Time to go home

We fly home tomorrow for hospital, doctors, dentists and two long bike rides.
Last Friday, 17th May, we anchored in Bozuk Buku, ancient Loryma,

with the sad remnants of city walls at the head of the bay,

some lovely spring flowers

and the perfectly preserved enormous citadel on the headland.

We left early on Saturday morning and tied up at Captain's Table restaurant in Sogut, a very peaceful little place and very friendly restaurant.

On Sunday we motored across to Datca and anchored in the bay off the town. Someone passing in a dinghy warned us that 'a big blow' was coming. We thought he must have seen a different weather forecast from us so we decided that discretion was the better part of valour and spent the evening aboard. We decided that people who sail the Turkish coast have less experience of stronger winds and so think of what we would regard as normal winds in the Dodecanese as a big blow. In fact the wind dropped overnight. 

On Monday we motored back to Kocabahce and moored on the restaurant's jetty, which was full by 4 pm. Heaven knows what it is like in July and August!

It is a beautiful spot - only accessible by sea, which makes the restaurant rather expensive, with a big vegetable garden and animals roaming.
We had only motored about 30 hours and had to get towards 50 so that we could get the 50 hour service in before we left Marmaris, so we left Kocabahce on Tuesday morning to drive a long way round to a quiet anchorage in Marmaris Bay. We drove down the coast of Symi, then across to Rhodes. About mid-day we decided to turn back towards Marmaris and the new engine spluttered and died! We managed to get it started again and motored on, thinking maybe there had just been a bit of dirt in the fuel, but as we approached our anchorage a couple of hours later it died again and this time would start but die as soon as we sped up. I decided it must bea problem with the fuel feed pump so we decided to get back to the marina while we still had a good wind for sailing. We phoned Burak, who thought at first that we were teasing him - Yanmar's don't die! We sailed up to the entrance to Marmaris Bay, at which point the wind died, then went round onto the nose. We managed to start the engine and motored gingerly to the marina, where we got a comfortable inside berth. It turned out that it was a problem with the fuel feed pump. They had moved it to make room for the watermaker pump but had put it on the manifold, where it overheated (it was a very hot day). We had done 41 hours on the engine by now, which they reckoned was enough to do the service.
On Wednesday Simon spent the morning getting the outlet pipe off the aft heads, cleaning the limescale out of the seacock and fitting a new pipe. The old pipe was clearly completely blocked - so much so that nothing flowed out of it when it was disconnected, which was great for us but not so great for the binmen when they collected it from the rubbish bins! We are now spending the last couple of days cleaning, sorting out and tidying up and doing the endless little repairs that are always waiting to be done.

To sea at last!

We have had a frantic three weeks in the yard since Lin arrived, so no time to update the blog. I am afraid this is a rather boring account of the work on the boat.

Andrew's last week was spent cleaning and polishing the hull until it was like a mirror, with breaks for swims in the pool and playing with his iphone in the library, with its internet connection. The engine came out on the Tuesday, with a lot of grunting, but the Turkish workers insisted that Turkish workers were strong and it came out cleanly. We couldn't get the fuel tank out though because the steering cables were in the way and we couldn't ask the crane to wait, so we finished cutting the tank in half, removed the steering cables and got it out without any trouble. 

On Wednesday Andrew and I went up to Sanai, the industrial district, to see the liferaft being tested. We got lost on the way to Sanai because of all the road construction. After wandering through the lanes we asked some construction workers working on a house the way to get there. One guy in a Manchester United shirt came over - it turned out that he had lived in Manchester for a few years - and phoned the liferaft company to find out where they were. He began to give us instruction s, but then decided it would be easier for him to drive us there, which he did. When we arrived, the liferaft guy put the liferaft on a table, pulled the cord and it exploded into life - it was enormous! An eight-man liferaft that looked as though it had room for 12. It had last been serviced in 2000 and the flares expired in 2001, but the liferaft man said it was an excellent liferaft in good condition so we gave the go-ahead for the service, and for repairs to the dinghy. They also sold us a second-hand canister for 22 euros in place of the grotty bag that it had been in.

Once the engine was out Simon got down to cleaning the engine room, which was thick with oil and grease, getting out the grimy greasy, oily old insulation and trying to track down all the wires and cables, many of which went nowhere and did nothing. Once he had removed the dud cables and identified the rest he tagged them so that we can make sure that the correct cables are attached to the new engine and will know what is what in future.

The old engine in the filthy engine room

On Thursday evening we went into Marmaris for Andrew and Sue and Steve's last evening. I had checked out a highly recommended Turkish restaurant and led everyone for miles through the backstreets only to find that it had not yet opened. Andrew took over and led us straight to the Taj Mahal for another Indian - it turned out that he knew the streets because he had sneaked off to get a tattoo done around there. We had a good meal and got a taxi back to the marina as we had missed the last dolmus.

Andrew left on Friday, after a lot of confusion over his transfer. A2b emailed on Wednesday to say that they would not pick up at the marina but we could have a taxi for some ridiculous price. The company handling it emailed half an hour later to say they would pick up at 10.45. I emailed them back to confirm that they would pick up from the marina and they emailed back to say no, they would pick up at Macdonald's in Marmaris, so Andrew got the dolmus to Marmaris, had breakfast in Macdonald's and got picked up on time.

Simon spent the weekend finishing cleaning out the engine compartment and cleaning and tidying before Lin arrived.

Lin arrived on her birthday, 22nd April, after a comfortable taxi transfer from Dalaman to beautiful sunny weather. Over the next two weeks we had clear blue skies and it got increasingly hot - too hot for working on the boat by the end of the two weeks. We had a birthday dinner in the marina restaurant that evening and got straight down to work the next day.

On Tuesday 23^rd the gantry people came to install the new gantry, which took the next two days. They worked carefully and professionally and the new gantry is strong and even quite elegant, with a second set of davits, a crane for the outboard, four solar panels, fittings to pull up the passarelle, four sets of cleats and holders for boat hooks and fishing rods.

The new gantry

On Thursday 25^th Erhan from Marlin came to install the new insulation in the engine room. He worked slowly and carefully over the next couple of days to do a really good job, giving us a clean engine compartment ready for the new engine. 

A clean engine room with new insulation

On Friday 26^th the new fuel tank and holding tank arrived. We managed to get the fuel tank through the engine room and into place under our bed, but we did not want to install it until the engine was in, because the exhaust runs under the tank. We also got a carpenter to fix the wall panels in our bedroom, which had been removed to install the gantry.

The liferaft and dinghy came back at the end of the week, but the liferaft canister burst open and they had to take it back and fit new straps. Once we had the liferaft the gantry people could make a cradle for it to fit on the gantry, which they did at the beginning of the following week.

On Sunday 28^th there was a boat jumble sale at the marina. It was scheduled to start at 9.30, but when Simon got there at 9.15 almost all the tables had gone. The punters were like locusts. Simon had taken two big bags, mostly of junk that we were giving away for nothing. People were grabbing stuff from the bags even before I could get them out and someone nicked the Adverc alternator regulator that costs £200 new, though they left the manual. In the end we sold or gave away everything we had come with, clearing about 50 euros for £500 worth of stuff. At the sale and barbecue we met Scott and Julie, who we had last seen at Aktio about 5 years ago.

On Monday 29^th people came to fix our leaking forehatch and replace our crazed and slightly leaking side windows. They did a very clean job on the side windows, with the new windows making the saloon much lighter than it was.

Tuesday (30th April) was the big day, when the new engine was craned in, 

but nothing more happened immediately. Over the next week people were coming and going, measuring up this and that and occasionally attaching bits and pieces, but the actual installation had to wait until the new bearers had been made, to make sure that the engine was lined up exactly right. On Thursday someone came to fit the new exhaust, which is complicated because it is a three-inch exhaust replacing a two-inch exhaust so fitting it required quite a lot of manouvering and cutting of wider holes. It also turned out when they took out the prop shaft to fit the new coupling that it was non-standard, so we had to have a new prop shaft made.

On Friday May 3rd the surveyor came to do the first part of our insurance survey, which was all fine, and the hatch man came back with the new fore hatch, but when we tested it over the weekend it still leaked, so he came back on Monday and rebedded it, so we now have no leaks (touch a lot of wood). He also supplied and fitted a new mirror for our heads (bathroom). On Saturday 4th May the new prop shaft went in and it fitted very smoothly.

On Sunday 5^th Simon went up the mast to try to fit the new masthead light and to drill out the old radar reflector brackets, which threatened to tear the genoa. He could not shift the screws on the masthead light and blunted two drill bits trying to drill out the brackets, so he decided to get someone in to do it. On Monday morning Mustafa from M2 Rigging came to give us a quote and immediately said that our rigging screws were cracked and the standing rigging was dangerous and should be replaced immediately, which he estimated would only cost 5000 euros. We called Jess, our surveyor, who immediately came to give an unbiased opinion and he reckoned that the rigging screws, and so all the rigging, should be replaced. Fortunately it can be done with the boat in the water while we are in England.

On Monday 6^th Simon checked the sea cocks and found that both of the toilet outlet seacocks had seized.  Jess recommended Herman of Germany Yachting Services and he came immediately, freed one seacock and replaced the other. 

Her first two weeks had been very frustrating for Lin because, with work going on all over the boat and tools and parts all over the place she could not get on with her cleaning and sorting out – she could not even unpack her bag. However, it was not too disastrous because the weather was beautiful so she could swim and sit by the pool and read.

We were scheduled to launch on Wednesday May 8th, but we did not want to launch without the engine installation being completed, so we put it off till Thursday. Meanwhile Simon wired up the new solar panels and MPPT regulator while they continued to work on the engine. There was a problem getting the harness for the panel through the narrow channel, so they had to take the ceiling down to make a new hole. Launch time came and the electrician was still working on the installation of the panel. The tractor arrived and he finished off the panel while we were towed to the launching place.

Lin went back to fetch the bike

We were still not sure that we would actually launch – there was so little room in the marina that some people had waited two or three days beyond their launch date and some Australians waiting beside us had been waiting for eight days. However, our engineer spoke to the lift operators and asked them to launch us next so we could get the engine going. 

The engine started with the first touch of the button and we motored round to the outside pontoon – not ideal, but the weather was calm so it was OK.

There was still the high pressure pump for the watermaker to fit and some wiring to complete, which they did over the next few days. They also gave us fantastic LED strip lighting for the engine room.

Simon rigged up the new gantry, now with the liferaft cradle.

The new bimini came on Sunday, but they still had to make a template for the side pieces and had put the leather patches in the wrong place, so we did not get it until Monday evening.

Simon went in to Marmaris on Tuesday 14^th morning to buy some plumbing bits and pieces for the watermaker and we had our last lunch in the Marina restaurant – we are such creatures of habit that the waiter knew what we wanted without our having to order – two beers, one fish soup and two cheeseburgers, all of which are excellent. After lunch Lin collected the laundry and we could leave.

We set off at 2.30 and motored over to Netsel marina in Marmaris to fill up with diesel (in the rain, so we put an umbrella over the filler to keep the water out. We have to try to get 50 hours of motoring in so they can check the engine while we are at home. After getting fuel, we drove round to Ecincik, where we arrived about 7 pm and anchored for the night.

On Wednesday 15^th we motored to Fethiye. On the way our heads (toilet) jammed and we could not pump out. Simon spent most of the journey on his knees, dismantling the loo and replacing all the serviceable parts, but could not find any blockage in the accessible places. We arrived in Fethiye and  checked in to the marina soon after lunch. We met up with John and Elsa, also on a Moody 422, whom we had last met in the Ionian five years ago. We passed on to them all the spares for our old engine.  They have a very good deal, working as flotilla leaders for a local charter company they get all their marina fees paid and their diesel and all the work that needs to be done on the boat is paid for too. They seem to enjoy leading flotillas around the same routes week in and week out.

New rich Turks dodge tax by registering their boats in Delaware. But a lot of them cannot spell their port of registry.

One motor boat was registered closer to home (sorry lost the Lea!)

On Thursday morning we walked around Fethiye and went up to the rock tombs in the cliffs above the town.

with a good view over Fethiye.

On the path we disturbed a tortoise.

On the way down we passed the Lycian cemetery, tombs being all that remain of the ancient city.

One corpse made its mark by parking in the middle of the road.

We went on to the wonderful fruit and fish markets to stock up. 

John and Elsa came to look round our boat to get ideas and we looked round theirs, which gave us more envy than inspiration because John is a craftsman who has done things that we could never do.

After lunch we motored over to Pilloried Bay, to pick up a mooring. We were here exactly two years ago to the day, but then there were only a couple of boats 

Pilloried Cove May 2011

while today it is packed – with only a couple of free moorings which filled soon after we arrived.

 Simon went swimming to try to clear the toilet from outside, with a Dynarod pipe cleaner. He bashed away for ages and loads of limescale came out, but still the loo was blocked so he will have to have another go tomorrow. 
This morning, Friday 17th, we set off at 7.30 to motor back across Marmaris Bay to Bozuk Buku, a seven-hour drive.

All alone

Andrew went home today (Friday) and Sue and Steve sailed off for Symi so I am left alone! Andrew  and I had a busy week, Andrew cleaning and polishing the hull so that it gleams like it never has since Paul and  Cathy owned Mia Hara. I have been chasing up quotes for all the work that has to be done. On Wednesday we went in to Marmaris to see them test our liferaft, which has not been serviced for twelve years (they tell you that you should service it, at great expense, every year). I pulled the string and it blew up perfectly - and turned out to be enormous, an eight-seater. The flares, which expired in 1999, needed replacing as did the ebattery for the emergency light, but otherwise it just needed the gas cylinder refilling. On the way there we got lost (mainly because of the massive road works) and asked a construction worker the way. He popped out his iphone and checked the map, then phoned the company to check how to get there and, when the instructions proved a bit complicated he decided to drive us there.It turned out that he had lived in Manchester for a while. To get back, we scrambled through the road works. Yesterday evening we went in to town to eat with Sue and Steve for Andrew's (and their) last night. I had checked out a recommended Turkish restaurant, which turned out to be closed, so we went back to the Taj Mahal, the Indian restaurant where we had been earlier in the week. The owner, from Bradford, turned out to have lived previously in Foleshill in Coventry.
Thursday was the big day, with the old engine and fuel tank coming out. The engine came out fine, but the fuel tank got stuck on the steering cables. Rather than ask the crane to wait an hour or two while we freed the cables we decided to finish cutting it in half to get it out, but even then we still had to free the cables before we could shift it. I now have to clean the engine room, which is incredibly filthy with oil and grease. But first I had to get rid of the diesel smells in our bedroom from the leaking fuel tank by giving it all a very thorough clean with boiling water and washing up liquid, then degreaser, then bilge cleaner, then a heavy hose through. Tomorrow it is into the engine room up to my elbows in muck and stripping our all the old oily insulation ready to replace it.
Today it has rained all day. Fortunately Andrew remembered to put a couple of pans to catch the drips in the forepeak. Next week the hatch should be repaired so those sleeping there will no longer get a shower when it rains.
Lin comes on Monday, her birthday, so I hope to have it all spick and span and tidy before she gets here.
No pictures this time - nothing interesting to photograph - but here is a picture that Sue took of us under tow last week.

A new sailing year

Andrew (Becky's partner) and I flew out to Athens on 5th April and took the overnight ferry to Leros, arriving in Lakki at 5 am. When we got to the boat there was no way we could sleep because the beds were covered with things so we got the sails, bimini and storm hood out by which time we were well awake, despite two nights with little or no sleep. Steve and Sue were anchored out in Lakki bay, having arrived from Crete on Friday night, a few hours before us. They came over to the yard later in the day and we planned the trip to Marmaris, with them towing us. Steve was very confident that he could tow us without any problems, but I was not so confident, my main concerns being that the rope would break. That night we went out to To Petrino to celebrate our arrival and Andy and I had big fat steaks.
On Sunday the wind blew a full westerly gale and Steve had to put out a second anchor as he bounced around in the seas, which were breaking over the road. Andy and I got the boat ready to launch. In the evening the wind moderated a bit and we walked over to Dmitri's at Vromolithos, where we met up with Sue and Steve who had decided to risk coming ashore.
We were due to launch on Monday, but at 8 O'clock they arrived to tell us that it was too windy to launch, especially as we had no engine. Then at 11 they came back to say we were launching in ten minutes. We frantically sorted everything out for the launch and once in the water warped the boat around to the pontoon next to the slip. The rest of the day was spent shopping and preparing for sea.
Steve proposed that he come into the marina on Tuesday morning and tow us out, though I was not so sure and got the dinghy ready to drive us out with the dinghy. Steve arrived about 10 and we made up a harness with an old mooring rope - I wanted our rope to break rather than his if we put too much strain on the tow.Steve towed us out of the marina without any problems. I was about to take a photo when Andy noticed that the dinghy, that we had absent-mindedly left alongside, had filled up with water and was about to flip over. I frantically signalled to Steve to stop and we bailed out and lifted the dinghy before getting under way again.

 I was still not completely confident about the tow, especially as there was quite a big sea left over from the gale which risked surging which could break the tow line, but Steve proposed that we carry on until we had cleared the passage between Leros and Kalimnos, when we  could check out the wind and the sea state.

Between Leros and Kalymnos

Everything went well and once we had cleared Leros the sea was quite calm and there was  very little wind, so we carried on with the tow, doing about 6.5 knots with the genoas up, arriving to anchor off Kos town at 4 pm.

Approaching Kos town

Anchored off Kos

After going in to town to try to sort out our Wind mobile internet  connections we had dinner together aboard.

Dinner guests arriving

We left Kos at 10 next morning with no wind and a flat sea.

No wind approaching Cnidos

Off Cnidos we saw three dolphins heading for Kos, but they were not interested in us and just went on their way. Once we had rounded the Turkish coast at Knidos the wind got up from the West and we both hoisted our genoas, towing/sailing at 7 up to 8 knots to reach Panormitis on Symi, where we anchored without incident.

Casting off at Panormitis

Coming in to Panormitis

Anchored in Panormitis bay

We left Panormitis at 9.45 next morning for another speedy tow/sail, arriving at Marmaris marina at 4pm,

Approaching Marmaris

End of the voyage - approaching Yat Marin

Marmaris Yat Marin

where a pilot boat guided us into a berth while Sue and Steve went to anchor in the next bay. Overall the tow worked out incredibly well, without any problems, and Steve's seamanship was exemplary. I had not imagined for a minute that we would be able to tow at almost full speed without putting too much strain on the tow lines. Andy drove all the way, apart from a two hour siesta on Wednesday.

Andy driving out of Kos

We were booked to lift out on Friday morning, but hung around waiting all day, going into town with the very helpful agent to clear in and do all the paperwork. We watched the slip for a chance to lift, but late in the afternoon two boats in a row were launched, faffed about and then lifted again, presumably because they had engine problems. About 7 in the evening I went to ask the lift crew what was going on and they said they would lift us in 30 minutes, when a pilot boat would be available. At 8 a pilot boat arrived to say that his boss would not let him take us in because it was too late, but he promised to come for us at 8.30 next morning.
On Saturday morning we were ready at 8, but there was another boat in the slip waiting to lift. The lift crew promised that we would be next and the pilot boat collected us at about 9. The boat that had just lifted had about half an inch of growth on his bottom, which meant that his pressure washing took about an hour.

Serious fouling and a hefty pressure wash

Ready to lift

At last we lifted at 11, only to have to wait another hour for the tractor to take us to our place on the hard.

Tractor at last

Eventually we got there in time for lunch. After tidying up, doing odd jobs and contacting the people who are going to install our gantry and new engine we started to cut up the fuel tank to allow us to get it out through the corridor. After a lot of cutting Andy realised that once the engine was out we would be able to get the tank out in one piece through the engine compartment, which also meant that we could get a full-size replacement, so we stopped cutting. In the evening we went in to Marmaris town to sort out new SIM cards for the mobile and internet and went for an Indian meal with Sue and Steve - the owner of the Taj Mahal is Indian, but the chef is Turkish, but he did not do a bad job. Tired out, we got a taxi back to the marina.
On Sunday Andy got to work cleaning and polishing the hull while Simon did odd jobs - sorting out the water maker, fitting the new FM radio and player and this and that.
The weather had been beautiful, sunny with a light breeze and up to 28 in the cabin, but on Sunday night the weather broke with a thunderstorm and a bit of rain. Now, Monday morning, we have got a more serious thunderstorm and it is a lot cooler, so we can't work outside.