We arrived in Marmaris yacht marina feeling impressed, it's huge with a very large drystanding area which is gradually filling up with superyachts, we are feeling a bit small in here! To put it in perspective, Kerensa is 14t, the crane here has a safe working load of 300t, that's the size of crane one of my old factories had building huge power transformers the size of a house.
Lifting out a small one!
We spent a few days exploring Marmaris and getting quotes for some of the boat jobs that we either couldn't or didn't want to do ourselves. Turkey is no longer cheap following years of high inflation, as the quotes came in the list of jobs that we "didn't want to do ourselves" changed to jobs we "didn't want to do ourselves but felt that we really should". One that we couldn't do ourselves was to get a sailmaker to check the sails over and replace the sun protection strip on the genoa. The main needed attention to spreader chafing points after all the downwind sailing that we did getting here. Getting the main off alone was a bit of a task but North Sails collected it and the genoa from the boat which helped.
One point of discussion with the previous owner when we purchased the boat was the age and likely failure at some future time of the calorifier, it was already well past its designed life. The previous owner had already made plans for what to do when the calorifier failed but we expected a bit more life out of it than became apparent. Regular readers of the blog will remember that we had the sight of water pouring out of the engine cooling circuit on the morning we were supposed to depart to Greece. The calorifier internal tubes had failed leading to fresh water under pressure being forced into the engine cooling pipes and out of the expansion tank. Anyway, long story short, we have had no hot water on board since Malta, not a problem in the height of summer but bit of an issue as the weather cools. This was a job that was, on paper, really simple and initially proved to be. Mount the new unit in its new home infront of the engine, leaving the old one in place for now (it's underneath the generator and impossible to get out without a lot of work) and pipe up the engine cooling system. The problem came when we tried to connect up the fresh water. The preferred connection joint had obviously been done before the boat internals were fitted and, although we could see the jubilee clips we wanted to undo and connect a new hose to, there was no chance of getting even a pinky finger in there. The second best solution was to make a join at the old calorifier, the problem there was that this joint was underneath the old unit! Much buggeration, contortions, sore backs and scratched skin later we got it done! Turned out to be a much longer job that anticipated but it is on a boat after all.
New calorifier in place
We have given the main engine a service, ditto for the outboard, cleaned the anchor locker out, washed the genoa sheets and other ropework, replaced a damaged hatch glass, washed the sprayhood and generally done a deep clean, you get the picture.
Despite the boat jobs, our days are still also filled with iced coffee, meals out and stunning sunsets, however the first rain we have seen in months arrived yesterday. Remember to close all hatches when rain is forecast overnight, including the one in the starboard rear cabin otherwise it creates a problem. Ask us how we know....
Cabin cushions drying at the start of a forecasted wet weekend, they may be here until Tuesday! Fortunately there was a plastic container that caught the worst of it, only the ends/corner of the foam cushions are wet.
Until next week.....
