Turkey, Bozburun

We arrived in Bozburun Turkey on the 2nd of August after just 2 hours after departing Pedi Bay, Symi. We are officially in Turkey with a 90 day visa, at which point we will have to exit and re-enter to get another 90 day visa.
We are anchored about 300 meters from the town dock. The anchorage is part of a huge and almost landlocked bay that gives protection from winds coming from any direction. There is also a lot of places where to anchor within the huge bay but we are happy here close to the small village, where we made friends with a local carpet dealer who speaks fluent English and who like the rest of the Turkish people is very hospitable.
The transit log cost us 60 Euros and 35 euros for the agent, there is no way out of eliminating the agent, although I think I prefer the agent to do all the running around in this heat. Temp ranging in the high 30's. The swimming is great in deep water and water is 25 deg C. There is many boats here including the famous Turkish gulits. Gulit boat building is a major industry within this large bay but they are tucked in towards the south east cost of the bay so they are not an eye-sour.
Lillian and I both love it here, but we will have to start moving east soon as we already booked and paid for our winter spot in Maramris area which is an hour by bus from here, plus there are so many anchorages to visit on the way. The cost for the bus from Bozburun to Marmaris is 3.75 euros per person each way.

60 days in Greece

This is just an update as to our time since arriving in Greece 60 days ago.
We have been in 32 different locations, we went to a marina only once in Pereaus, so we could visit Athens at our leisure without any worries of other boats anchoring too close to us. All the anchorages we found to be spectacular and of very good shelter and most excellent holding in mostly sand and weed in an average depth of 6 meters. 95% of the anchorages we have been alone or with a couple of other boats.
We have been enjoying the historical sites, the local cuisine and the people who are very friendly, always trying to help and always trying to hand you food to make us more welcomed. We have felt very safe in Greece and locking the dingy is not important,  nobody touches anything here.
We are at the moment in beautiful Leros  Island which is one of the Dodecense group of islands. We are only a few short miles from the Turkish coast but no intention to head over there yet.

GREECE

We are on our first week in Greece, we made landfall at Katakolo on the west side of the Peloponnese, after a fabulous 3 day passage from Malta. So far we visited  Ancient Olympia where the first Olympic Games started around 760 BC and lasted for 1200 years. The site is amazing and even though it has been ravaged by fire and an earthquake you can still see the base of most of the temples and the actual stadium. The anchorage at Katakolo is excellent in most weather as was the second stop just for one night at Killini, the one at Navpaktos was a little rolley but the medieval harbor and castle make Navpaktos a place to see. Today we moved on another 13 nm and anchored at the island of Trizinion, this is a very good all round anchorage with excellent protection from all directions. The bottom is tall weeds over mud so you may need a couple of tries to make the anchor dig in, nice restaurants ashore serving very nice fried fresh anchovies and baked feta cheese. We may stay here for a couple more days we shall see what the weather will be like first.

Hair riasing work

There is no showers or toilets here at the Msida Marina in Malta (supposedly its in the works, but not sure where), each morning the water from the tanks in the boat feels like it is coming down from a glacier, especially trying to brush and then rinse my teeth. So since we are hooked up to shore power and going to be in 240 volt supply areas for the next few years, I decided to remove the 110-volt heating element in our water heater and install a 240-volt element which I keep on the boat for these areas, this will save me having to start the engine to just heat the water while in a marina. The only drawback is that I will have to remove the cockpit shower mixer and its plumbing from directly in front of the water heater so that I then will be able to work on replacing the elements.

1-1/2 hour later I am managed to remove the element, in the process I dropped one of the four NC 3/8” – 13 hex head bolt inside where the insulation is in other words between the outer and inner tank, with my knees already taking the shape of a pretzel I had a hunch that this was going to be a rough day. I tried everything in the book and in its covers but to no avail the bolt is lost and I new I never had anything this short and in this configuration on the boat. Where am I going to find one similar bolt?  I ran a cross the parking lot to the first chandlery and the gentleman told me to go to a place that I new existed, so I jumped in the car, courtesy of my father in-law and headed to this supply store called Catania, in Blata il Bajda, after waiting in line for 1/2 hour I was totally surprised that they had the same and more surprised when the man behind the counter asked me if I wanted it in stainless steel.  I paid 90 Euro cents for 2 bolts and within 10 min I was back on the boat happy and whistling with joy that I found the same bolt.

Managed to put everything together pressure test fix some minor leaks turn water heater on and as pressure build a few more leaks and that was that, not so bad after all I am ready and its only 2:00 pm, what a wonderful day, had some lunch, checked some emails, and was thinking of taking an afternoon nap when all of a sudden we heard a noise similar to some boat going around under power but the noise did not let up and then we saw steam coming out of the engine room I poked my head and yelled to Lillian to open the faucet and turn off the main breaker for the shore power and the 12 volts DC. The safety relief valve opened up and was spewing steam and water all over the battery charger and other stuff close by the, I could not really see what was happening until the pressure dropped and then I went inside to take a closer look, the engine room felt like a sauna, the water was running down the top of the shelf on the starboard side, but to my amazement the charger did not actually get water on it, only some steam as the nozzle of the SRV was pointing down away from any electronic equipment.

It took me another 4 hours to remove all the plumbing and replace the SRV at the same. We did not turn the water heater on I wanted to wait till morning to be awake if something went wrong again.

The next morning I woke up and upon closer inspection and a fresher mind and set of clearer eyes I found that the clip that pushes the thermostat against the water heater tank was not in place and there was an air gap between the two, therefore the temperature of the water heater was not being read by the thermostat  this would let the heating element bring the water temperature high enough that the safety blows. So I spent another couple of hours this morning fixing the problem. By know I am a qualified contortionist.
It is know working fine and we can enjoy warm water for the morning use and washing the dishes.

We are in the water

Finally the day came to launch the Maltese Falcon but not before I got some kind of Japanese Flu bag that wrecked  Lillian and I for a few days. In between I managed to launch the boat with some help from Mario, Lillian's older brother and motored for 2 hrs to the Msida Marina where Mario was waiting for me in front of an empty slip. Slid in and hit a little hard as the reverse would not engage but no damage done. We paid for a month so we will be here most likely till end of April, as we still need to sort out a few things plus the weather is too cold to travel overnight for 3 days and nights. Batteries have been tested and given a thumbs up, the charging system needs some tweaking.

No Launching

Yesterday I came down with a 24 stomach flue bug that kept me in bed all day except the times I had to ran to the toilet, you know what I mean, I will not be graphic.
So Lillian called the yard and told them what was happeneing and that we will need to postpone, the yard owners were not very happy as they do not quite understood what a dillema I was in, but they agreed to launch tomorrow. Now this morning Lillian woke up sick, yes you guessed it!!! So tomorrow with my right hand out of acction I called her brother also Mario to give me a hand, he was more than willing I must say which I appriciate a lot. So we will see what transpires tomorrow!!!!!

Launch day

April 5th 2011

Thursday the the 7th of April is going to be our launch day at the yard. We plan to head up island to anchor in St Paul's Bay after launching that is if it is not too late in the day. The weather forecast looks great for launch day, which is of great relief, the weather here has been fantastic, pure spring weather with 100% sunshine and temp around the low 20's deg C the nights do get quite cool dropping to around 12 deg C.
So all in all we are very excited about launch day, hope everything goes well for us.

Mario

Preparing for Greece

March 28 2011

Well we are only a few weeks away from getting the boat in the water and then head to Greece. Lillian and I are both very exited about this. It will be Lillian's first time visiting this part of the world. I have been there in 1967 for a short day visit to Santorini and Crete.

I am still here in Peachland in the BC interior spending the last few days with our son and his family. Lillian headed to Malta a few weeks ago to spend some precious time with her aging father. I am looking forward for the warmer weather in the Med.

Mario