Haulout 2013; wonderful to be back on the boat!!

It has been a busy 2 weeks!

Our flights back to Turkey were uneventful and on schedule; can't ask for better than that.  Our granddaughter, Elisabeth, a/k/a BeBe, returned to Turkey with us for her summer holiday.   Riza with Emek Marine, the Amel rep for Turkey and the guy who has been taking care of S/V BeBe during our absence, kindly offered to pick us up at the airport upon our arrival in Dalaman the evening of 2 July.  Riza delivered us to the Dogan Apart in Gocek where we would stay while routine haulout maintenance was performed to the boat.

As always, click on any image for larger view.  

Entrance to Dogan Apart(ments)

Our little suite at the Dogan Apart consisted of a bedroom, bathroom and living room with sleeper-sofa, breakfast table and chairs, stove and small fridge.  They provided a clothes drying rack on our patio and a tub so I could wash sweaty clothes each afternoon after we worked on the boat in the heat.  The Dogan Apart also provided a complimentary traditional Turkish breakfast daily.  

Nice swimming pool at Dogan Apart

Their pool was delightful and everything was very clean.  Price during high season was 80TL per day; during winter season the rate is 50 TL daily.  A good place to stay if hauling out in Gocek and don't want to pay the resort hotel prices.

BeBe was in the D-Marin Boatyard.  It was about 3/4 mile walk to the boatyard from the hotel.  A pleasant walk in the mornings and a hot walk back in the afternoons along a wide stone-paved walkway by the sea.  

That hated orange boot stripe is going away!

I was delightedly surprised to see that Riza had had someone clean the interior of BeBe just prior to our arrival!!!  Only another boater can understand how happy that made me.  I was expecting to spend hours cleaning accumulated dust and sand from the months of Saharan sand blowing through this area.  My back ached just thinking about having to clean every nook and cranny of the interior of the boat.  We opened the companionway and were shocked at how clean it looked.  I looked closer and then asked Riza if someone had cleaned this boat.  We had not asked for this work to be done.  Riza said it was his gift to us.  Thank you, Riza!!

Finished Prop Speed

I won't bore readers with a day-by-day report of the work performed and the inevitable delays that happen with every haulout.   We did very little work ourselves; Riza's crews did most of the work.  Bill and I did remove the propeller and sent it to Riza's shop to have Prop Speed applied to delay marine growth on the prop.  We had Prop Speed applied during our haulout in New Zealand and it prevented growth for about 10 months in the equatorial waters of Indonesia and Malaysia.  Hopefully it will be effective longer in the much colder waters of the Med.

Removing bow thruster.

After removing the prop we removed the line cutter and replaced a part that had broken during the previous haulout in 2011.  Bill had repaired it with JB Weld and we were very surprised to see upon disassembly that the JB Weld had held beautifully.  But since we  had the new part we went ahead and replaced it.  Also replaced the zinc on the line cutter.  Then we drained the 9 liters of oil from the U-drive.  Replaced the wear bearing and re-filled the U-drive with those 9 liters of oil.  Removed the bow thruster and serviced it.  Those 4 things are very important and we prefer to do that work ourselves.  The manual labor of sanding and painting with toxic paints we leave to others.

Bow thruster removed and read to paint

We have hated the burnt orange boot stripe on S/V BeBe since the day we bought the boat.  That orange is the school color for University of Texas and Bill attended rival Texas A&M; maroon we could live with but not burnt orange.  Bill is an Aggie, not a Tea Sip.  We have wanted to change the orange color but never found the right color that we both could agree upon.  Amel unknowingly came to our rescue!  The newest models of Amels, the 55 and 64, are painted with a color known as Desert Sand by Awlgrip.   We thought this Desert Sand color would blend well with our dark brown rub rail and with the taupe-colored new winch covers and UV shield panels on our new sails.  Riza ordered the paint and it arrived from Istanbul in just a few days.

With painting crew manager beneath opening where
bow thruster goes into up into hull

While the painting crew was busy outside Elisabeth and I went through the food lockers and removed things with expired dates.  Only found 1 partial-bag of cake flour with bugs in it, and the weevils were contained within that bag.  Whew!!!  We have worried for months that our boat might be filled with insects since she sat vacant for over 7 months.  Thankfully, no vermin found!!

The princess enjoying her DS
while we worked

Ice cream on the hot walk back to the apartment (daily)

She hates heights

By the time we finished in the boatyard she could
climb that ladder and get on deck with no problem

Cracked oil bottle leaked 

While we worked inside, Bill went through the engine room, cockpit lockers, deck lockers and the big stern lazarette.  He found a large container of oil stored in the engine room had developed a hole and leaked empty.  But it was inside a solid plastic crate so the oil was contained and very easy to clean up.  The leaked oil was so clean that we so no reason it could not be used.   We strained it through cheesecloth and added that oil in the U-drive.  BTW, every container of liquid, whether in metal or plastic container, is stored inside a solid high-sided plastic crate.  It does not take long for holes to be worn through any container; this prevents messy clean-ups.

Installing new AIS

New AIS transponder

We had brought back a few electronic items for the boat.  Bill removed the AIS receiver (for sale if anyone is in the market for one) and installed the new AIS transponder.  That was a quick and easy job.  Now other boats can 'see' us instead of just us 'seeing' them on electronic charts.  

S/V BeBe with her new colors

Another new item to be installed was a spare Furuno heading sensor.  This is not required for navigation as we already have a working heading sensor.  But Bill wanted to install a spare -- have it wired and ready to go.  He wants to be able to just flip a switch should we need this spare heading sensor someday.  He ran the Furuno cable and installed the device -- and it did not work.  The device self-tests as okay, but it does not work.  Bill messed with this for days.  Riza sent out an electronics guy and he brought another Furuno heading sensor and it would not work either.  He suggested that the cable was either the wrong type or was defective.  Finally Furuno answered Bill's emails and confirmed that they had shipped us the wrong cable with the heading sensor.  Luckily, a friend is in the States now and will be flying to her boat in Turkey in a few weeks.  She can bring us the correct cable.

Preparing to splash

Our Turkcell phone and 3G data modem had been deactivated and the account closed since these had not been used for so many months.  We had to buy new sims for each and set up new accounts.  No special tax or special foreigner registration required since these a Turkish devices.  But this does mean that we now have a new Turkish cell phone number.  If you have last year's number, delete it.

And off down the way we go

We went to the Sunday Market in Gocek and bought several rotisserie chickens and fresh produce.  Love, love, love their heirloom tomatoes that are so inexpensive compared to the prices in Houston.  These rotisserie chickens are only available at the Sunday Market.  These are the tiniest chickens imaginable and they remove the wings which makes them appear even smaller.  But they taste very good.  I deboned 4 chickens and used the meat for various dishes.  Cuts cooking times drastically and saves heating up the boat so much.  I also bought some freshly prepared spinach gozleme for my lunch.  Bill and Elisabeth wouldn't touch that but I like it.  She did eat a gozleme with chocolate filling.  Anything chocolate is always good.

He is driving the travel lift just like a
remote controlled toy car

I started replacing the linings on the curtains we had made last summer in Marmaris.  The shop used a lining that is unacceptable.  I am replacing the linings with UV sunblock lining purchased from Sailrite.  A far superior fabric for lining curtains and protects the curtain fabric from fading so quickly.  This is a very time-consuming job because each curtain panel has 3 rows of stitching all the way around.   And yesterday my ripper broke so now I am reduced to ripping out stitches using a Swiss Army knife.  Four completed so far and 6 large panels and 3 small panels left to go.  This might take awhile because I hate digging out the sewing machine from beneath the forward berth.

About to splash

Ramadan started on 9 July.  The men in the boatyard who were laboring in the sun all day did not fast but those who had less strenuous jobs began their month of no water or food from sunrise to sunset.  It would be impossible for the men working hard in this heat to go all day without water.  They would become dehydrated and pass out within hours.  Bill, Elisabeth and I are all drinking as much water as possible because sweat pours all day in this humidity.  Even my arms and legs have a constant sheen.  The workers can go without food but they cannot go without water.

And down, down, down we go

The painters encountered a problem over which they had no control.  The local West Marine shop had a very limited supply of 3M brand blue painters' tape.  They bought all that West Marine had in stock, then had to buy an off-brand to finish taping the boat.  Everywhere they used the 3M tape the boot stripe had clean lines but where they used the off-brand tape the line was not sharp and clean.  They spent 3 days correcting problems caused by that off-brand tape.  Future painters beware:  If  you cannot find 3M tape then delay the job and wait until you do have 3M.

It wasn't all work and no play.  Each evening we
enjoyed dinner at one of the many restaurants
that line the shore at Gocek.

On 11 July we received a disconcerting email from the place where we planned to berth next winter.  The manager we know is off on medical leave for a few months.  She had emailed us 13 days prior that there was room for us and to just come in and sign the contract and pay the deposit when we got to Fethiye.  Now we get and email from her assistant stating that she could not commit to a contract with us at this time and that we should contact her again in September.  What!!!  September is way too late to be arranging for a winter berth.  We felt that something was lost in translation.  Riza very kindly loaned us his car and we drove to Fethiye.  Yes, something was definitely lost in translation.  Because we had berthed there last winter and because the manager had already confirmed to us via email that there would be a berth for us again this winter, we were able to sign the contract and pay the deposit.  Bill called a friend who also plans to berth at this location and explained that until he pays the deposit and signs the contract that he does not have a berth for certain.  Our friend had driven to Fethiye a few weeks ago and had a verbal commitment  from the same manager who is now on medical leave.  We paid the deposit for him and filled out the contract with our friend's information.  So now he is assured of a berth in Fethiye too.

Elisabeth's newest favorite Turkish food.
Pide (pee-DAY) is Turkish version of pizza.

The confusion arose because The Moorings has now moved their local base from a marina in Gocek to the Yacht Classic Hotel in Fethiye.  A great deal of construction was completed over the winter and the facility is beautiful.  It was great before; now it is just lovely.  Part of the new construction is to be another berthing dock.  But for whatever reason the city is holding up construction of this new dock.  Supposedly, the issues will be resolved and the construction completed in September.  The hotel does not know how many boats Moorings will want to leave in the water over the winter, so the hotel is reluctant to sign berthing contracts with other boats (like us and our friends) until the new dock is completed (hopefully in September).   But at least we and our friends got signed contracts so we are taken care of for this winter.

The last full day in the boatyard BeBe had to be moved to another location because they wanted to lay drain pipes across a section on the concrete that would have left us stranded from the slipway.  That was interesting.  We've never taken our boat for a stroll before.  A tractor backed a mobile cradle stand up beneath BeBe.  The cradle stand was positioned and the weight of the boat transitioned to it, and the jack stands were removed.  We walked behind the boat as she was moved to a location closer to the slipway, then jackstands put back in place and chained together properly.  We are impressed with the D-Marin boatyard.  They do everything first-class the way things should be done, none of those tree trunks pounded into place by hammers to support boats on the hard.   It costs a little more but not that much more because the less-expensive boatyards tack on charges for every little thing that are standard procedure at a D-Marin yard.

4 Amels docked at Skopea Mega Yacht Marina in Gocek
S/V BeBe is the one closest to the entrance and is the oldest boat here.
The other 3 are Amel 54s, the model that replaced ours.

Yesterday we splashed around noon.  Riza accompanied us on the boat as we motored over to 'his Amel dock' at the Skopea Mega Yacht Marina right at the center of Gocek.  We were going to go anchor somewhere and give the boat a shakedown but Riza wanted us to come to this dock so his guys could come measure for the stern arch he is building for us.  

Happily back in the water and without that awful
orange boot stripe.

This morning we put the new genoa on the forestay; the sail guys had already put on the new main and mizzen since those could be furled into the mast.  We had requested that they leave the genoa in its bag until we arrived; no point in giving it UV damage for months we weren't here.   Looking forward to try out these new sails.  These are tri-radial hydranet and were constructed by Q-Sails in Izmir.   We are pleased with the quality of workmanship.  I think Bill is thinking they will add 1/2 knot or more to our average sailing speed over the 10-yr-old old Dacron sails that had developed slight bellies.



We planned to leave this dock tomorrow but one of the handles that holds the outboard engine to the dingy just snapped off while Bill was testing the outboard.  Guess we are staying here until that gets replaced.   Who can complain!  This place is great!

Gocek as seen from the water.  We enjoyed this nice Turkish village.