Core business

Enough of tulips and blossoms. Let's get on with boating. The season won't wait for laggards.

Last week, before bad weather interrupted play, we were on a roll. Ergun, from Erinox, put the finishing touches to the stainless work which allows us to use our Simpson davits to lift the dinghy with the outboard motor in place (how this wasn't achieved in Port Napoleon where the davits were installed is something we've tried to forget). He also made a protective stainless cage for the dump load resistors, gadgets which keep the wind generator from overspinning (are you still with me?). Alex spent a day prepping for the installation of the D400 wind generator and 24 volt solar panels, drilling and threading electrical cables through small spaces. Then Ramazan gave us (well, figuratively speaking - at 30 euros an hour) a very long day and in theory Enki's alternative power sources are wired to their regulators and dump load resistors and we have power to burn. In theory.

The first shipment of boats has arrived from Thailand

On Friday, we called a lay day and walked around the town, primarily to loosen up the joints in Alex's irascible back. One day we'll get to the new Arts and Culture Centre, but our usual scenic route takes in such delights as Omer's Anfora chandlery (to pay him for Volvo engine oil and coolant, and to confirm that he would deliver our re-galvansied anchor chain to the boat once it was lifted), Marlin Yachting (to buy new zinc anodes), West Marine (to look for navigation charts for northern Greece - what were we thinking?), the bank, Rashit's Anil Marin (to pick up and carry back to the boat very long battens which will stiffen the bimini he has made to shade the aft deck)....and on the way, we met some friends and chatted. The pace is picking up in Marmaris.

Dale and Rick, winter friends from Netsel 

On Saturday, Enki was lifted to have her bottom cleaned, fresh Hempel Olympic anti-fouling applied and her hull polished. I'm not sure if I mentioned that at the Netsel marina Christmas lunch I "drew" as my gift a free hull polish, donated by Guven Marine. It's time to claim it. When Seval Guven (who is Dutch-born) saw the growth on Enki's bottom as she exposed her undersides to the air, her face fell. "It's much worse than usual," she told me. Perhaps, but others say that marine growth has been especially bad this year. Mehmet Guven and his team seemed to have no trouble scraping it off, I have to say.

What Enki grew on her bottom over winter (and below)

Traditional Turkish hard stand construction

That was a couple of days ago. Since then we've had huge winds and now heavy rain. It's spring time. Good for the tulips, but not so good for boatwork. Enki is propped up in the yard on thick wooden poles secured in place against her hull with chocks (above). The poles are made stronger by connecting wooden struts, quickly banged into place before the travel-lift straps are removed.

Two hours later, the hard stand is finished and the bottom muck cleaned off

We had kittens when we first saw this hard-stand arrangement in Turkey in 2011. We said then that we'd never leave our boat in a marina which didn't use solid metal frames. Well, at Netsel, there's nothing else on offer. Boats much bigger than ours are supported by the same method. I think they may have lost some over the years, but they don't talk much about that.

Omer man-handles our chain out of his Fiat Doblo, every Turk's car