed them photos of the old engine in place, but still they did not believe the evidence of their eyes. Finally we were told that they would have to get an expert who would inspect our boat and determine whether or not the engine had indeed come from our boat. The only problem was that their expert was not in Marmaris that day and they refused to consider any other expert, even the Lloyds representative. We sat around on the customs quay until 3, when they came to tell us that the expert would not be here until Monday morning so our exit stamps had been cancelled and we should come back on Monday morning. To add insult to injury we had to pay 62 euros for the six hours we had been on the customs quay!
We motored over to Pupa Yat, a beautiful and peaceful bay by the marina where the cows like to come for a swim in the afternoon.
We just hope that we can get away on Monday - God knows what happens if the "expert" decides that the engine is not ours. We will probably have to stay here forever.
Simon warmed up for the trivets (a 100 mile bike ride for the over-50s) with a 92 mile practice ride the Sunday we got home. He got left behind by the others, but chaperoned Bob Fine, who had terrible cramp, back to Leamington. On the real thing, the following Sunday, he rode as a backmarker to make sure that nobody got left behind. Unfortunately, to his great shame and embarrassment, he took his charges on an extra 10 mile detour when he went the wrong way after we found a road closed. The result was that he cycled 126.6 miles, including the ride from and to home, with 6100 feet of ascent. He was knackered!
We flew back to Dalaman on Tuesday, 4 June, arriving at 8.30 pm to find no trace of the taxi we had booked and no record of our booking at the United Blue kiosk, so we had to get an airport taxi at double the price. It was good to get back to the boat to find that the new rigging had been fitted, but it had not yet been tuned, and the new lights had not yet been fitted to the mast. This was a bit frustrating because we had hoped to be able to get straight off.
The riggers did not arrive to finish the job till about 4 on Wednesday afternoon. They tightened up the rigging and one went up the mast to fit the masthead light, but came down to say that there was an electrical problem - only 5 volts at the tricolour connection - and we would have to get an electrician. Jess Holman, our surveyor and supreme Mr Fix it, fixed for the electricians he works with to come next day, Thursday, as soon as they had finished a previous job. They arrived about 4 and fixed the masthead light - it was only a corroded wire end - and decklight. It suddenly looked as though we would be able to get away on Friday morning, so Simon raced into town to pay the riggers and do some shopping, then raced back to arrange with the agent to check out on Friday 7 June. We had to be at the customs quay at 9am, with our old engine to show the customs, which Marlin arranged to bring in their van.
We got to the customs quay at 9 and went through the checking out routine. All was fine until a young customs officer came to inspect our old engine. He did not believe that this was the engine that had come out of our boat because the tag with the maker, Thornycroft, and serial number had long ago detached from the engine.He went scratching away at the paint to find serial numbers and makers' names, but of course the only names were those of the engine maker, Ford, and the maker of the heat exchanger. The head of Marlin came over to try to explain that Thornycroft just put a few bits onto a Ford engine. More and more officials came over until at one time there were 6 customs officers inspecting the engine. They then told us that we would have to crane the engine onto our deck and take it with us, though God know how that would solve their problem. We showed them photos of the old engine in place, but still they did not believe the evidence of their eyes. Finally we were told that they would have to get an expert who would inspect our boat and determine whether or not the engine had indeed come from our boat. The only problem was that their expert was not in Marmaris that day and they refused to consider any other expert, even the Lloyds representative. We sat around on the customs quay until 3, when they came to tell us that the expert would not be here until Monday morning so our exit stamps had been cancelled and we should come back on Monday morning. To add insult to injury we had to pay 62 euros for the six hours we had been on the customs quay!
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| Marmaris customs quay |
It was peaceful until the German boat near us started to play loud music - not the done thing in a quiet anchorage, and acrooner started singing in the evening at the Imperial Hotel nearby. We avoided it by going into town for an Indian meal at the Taj Mahal. And it rained (OK, only a few drops).
Today, Saturday, Simon finished installing the watermaker and of course ended up with a major leak that took hours to fix. Lin went on cleaning and tidying and broadening her mind.
Perhaps he's just looking for a backhander?
ReplyDeleteBest of luck anyway