Our last week in Marmaris, Turkey! May 5 - 12, 2023

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It was getting closer to the time when our contract in the marina was coming to an end and we were crossing off many things on “our to do list” and feeling pretty good about it. Bob even felt that it was going well enough that he decided to add a couple of new things to the list. Last year when we were on the boat, we knew the fan over the bed was starting to go and was getting quite noisy. Bob figured he’d take the time to see if he could fix it. He worked on it for a while, but then realized it wasn’t going to get any better. We had looked for a replacement when in the US and didn’t find one the exact same size to be mounted the same, so hadn’t brought one back with us. We did know there was an identical one in the aft berth that we never use as that has been turned into “our garage”. Solution would be to steal that one and move it to over the bed. Sounds simple, but Bob also wanted to put in a new connection so we could easily unplug the fan to clean as it is a “bear” to do right now. Again, sounded easy, but… the wiring of course went through the wall between the bedroom and salon (living area) and he had to cut the wire. We tried to buy replacement wire, but couldn’t find anything thin enough to go through the small hole in the wall. Bob did figure out a solution, but of course this “simple” project turned into a bit more time as well as tearing up more of the boat as you can by some of the photos. Oh well, that becomes the norm when working on any project.



Bob has a way of monitoring the energy being produced by our two solar panels and he noticed that the port side panel was not producing anything for a few days. He was thinking it might be that the other panel was producing all the energy that we needed. Decided to check with the firm that we bought the panels from before we leave Marmaris. Glad that we did as he checked and found that the one panel was defective and needed to be replaced free of charge. At first, he said he might not be able to get a panel right away, but fortunately for us he did find out and installed that the very next day. Amazing how many systems you have on a boat, and how many things can go wrong so monitoring needs to be done constantly.

Bob had to get in to a spot he “loves” as his access is by laying on top of the engine and going head first into the area where the batteries are located. While completing what he needed to do, he moved a water hose to make sure it was out of the way. Unfortunately, later that evening we turned on the water at the sink and the water pump started running and kept losing its prime. Not sure if it is coincidence or if his moving the pipe in some way caused the system to take in air. He is figuring it was, but I’ve been giving him the benefit of the doubt! Not good timing for this as it is now Tuesday and only have a few days until our contract ends on Friday. Fortunately, we had worked with one of the companies here at the marina before on our water system so contacted them quickly. They said they were very busy and didn’t think they could help us out that day, but did have a subcontractor they work with and called him. Fortunately, he was able to come that same evening. He worked out a temporary workaround so we wouldn’t have a problem that evening and said he’d come back the next day which he did. For anyone that has worked on water systems when you know you have an air leak, you know it is difficult to track down the problem area, but Ramazan did a great job of tracking the whole system with ruling out places that were not the problem area. He did of course mention that our system was very old and that he felt the pipes needed to be replaced. He gave us an estimate for all the materials for the piping, the filters, fittings, etc. as well as his time for the complete job (no matter how many hours it took). It added up to 650 euro (about $700) which seemed somewhat high, but we wanted to be sure the system was working well before leaving. We agreed and he came back and started work. Bob felt comfortable that he was quite knowledgeable and was very concerned about getting it done right. He worked the whole day and when he left it seemed to be working well.

Of course, a few hours later in the evening, the pump started losing its prime again so contacted him about coming back as he said the labor costs were for the completed job. By the end of the 2^nd day, it seemed better but we weren’t positive it was at 100%!a(MISSING)s not sure how long it would keep its prime. That evening we had to contact him again to say there was still a leak of air somewhere. Unfortunately, he couldn’t work on the boat the next day but said he could come back on Saturday. That became a problem. We had asked earlier in the week at the marina about the possibility of staying past our last day of the contract. We were told that the charge would be 100 euro (about $110) per day. Definitely not good news, but knew we would pay it to be able to stay to get the work done. As we didn’t know that he couldn’t come back on Friday until after the marina office closed, we went back to the marina office early the next morning to tell them the workman could not make it till Saturday so will have to stay another day and possibility even until Sunday morning. This is when they told us, we will have to check to see if you can stay. That was definitely news to us as was not told earlier that could possibility be a problem; all we knew was we had to pay per day past our contract date. They called someone and found they could not get the answer until about 3pm on Friday, but they said that should be fine as we could stay until midnight Friday night! Needless to say, we would not plan on moving from the marina to an anchorage that late in the evening. Even with saying we would be able to leave very early in the morning, that wasn’t an option as they said the marina was completely full. Guess boats were going to be coming in very early in the morning! Fortunately, we had worked out plan A, B and C depending on their response so we decided to just enjoy part of the day and not dwell on something that couldn’t be change and took our last bus trip into town. This just means that Bob will need to work again on the water system, but he has a very good idea of where the air may be coming in so he will attack that problem again once we are moving. Fortunately, we can still get access to our water, all the filters are new so we have no reservations about drinking it – all we need to do is add one more step before and after using the water – turn off and on the switch for the water pump – not a major hassle.

Bob hadn’t been in to town much as he was either working on a project such as repairing some canvas work, working on electrical projects or waiting around for technicians or deliveries. We do have a life-raft onboard and it is to be re-certified every three years so ours was definitely due. Fortunately for us, friends of ours on Pixie Dust had the same brand and needed theirs done too. Before we came back to the boat this season, they were able to arrange to have both picked up to have this done. They got theirs delivered the previous work and we had been told we would get ours delivered on Wednesday so Bob had to be onboard for it. That was fine as the water system was being worked on as well. It hadn’t come so I sent a message to ask about the status and was told they would deliver it Friday. Again, we told him that was not possible as we had to leave that day so they moved up the delivery and got it to us on Thursday night about 8:15PM! Better late than never.

I hadn’t mentioned, but most of the work that is being done on the boat is done by technicians or companies that would prefer cash as there is a sur-charge for using credit cards. The payment for the life-raft we knew about before going to Turkey so we were able to take enough US $ to pay for that, but with the water system project being something we hadn’t counted on, I had to run into town to use the ATM as well as go to the last (for us) Thursday market day. With the Turkish lira not being worth much now with $1 being equal to about 20 TL, needless to say, you get a very large pile of bills when you take out thousands of Turkish lira. It sure makes you feel rich for a few minutes but it definitely does make it hard carrying that many bills with you – definitely doesn’t fit into any wallet that I know!

When we made it into town on Friday, we went to the barber shop as Bob wanted to be treated one last time to “his Turkish barber”. He was busy and he asked us to come back in an hour so gave us time to stop for lunch. Bob then got his shave and haircut. He really does an amazing job and even with the price increase it was a whopping 150 TL ($7.50). Definitely worth it! We were thinking of wandering around a little longer to check out the bazaar for a couple of things we were thinking of getting, but got an email from the marina that we were not allowed to stay past midnight that same night! That made the decision for us to catch the next bus back so we could finish picking up the last of things on the boat to get ready to move. The wind was picking up and was blowing at about 20 knots, so thought we’d wait as late as we could to see if it eased off again before leaving the marina. No such luck with the wind cutting down. We had till midnight to leave, but we wanted to get across the bay to the anchorage and be settled at anchor before dark so left about 6:45PM. The anchorage turned out to be fine, just a bit noisy as it was a Friday night and all the places along the waterfront had very loud music playing until about midnight. Oh well, it was a safe anchorage and we are one step closer to being on our way for this sailing season. All we need to do is to official check out of the country which we were doing from Marmaris the next morning.

We moved from the anchorage to the Customs Dock as we had to be there by 9AM. We got there a little early and had wonderful help with our lines when docking and even delivered a staircase for us to easily get off the boat! He was so helpful we wanted to tip him, but had gotten rid of all our local Turkish lira but did have US dollars onboard. We gave him $5 and he was very happy. Our agent said that was very nice as they figure that soon the Turkish lira would be as worthless as toilet paper (his words, not ours) with the economy of Turkey being the way it is. Fortunately, our agent (in Turkey it is the law that you must use an Agent to check in and out of the country – they help with all the official paperwork that is needed) arrived early, we went up to passport control, got stamped out and shortly after we received the rest of the paperwork so we are officially out of Turkey and on our way! The 2023 season has begun!

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Photos

Always Plenty to Do when living on a boat!
nothing different than a house - just smaller spaces!

Just a "little" disruption to "fix" the fan!
oh well, in the end, we have a good fan over the bed

Definitely Not a Place to Sit in the Cockpit Now
another job where things have to be disrupted

My $18.50 worth of vegetables & fruit - delicious!
olives & apricots were the most expensive

Views Around - one of the main streets in Marmaris,
one of many schools & a campground along the water

Some Days You Can See the Mountains Near By
and other times it is cloudy and they disappear

This is a Supermarket that Floats
being launched to start the season

Definitely Feel Rich for a Few Minutes When at the ATM
with 100 TL being $5, need a lot to pay this bill!

Many Don't Obey the Rules Here Either - Parking
in the bus stop, and last bus ride in Marmaris