july 1 2006 : fethiye, turkey
Ali saw a naked man yesterday and it wasn’t me. There’s an interesting start to the month. We started out the day by getting diesel and doing a few small boat projects. The diesel is insane here, 30 gallons cost us $180 USD. To fill the boat up right now would cost us roughly $700 and judging by the amount of sailing we’ve actually done lately that amount of fuel would get us to Italy, maybe.

After that I scrubbed the waterline clean and then set to work on fixing the light in the bathroom. It just stopped working the other day for no apparent reason. Step one was to check the lightbulb, and unfortunately that wasn’t it. Step two was to check the switch on the light since they have a tendency to corrode and need a little cleaning now and then. That wasn’t it either. Next up was to take it apart and check the wiring. I tested the wiring and found there was no current. So now I thought I had it, it must be the fuse. I changed the fuse and flicked it on. Nothing. Still no current. Step four is to tear the house apart tracking the wiring back from one side of the boat to the other trying to figure out why there is no power coursing through them. Ali put a stop to that quickly and informed me that a flashlight would do just fine for now. Nobody is really in the mood for boat work at the moment.

After that grueling morning we thought we’d go take a swim at the marina hotel pool. We’re not actually staying in the marina but didn’t think anybody would mind. We were wrong. We’d barely sat down before we were being kicked out. We told them Ali was going to the spa though and they relented. She went down to the spa to see about getting a Turkish bath. Not really sure what a Turkish bath was but figuring it had to include a good back massage. She went downstairs and started asking the receptionist guy about it but he didn’t speak a word of English and Ali’s Turkish is a little rusty as well. Apparently the guy decided that she wanted to be shown around the place. He started walking her from room to room and in one they opened the door onto an old man standing there naked with another man wrapping a towel around him. Thirty seconds later she was back at the pool packing up our bag. An entire spa filled with naked, or half naked men didn’t seem like her kind of place I guess.

We then found out that the hotel right next door which cost about 2% of the price of the marina hotel was happy to let us use their pool as long as we had a beer and some lunch. No problem with that. We lounged around the rest of the afternoon trying to battle the heat, which is brutal here from noon until nine o’clock at night.

july 2 2006 : fethiye, turkey
Today we rented a scooter and drove to Oludeniz which is a town nearby that is famous for paragliding. I’ve been a little bored lately and looking for at least a small shot of adrenaline and thought this would give it to me. But when we got there and saw it firsthand I knew it wouldn’t solve my problem. You basically sit in a guys lap for 30 minutes while you float around with a parachute. At least in skydiving you get the thrill of the freefall before the boring part of floating down the rest of the way, this sport totally bypasses the freefall. I don’t know what I was expecting but that wasn’t it, so we hopped back on the scooter and headed farther down the road.

The drive was nice, winding high up above the water and clinging to the edge of the mountain. Eventually we ran out of road and it turned into a rough gravel path instead. We followed that along another ten miles before it ended abruptly high up in the hills. We turned around and made our way slowly back to Oludeniz for lunch. The town was custom built for the tourist industry. There were 100 restaurants, 100 hotels, and 100 souvenir shops. The draw was the beach which had absolutely amazing clear water washing up onto a pebbly beach. The beach itself wasn’t very nice though, the rocks hurt your feet and nearly every person there was wearing these little rubber slip on shoes to protect themselves. We spent a fun couple of hours swimming and staring at very large naked women. We may be in a Muslim country but the rest of Europe isn’t going to let that stop them from taking off their tops.

july 3 2006 : fethiye
Well we just solved the mystery as to why we find so many cruiser questions so strange. Turns out that cruisers simply aren’t subject to the same social etiquette practiced in the rest of the world. In fact, their etiquette is the exact opposite of normal. So where on land it would be considered rude and obnoxious to meet somebody and immediately blurt out how you made your money, the balance of your bank statement, and if you paid cash for your boat; out here it is accepted as a typical conversation starter. If you don’t give that information you are considered a snob. Confused? Well here, we’ll let you read our new friend Larry’s explanation, he explains it much better than I ever could.

From: 1lesconc@****.net
Subject: your 6/23 post

Seems like you were a little frustrated why someone would ask if its your boat? It seems reasonable to me considering how expensive the boat looks and how young you two appear. Sometimes people “marry money” and don’t even work, just travel and spend, and they love to tell you about it. And sometimes its NOT their boat. Cruisers rent, borrow or use the family boat. It was a reasonable question when it looks odd and maybe, just maybe it was their way of making conversation. Enjoy your trip.

Larry

______________

From: aliandpat@bumfuzzle.com
Subject: Re: your 6/23 post

Hi Larry,

Not sure we agree with your reasoning on why it is not rude for someone to ask “is that your boat?” – you say it seems reasonable considering how expensive the boat looks…that is exactly why it IS rude to ask such a personal question to someone you don’t even know. Trying to start up a conversation with someone you have never met before by bringing up money related conversation – is considered rude. Weather, location, our names maybe…are all good conversation starters. Money is not.

Anyway we just don’t get it. We are not a little “frustrated” – we just find them rude. And like you say cruisers rent, borrow, use the family boat – why does it matter if it is our boat or not? It’s not like he complimented our boat – said “That’s a great boat. Is it yours?” All he said was “Is that your boat?” – very very rude. For an older man (a sailor) to ask such a stupid question – why?

Anyway we will definitely enjoy our trip. Thanks for following us along and taking the time to write. Take care.

Ali and Pat

______________

From: 1lesconc@****.net
Subject: Re: your 6/23 post

Your reply answered my question. You married money or are living off Daddy’s fortune and are spoiled. If either of you actually had to work for a living or paid for the boat yourself, it would be clear why people are so rude—–you two are snobs!

So you see what we are dealing with. This is exactly the kind of attitude we have run into over and over again out here from the “old salts.” They like to make it seem as if we need to defend ourselves to them. Defend why we are doing the trip in four years, defend how we paid for the boat, defend why we chose to anchor across the bay from their group, defend, defend, defend. Now, Daddy, if you’re reading this could you throw another $1 million of your fortune into our checking account, we’re running low again.

july 4 2006 : mediterranean coast, turkey
We’ve left Fethiye and are moving west again along the coast. We actually only scooted across the bay to one of the hundreds of little coves that litter the coast here. When we came around the corner and saw that there were dozens of boats crammed in and tied off to nearly every available space on shore we were a little disappointed. The sheer number of boats out here is staggering. We have yet to see another personal yacht, but there are quite a few chartered sailboats, and hundreds upon hundreds of big wooden charter boats and day tripper boats.

After circling the string of islands we finally spotted an open space and backed the boat in. We spent the rest of the day just lounging around on deck watching people jump off the top decks of the big boats, go water skiing, parasailing, and of course, banana boat tubing. It was a nice day in a beautiful setting and totally calm water but not the kind of place we could spend more than one night at. At about ten o’clock at night the smell began. Obviously all of these big boats can’t dump their waste overboard while people are out swimming next to the boat, and there is no pump out facilities on shore either, so they wait until late at night and dump it in the bay. Right up until about 6 a.m. it smelled like we were anchored in a toilet. Kind of ruins the appeal of a place so we’re going to move today and look for something a little better.

july 5 2006 : gocek, turkey
In the morning yesterday we decided to move on over to Gocek, a little town just a couple of miles away. We motored over and found once again that every available inch of space in the bay was taken by tour boats. Another 500 of them. We finally found a small space to anchor and after getting settled in I started to work on our windlass. The windlass has pretty well packed it in, it still drops the chain okay, but it can no longer manage the torturous job of reeling it back in. Over the last week I’ve had to pull in the anchor hand over hand which is quite a job, especially here where we routinely have to anchor in depths of 60 feet or more. It had started to do this way back in New Zealand, but then mysteriously seemed to fix itself in Australia and has worked fairly well ever since.

So I emptied out the chain locker and climbed in. I took the windlass motor off and then started to go after the part which I figured must house all the gears and stuff. I was hoping I could open that up, clean it out, and grease it up. There were four allenhead bolts holding that on and I found that two of them were stripped and no tools I had were going to get them off. So I cleaned up what I could and put it all back together again. I filled up the chain locker again and only then did I test the windlass again. Nothing. It didn’t work at all. Empty the locker again, climb in with a voltmeter and then find out that the waterproof fuse I had installed was shot. I bypassed that fuse and after all that it is now working exactly the same as it was before.

While I was doing that another tour boat had decided to move in 30 feet away from us. Only problem was that he tied off to a 100 meter line from shore, which meant he wouldn’t swing with a wind shift and we would hit him. He didn’t say a word to us, wouldn’t even look at us, so I dinghied over and asked if he planned on staying there. He indicated yes, then no, then yes, and then turned his back on me. He clearly didn’t understand English, but didn’t seem to care much what I had to say anyway. So we hauled up the anchor again and moved the boat about as far away from the town as we could get.

Gocek was an okay town, not much going on, yet pretty much geared towards the tourist crowd. We browsed through a chandlery and then had lunch before heading back to the boat for a swim.

Around seven o’clock we noticed some friends of ours had come into the anchorage. Ali locked the door and we went over to say hi. Around eleven o’clock we came back to the boat and I went downstairs to check email. While I was doing that Ali came down next to me and noticed water on the floor. We turned on the lights and couldn’t figure out where the leak was coming from. It seemed strange but we finally assumed that when I had run back to the boat a couple of hours earlier to turn on the anchor light and grab a couple of things that I must have had wet feet. A couple of minutes later I remembered that there was a part I wanted to work on the next day that was in the locker in the port engine room. I flicked on the light and was about to grab the part when I noticed a pair of my shorts balled up in the corner.

I yelled to Ali to ask her what they were doing there and then it suddenly dawned on us that somebody had been on the boat. Ali grabbed her bag and found her wallet but when she opened it up she found the money gone, 400 lira (about $250 USD); all except twenty lira which I guess was left as a joke. Then she noticed that the camera was gone too. We then started scouring the boat to see what else had been taken. We found that the thief had gone through all of our lockers but hadn’t taken anything, and had tried to straighten things up so that it wouldn’t look like anybody had been there. He had gone through the nav station which had two laptop computers and an iPod sitting in plain view but they were left alone. He had obviously been looking for cash and probably knew that every boat has a hidden stash somewhere on it. He had been just inches away from our U.S. cash stash, but didn’t find it, and would have been disappointed anyway since we spent it all in Africa.

Everything had been touched and then apparently wiped down with my shorts. We found that he had come in through an open hatch in the port engine room because the bed was wet. I always give Ali a hard time because she insists on always locking up the house. If we had gone into town every window would have been shut and the door locked. But since we had only gone over to a friends boat 100 meters away we didn’t think anything of it, yet she still locked the door. The only other thing we found missing were our Bumfuzzle boat cards, which are in Ali’s wallet and just have our email and website address on them. So I suppose now the thief will be sitting in an internet café reading about this. Our credit cards and drivers licenses were left alone and he never found the key to the safe which has all of our boat papers and passports in it. The worst thing for us is losing our camera. That makes three lost cameras on this trip and this one had cost us over $800 in New Zealand. And to top it all off, the camera is completely worthless to him because he doesn’t have the cords to charge it or to transfer pictures from it so that already today it is probably sitting in some garbage can.

So that was really disappointing. We travel through all of these “uncivilized” third world countries, leaving the boat unattended for weeks at a time and never have a problem. Then we get to the “civilized” world of the Med and leave the boat for four hours and get robbed. The real bummer is that now for the rest of the trip we’ll worry about the boat every time we leave it, where before we were really good at just locking up and forgetting about it.

july 7 2006 : mediterranean coast, turkey
After leaving Gocek we motored a couple of hours away to our first secluded anchorage. The reason it was secluded was because there was only room for one boat and the cove hardly indented the coastline at all leaving it wide open to the swell, the place was a monohulls worst nightmare and perfect for us. We dropped anchor in 35 feet of crystal clear water and tied off to a boulder at the bottom of a sheer rock cliff 40 feet away. We spent the rest of the day swimming and lounging around on the boat listening to the goats climbing the hills above us.

Within five miles of leaving Gocek that morning we had to take evasive measures in order to avoid collisions. Something I can’t ever remember having to do before. The first one the guy was sailing towards us and I was having a hard time telling what side of us he was going to be passing, I scooted one way and the boat seemed to turned more towards us. Finally I just stopped the boat completely and he passed right in front of us. As he did he suddenly spun around completely shocked that we were there, he had been in the cockpit behind the sails and hadn’t once seen us coming. The next time I clearly had the right of way and both of us were motoring, but again I could never see another person in the cockpit. At first I continued on but once it became obvious that we were going to collide I veered off 90 degrees and passed right next to this guy. This time there was a mom sunbathing on the front of the boat with a little kid staring at her with binoculars and the husband who I guess was driving the boat was in the cockpit but facing backwards working on something else. Again he was shocked when we flew past him just yards away and the whole family suddenly jumped up as he finally grabbed the wheel. This place is way too crowded.

Since I’ve now been hauling the anchor up by hand I noticed the other day that the chain roller didn’t actually roll. The roller is a little black rubber cylinder thing that the chain rests in at the edge of the boat before it drops off into the water. Ours was too big for the brackets that held it so instead of spinning around the chain just slid over it, eventually wearing away one area and creating quite a bit of friction. I sawed off half an inch off the end and now it rolls freely when the chain runs over it. It didn’t miraculously solve the windlass problem but it did make hauling in the chain by hand a lot easier.

Then the next day we continued on to yet another very nice anchorage. It seems like you have to find the areas that are furthest away from any major town in Turkey in order for the anchorage not to be crammed to overflowing. Not a big deal except there is a major town about every thirty miles or so which doesn’t put a whole lot of areas out of reach. This place was again in about 30 feet of clear water and we tied off to a big rock sticking out of the water behind us. Another day of swimming and hanging out. This place had some cool caves to swim into which was fun. In one I was swimming along and it was getting narrower and darker when I suddenly saw something huge swimming along the bottom beneath me. My heart jumped for a second before realizing it was a scuba diver. Swimming in caves kind of puts me on edge.

Last night I was sleeping soundly when at 2:30 Ali woke me up to tell me we weren’t tied off to the rock anymore. We pulled in the rope and found it had completely chafed through on the rock. The top of the rock was smooth but apparently the part of the rope that went underwater must have been pretty sharp. Fortunately we had enough room here to swing without hitting anything. We just backed up towards the rock again and I went for a swim in the dark to secure a new line, trying to keep this one on the smooth area. Five minutes later we were back in bed.

july 9 2006 : marmaris, turkey
The next morning we hauled up the anchor and headed off towards Marmaris. In our spot at anchor there was absolutely no wind, but motoring out of the bay we had over 20 knots for the first time in weeks. Fortunately it was also just far enough off of our nose to put out a sail, also for the first time in weeks. It was a 25 mile jaunt over and we made good time across the huge protected bay. Marmaris is a tourist town set inside a big bay with only one tiny entrance into it. Outside that entrance is a rock wall with a huge cave in it. The mouth of the cave is big enough for the big double decker tourist boats to back themselves right into. And man did they. At one point we counted 17 of them waiting in single file line for their two minute turn at the cave mouth. We’re not good at waiting in lines so we just motored past and continued on across the bay. There are a couple of huge marinas here but for the first night we just anchored off the beach in front of town.

Our first priority in Marmaris was to replace our camera. We wandered around town and poked our heads in at a few of the little shops but couldn’t come to a decision and decided to mull it over for a day. The big problem we were having was that obviously all the cameras had European plugs for recharging them. We didn’t think we’d be able to find a converter anywhere to change a Euro plug into an American style for us to use on our boat.

After that we went to have a drink on the waterfront. The promenade was wall to wall restaurants stretching for about a mile. They were all sitting empty except for the restaurant tout that stood out front imploring you to please come to his place. We finally chose one that didn’t have a tout and had the cheapest beer. We sat down and waited. One waiter was on a cell phone and another just stood around staring dreamily at nothing. We sat for five minutes before finally standing up and leaving, as we did the guy on his cell phone finally jumped up and told us to wait, but we just walked ten feet over and sat down at the neighboring restaurant instead, which greatly amused the proprietor of that place. He yelled to his waiter to bring two beers “quickly!”

Back at the boat we discovered that we already had a converter that we had completely forgotten about, and were now happy that we would be able to buy whatever camera we wanted.

The next morning we went back into town for a camera. We finally picked one out, explained to it that it would be our fourth camera of the trip and that we were expecting her to make it all the way back to Florida with us, and then paid. We were happy to find that camera prices were actually a little cheaper than back home.

Back at the boat we decided to head over to Marmaris Yacht Marina where we planned to have the boat hauled out to get a whole bunch of work done. Here is what our list consists of at the moment: 1) starboard engine has excessive vibration causing prop problems, needs gearbox oil seals replaced again, fuel lines replaced, oil changed, and battery charging issue figured out; 2) port engine needs gearbox oil seals replaced, fuel lines replaced, and oil changed; 3) port rudder needs to be removed and have the seal replaced to stop the leaking; 4) bottom painting/antifouling; 5) windlass motor needs to be rebuilt or replaced; 6) dinghy davit cracks need to be welded; 7) back rubrail completely removed and resealed properly.

That’s the big projects, there are also dozens of little things like repainting the anchor chain marks, replacing rusty bolts, reinstalling a broken latch, fixing the bathroom light, etc., etc..

At the marina we got settled in quickly, banged out a couple of the minor projects and then headed for the pool. When we got there we couldn’t believe how busy it was. We felt like a couple of twelve year olds who had just been dragged along to visit grandma at her Florida retirement home and now we were being told to go swimming right in the middle of her water aerobics class. It’s clear this place is unlike any other marina we’ve ever been. People actually live at this one for years at a time. Turkey has laws that allow foreign yachts to stay a couple of years, which combined with the low cost of the marina, this one is about $6 a day, encourages people to settle down for long periods. Personally we don’t see the appeal of living in a giant marina miles from anything, but we’re obviously in the minority on this one.

july 10 2006 : marmaris
We are on a roll the last couple of days. I can’t believe how much crap we have checked off our list. Pretty much every small project has been crossed off and a few of the large projects are underway. We found a Volvo mechanic here who is a really nice guy and after listening to our engine for about three seconds told us he knew what the problem was and it would be no problem for him to fix when we were hauled out. He also took our windlass motor to the shop and has that thing torn apart already as well. Again, he says no problem. So with those things under control we set up our haul out for tomorrow morning. Hopefully things continue to go this smoothly.

july 11 2006 : marmaris
Boy were we on a roll the last couple of days, banging out projects left and right and starting to feel like we were actually getting somewhere. Then haul out day rolled around. We were supposed to be hauled out first thing in the morning at 9:00. Around 9:45 we finally set out to find out what was happening and were told we’d be next. After two more boats were hauled out they finally waved us in. They realized that we were too wide for the small lift and had us pull in to the bigger lift dock instead. After tying us off they left for lunch. It was 10:30 after all. They told us they’d see us at 1:00. Okay, so four hours late, that’s not the worst thing in the world. Then around noon a marina employee came over and told us they wanted to see us in the office. I had that sinking feeling I used to get all the time when the principal sent for me in grade school.

In the office we were asked to have a seat and then they broke the news to us. There was a mistake and now instead of our haul out costing 400 euros it was going to cost 800 (roughly $1000 USD!). It seems they hadn’t realized we were a catamaran and therefore should have charged us double. We remained calm and then explained to them that first of all we had called before arriving to find out the cost, told them the size of our boat, and were quoted 400 euros. We then arrived here, pulled in to a slip and visited the office where we provided them with all of our paperwork and even filled out a form stating the width of our boat as 7m. Then yesterday we went into the office, arranged the haul out, paid our 400 euros (actually 360 with the summer discount), and were told we’d be hauled at nine a.m. Now at noon, with us waiting in the haul out dock, and our boat torn apart and ready for work to be done, they were trying to renege on our contract and double our price. Sorry you screwed up but that’s not my problem. They must have known that there was no way they were going to get 800 out of us so they quickly started talking about an agreement. “How about 500?” We listed our reasons again and then sat back in our chairs. They kept on us for a few minutes, the two ladies speaking perfect English to us and then rapid fire Turkish to each other. Finally, frustrated and disgusted at not getting another penny out of us they sent us back to our boat.

Back at the boat we waited for hours and hours. At one o’clock Ali was fuming that this was taking so long. We had hoped to haul out and get some work done today. Then without trying she made us both laugh with the comment, “Who can work at one o’clock?” As if it was far too late in the day to work. Man, we have been gone a long time haven’t we? Around three o’clock, now six hours late, Ali marched back into the office where she was told they were very busy but they would try and be with us shortly. A little more time passed and eventually the guys who run the lift must have gotten tired of us and just decided to do their job. The haul out went smoothly and we were soon propped up in our new home, a dirt parking lot.

While we were in the lift I asked the driver how much we weighed. He flicked a couple of switches and then laughed because we only weighed six tons. The lift we were in was a 330 ton monster usually used for hauling out ferries and megayachts. The reason I had asked him is because our boat registration paperwork is incorrect. It states that our boat weighs 37 tons, or 6 times our actual weight. This hasn’t been a problem until the last couple of months when we’ve had a couple of fees that were directly tied to that number. In the Suez Canal it probably cost us an extra hundred bucks and here in Turkey another 50. So it looks like we’re going to have to do some fidgeting with our paperwork.

Since we are painting the bottom of the boat the next thing we had to have done was getting the hulls power washed. The marina offered this so we had them do it. Ali was watching the guy spray away when the hose got away from him and he sprayed our vinyl sticker stripes above the waterline. He gave her a sheepish look and then continued on. We had enough extra to fix the area he screwed up so decided not to make a fuss over it. After ten minutes of work he dropped the hose and headed off for a tea break. Ali and I decided that he would be more careful and he probably didn’t need the two of us standing over him while he washed the boat so we went to the bar for dinner. Wandering back to the boat an hour later we were shocked to find that he had destroyed the stripes around the entire boat. Blasting them from 4 inches away with a super heavy duty power sprayer. We immediately spun around and walked right back to the marina office again.

Now you could see the eyes roll as we walked in. They obviously wanted nothing to do with us. After hearing out our complaint the manager came out to have a look. When she saw it she asked us, “Where were you when this was happening?” Apparently it was our fault for not supervising them as they went about this seemingly simple task. Eventually she picked off a mangled piece of vinyl and said she would have them replace it tomorrow.

By now it was seven o’clock, we had accomplished nothing all day, we now had more work to do than when the day started, and we had every marina employee in the place hating our guts. Pretty successful day I’d say.

The day we were coming into the marina there was a boat a little ways in front of us. He called the marina on the VHF to request a spot, and in sort of a pompous French accent said to the lady, “Give us an inside berth, this is s/y so and so, you know us very vell.” We’ve been laughing about it for days now and trying to figure out ways to incorporate the same saying into our everyday lives. Well now we’ve got it. For the rest of our lives whenever we need something from the Marmaris Yacht Marina we can call them up and say, “This is Bumfuzzle, you know us very vell.”

july 13 2006 : marmaris
After a busy couple of days it actually feels like we are making some good headway on the boat list. First thing yesterday morning we got to work on the rudder. I wasn’t really sure how the thing was even held in place so wasn’t sure how big a project this might be. But it turned out to be an easy enough process and before too long we had the rudder dropped. Where the rudder comes out of the boat is through a hard plastic PVC type tube with a metal lining. This thing is very tightly fit to the rudder post and at first I figured this had worn down a bit and was the reason for the leaking. While I was trying to figure out how in the world I was going to get this thing out of the boat in one piece I realized that about one inch up there was an o-ring inside the tube. The o-ring was so flat that you couldn’t actually feel it as you ran your finger along the inside of the tube. After a quick stop in the chandlery we had a new o-ring and popped it in. To test it out I held the rudder up inside the post and had Ali pour some water in from the top. I spun the rudder around a bit and not a drop came through. Problem solved, I think. Then came the part I hadn’t really thought through very well, pulling the rudder back out. It was pretty heavy so there was nothing to do but stand right underneath it and pull it out again, this time having a glass of water pour over my head in the process.

The rest of the day passed quickly while we worked on a number of smaller projects like removing the rubrail and cleaning off all of the caulk. The rubrail is always getting partially torn off in rough seas so we are going to try and reapply it properly this time. We also replaced a bunch of rusty nuts and bolts. It’s incredible how un-stainless, stainless steel can be. And we were finally able to finish removing all of the greasy oil that the boat was covered in from the northern Red Sea.

Our mechanic never made it to the boat, which is a bit disconcerting. His shop is only fifty yards away and we made sure to drop in on him a few times throughout the day. Then we stopped in at the giant stainless steel fabrication business right next door to see about having a couple of small welds done to our dinghy davits. Without even hearing what we wanted done we were told they are too busy and not doing any work on boats right now, only marina fabrication. I guess all of these businesses are owned, or run, by the marina. And now the marina is having some extensive work done to itself.

After asking around we were continuously told we had to go to Marmaris across the bay to have the work done. So we went into the marina office to ask them if they knew where we could get some welding done. They told us that their shop was too busy but we could hire somebody from Marmaris, but, they said, “If you hire an outside company you must pay a 15% surcharge to us.” What kind of racket is that?

Then while in the office we were accosted by the lady who had originally signed our haulout contract with us. She was fuming and asked, “So you are a catamaran?!” As if that was a fact we were hiding from them, while tied up at their dock for four days. We explained to her that she had all of our paperwork that said we were a catamaran, including our boat registration which states that we are 7 meters wide. “But you didn’t say your boat name was Sailing Vessel Catamaran Bumfuzzle.” “No we didn’t, do all the other boats come in and say they are from the Sailing Vessel Monohull Windchaser? And besides, the haulout is based on width, not whether or not the boat is a catamaran or monohull.” We went back and forth like this for a couple of minutes before finally just walking out. This is one of the strangest places we have ever been. We’ve never seen a company try so hard to pass the blame on to their customers while taking no responsibility themselves. And the amazing thing, even at the reduced price for the haulout this is still 300% more than we’ve ever paid for a haulout anywhere else in the world.

While taking a walk around the marina last night we came across another Wildcat for the first time ever. It was either a 2000 or 2001 and man was it in rough shape. Completely worn out gelcoat and blistering all over, Charter Cats trademarks. It really made us feel good about how nice our boat looks. The funniest thing to me however was that just like our boat, this one sits an inch or two deeper on the port side. We were never sure if we were just overloaded on that side of the boat or what, but now that question is solved. Looks like the Charter Cats factory just had an off kilter mold that they continued to use for years and years. And while walking around we also came across a small shop at the back of the marina that does welding and said they’d be over first thing in the morning. Nice.

So we’re not having the best time ever here in Turkey, but we’re pretty excited that the boat work is progressing so well. If we can get the mechanic out here we’ll really be in business. Can’t wait to finish this stuff up so we can get out of here and travel inland a bit away from all the boats and boat people.

july 14 2006 : marmaris
We continued the drudgery that is boat work. We got a couple things started in the morning while we waited for the mechanic and the welder, both of which told us the day before that they would be at the boat at 10 a.m. At 11 nobody had shown, so I went after the mechanic. His assistant said he’d be over soon. So Ali and I started the miserable job of sanding the boat, prepping it for antifouling. The power spray had done a pretty good job but it still needed a quick going over in order to get it nice and smooth. By the end I didn’t think I’d be able to lift my arms above my shoulders ever again and both Ali and I were covered with baby blue bottom paint that made us look like Smurf’s. Ahh, the Smurf’s, I wonder if Papa Smurf is still alive or if Smurfette ever got married.

Another couple of hours passed and I went to track down the mechanic again. This time his assistant told me five minutes and he meant it. Five minutes later they were at the boat and going nuts. The mechanic is one of those people that seems to move and talk a mile a minute. Within seconds the oil was draining, and he was showing us the new part he had fabricated that would keep our prop from wiggling around. He had worked for Sunsail for years and had this technique perfected. He also had some sort of acid that he squirted in the raw water intake which instantly dissolved all of the barnacles that had grown in there and were completely inaccessible. He took the parts with him to replace the seals and said he’d be back in thirty minutes. We never saw him again. And no, the welder that had seemed so great the night before never showed up either.

But by the end of the day we had the rubrail back on good and solid, the bottom of the boat sanded and ready to paint, half of the stickers that had been destroyed in the power washing replaced, and a couple of other odds and ends accomplished. Overall, we’d have to say this is looking like our most successful and productive haulout to date.

july 16 2006 : marmaris
Still in the parking lot, but looks like we should be back in the water tomorrow. A couple of days back we got the first coat of paint on the bottom. Now that is a fun job. You don’t have to be overly concerned with perfection and within two hours you’ve got yourself a very nice looking new boat. About the time we finished that up we got a visit from some friends of ours. They should have been sailing in but instead came by car. Remember a few days back when I explained how busy it was out on the water and said we had to take action to avoid two collisions? Well our friends weren’t quite so lucky. They had a big Turkish gullet run them down from behind and nearly dismast them. The waters around here are crazy. A little while after they left we came back to the boat and were pleasantly surprised to find a guy installing our new stripes. The color wasn’t even close, but we contented ourselves with the fact that we wouldn’t have to visit the office again and face the angry ladies.

Yesterday we put another two coats of paint on the bottom, reassembled the props, put the rudder back in, reinstalled the windlass motor, and gave the inside of the boat a thorough cleaning. We managed all of this before two o’clock so we celebrated by taking the bus into town. We’ve been told there are 3000 restaurants in Marmaris and it’s no exaggeration. Ninety-nine percent of them serve the same food, have the same view, and are equally as empty. So with those as our choices we just walked down the sidewalk until we found the most desperate place, which was the one serving large Efes beers for two lira as opposed to four.

After lunner we set out to book our trip to Istanbul. We’d been hearing how cheap flights were in Turkey but hadn’t found any good deals, and besides we sort of like the long haul buses, so that’s what we ended up booking. It was still sort of early so we joined the melting, sunburned masses on the sidewalks and found our way to the movie theater, the only dark cool spot in town.

Today we had nothing to do. It was Sunday, the place was deserted, all of our boat work was done, and it felt great.

july 19 2006 : istanbul, turkey
The boat is wet again, the rudder hole didn’t spew water, and the engines started right up without a loud clunk. Life is good. We went into the office first thing in the morning to make sure they still had us signed up to go back in the water, which they did, but they couldn’t give us a time that it would happen. So we spent from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m. sitting around waiting. The thing is, once they do finally get around to doing work they do a very good job. Punctuality is  just one of those things ingrained in us that is impossible to shake. Here, and I suppose in most of Europe, it is more of an “it’ll get done when it gets done” mentality that prevails. Just another thing to get used to I guess, it’ll just mean many days wasted while waiting for something to happen.

After going back in the water we had about two hours before we caught the bus. We managed to give the boat a good scrub and then race downtown where we just made our bus before it pulled out of the station. The bus was a definite step up from the buses we’ve grown used to over the last couple of years. It was brand new, felt like you were sitting inside a giant glass bubble, had legroom, and even two full time tea and coffee boys. We had a couple of hours of sunlight left to watch the scenery go by and then slept on and off throughout the night before waking up to the bus rolling along through the outskirts of Istanbul.

The bus pulled into the station and we hopped onto another one that was supposedly heading in our direction. That one dropped us off at the end of the line and told us we were there. We didn’t really know where there was so we just wandered around a bit until we found the Blue Mosque, an obvious landmark, and were able to use that to track down our hostel.

After dropping off our bags we went for a walk around the area. The Blue Mosque was built about 400 years ago and is a beautiful building. It has six minarets that you can see from all over the city. Ali wrapped herself up in a couple of big blue borrowed scarves and we joined the hordes of infidels inside to admire the place for a little while. The roof dome towered over us covered in tens of thousands of tiles and hundreds of stained glass windows. Below the dome was nothing other than an empty field of prayer mats.

While out exploring the rest of the area we were constantly approached by carpet sellers. They are everywhere. I’m sure that if they laid out all of their carpets side by side they could cover the surface of the earth. Every one of them has a spiel too. One thing we’ve noticed is how many of them say they have been to Seattle. They all use Seattle as their U.S. reference point and then use some random observation like, “It sure rained a lot there.” It’s all bull of course, and they are just trying to get you talking so that they can get you in their store for tea. They’re very smooth, but no matter what, we aren’t bringing a carpet back to Bum.

After a while you start to get a little edgy about people approaching you every time you stop to look at something, so when a couple of guys stopped and asked us if we were Americans we just sort of nodded. But they kept on and said they were from Florida and Canada. We turned and found a Turk wearing a Florida Gators t-shirt and a white guy wearing a Canadian flag shirt. Now if those shirts didn’t seem like a set up nothing ever would. But we talked for a few minutes about the boat, and Florida, and whatever else and then they said goodbye. Afterwards Ali and I were just walking away thinking “what the heck was the scam there,” before finally deciding that it really wasn’t a scam, just a couple of nice guys wanting to shoot the breeze. It always strikes us how quickly you can be put in a defensive mode in places like this and then how just as quickly you can meet somebody who really does just want to talk.

We eventually found ourselves walking along the waterfront. The waterfront is actually the Bosphorous Strait which is a narrow stretch of water running through the city that separates the Mediterranean (actually the Sea of Marmara) from the Black Sea. The flow of the water was incredible. We watched as big ferries flew along with the current and others going against it hardly managed to move. The water was just a giant frothy whirlpool. We sat for a while and watched local fisherman drink beer while not catching a single fish. A worldwide phenomenon. Then suddenly a guy in a full body wetsuit came running across the boulders risking life and limb and dived into the water. We watched in amazement as he swam out, grabbed something, and then struggled back to shore. When he got back we saw that what he was chasing after was a speargun. The current was running at around seven knots and this guy was out spearfishing. Crazy. We watched him fish for a while as well, he hung on to the rocks along shore until he took a shot at a fish when he would have to let go and would quickly get swept away. Once again though we didn’t see a single fish killed. After that we wandered back up the hill to the hostel for dinner, not fish, and an early night.

july 21 2006 : istanbul
Yesterday we started out visiting Aya Sofya, which is another big beautiful mosque, this one located just across the street from the Blue Mosque. It started life as a Christian Church about 1500 years ago, but ended up as a Mosque a few hundred years back. The dome in this one soars over you seemingly unsupported and is filled with paintings and mosaics.

Outside the Mosque we found a camera crew and some photographers clambering over each other to get a look at some scrawny little old guy on a scooter. Some passing lady even gave him her baby which he held up and kissed just like he were on the campaign trail or something. Then he reached down into his briefcase and pulled out a white dove. He held it while they all took pictures and then he threw the dove into the air where presumably he was supposed to fly. Instead he flopped to the ground and scrambled underneath a nearby taxi. A couple of guys who appeared to work for this guy raced after it and then it was like watching Laurel and Hardy as they tried to coax the dove out one side and it would scramble to another. They eventually caught the dove, returned it to the man on the scooter, and after all cameras were back in place he threw the dove up again. This time it swooped out in a big arc and just missed smashing into the windshield of a passing bus by inches. The whole scene was hilarious and made this guy look like a complete goof, but he kept the impassive grin on his face the whole time while everybody else laughed.

After Aya Sofya we walked up the road to the famous Grand Bazaar. A sprawling maze of carpets, t-shirts, leather jackets, cheap perfume, cheaper jewelry, and pretty much anything else you want if you know where to look. We were expecting sort of a grubby warren of crisscrossing roads but instead found ourselves in the middle of a suburban shopping mall. At least that’s how it felt to us. The sellers weren’t even hassling us. Occasionally they would ask you to have a look at their stuff, but they were nothing compared to the market sellers in Egypt. We tried to strike a deal with a guy for a big hanging glass lamp, but just like down in Kas he wouldn’t move beyond about a 10% discount from his starting price and we left empty handed. We did end up overpaying for some bowls but that was about the extent of our shopping spree at the Grand Bazaar.

The rest of the day we just sort of wandered around town. At one point we came across the Basilica Cistern. The cistern was built 1500 years ago to hold water that ran through aqueducts from 15 miles away. It was sort of a cool place underground with 336 columns supporting the roof. The story I found amusing about it was that about 500 years ago the cistern had basically been forgotten about but some of the local families in the area reported that they had some sort of magic in their homes. By lowering buckets through their floors they could obtain fresh water and even catch fish. They had no idea there was a giant cistern underneath them.

We walked back over to the Blue Mosque again just because we found the courtyard such a nice place to sit and people watch. At one point a group of Muslim ladies wrapped up in headscarves came and sat right next to Ali. They were all eating bread, these little circular rings of bread covered in seeds that are everywhere you look in Turkey, and the lady sitting next to Ali ripped hers in half and handed it to her. A nice gesture.

Last night we took the tram to a nearby suburb where we met up with a Bumfuzzle follower friend of ours. One of the best things about the website is having friends in far flung countries before we even arrive. We spent the night drinking beer, eating pizza, and learning a bit more about what life in Istanbul is like for the average Joe.

This morning we went to the Topkapi Palace. The number one tourist draw in Istanbul. This is where all of the sultans lived from when it was built in the 1400s until the 1800s. The big draw is the Harem which is basically where all of the sultans ladies resided. One of these lucky sultans had 112 kids. The problem with seeing the Harem is that you have to go in a guided tour group. We spent an hour standing in the scorching sun waiting for the ticket booth to open up and then spent about thirty minutes being herded through the palace with 60 other people at such a frantic pace that we had no idea what the heck we were seeing and the only thing we ever heard were the security guards bringing up the rear of the group yelling “Yes, Please!” in order to keep you moving. God do we hate tour groups. Below is a very old picture of me with a small sampling of my harem ladies.

After being rushed out the palace exit, we decided to check out of our hostel and move across town to the Beyoglu area. We took the tram over, quickly found a place for the night, and set out to see the city. This area is much more lively than the area we had been staying in, but it’s also much less historic. There is one long main pedestrian street with hundreds of shops and restaurants. One thing that struck us was how many book stores there were. This is the first country we’ve visited since Australia that appears to read books. Not much English to chose from but we did manage to score a guidebook for Spain that we’ve been searching for.

We walked and walked and eventually ended up down at the Galata Bridge. There were great views of the entire city from here and it was also fun to watch the fisherman at work. There are hundreds of guys fishing off of the bridge with huge fishing poles. The poles look big enough to reel in a giant Marlin, but the only thing we ever saw anybody catch was about the size of my thumb. I asked one guy if he was having any luck but he gave me the thumbs down, apparently the big ones weren’t biting today.

july 22 2006 : marmaris, turkey
Back at the boat this morning recovering from the previous days bus ride. We left Istanbul yesterday morning at 7:30 a.m. and arrived back at the boat last night at 11 p.m. That’s quite the day. Along the way we decided no more bus rides of over 8 hours for us. At least until there is no other choice. Not a whole lot to report about the trip. The scenery wasn’t all that impressive until about the last two hours when you start to climb up through the mountains and then drop back down to the sea. Of course, it was dark by that time so we didn’t get to see it, but did enjoy it on the way there.

We did get to see one of those horrendous crashes that you picture along a Turkish highway. This one included a couple of semi trucks, a fuel tanker truck which had exploded and blown out windows on a bunch of cars, and it appeared that even one of the roadside fruit stands had been crushed by one of the rollovers. Along the drive we also stopped at countless bus stations where we probably spent as much money using the toilets as we did on food. Food mainly consisted of doner kebap which are little pita sandwiches made with that big hunk of meat you see on the big revolving skewers everywhere.

But our favorite part of the days trip was the family of four squeezed into the two seats behind us. For fifteen hours the two eight-year-old children were forced to stand in the miniscule space between their parents legs and our seats. That of course meant they had to hang onto our seats for support the entire way while smooshing their heads between the cracks in the seats to get a view of what was happening in the outside world. Good fun.

It was a fast trip to Istanbul which included about 30 hours of travel time, but it was worth it. The city was far different than what we expected. We went in thinking it would be a lot more similar to Bangkok in that it would be super lively and have a frenetic pace. But instead found it very laid back, almost quiet. The people were friendly, yet because of the massive amounts of tourists they were completely immune to us and didn’t show much interest. Though whenever we did make an effort to talk to a local they always seemed pleased. The history and the sights were beautiful and numerous. I always wonder what it would be like if we had that sort of history in the States; to visit Chicago and wander through a bunch of 1500 year old churches would be a whole different experience. Maybe in 1300 years or so we can do that.

july 27 2006 : marmaris
The day after we got back from Istanbul I finally had a chance to have a look at the windlass and make sure it actually was working properly again. It wasn’t. It sounded like gears were grinding and it could hardly lift the anchor. I had a feeling the problem probably laid in the gearbox and not the motor, but the gearbox had two stripped bolts on it and I could not get the thing off with any tools I had on the boat. Therefore we had crossed our fingers and hoped the motor fix would work. Now with the motor ruled out it was time to crack open the gearbox.

A friend came over and drilled out the two stripped bolts for me and we went to work trying to get the rest of the thing apart. The first thing to drop was the gearbox where we quickly found the answer to our problem. Instead of a bath of oil it was a bath of mud and rocks. Two things that generally do not aid in the performance of a windlass. We kept trying to pull things apart and found that the oil seals were completely mangled and the rest of the windlass had so much interior corrosion that the parts were stuck together. Using a huge gear puller we were able to crack the shaft free from the gear but there were two parts that absolutely would not come apart and without them apart it would be impossible to replace the top oil seal.

On day two of the project we made some phone calls to Maxwell dealers. The Turkish dealer in Istanbul was totally useless and informed us they had neither spare parts or the actual unit but could get them in two months. I then tried New Zealand, where Maxwell is manufactured, but missed them by an hour and would have to wait another day to call them, and finally wanting to speak English with somebody about the problem I called a dealer in the UK. Essentially what we found out was that getting the parts we needed into Turkey was going to be ridiculously expensive and time consuming. We decided to go into town and check out the windlass selection there. There were a ton of marine stores there but they only carried two brands of windlass and none of them suited our needs. So back at the boat we finally made the decision that the windlass would have to be put back together as is. Any further attempts to get the two pieces apart would only destroy the top of the gearbox and any chance we had at getting this thing working again.

On day three we began the process of putting it all back together. With clean lubed up parts it went fairly smoothly, though at one point I did forget to lube the shaft and a brass spacer which quickly bonded themselves together and required a complete extraction and a trip to the machine shop to break apart again. Without a top oil seal there is nothing stopping seawater from making its way back down into the gearbox again, so this time instead of filling the gearbox with oil we packed it with grease with the hope that that will force the water to find somewhere else to go. Not exactly a long term solution but it should do the trick for now.

One funny thing about tearing this thing apart is that we found out it has a clutch. Basically what that means is that now we can release the chain and the windlass will spin freely while the anchor and chain race to the bottom of the ocean. Previously we always had to use the automatic down button which took quite a while to drop a couple of hundred feet of chain. So we just shortened the time that takes from two minutes to 10 seconds.

The fourth day of the project we finally completed it. I called Ali out to view this momentous occasion just as I went to screw the top cap onto the cylinder. It wouldn’t go on. Ali stood by patiently waiting for me to finish, but it wouldn’t go on. We had ruined the threads when we were pounding the crap out of it. A few more hours of messing around and we had the cap on and pressed the button. Success. The windlass, with all of its mangled broken parts is now working better than ever. Not sure for how long, but hopefully at least until we reach a country that won’t mind us importing a few goods into it.

During all of this we were also waiting for our mechanic to come by and do our welding. The day we had gotten back from Istanbul he came by the boat to collect his money for the work he had done for us and without us even mentioning it he said that he’d be by first thing Monday morning to do the welding for us. Monday came and went of course. Tuesday I went in to see him and he said that he was very busy working on the marina owners boat but maybe he’d be by in the afternoon. Well, Tuesday came and went. Then Wednesday. And by Thursday whenever we saw him around the yard he would no longer make eye contact with us. I think as some sort of an experiment we’ll now leave the welding until Greece and try it there, then maybe Italy. Who knows we may be in Florida again before we finish this little project up.

The good thing about the windlass delay was that we got to hang out with some good friends of ours who also happened to be here. Two boats with friends our own age are pretty hard to come by out here so we were a little sad that this would be our last time meeting up together on our boats. One was heading home, leaving the boat for sale in Marmaris, and the other will spend another season in the Med. So it looks like it’s just us and the old salts from here on out.

july 28 2006 : mediterranean coast, turkey
Ali and I went to the marina bar/restaurant for dinner again last night. They make you pay for your beers as you go and then force you to sit outside if you want to eat. But that’s not the point. When we were done eating we went back inside to pay our dinner bill. The total was 12 lira, and we handed her a 20. She asked us if we had two singles and I said no, I had just given her 9 singles in the last half hour for our drinks and I was all tapped out. She sighed heavily and then gave us our 8 lira change. It was funny because of how often this happens in Turkey.

For some reason the entire country has an obsession with exact change. They hoard their small bills as if they are worth 10 times the face value. This is pretty common practice in the Middle East but here they take it to a whole new level. At the grocery store they will try to look inside your wallet. Ali actually has to hide coins in her pocket and pretend like she is digging around in the coin purse and not finding anything. One day our bill was 48.85, we gave the girl a 50, and she asked us if we had any change. This is at a busy grocery store in the middle of the day. Another time we needed to keep our 4 lira to pay for our bus. When the grocery store clerk saw that we could pay our bill exactly she demanded it from us. It would have left us with nothing but a 50 to pay the bus with and we told her no. For a minute we didn’t think she was going to sell us our food but eventually she conceded and threw our change across the counter at us.

So after nearly three weeks we finally broke free of the marina and sailed west. Well, motored actually. We’d done a ton of work on the boat while we were there and were feeling like it was in pretty good condition again. At one point I looked down at our tri-data display and was momentarily puzzled by what I saw. The top number is the depth, the middle number is our speed, and the bottom number is the water temp. When I glanced down I saw our numbers but for a second couldn’t figure out what the middle number was. Ever since New Zealand our speed has read 0.0 knots. The little wheelie spinner on the bottom of the boat has been clogged up with barnacles but it never much mattered since the GPS has our speed. During the haulout however we actually got the wheel cleaned off and spinning again. So when I looked down and saw a number there that wasn’t 0.0 it threw me off.

Of course I wasn’t too surprised minutes later when Ali leaned over the starboard rail and mentioned to me that the exhaust wasn’t spitting out much water, meaning the impeller was probably shot. And I wasn’t too surprised either when I looked in the port engine compartment and saw that the rudder was still leaking a little water. The boat is a never ending source of frustration. Nothing ever really gets fixed and if it does it is only for a very short period of time.

We cruised on down the coast about 25 miles and had some of the most uncomfortable sea conditions we’ve had anywhere. There wasn’t much wind but for some reason the seas were just a jumbled mess of waves popping up from every direction. We spent the entire morning seesawing and then slamming down in between waves. Not a very nice intro back into sailing after our time off, but it did feel good in the afternoon to pull into a nice big bay with crystal clear water and only a dozen or so other boats around. Yes, only a dozen. I replaced the impeller and then we spent the rest of the afternoon just relaxing on the boat and climbing the rocky hill behind us.

july 30 2006 : bodrum, turkey
The next day we were up at six a.m. and on our way again. We had a nice easy motor in calm seas all morning and came to our anchorage around noon. However we found that the bay was extremely small and there was virtually nowhere to tie a line to shore. Of course some local entrepreneur had built a little dock and was waving us in, but we decided instead to continue on about two more hours to Knidos, which turned out to be a good choice.

This small bay had ancient ruins covering the hills around it and had been declared off limits to development, except for one little restaurant at the head of the bay. When we got there we found that there were about a dozen boats anchored right in the middle of the bay which was strange since we have hardly seen any boats in Turkey simply anchor out, and especially in a bay as tiny as this one. The boats were all over each other. We chose a spot off to the side where we could drop the anchor and tie off to shore. We spent the rest of the afternoon watching the bay fill up to overflowing and trying to make sure our boat was secure enough not to hit anybody else tied off next to us.

This morning we were again on our way at six a.m. When we are tied off to shore I have to jump in and untie us before we can pull forward and raise the anchor. The water temperature this morning was 77 degrees, a brisk way to wake up. We had another uneventful motor and pulled up to Bodrum around 11:00. Bodrum has one of the best preserved castles anywhere and it is on a little peninsula right out in the middle of the bay. We anchored out near the castle, dropped the dinghy in the water and went into town. First stop was to the marina to pick up a package we had had mailed to us a month earlier. Then it was out to see a bit of the town. Bodrum is another one of these super tourist resort towns similar to Marmaris, but somehow it seems much more laid back. We found a nice little restaurant for dinner and sat outside in the sweltering heat downing cold Efes before heading back to the boat for the night.

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