Summertime Voyage

M and I had a pleasant day or two learning the ropes in our new Marina. We met some of the incumbents in the bar, and a knowledgeable lot they seem to be. Marmaris Yacht Marina We travelled into Marmaris on the Dolmus, which is the local public transport system made up of mini-buses. They are remarkably regular, punctual and inexpensive. Marmaris Yacht Marina is some 8km from the town but with this resource that is not a`problem. Marm aris itself is not the prettiest town in the med, and has to a large extent been taken over by the high volume/loud music/ cheap beer end of the tourist industry, which is a shame. The dffff, dffff, continues into the wee small hours and I am very glad we are in the marina we are in, rather than the others close to the town itself. Marmaris Marmaris must be the acme of the marine service industry. Large swathes of the town is taken up with shops and businesses catering for boat repair, maintenance and chandlers. We have a f...

After a heavy night in the fleshpots of Kos (I wish), we tootled out and set of round to the S of the island and headed for Nisiros. Turkish Coast Guard Jet Boat! We sailed a bit and motored a bit until the afternoon breeze from the NW came in and we had an excellent point of sail for the last half of the trip. We had planned to moor at Palon on the NE end of the island as the harbour there is much preferable than the at the main town of Mandraki (well every island seems to need one). Nisiros - 1/3 Island Missing from Volcanic Explosion Nisiros is basically a large volcano. It is said to be extinct (Greek Tourist board) but on closer inspection it still seems pretty active. I think it’s official classification is “dormant”, which means there are still soft bits in the crater that you can’t walk on and there are noxious gases emanating from fissures in the ground. It exploded same 30,000 years ago, and as you approach you can imagine the bit that is missing, whcih look...

C. I enjoyed a quiet couple of days in Kos old harbour, just me and Summertime, while M. travelled back to the UK. I did a few jobs, found a bar that sold Stella Artois and became mates with the barman, and generally recovered from the rigours of a negotiated existence. I did some rubber caulking on the teak in the cockpit and sugar scoop at the stern. That involved hacking out all the old rubber, masking the wood with tape, applying the black Sikaflex and smoothing it off. That all worked quite well, indeed M could not find the bits that had been fixed. Success! Worked I also attempted to fix some hairline gelcoat cracks. I had bought a spray product in the chandlery, sold as the perfect stuff for this problem (17 Euros). My GRP guru on line, Andy from Boatworks today, says you have to use a Dremel to widen out cracks and fill them with proper colour matched Gelcoat but I thought it worth giving this a go. I taped up all around the various cracks, in thre...