Marmaris February

3 February 2011 (Thursday)

Weather for the week: We've had sunny nice weather from Sunday until today Thursday. Tonight another storm is rolling in, the cloud over is already complete. We are expecting winds of 45 knots tonight. The sunny weather is forecasted to be back on Saturday. We've had frost a few mornings that quickly gets burned away as soon as the sun comes up over the mountains. Temperatures during the day have been around 16-19C.

Dan didn't place in last Wednesday's bowling but Peber, from England and Dan's practicing partner, came in 3rd. (Bowling is not a sport says Dan, just nerdy entertainment spiced with good and bad luck of which he seems to receive an inordinate amount of the latter). Peber got his name announced on The Net broadcast on Thursday:)

Sunday was a beautiful day, sunny and warm. Irina and I decided to go on a hike to a new place we have heard of. It's a mountainous walk up to the summit of Yildiz Adasi which is a peninsula that acts as a buffer from the weather on the south side of Marmaris Bay. It's 8 km away (red track) but there's a local bus that goes every hour. We invited the usual walking group of 7or 8 girls but the whole thing mushroomed (maybe it was the joy of sun after 2½ days of rain and being cooped up)and when we came to the meeting spot at 11.00 there were 22 people standing waiting for the bus that only takes 15 people. It all became very confusing and chaotic with the bus being half an hour late, taxis showing up offeringrides. One of the experienced walkers (our unofficial guide), Tony from Scotland, had a car so he took 5 people with him, 6 of us took a taxi and the rest got the bus that came shortly after. Finally by 12.00 we were on our way (blue track). First we had a road which though muddy was perfectly fine for walking on. This road took us to

some stone steps that led us up into the woods which consisted of Pine trees and Bay leaf trees. We women filled our pockets with leaves to take home for cooking. After a couple of Km we came upon an enormous cave. There were the ruins of an ancient temple in there as well as lots of stalagtites and stalagmites. It was amazing. Stone steps and guard rails had been put down to make it easier to climb down into the cave and we all marvelled at the wonder of it. Once back down on the trail again, we continued gently upwards for another half hour until we came to a lovely grassy clearing. We were perhaps 250 meters above sea level now and the view was beautiful. We could see the open sea to the south with Fethiye Gulf on our left and Rhodes over to our right. Most of the walkers thought this was the turning around point and started unpacking their picnics but Tony who is an experienced mountaineer and very familiar with the area soon disabused them of that notion. We still had another hour or so up to the "summit" as he called it. So everyone packed up their lunches and fell in line. The road had ended now and was replaced by a grassy rock-strewn path that inclined a bit more steeply than before. Dan and I were certain that the dug-up areas that we were seeing were caused by wild boar, but others said it was just the leavings of rain run-off. Turkey has a large population of wild boar in this area so it wouldn't be impossible. Eventually there was so much of the dug up ground that we all agreed it was from the animals. The forest became thicker with underbrush ofthorns and the rocks got bigger causing our path to narrow down to just a few decimeters in width. Our group was getting spread out now. Among the front runners was a 72 year old, Manfred from Germany, who moved as surely as a Bergkette. Tony and his Turkish girlfriend, Fugen, were in the front as well. Towards the back of the group we had another trooper, Carol from Chicago, who has had problems with her legs and is just gettingto the point where she can walk again. She was very smart and brought along walking sticks that helped her keep her balance on the difficult parts. Dan and I got a little worried

when we got to the last 50 meters from the top and it became nearly hand-over-hand climbing up the rocks. But everyone made it and agreed that the effort was worth it. We were now 400 meters above sea level, it was a gorgeously clear day, the sky had never been bluer and the sea was spread out before us with islands and the mountainous Turkish coast extending into the horizon. We unpacked our backpacks and had lunch while sitting on rubble from an ancient fortress and enjoying the view. After a well deserved rest, we packed up our stuff and headed down. Tony took us on a different path than the one we came up on. He called it "more exciting" and it certainly was . We literally climbed down a very steep slope that took us over creeks, fallen trees and boulders. It took us well over an hour to get back to a road that would take

us back to the bus stop. Although it was very challenging, I think everyo ne was quite proud of his/her achievement in getting down in one piece with no broken bones or twisted tendons!

We got back to Marmaris just as the sun was disappearing behind the mountains, all very tired but very happy. On Monday, I went on an arranged excursion to Knidos, Datca and an olive oil factory. We had a bus with driver and guide for the day and there were 8 of us. Knidos is another ancient city that was built on the sea and enjoyed a booming trade with the rest of the ancient world as it was more or l ess on the trade route of the Med. Like Epheses, war, earthquakes and a fluctuating trade route were its downfall. Datca is a city similar to Marmaris. We had lunch there and walked around the old town with its sandstone houses and streets. The Olive oil factory was fascinating.

On Wednesday I went along with the boys to bowl. It was great fun and there were quite alot of people playing.Most come from Yacht Marine, (the other marina here which is situated in the bay where the red and blue lines on the map/chart meet), but this time we were a whopping 7 people from Netsel Marina. Unfortunately, I got put in with the hard-core bowling women from Yacht Marine. I think they wanted to look good. But they did sympathize with me everytime my ball wound up in the gutter. Dan, based on past performance, got relegated to the newcomers but he was chuffed at the opportunity to play with a group of pretty girls rather than the old salts. Overall, I think bowling is overrated but it was fun to meet the people Dan has talked about and put faces to names.

On the boat front, Dan finished my spice rack!! It's a beauty and has made my cooking so much easier. He had the rodkick shortened as the boatyard back in Sweden had put on one that was over-dimensioned and did not give us the full flexibility we need. He also insulated our front hatch as it has been fogging up with dripping condensation that falls on us when we sleep. So now we sleep undisturbed by "chinese water torture". And lastly, he has set up new navigation system and fixed the AIS so that it is working perfectly now.

That's our report for this week.

9 February 2011

Weather: Sunny and beautiful every single day since Sunday; before that, rain from Thursday through Saturday. Temperatures this week have been around 24C during the day, 14C at night. Light winds from the North and West

We have a very exciting visitor in our midst! The aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise, arrived and dropped anchor outside our marina yesterday morning. They are on a courtesy call to Turkey and are staying for 3 days. All we sailors at Netsel Marina were invited to tour the ship Wednesday(today) and Thursday. Dan and I signed up immediately for Wednesday afternoon, even though we would miss our bowling tournament, we thought it was worth it:)

Yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon around 17.30 our Netsel Marina contact person came running to all our boats, about 20 of us, with written invitations from Rear Admiral Terry B. Kraft and Captain Dee Mewbourne to attend cocktails on the ship at 19.00. The launch to the air craft carrier would pick us up at 18.30. The dress code was Navy Dress Blues or Equivalent Civilian Suit. Of course this knocked out almost every man as hardly any of them carry suits on board. But we ladies (always prepared for any occaasion) all had a dress that we could pull out of deep storage:) Actually, the men made a gallant effort and somehow found or borrowed some kind of jacket (one had a leather jacket) others borrowed their wives' pashmina scarf and made it look like an ascot, while still others found a jacket but had no trousers to match, but they made do. I have to say Dan looked the nicest of all in gray slacks and blue jacket. He even had a tie. We didn't get a whole lot of lead time to prepare for our event, so the marina suddenly went from sleepy relaxed to all aflutter as ladies skipped off to shops to buy nylons, to showers to wash hair and within 45 minutes about 12 couples emerged from their boats in high heels, jackets and ties and a cloud of perfume:) We went through the checkpoint at the customs office, showed our invitations and our passports and then were ushered on to a launch to go out to the ship, along with Turkish dignitaries and Turkish officers and their wives.

It was dark by now, but the ship was all lit up including red blinking lights on the bouys for the net that is placed around the ship to protect it from amphibious assault and terrorists. In true Turkish fashion, a man stood on the bow of the launch directing the pilot with hand signals to the seemingly invisible opening in the net to reach the ship. No GPS plotter here! Dan and I stood at the rail on the upper deck of the launch and watched as we approached this incredibly huge giant of a ship.

It was truly a grand sight. We debarked onto a barge tied up to the stern of the ship and climbed about 50 steep steps up to the lower deck of the ship. We walked down the middle of the holding area for the planes on a red carpet lined by Sailors in dress uniform standing at attention. The ceiling was adorned with flags and we were surprised to see that "den skånska flaggan" was predominant. After about 100 meters we came to the area laid out for the cocktail party and we were welcomed by several officers who took our coats and showed us to the drinks. We were all in total awe of the ship and the smartness of the officers, our hosts. Everyone fanned out and started talking to officers and asking questions about the ship. They were very friendly and seemed very proud to show us around. A speech was held by the Captain, translated into Turkish by a woman interpreter, giving a short history of the ship, then there was an honor guard that was lowered down on the airplane lift on the outside of the ship. Behind them a jet fighter stood parked on the lift. The honor guard held both American and Turkish flags. A choir sang the Turkish National Anthem and then the American Anthem and then the honor guard did a short schpeel and then was lifted along with the fighter jet up and away from sight. Next, the American Ambassador to Turkey gave a short speech and then the Rear Admiral spoke of the importance of the close relationship between Turkey and the US.

After the speeches, we were allowed to get on the lift and go up to the flight deck and see all the jets. Dan and I struck up conversation with an officer who is in charge of logistics on the ship. He explained how the jets take off and land on the ship, how they store fuel and supplies, where they replenish and how all the waste systems work. The Enterprise is a nuclear powered ship and is actually the largest aircraft carrier in the US Navy. It was built in 1959 and had it's first assignment in 1962. Then he invited us in to see the control tower and there was a very friendly officer in there who explained his job of keeping the flight deck clear for landings and take-offs and shuffling of jets between flight deck and lower deck. He has a huge glass table with the deck of the aircraft carrier etched into the glass and miniature jets of various colors depicting the type of aircraft they are. At about this time, Dan disappeared somewhere and our guide arranged for us to go down to the Captain's quarters and see the Enterprise room. It was a room covered in pictures and regalia of all the Enterprises through American Naval history and their assignments. This USS Enterprise is the 6th in the line of Enterprises through American naval history and there will be another one when this one retires in 2013.

We went back upstairs to the flight deck and there I re-joined Dan who was looking all over for me and had officers joking with him about my disappearance. We stood on the lift which is a 20 meter by 20 flat surface on the outside of the ship. It moves very fast so that your feet almost lift from the surface as you go down. We all hooted with pleasure and when we got down, Dan said, let's do it again, so the officer in charge of the remote control took us up again and then down again. One of the officers next to us laughed and said "This is so fun for us, we never get to go on this lift or the flight deck and now we get to do both with a beer in our hand!" So I guess we made their evening as they made ours:) We had a short chat with the Rear Admiral as we were preparing to leave. We also chatted with the US Military Attaché who told us that it costs about 1MUSD for Enterprise to pay a courtesy call of 3 days in a foreign country. There is alot

of detail and planning to make things go as smoothly as possible. We figure they have to do a lot of greasing of the wheels so that locals don't get bent out of shape when their town gets inundated with sailors for 3 days. Of course, it's also great for commerce. Yesterday I could see the difference at the bazaar as every single shop and all the restuarants and cafés were open when normally only half are open. At the launch point between land and ship, they had set up a bunch of tents that handle various purposes; paycheck cashing, food and drink while the sailors wait for their launch, medical tents, holding cells for naughty sailors, and a place where they could hand in their laundry to get cleaned. So, while the sailors might drink alot and get feisty, they have cash to buy stuff from the locals and they frequent all the bars and restaurants which is great.

At 22.00 we were shuttled back to the port of Marmaris and all went to the marina bar which was full of sailors on shorepermission.

Today, Wednesday, we had another big day. It was my first time broadcasting on the daily Net. Caroll, the woman that usually hosts it on Wednesdays has left for the states for a few weeks so I volunteered to take over her job. It lasts about 10-15 minutes depending how many announcements people have. We start at 09.00 and go through a list of topics. I give a short weather forecast which I have checked on internet with WindGuru and our Grib files, then announce the topics and people who have something to say ask for permission to speak and I affirm or tell them to wait their turn. I basically steer it so that the information is clear and understandable and prevent a lot of people talking at the same time. It went very well, but lasted quite a while because there was so much going on. I was sort of nervous but once we got going I was all right. Our "stitch and bitch" got cancelled today because our hostess has the flu, and it was a good thing because Dan and I were scheduled to go back to the ship for a more in-depth tour of the Enterprise. We showed up at the Customs gate at the appointed time and they did try really hard to check everyone's passports but there were too few of them and too many of us. In the end after making us stand out in the sun for 20 minutes, they just shooed us all to the waiting launches without checking our IDs. Kind of amazing when you consider that we are going onto a US nuclear powered ship..... But it all worked out.

Here are some interesting comparisons between the USS Enterprise and Roam:

USS Enterprise vs Roam

Length: 432m Length: 9m

Speed: +30 knots Speed: 5.5 knots

Crew : +3000 Crew : 2

Rudders: 4 Rudders: 1

Props: 4 Props: 1

Length of electrical cables: 625 miles Roam has 200 meters of cables

Anchor: 30 000 Kg Anchor: 15 Kg

Anchor chain: 200 m Anchor chain: 35 m

Jets on board: 65 Jets: 0

Anyway, had a super time and were very well taken care of by the sailors and officers aboard Enterprise.

Other than that we have had a quiet week; 3 days of rain from Thursday through Saturday, the Sunday market, yoga and other usual stuff.

17 February 2011

Weather: Sunny and clear. Temperatures for the week have ranged from +22C down to 17C in the middle of the day. We had rain on Tuesday night and something ugly is on it's way from the West, forecast to hit us on Friday night and last thru to Sunday morning.

USS Enterprise was here in Marmaris until Friday. During that time sailors streamed past the marina in a steady flow to and from the ship. All the shops opened in the hopes of selling someone something. Our favorite carpet man, Ramon, came all the way from Istanbul for the 4 days to sell his carptes. He said he made a good profit and sold alot of the really good silk/wool carpets. He likes officers best because they are always in a hurry so they don't haggle, they just pay whatever Ramon demands. He said they aren't difficult like me... Judging by the bags all the sailors were carrying when they walked back to the ship, the village did some good business. It was also interesting to observe the restaurants and to note that the majority of the sailors chose a taste of home (McDonalds and Burger King) over a taste of the Orient.

Dan and I were invited to Tom and Bev on Half Moon for dinner on Friday night. Tom and Bev are from Wisconsin and have been sailing for about 20 years. Their boat is a Valiant 37. Tom is a rainmaker. He works on and off as a consultant in desert-ish countries causing rain to fall. Also there was Giovanni and Roberta from Canada. They have been sailing the Med for 4 years. We had a lovely evening together, and didn't get back to the boat until 01.00.

On Sunday we girls celebrated the birthday of Gwen, who is our resident travel agent and events arranger. We were 12 women from the US, England, Holland, Canada and Israel. The restaurant chosen required a ride on the local bus (Dolmuz) to the end of the hotel road on the waterfront. They had a huge selection of Mézes. First cold Méze such as hummus, grilled whole green peppers, onions and tomatoes, tzatziki, eggplant, and a type of taboulah. Next came the warm Méze: Phylo rolls stuffed with spinach and cheese, zucchini fritters, and grilled lamb and chicken pieces from a stick. All was served with

masses of fresh baked flat bread still hot from the oven, and wine. We spent the better part of the afternoon there chatting gaily and enjoying the food.

While I was at the lunch, Dan was working on the boat and enjoying the sunshine when a little kitten came limping onto the boat. Dan gave it some milk and then it crawled into a little shelf under our bunk and went to sleep. I was so surprised when I came back to the boat and he showed me the little sleeping bundle, all gold striped, but very dirty. I had spotted this kitten along the wharf some weeks ago. It was so malnourished and had a bad sore on its stomach. The guards told me not to bother with it, it had cancer on the stomach and would soon die. I felt so sorry for it that I couldn't resist putting some neosporin on the sore. After a few applications; I kept the tube in my pocket and every time I saw him I gave him some, I noticed that it was healing. It was just an infected sore. Anyway, We gave it some food and let it sleep up in the cockpit. We don't want it to get too cozy. On Monday morning the first thing I did was to feed him and then give him a bath. Or try anyway. He freaked out as soon as his tail came into contact with the water and all 4 paws shot out to halt its journey down to the warm soapy water in the sink. I ended up splashing water onto it and rubbing it in as it clutched frantically to me, all claws out and grabbing. I had to give it a rest when the kitten climbed up onto my shoulder and locked its claws into my neck. Anyway, its feet and stomach are clean... After a visit to the local Veterinarian and some lira poorer, I brought him back to the boat de-wormed, full of antibiotics and "fixed". In a week he will be ready to go back to marina life all healthy and strong. Dan has named him Valentino. Everyone on our dock has taken an interest in him and come by the boat to see how Valentino is doing.

Due to the low pressure coming this week, we decided to delay lifting Roam out of the water until next Tuesday. This week's boat jobs have been mostly interior jobs. Dan made a shock cord for my spice rack, had some of our berth cushions re-covered on the back side which had worn thin over time, put down a plastic bubbly-airy mat under the cushions in our V-berth and drilled more holes in the boards that the mattresses rest on to allow more air to get down there. He also took measurements for a hatch cover which he then had made in town. Fits perfectly. He bowled a best ever score of 123 in one set yesterday and came in 4th overall. So he's moving up!

I have started Turkish lessons with the other live-aboards. Last night was our second lesson where we learned numbers and fruits and vegetables for our trip to the market today, Thursday. I have to say we are not very bright students. Most of us forgot all that we had learned at last week's lesson so with a rolling of eyes, the instructor did a quick review of last week's lesson before moving on to the new stuff.

I'm still doing Net Controller on Wednesday mornings which I quite like doing now. Yoga class continues, we are still doing it ourselves with a cheat-sheet that our instructor gave us before she took off to Canada. Roberta from Quickbeam leads the first segment, Tom from Half-Moon leads the second segment, I lead the stretching segment, and Debbie from Pappa-Joe leads the relaxation at the end. We all find it a great way to start a day.

Today's market visit was a trip to the Mugla (pronounced Moola) market, which is an hour away. I went with a couple of the girls right after Yoga class. Mugla has a huge Thursday market which we went to for our week's fresh produce. We noticed that Mugla has alot more women in head scarves than Marmaris and no tourists. But it was a fun outing and we had a lovely lunch at a Turkish restaurant; Turkish Méze and Pitas.

We have been told by the Netsel Management to keep our VHF radios on tomorrow in case of emergencies during the storm that's coming. Emergencies, meaning boats coming loose or locking shrouds in the gusts. The wind is going to be around 35-45 knots.

20 February 2011

Weather: Strong gale, beaufort 7-9 during 8 hours, 9-10 for about an hour during the apex. Temperature: 12C at night, 17C during the day

Just a note on the storm: it turned out to be bigger than the forescast winds of Beaufort 5--7. the storm was predicted to hit sometime during the night between Fri and Sat. We had been followiing the weather on our ugrib files and found that they have been the most accurate forecasts on wind and rain. On Friday morning, the workmen from the marina came out in dinghies and secured lines from our bows (or stern in our case) to the boats on the next pontoon, mainly to keep the boats steady. Several workmen from the marina were hired to stand watch during the night and I can assure you, they earned their overtime. The

high winds started around 22.00 on Friday night. Dan and I took a walk along the waterfront to see how the gulet boats and day-trippers were managing. Normally storm winds come from the southeast and southwest and protect Marmaris town quay but this storm was without precedent. We, at Netsel, are mainly protected from any winds. We have the mountians of the mainland to the E, ENE, ESE. The bay is pretty big though, and stretches to the West and then backed up by the peninsula to the south. But the peninsula is about 3 km away. As this wind was from the SW, the waves built up very quickly from the south

and knocked into the town quay where the gulets were and it wasn't pretty. Big waves smashing against the quay, re-bounded off the walls and set off in the opposite direction, crashing into the new on-coming waves. The boats moored on the town quay were bouncing and bobbing all over the place. Each boat had a crew on board just in case and they had pulled the boats out farther from the quay to protect the sterns. No music was playing in the nightclubs and it seemed that everyone was in suspense waiting to see what would happen this night. All the homeless dogs disappeared but I found Lady, the Doberman, shivering in the bushes against one of the buildings in the harbour next day. I put an old rug around and gave her some food.

20 February

We woke up around 13.30 from the violent sound of the wind and Roam pitching to and fro, and went out to have a look. Dan was most interested in the mooring lines, I was most concerned with Valentino as he was sleeping in the cockpit and I thought that he might be scared. But when I looked out, he was happily munching on the cat food that I had put out for the night, so my worries were completely unfounded. We went out into the wind ( full moon was totally visible with big clouds scudding by) to see how the other boats were managing and got an eye-full of horrifying images; the boats on the pontoons were swaying

to and fro at a horrifying pace. Consider that each pontoon has about 100 boats moored to it. Each boat is roughly 40-52 feet in length (except for Roam weighing in at 29 feet). Winds of 40-60 knots are reining down on us and the boats are reacting accordingly. When all 100 of these boats are yanking and pulling on their mooring lines, at some point one feels that something has to give. We stood on our pontoon looking down towards the end and saw how the pontoon sections were lifting and twisting with the force of the water and the boats; even in this protected water! On the pier, one of the big silver garbage bins started rollling with the wind and crashed into the water between the pontoons. Dan helped the workers grab hold of it and haul it up on land before they removed all the garbage bins and placed them behing buildings to keep them from rolling all over the marina. On one boat, the main sail broke loose and had to be tied down, a couple boats had mooring lines that were too long and had to be adjusted to keep them from crashing into the boats on either side, and of course we have the cleat that blew out of its fastening and the boat involved had to be tied down again. Sometimesthe wind gusted to a hideous degree, all boats leaned to one side and the wind! the noise through the riggings was deafening. I have never heard such a horrific noise! Rain, thunder and lightning came on the back of the gale and we got a good deal of flooding rivers and canals. The last thing we did before going back to bed was to pack a grab-bag just in case the pontoon collapsed under the pressure. Inside the grab bag we packed: passports, credit cards, camera, computer and any cash we had laying about. We finally fell asleep and woke to a quiet morning with gently winds

blowing from the SE and S. Luckily our grab-bag was not needed this time.

During the night, the electricity was knocked out so we were totally without electricity from 00.30 Saturday night until 13.00 on Sunday afternoon. Marmaris, like many Mediterranean towns, has all electircal lines above ground. So the odd tree almost certrainly is the culprit of the elctrical outages. Given the chilly temperatures, there were many sailors complaining. We are lucky on Roam as she is so small that it's enough to light our kerosene lamp and the stove for tea to completely warm up the boat. So we did not suffer, but many others did and made no bones about letting management know about it. However,

once the sun starts to shine, everyone moves on and the main concern today was which road to take to the Sunday market in to avoid the rain-filled potholes:)

24 February 2011

Weather: Overcast, thunder storms, heavy rain. Temperatures between 13-17C

We only got a brief respite after the big storm of last Friday night. On Monday night the rains came in and they were more like monsoon rains than showers. Heavy with alot of thunder and lightning. The electricity went out several times this week and in Marmaris it has been more off than on. Netsel marina, however, has a generator so we have made out all right so far.

On Tuesday we lifted Roam out of the water. The day started off with very heavy showers and we debated whether to postpone again. In the end, we decided to go ahead and get on with it and as if in approval of our decision, the rain miraculously stopped at just about the time we were starting the engine and getting ready to move over to the lift. As we motored over the sun came out and the rest of the day was brilliantly sunny and warm. Roam was lifted out by 4 Turkish marinaros who also travel lifted it over to a lot where they set it down on wood stocks and quickly built a cradle around her. She is standing nice and sturdy and we can continue to live aboard, although I can't cook or wash dishes....darn....

We borrowed a high-pressure water hose from Moshe and Debbie on Poppa Joe and set right to work cleaning all the barnacles and guck off her bottom. It all came off very easily (even the tube worms) and there is still quite a bit of anti-fouling left so we will probably just do one coat. On Wednesday morning it was my turn to host the morning .Net. I quite enjoy doing it now. The deaths of the 4 American sailors off Somalia was brought up under security issues and some time was devoted to sharing details of what had happened. We are pretty sure that it was the USS Enterprise that was involved in trying to rescue the Americans along with other US Navy ships. Quite frightening and feels so much more real when we have met so many of the crew on the USS Enterprise. The rest of the Net broadcast went off without a hitch. Then, while I was with the all the girls knitting, Dan had some workers came over to Roam to look at the rudder. Dan had a long discussion with one of them who insisted that all boats have the same rudder system and that this would be very easy. He had to change his tune though when Dan showed him the Hallberg-Rassy blue prints of the rudder and he realised that his idea would not work at all. Not at all good for our confidence in our choice of worker, but his father seemed much more knowledgeable but does not speak any English so we will let them continue this afternoon. The Marina has a business model that boat owners find very annoying. The marina argues that they offer an economic zone and therefore are entitled to some of the revenue generated in it. To this end they are charging an entrance fee of 28 EUR for any outside help that comes in. There are some workshops in the Marina that have an annual agreement with the marina so they are cheaper for us to use for small jobs but we are limited to what they can offer. The rudder "expert" "is a case in point.

Dan and I were invited over to Poppa Joe's for dinner as we cannot cook. Debbie made a super dinner and we spent a very enjoyable evening talking over red wine. As we were leaving around 23.00, we noticed alot of commotion around the ferry docks. There were ambulances, police and big busses standing ready. We found out from the security guard that it was the first 2 ferries arriving from Libya evacuating Turks who work there. It's all over the news today and apparently there will be more ferries coming in. Turkey has about 25,000 Turks working and living in Libya and they have the biggest evacuation process in place right now. All the hotels on the waterfront were full for the night to harbour the evacuees before shipping them off by air and bus to their homes. The ferries were supposed to go back to Libya today, Thursday, for more passengers but the weather is really bad over there right now so they have to wait till Friday.

This morning we went out and got all the stuff for cleaning drying and waxing the boat. It was raining most of the morning but looks to have cleared up a bit now in the afternoon. Dan took our new main sail over to a sailmaker to have an extra reef put in. After much negotiating they agreed to do it for 120 €. The wonderful thing about having work done here is that it is done so quickly. Most things are finished within a few hours and max one day around here.

Tonight we have been invited to Merit for dinner with Colin and Sue from England. We have had a steady flow of visitors coming over to check on our progress and discuss rudders and anti-fouling paint. It is really a wonderful liveaboard community we have here. All the girls have given me an open invitation to come by for coffee or tea whenever I feel like getting away from the grit and grime:)

Our feline guest, Valentino, is pretty much recovered from his injuries and has put on some weight and looks ready for the independent marina life again. I took him over to the docks this morning and he met up with another cat that looks just like him and off they went. Will see if he comes back for bedtime tonight.

David, the American on Sea Symphany, has written a poem about Valentino and me that he read for everyone at the bar the other night that goes like this:

Cat Caper

Monday Margaret murmured,

"roaming Valentino returned"

Feeling fairly faint

food, fairly far away

trapping trembling traveller

truly, trust me, pray

Tuesday truclent traveller

transported thru the town

very vicious vet

nipped the nubbins down

Valentino recovering

in space below the bow

nuts now nugatory

don't need 'em anyhow

Cozy corner calling

napping nicely now

Margaret missed me

very much and how

Food is fairly frequent

sex a silly thing

watchful waiting warrented

for her my food to bring

I think I'll stay

We are hoping to have the rudder all fixed by the end of the day tomorrow and then on Saturday put on the anti-fouling paint and maybe if we're lucky even get Roam back in the water and over to our berth again. If that doesn't work, we have to wait until Monday morning.

The good weather is forecast to be back on Monday with steady improvements tomorrow and Saturday.