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Published: October 6th 2022
We made it back to Marmaris after a “little” delay on our Easy Jet flight from Gatwick airport. It was scheduled to leave at 3:30PM but we had gotten a message on our phone that it was postponed for 1 ½ hours. That wasn’t too bad and they notified us about 1:30 pm so we decided to take time to have a combination lunch/dinner at the airport. They actually don’t provide you with the actual gate that you need to go to until close to the time of departure. We were told by one of the staff that we should probably start to go through security about an hour before our flight as they would then have the gate assigned. That would mean we wouldn’t have to go until about 4PM based on this information. We had finished our meal about 3:10 and decided to wander up toward the gates a little early. Boy, are we glad we did as we found when we got to the board showing the gate assignments, it stated that our flight was now boarding! That sure got us moving fast and we saw that there were quite a few others in the same situation. Unfortunately,
we never got a new text message on our phone about it. Luckily when we reached the gate, they were still checking people in so we had a line to wait in and time to sit in the waiting area. Even though the sign had said they were boarding, in fact, they weren’t quite ready. About 4PM they opened the gate and we got onboard. Everyone was settling in and then the pilot came out to make an announcement. He said he had some good news and he had some bad news. The good news was that the plane was already cool down and comfortable as they had the A/C on and that the plane is ready to go. The bad news is that we have a delay of another 1 or 1 ½ hours. Surprisingly, everyone was ok with that and just said “ahhhhh” but no real problem. The pilot was great with his delivery as he informed us that even though we were delayed, they were already on a “list” so if there was any gap in the line up to take off, we would be slotted into it. Everyone settled in nicely and just visited while waiting.
A few times the pilot had kids on board say hi to their parents over the loud speaker system and then the pilot had an announcement. He said that he had an unusual request, but that there was a professional singer onboard, and he was offering to sing to everyone. He did a wonderful job on “Fly Me to the Moon” as he thought that would be a good choice! It definitely kept everyone in a good mood. About 4:20 pm we moved away from the gate and went to another “holding area” which the pilot said put us in a great spot to take off when given the OK. About 5:15PM we finally did leave the ground and we have a very pleasant flight to the Dalaman airport in Turkey. It was great to be on a direct flight without any changes this time. When we landed, everyone was still very calm and upbeat. We actually mentioned to one of the passengers from the UK that it was a very pleasant trip and everyone was in such great moods thinking it was because people were going on holiday. The woman told us that wasn’t the case, she just said
British travelers are this way all the time! Whatever it was, it sure was a pleasant trip and it wasn’t any bother at all to have almost a 2-hour delay on the ground in Gatwick. We used Easy Jet for the first time on this round trip to the UK and we would definitely use them again as it worked out very well.
We did have an unpleasant surprise when we returned to the boat however. We have solar panels and we had turned off all electrical items except for the refrigerator/freezer. We left the shore power off as felt that the solar would be able to handle charging our batteries while we were gone as these two months have been very sunny. Instead, the batteries were not charged so we didn’t even have power to turn on lights, thankfully we always keep a flashlight handy!
The next day the priority was checking in with the company that had installed our new batteries and charger controller to find out what caused the problem with having no power on our return. Fortunately, they came out to check it quite quickly. The system checked out fine, but realized that the
solar panels were not generating enough power to charge the batteries. The 2 panels that we have were installed in 2010 and were each 135 W for a total of 270W. We knew that even though they are graded for that wattage, they never produce that full amount. The other problem is that every year, the panels lose some of their efficiency and that has an impact as well. After doing some calculations of our energy usage it was decided that we would get new solar panels. Bob had always been wanting to get larger ones so looking at the “real estate” we had for them, it was decided that if we remove the two wind generators we have, we could pick up enough room to install 2 – 340 w panels. Bob had been wanting to remove the wind generators for a while anyway as he didn’t feel we were getting that much benefit from them (sorry Howie if you are reading this). The order was placed and were told that it would take about 3 days to get but we were going into the weekend so hopefully would get them on Tuesday. Tuesday, we heard that they arrived,
BUT… when the package was opened, the panels had been damaged so they had to place a new order. Luckily, the replacement panels would come in the next day. The company did use this time to prepare the area for the installation by removing the wind generators and checking out the wiring for the new panels. We were definitely anxious to get it up and running as we now had no solar panels, but at least we were plugged into shore power so we were working off of that. Both panels were installed and the control system was checked for a few days to be sure everything was set correctly. With that working we were ready to set sail. We had dinner at the marina restaurant and told the staff that we would be gone for about a month.
On September 13
th we called the marina staff as the rules here state that they must come to help you out of your berth. There are lay lines that are hooked to the bow which they disconnect and they use their dinghy to help direct your bow so you do not hit anything. Well, the two guys that came to
help us really did not know what they were doing unfortunately. To come out of the slip we needed to turn our bow to the right. The dinghy was pushing us on our right side instead which in turn was pushing us close to hitting the boat to the left of us. I was near the bow with my boat hook, but with this surprise turn of events, I had to move my position quickly and try to fend off from hitting the boat. In moving quickly, I hit the life lines very hard and the wires cut into both of my legs, losing my balance and “almost” went over the top wire, but thankfully didn’t! Between Bob’s reaction at the wheel and my fending off, we got out of the slip without hitting anything. Typically, the marina staff are helpful, but today it was not the case! We first wanted to go to the pump out station to get rid of our black water. We made it to the dock without any trouble. The pump out started and soon after our bilge alarm went off and stayed on (which is never a good sign). Bob quickly came down below
Always Plenty of "Cat Houses" Around
and food is left out for them as wellto check the bilge and we were definitely getting water from somewhere. In checking the engine area, Bob discovered that a hose from the watermaker got twisted around the engine and in turn broke off another pipe and the end result was that we were getting water into the bilge! There had been a couple of technicians in the lazarette area on various jobs lately and with so many pipes down there, we are pretty sure one of them got moved some which is what caused this. Needless to say, after the pump out was done, we wanted to go back to our slip to fix the problem. No sailing today. Unfortunately, the slip we came out of was filled with another boat already so they put us on a different pier which was a fixed one and not floating like our last one. It is quite a bit higher than our stern area so definitely made it more of a challenge getting on and off the boat. We weren’t happy with the location but there wasn’t any other opening at the moment and we definitely planned on getting out sailing again in another day or two.
Bob had
to get a couple of things which he could purchase at the chandlery here at the marina so the next day he had the problem fixed. Luckily it was an easy fix. On Thursday we were ready to go out again. This time the exit from our slip was an easy one and no problems with getting out. It was wonderful to finally get out of the marina after all this time and put up our sail. It turned out to be a lovely day and had both our genoa and main up with the wind a nice steady 10-12 knots. We kept commenting how wonderful a sail we were having for our first this year. Well, things didn’t continue in that vain unfortunately. By about 1:30 PM we were in sight of the bay that we planned on anchoring in. We took down our sails and started to get ready to anchor as the bay was straight ahead. All of a sudden at the mouth of the bay the boat stop DEAD. We looked at our depth gauge and we were in 280 feet of water so we know we didn’t go aground. We then thought that maybe we
picked up a fishing line or net. Bob went off the stern (with me insisting on trailing a safety line as well). Bob soon saw that the prop was clear. When he looked at the bow, he figured it out. Our anchor chain was hanging straight down! Definitely not good as we have over 100 meters (328 feet) of new chain as well as our anchor on the end of it. We could smell burning and thought it was the engine, but when that didn’t seem to be the problem, we found out that it was the motor to our windlass (this device helps pull up the anchor and chain) burnt out! Now this was making it worse as we now had dead weight that had to be lifted. Fortunately, Bob can figure out solutions to problems that pop up and he came up with one that worked in the end. We have a battery powered drill with an adapter that fits into our winch to help with putting up the mainsail. The plan now was to tie a rope on to the chain and pull it back along the deck with the drill motor. That first 30 feet was
hard on the battery, but we were able to get another section up before the battery died. Fortunately, we have 2 batteries so we were able to keep switching them out. With the load on them, they went ‘dead’ quite quickly so we had to wait at times for the battery to charge. It was quite slow going and by now the wind and waves were kicking up. Even with pulling up the chain a few times and dragging it back the length of the boat to the cockpit, we were still not moving as we were in fact not that far from a sheer rock cliff.
Time was going by and we weren’t getting the chain up very quick with our battery constantly dying. We saw a small tour boat nearby so we called them over to see if they could help at all. One of the guys came onto the boat but with that much dead weight having another person trying to pull it up wasn’t going to do it. The captain of the other boat very generously called some one that is in the bay to come out to see if they could help. With that
Never Heard of Surfer Chicken Eggs Before
and sizes are definitely mixed when buying them news, we still continue to pull up chain as soon as one of the batteries was charged enough to do so. It was quite some time later but a boat did come out to help. He offered to pull our boat back into the bay so we could try to get it fixed there. In thinking it over before he came out, we decided going back to Marmaris was a better idea as there were plenty of shops and technicians for repairs that might be needed. We thanked him for coming out and gave him some Turkish lira toward his fuel for coming out.
About 4PM we had enough chain up to be actually moving so decided to put the engine up to 2500 rpms and start heading in the direction of the marina in Marmaris. As I mentioned earlier the wind and waves had increased and of course the wind was “on the nose” so we were going very slow with still dragging lots of dead weight. With the engine that high we were only going about 1.5 knots but at least in the right direction. As the chain continued to come up, the speed picked up to
We Have Enjoyed More Time with Joe & Dawn
from SV Pixie Dust while here in Marmaris 2, then 2.5, the 3 and so on. It was definitely a long trip back to Marmaris but we finally got all the chain and the anchor up before we were back allowing the speed to pick up. We made it into the marina about 9:45PM. They put us back on the same dock, but in a better place as it was lower making it much easier to get on and off the boat. We sure did have a lovely sail, but it definitely wasn’t the way we planned on ending the day.
If the chain dropping unexpectly wasn’t enough, on the end of our first sail of the season we had a couple of other “little” things happen. When we first bought Tsamaya, Bob very kindly made me a little step/platform for behind the wheel so that I could stand on it and get a little more height for looking over the wheel better. Bob made that back shortly after buying the boat in 2007 so it has been serving us well. Of course, the time it decided to break was when we were heading back to the marina after our wonderful day sail. That couldn’t be enough
though, we turned on the steaming light and it didn’t come on so that was another item to be dealt with. The last happened shortly after we were turning into Marmaris Bay – the autopilot decided to act up so hand steered the rest of the way back (which wasn’t a big deal at all), but one more project. We sure were happy the sail was a great one as we got to the point of sailing at 7 knots and enjoying the trip – it has to last us through all the “problems” that occurred at the end of it!
Now, work to be done on the windlass. First, Bob took the motor off of it as the first thought was that the motor might be refurbished. In looking at with the added expertise of a person that knows motors as well, it was determined it was beyond fixing. Now to replace the whole windlass which is not an inexpensive item. We wanted to replace it with the same brand as we had, a Lewmar, but found that there weren’t any available in the near future. With help researching the possibilities, we found that we could get an
Anchor brand windlass that is 1500 W instead of 1000 W which we had previously. We had never heard of Anchor brand so we were a little leery, but found out that it is made in Italy and is quite well known throughout Europe. Even better, we found that there are numerous dealers in the US and quite a few on the east coast so felt better about moving ahead with it (we really didn’t have much choice if we wanted to get it installed soon). We did have to wait for the order to arrive so in the meantime Bob took the opportunity to remove the rest of the windlass to have it ready for installing the new one. Of course, when we received it, the first thing we noticed was that the holes in the deck did not match – as Bob said, “gee, what a surprise” Bob has plenty of tools onboard, but found that he didn’t have a drill that could hold the size of drill bit he needed for drilling so fortunately a friend had one he could borrow. Always good to make friends with people in the marina as we all carry plenty of
tools for working on our boats.
With the change from a 1000 W to a 1500 W windlass, Bob knew that he would need to change the circuit breaker. In reading the manual it stated we need a 100-amp breaker. Bob double checked to see what we have and found it was 150-amp breaker – not good! This definitely explains why the breaker didn’t go when the chain free fell and went to the end with the motor still running. In this case, bigger is definitely not better. Now we have a 100-amp circuit breaker and we installed a new switch in the cockpit for the windlass. We rarely use the one in the cockpit, but in looking at it, we found that it wasn’t working properly as it didn’t turn completely off when switched off. This could have been part of the problem as neither of us had actually turned the switch to let the chain down. This project definitely has taken quite a bit of time (and of course plenty of money). In order to make room for Bob to work in the anchor locker area, he had let all the chain out into the water. This
The Wind Generators Have Now Gone!
making room for larger solar panels wasn’t a problem to bring up this time as it was much shallower and more importantly now the electric windlass was working! Sure were happy the other day when we got all the chain back on board and the anchor back in place on the bow.
While Bob was doing all of these “fun” projects, I decided to do a complete inventory of the supplies on the boat. I typically have a spreadsheet with the items we have and the quantity as that helps us when searching for an item (food, household and bathroom supplies). I try very hard to keep it up as we remove or move an item but there were some sections of the boat that I hadn’t done a complete inventory of for a while. Always good to take a look at what we have as well to try to use up the older items. It definitely gives me new menu ideas to try to use these up rather than buy new.
Another area we decided to check on earlier was our “wine locker”. As many know wine and heat do not normally mix well so with our boat being closed up for the
The Solar Panels First Arrived "Smashed"
but fortunately got replaced the next day 2 years while we were away due to covid, we wondered if any of our wine would still be good. Well, we have been giving it a good college try checking it out. We put the whites in the fridge and then give them a try at night. Many we take a sip of and then have to throw the rest away, but thankfully we have found some that held up well. It really has been a mixed bag so not sure what the variable is – where it was located in the locker, the wine itself or ??? We have also tried some of the reds with success as well. Just told Bob though that even though we have quite a few bottles left, if we invite company, we will have to go to buy some new wine as it really is a guessing game as to what bottle may be good. We really were surprised when we saw some of the bottle we had as they were first put on board Tsamaya when we left in August 2010! We know that in particular due to the wines being from Finger Lake wineries. We did actually have a cherry
cider from Ithaca that we opened and thoroughly enjoyed the other night. A very pleasant surprise. We still have work to do to get through the rest of the bottles (in testing them out of course!) before we come back to the US the end of October. Wish us luck!
Whenever working on a project on a boat, when you disrupt one area, it automatically disrupts another. This time while I was “tearing up” all the storage areas in the salon, Bob was working at the navigation station putting in the new circuit breaker as well as using the galley as a work table. Fortunately. as much as these projects are a huge disruption, things do actually go back together pretty smoothly at the end of the day. On days like this though, we get lazy and instead of cooking onboard we either eat at the marina restaurant or at the employee’s dining area. It definitely is nice to have the option of not making a meal onboard on some days! We have been spoiled here as the employee meals are only 30 Turkish lira (about $1.61) and even meals in the restaurant are not that expensive. As an
example, you can get a beef kebab for less than $10 and spaghetti bolognese for just over $5. As Bob said the other night, we better enjoy our eating out now as know that it will be quite a shock when we get back to the US.
Bob thought he would look around for some wood to make a stand/platform for me again. I told him he had plenty of other things keeping him busy and he doesn’t have a shop here so it wouldn’t be as easy to accomplish. Last season thankfully a fellow cruiser told us about an area in Marmaris where you can get pretty much any type of work done and the prices are great. We had been there last year to buy some aluminum to make some washers so knew the area. We took a bus up to the area with a plan and some measurements. We wandered around the area looking for the “woodworking area” as they have everything there. You can get work done on engines, fiberglass work, and pretty much any other thing you can think of. We found a shop and started to talk to the man there. He didn’t
When You See the Prices Remember 17 is $1
and those are for a kilo (2.2 lbs of produce)! know much English and we sure don’t know much Turkish so another gentleman was called over to help. With that and paper and pen for drawing, the idea was transmitted and we had a price. He could make it and have it done in a few days. Bob also had wanted a gasket made out of a Teflon type material to use on the windlass (that was actually before we found out that we had to get a brand new one). Bob just kept it showing to people and everyone tries to help to see what shop can do it for us. It worked as they made contact with someone that came over to the woodshop by motorcycle, looked at it and said he could make it! We followed him to his place and he put the Teflon on the lathe and made the gasket while we waited. The third item we wanted was a small piece of plexiglass that goes over the ignition area as it had gotten quite clouded so it was hard to see through. We took the piece up, found a shop that does that type of work and they cut it while we waited (and
had a cup of tea that they pretty much insisted we have!) We did try to refuse once, but they said, don’t you like our tea, so of course we said we would definitely have a cup. Here in Turkey tea is a very social thing to do. Any time you stop very long at a shop, you are always offered tea. Also, if you are at the right time, you will find people almost running around the area delivering tea to all that work in the area. We did see this while we were there as well. A nice custom indeed. We went back later in the week and picked up our stand and it turned out perfect – just the right height – the communication worked! We are so glad we learned about this gem of an area. The workmanship is excellent and the prices are almost ridiculously low!
One thing that is constant is that we try to get to the Thursday fresh produce market. If Bob can’t make it due to waiting to take to technicians or he is in the middle of a project, I go by myself. If we can’t make it on
Thursday, the market is also on Sunday but at a much smaller scale with less vendors. It still has plenty to offer so no problem with going then either. We did hear from someone that there is a very big market on Sunday but it is in a different section of town so need to take 2 buses to get there. We decided to try it for a change. We found the market without a problem, but in fact at the end, we found that “our” traditional market that we go to was much better. The one addition this one did have was that it also sold other items such as clothes, garden tools, dishes, etc. I did “splurge” and got a summer dress while there paying the “outrageous” price of $8. Quite the deal. On my bus rides into town (a 20-minute ride from the marina that costs less than $1 each way) I get to meet many people here on vacation as we pick up people on the way that are staying at various resorts located around the Marmaris Bay. It is always nice to talk to people that are here on holiday to get their opinion of
For Those From Ithaca Area You'll Recognize These
surprised to find these still here (and drinkable!) Turkey based on their time here. Most are very impressed with the food and the people which is always nice to hear from people that come here from many countries – we have met Russians, Brits, Germans and many others. One day I had the pleasure of talking to Helen and Lorraine from the UK. In talking to them I found out that they wanted to find the Thursday market so they walked over with me. Always nice to introduce people to the places that we have learned about ourselves.
There was definitely quite a bit of excitement here at the marina as there was a large fire in the hills close by. It was so close that when walking down to the end of the dock, you could see the flames from the fire. Early in the morning when I went to the showers, I saw the flames in just one area, and not long after it was spreading over the hills. Everyone in the marina was treated to quite the show from numerous helicopters and planes coming into the bay to pick up water to drop on the fire. Not far outside the marina many boats
anchor, however, the coast guard got all the boats to move down to the end closer to town so they would not interfere with the water pick up process. The skill of the pilots was amazing as early in the process there were up to 15 helicopters and 3 planes we could count from where we were. As the week went on, they had fewer in the air, but they continued to fight the fire for quite a few days. Numerous times the helicopters carrying the water beneath them would go directly overhead and you sometimes would actually get a few drops of water on your head. Every day about 7AM you would hear the helicopters overhead and just at sunset they would stop. Everyone said it seemed like we were living right under an airport. A couple of days, we even had the planes flying close by to the boat. One day I was sitting down below and I looked out the window and saw the airplane going by! They flew overhead, then soon made a turn into the bay to pick up water to continue the fire fighting. It is unfortunate that there have been many fires in
the area. They had one shortly before we came to Marmaris last year which destroyed the forest on numerous hills here. Earlier this summer there was another fire shortly before we left for the UK which was across the bay from us and then this one which was the closest to our end of the bay. They also had plenty of firefighters working on land as well as the air power that we saw working for many days. I did take some videos of them flying over so I will try to see if I can get some of them posted on YouTube as this site doesn’t do videos.
When we were returning from our day of sailing, we put our navigational lights on as it is getting darker earlier. We tried our steaming light and it didn’t seem to go on. Another thing to check as we had tested all our lights earlier this year and all were OK. Bob went up the mast to check and was surprised to find that the light was working fine. Always interesting when it works out that way! It was actually good that Bob had to go up the mast as
he noticed that the new rigging had a coating of light rust on it. We didn’t think that was a good sign at all, but didn’t panic and made contact with our rigger. He came over the next day and greeted us with a smile and a big hello so figured it must not be a big problem. He explained that typically they polish the rigging when it is installed as it has a coating on it that attracts the dirt and rust gets started on it. When they did our rigging, they had run into a problem and it took longer than they anticipated. As a result, they worked very late on a Saturday night and continued to work on it on Sunday (which is usually a day of rest). He said they must have forgotten to go back to polish it so would send some one over to do that for us. A couple of days later that job was completed. Guess that was a plus that we thought that the spreader light was not working, otherwise we wouldn’t have been up that high on the rig to see. Always have to look for the positives when these
Navy Ships and Helicopters Doing Exercises
just need to stay clear of them when sailing things happen.
The weather started to get a little cool so we even had to take lightweight blankets out of storage for the evenings. We still are wearing shorts, but some early mornings and late evenings we break down and wear a light long sleeve cover up.
The autopilot started to act up some when we were coming back from our day of sailing so Bob climbed into the lazarette to check the hydraulic fluid. It was a little low so filled it up so hopefully that is fixed. As we have been in the marina for some time, Bob keeps looking around and finding other things to do. He took off the compass as he wanted to clean up the bezel around it which he did. Now the canvas needs waterproofing so starting to apply that. He did find that is a problem as he is spraying it on and it has quite the odor. The first day he tried to continue working in the cockpit but started to get a headache so not a good idea. Bob is already starting to look forward to his wood shop back in the US. As a result, he is
The Sail Was Great - Just Not the Anchor Chain
and pulling it up on deck to get back to marina now getting his finish out and working on the teak – looking good!
The weather last week started to get warm again so we have taken advantage of the marina having an outdoor swimming pool here. It has been a nice treat in the afternoons. We have now been trying to decide, do we go out sailing now or do land travel? Every time you leave the dock, when you return, you are moved to a different spot. With the winds in the winter typically being from the south, we are thinking that we currently are in a good location. We keep an eye on the weather and this week it has been very strong winds so not a good time to be heading out of the marina.
I think this year with all that we have done on the boat has given us mixed feelings. One day we are anxious to get out of the marina to go sailing and anchoring out while the next day we are fine with staying here and working more on the boat. Just yesterday we decided that we should plan a few short land trips so went up to the library
for good wi-fi and booked some hotels and bus trips. We will leave tomorrow and be gone for 10 days. When we get back, we will only have 9 days before we fly back to the US.
Guess, this was just not the year for sailing for us even though we could have squeezed in some time now. Our hearts were just not in to it and the weather just took us over the top right now in determining that we just don’t want the stress of thinking about anything such as where to anchor, what will the winds do tomorrow, will anything break, etc.
Don’t worry though, we are getting really excited about our plans for next year! We have been doing some research already and we will be leaving Turkey and starting to travel west next year. That is in preparation for crossing the Atlantic either the end of next year of the following. Guess, we both have felt that knowing that we will be doing lots of sailing next year, we can live with our decision of not going out in the next couple of weeks.
Sorry to those that look forward to hearing
Bob Had to Go to "His Turkish Barber"
and got treated royally all for about $5 about our sailing adventures. We just have to enjoy our wonderful sail that we had last week and make that stay with us over the winter. At least we know that when we get back next spring, our boat will be ready to go and so will we! We do keep saying that we are actually more travelers that happen to sail, rather than hard core sailors. This definitely proves it!
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Home and Away
Bob Carlsen
Your summer...
I have enjoyed reading about your house/pet sitting all around the UK. I'm sorry to hear about all the problems with the boat when you got back. At least you were in the right place to get everything fixed. So next year to head west. You will definitely need everything in working order to cross the Atlantic! I look forward to reading those blogs.