Beer, Crisps and Bananas

Greetings to Family and Friends, ex colleagues and anyone else who is interested.

We have set off on another sailing season and hope to keep the blog that we started five years ago going. It is becoming more difficult to be novel in what we are about, because, well, its not any more. However the need to keep a record for our own purposes is increasingly required as the number of small grey cells declines with each passing year.

We set off from Swansea bus station on the red eye National Express coach. It was quiet until we got to Cardiff when the contents of the Millenium Stadium got on. It seems there was a concert of some sort. They were very well behaved youngsters of various generations, but very excited and somewhat noisy.

The passenger cohorts on buses are always different from trains. You have to be significantly wealthy to travel by train these days so bus dwellers are more representative of, well, the man on the Peckam Omnibus. I am not sure I get blokes wearing purple nail varnish however.

On the buses

We were decanted at Bristol bus station on a parky April night at one in the morning. No coffee, no warmth, no toilets! This is not designed for the comfort of the more mature traveller. We had an hour and a half wait for the next bus to the airport and were captive victims for a lady who wanted to talk to us! No escape.

It turned out this flamboyant granny (yes we heard all about the darlings) now lives in Bodrum and she gave us a blow by blow account of expat life there including the deals that could be done in various bars to get cut price grog. Bartering for beer, a novel concept! It is funny how Brits living abroad are expats, not immigrants.

We finally made it to the airport. Our next challenge was checking in The Bag. We have now made the trip to the boat about a dozen times, and each time we take a bag of boat bits and pending projects weighing in at exactly 23kg. Logic dictates that this can only go on for so long before the displacement of the boat exceeds it buoyancy. I am sure someone can do the calculations.

On this occasion not only did we have The Bag, but also a solar panel. Various staff members gave us quizzical looks as we proceeded to make the solar panel and The Bag a single item of luggage using 20 metres of Gaffer tape.

There is always a bit of anxiety that an unusual bit of luggage will attract attention from the handling staff and need inspection, but the new process of self service baggage check in means that little human interference is likely and it all went through with only a bored sigh from the operator.

So off through security, the compulsory retail experience at Duty Free, (remember the Ghost Train at fun fairs), and we were in.

The flight was mostly uneventful apart from a few trouble makers. The first related to the Speedy Boarding fiasco. The Speedy Boarders pay a sum (about £50) to expedite their passage at the departure gate. This allows them to place their bags in the lockers first. However on this occasion there was a coach to transfer everyone to the plane. Of course as soon as we were all aboard the coach, an agent of chaos piped up in a tone too loud for normal conversation, stating that those who had paid for Speedy Boarding must be a bit annoyed, as we were all going to get on the plane together! Guess who? har har.

The second incident related to seat bookings. I always book the aft most row with a gap between us, and quite often if the plane is not full we get an extra seat to ourselves. Sneaky eh!

Easter bunnies

 However this flight was chocka... being Easter weekend. However I was overwhelmed with admiration for an even better wheeze perpetrated by a mother and family. Apparently instead of paying your tenner per head to book seats, if you just turn up with a crying child, that necessitates everyone else having to shuffle about to let you sit next to the wailing one, because it is certain no-one else wants to. Clever.

Just before we left I had checked that all the arrangements were in place for the journey. Tickets, passports, online check-in etc. It was then that I discovered that the taxi from the airport had replied but I had not read it properly. They wanted another email back from me to confirm the booking! So just a few hours before departure I had done this, but had not yet received the confirmation. 

I was therefore half expecting to have to cart The Bag and solar panel on the bus to Marmaris and then on the Dolmus to the marina. I was really pleased to see Mehmet from Marmaris Transfers cheerily waiting with my name hastily written on a bit of card in crayon. yay ! Thoroughly recommended firm.

So we were back on Summertime, except it isn’t, summertime that is. It is still quite chilly. Significantly better than the UK but not quite balmy sailing weather just yet. There are quite strong winds forecast over the next week with a bit of coolness about, which is actually ideal for doing boat jobs. Definitely glad of our woollies and duvets.

Summertime was in remarkably good shape. Just a little powdering of orange dust on the outside and clean as a new pin inside. Over the next several days we set about getting her re-commissioned for sailing.

Sails put on, Bimini and Spray hood installed, new solar panel added to its older brethren.

I had left a solar panel on deck to charge the domestic batteries over the winter. This was the one I had previously repaired so I would not have been disappointed if my amateur soldering had failed but remarkably it was still functioning so hopefully the batteries will be in good shape.

Having previously had the experience of an undiagnosed diesel leak that was almost boat fatal, we had recruited a German couple who run a Guardianage business from their boat in the marina to look after Summertime over winter.

Marmaris Yacht Marina MC Collection

Erika has good spoken English but her Whatsapp messages took a bit of thinking about. I had enjoyed corresponding with her over various matters, one of which was that the engine starting battery was dying. I had agreed that this should be replaced and this had been done by the electrician firm in the marina.

 Now I have seen a fair few batteries in my time and I have my doubts about the provenance of this one from the state of the terminals. However it is working so we will see how it goes.

My New to Me Battery?

As it was still a bit chilly I was glad we had our Webasto Diesel heating system. This is a heater that burns diesel using a glow plug and circulates hot air through ducting throughout the boat. I previously had to repair some of the ducting and had fired it up a few times but we had never really had to use it in anger. 

So we went for a test drive. It would fire up and run for several minutes but then shut itself down giving a series of blinks of its green flashing light on the control panel. I was a aware that this was an error code so got online to try to work out the error. Ten slow flashes followed by 5 rapid flashes -overheating!

Webasto Heater unit

Probable causes, poor air flow due to either out flow obstruction or inflow blockage. So I disconnected the outflow duct and ran it again. The same error code came up after a few minutes. So it must be an inflow problem. 

I went down into the depths of the stern locker to access the inflow duct which is connected to a vent on the transom at the back of the boat. As I removed the duct from the back of the heater, out fell a piece of sack cloth!

Sack cloth embolus!

It is common practice when winterising a boat to block up all the ducts and vents to prevent birds or insects nesting in them. Presumably this bit of sacking had been put in to block up the inflow vent and been sucked all the way round the tubing to the heater, a bit like an embolus. But I did not recognise it. It must have been put there by the previous Italian owners.

I cursed them for failing to remove it, such an oversight could have been calamitous. I went to start the heater again. It shut down again after a few minutes with the same error code! Surely the Italians had not but another obstruction in the piping.

I took the duct off the heater again and removed another bolus of cloth, but this time I recognised it as a piece of one of my own shirts that had been sacrificed in the name of nesting prevention. I felt slightly ashamed at my condemnation of the Italian chaps.

a

 mast cleat project

Over the next few days all the systems were set up and checked through, Navigation, water, electrics, engine, alternator output, impeller, fan belt, outboard, running rigging, bilge alarms, keel bolts, autopilot, steering, diesel tank and filter, windlass and anchoring gear, lights, instruments and sensors.

Every rope has a cleat!

During the winter months I have been watching a few sailing Youtube channels. These are often photogenic youngsters, who are mostly very impressive in terms of their sailing prowess, but a few old salts as well. I think we will stick to text rather than video!

Workers canteen grub $2  per head!

This does however throw up a whole load of things that can go wrong on boats. I therefore have taken to planning ahead for catastrophes that will probably never happen. Things like – how will we access fresh water if the electric pump fails. What about the fuel pump, the exhaust elbow, the gas piping,

Spare fresh water pump

This raises the spectre of what spare parts to carry. This is an unanswerable question, I mean you could end up carrying spares for everything, including a complete second engine.

 The best answer is that it probably varies with the anxiety levels of the owner. But the reality is that there are things known to fail more regularly than other things. So I carry most of these, including materials to fix most things on board like fibreglass, resin, electrical kit, piping of various sorts, gasket material, industrial adhesives, silicones and the full range of sailing odds and sods.

Spare fuel lift pump

But due to winter Youtubing I always end up bringing more things, just in case. Any help appreciated.

We had planned to lift the boat out of the water to give the hull a clean before setting off. I had written to the Marina several times indicating this but I could not get them to commit to a date for the lift out.

I visited the office to try to sort this. I was surprised to be told that I did not have a lift out in my contract. I am pretty certain I was told this was included when I signed (but not read) the 27 pages of the contract last year. So how much for a lift out? 1200 Euros! I think not. We will just have to suffer a dirty bottom until the water is warm enough for an hour or so of snorkelling.

The marina is absolutel rammed with superyachts, and the commonest language  heard is Russian. 

Super Superyacht

I feel slightly uncomfortable about this on several levels. I daresay someone could do an economics PhD on yacht marinas and their reflection of society.

Lots of Superyachts!

We were ready to set off on about day four after our arrival, but the weather was not conducive. Strong cold Southerly winds with clouds alternating with thunder storms. So after an energetic start we have another few days of lazing about waiting for the weather to improve.

It is actually very nice.

Provisioning M style. Beer crisps and bananas.