Bill hopes soon to explore the Indian Ocean
Bill and Angie invited us to have a meal with them on British Tiger in the evening. We spent the day on various tasks, including laying in some stores and topping up the telephone.
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| British Tiger, 4 Atlantic crossings under her belt Bill hopes soon to explore the Indian Ocean |
We accompanied British Tiger across from Fethiye to Tomb Bay. We reasoned that this would get us out of Fethiye bay and on our way to Marmaris, as well as giving us an opportunity to return Bill and Angie's hospitality. We sailed across with a gentle beat, British Tiger keeping her main tucked away in its cover. We continued sailing between the islands, while BT donked so that we both arrived together and anchored on the southern side. The restaurant was closed and deserted, and there were less than a handful of boats in the bay.
We continued on our way to Marmaris, but had to motor the whole way, as no useful breeze materialised. We anchored in the bay off the Yachtmarine marina, and declined an invitation to join Brian and Deborah for Happy Hour in the bar, as we were knackered.
We went into the marina in the morning, and made for Pandora. May had been poorly and had had two spells in Marmaris hospital. While no one enjoys hospital, the care had apparently been excellent. After that we found Full Flight, and were asked on board. Tony knocked up some lunch, after which he and Pat took us for a tour around the marina. We were very agreeably surprised and impressed by the way efforts had been made to screen the boats on the hard from the water, and the facilities generally. That evening we ate well aboard Chinook, with Full Flight and Rome 2. Brian cooked some superb roast legs of lamb.
The following day I decided to tackle the generator, which was pumping sea water into the boat. My best guess proved to be wrong, and although I replaced the ptfe tape around the exhaust temperature thermostat, sea water was still leaking from elsewhere. I rang Mastervolt in the UK and spoke to an engineer who described the water 'circuit'. It seemed that the generator would need to come out of the boat for the case to be removed to get at the seat of the problem. This was not good news at all.
Later that afternoon, I visited the marina office, and managed to come away with an offer of space on the hard, at less than the cost which I had agreed with the yard at Fethiye. It did not take long to conclude that we should change horses. In the evening we attended a Cruiser's supper in the marina restaurant, and afterwards there was a kariokae evening in the bar, with dancing, which persuaded Mo that she was not after all too tired. We returned to the boat late for the second night running.
On Saturday morning, we confirmed our booking to lift out on 24th November, having phoned the yard at Fethiye to advise them that we would not after all be coming there. We said some final goodbyes to Anders and May, who were starting their journey back to Sweden the following morning. We then set off for Netsel marina at Marmaris town, as we would need wood to build a lifting frame for the generator. We found wood at the carpenter's shop at the marina, and having carried it back to the boat, constructed a lifting frame for the third time. Disconnecting all the services from the generator took some time, and hoisting it out proved problematical. Deep depression ensued. I then remembered that on the first two occasions, I had augmented the handy billy with more blocks to increase the purchase.
The next day, things went much better. I carefully sawed the back of the generator case in two, so that it could be removed for access. We got the generator out and sitting on bearers above the engine. The jubilee clip was rather loose, and there was a lot of salt deposit around one end of the heat exchanger. The actual cause of the leak proved to be a hole in the raw water hose where the generator case had chafed through first the grommet, and then the hose, over its five years of life. The repair was therefore simple enough. The hole in the case did not align with the spigot on the heat exchanger, which had made the problem inevitable from the outset, so this had to be enlarged, the hose cut back and refixed. After that, we had to make an epoxy ribbon lip on the base half of the sawn off case to hold the top half in place. No other fixings proved to be necessary, and access is vastly improved. The epoxy took most of the day to harden. The boat was in total turmoil; with the saloon seating dismantled and cockpit cluttered there was no where to sit. So we went ashore, and enjoyed Mezes at one bar, picked up some supplies and returned to the boat briefly before going out to find the rest of our meal. A 'local derby' football match had all the locals in bars watching, and when presumably the right team won there was much celebrating with flares, and processions up and down with dozens of scooters three up sounding their horns.
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| The generator, its back cover sawn off | All due to misalignment of the hole in the case.. |
The next morning, and some further fixing with sikoflex, the generator was ceremoniously lowered back onto its mountings, and re-connected. It started without trouble, and only one minor leak with the exhaust hose that was soon fixed. Mo was busy with washing, and we found to our disappointment that the further patching of the leaking water tank had been unsuccessful. We were too late to leave the marina, and settled for a further night at the great expense of 47€.
We managed to top up the tanks, dispose of the rubbish, and stow everything to get away at 0830. There was no wind, and we stopped in a bay to take off the outboard and pick up the dinghy. The wind visited most points of the compass and continued very light throughout the day. Briefly, after turning into Fethiye bay, there was sufficient to allow us to sail for a while. I deployed the fishing line, and was rewarded eventually by two mackerel, one a good size and the second quite large. They went onto the barbeque, and made a good meal for Bill, Mo and I. Bill was preparing British Tiger to go to Suez and down to Hurghada, en route to the Indian Ocean, Angie having left in the morning. Perhaps the resulting hangover was not the most helpful in this regard.
I had a distinct hangover from our activities the previous evening. Bill did too, as he busied himself with final preparations to leave Turkey, clearing out with customs, and stocking up with what remained of his 'slotties'. He came aboard briefly in the evening, but did not stay. As I came too in the morning there was the putt putt of a diesel engine going by, and I was just in time to shout a goodbye. A text message arrived later in the morning complaining of a two hour delay due to picking up a fishing net in the propeller. Luckily he had had the practice with Fantastique.
We set off reasonably early, but had to motor all day, with the exception of a brief respite during the afternoon when the wind freshened for a while from the west. We arrived off Marmaris Yachtmarin as it became dark, and anchored off the hotel opposite.
Rather depressingly, it is time to pack the boat up for the season. It was dry overnight, so we took advantage of the opportunity to take the sails off and fold them up. Not an easy job within the confines of the deck. especially as there was for a change a fresh wind blowing. The main will need some small repairs, as do the two 'stack pack/maindrop' sail covers. I then braved the water, now at only 22 degrees, and scrubbed the bottom as far as I could reach. We will avoid having a pressure wash, as it is not too bad, and there should be plenty of residual antifoul left on there. Next year we will just do one coat to freshen it up. Then I took time off to do a bit of water colour painting of the boat next door to us in the anchorage.
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| Hydras at Marmaris |
The forecast for the following days was rather poor, with rain and wind threatening. We decided to go into the marina and get ourselves settled there. We had put our names down for the progressive supper that Fiona was organising on Wednesday, and we needed to have a berth by then! This proved to be a most enjoyable evening. Mo wanted a haircut, so having some petrol left that we did not want to leave hanging around, we took the dinghy the 2 miles across the harbour on Friday. It was flat calm going over, and we moored it on the sea wall. Going back after lunch, there was a chop off the wall so we got a little wet getting in to the dinghy, and it was not quite so comfortable going back! We had eventually found Annette's (the recommended hairdresser) after walking around the town for quite some time, and had lunch at the friendly cafe bar on the front that we had found on our first run ashore.
Fuga was hauled out of the water and blocked off at Marmaris Yacht Marina. It was, as usual there, a most efficient operation with a diver going down to check our underwater geometry before we were lifted. Tony and Pat on Full Flight invited us to supper on board, along with Terry and Fiona from Roam, so we had a most enjoyable evening afloat, rather than perched high in the air. It was after 1400 hours before we were ready to get the taxi into town to connect with the bus to Dalaman. We stayed at the Dalaman Park hotel for two nights, before catching the Turkish Air flight to Istanbul, and Easyjet to Luton from the other airport.