Marmaris. Our love / hate relationship

 Now where were we?

Yes, just arrived in Marmaris, for 1 week, to complete some additions or upgrades. Then we were off to explore before my sister Karen and her husband Lloyd arrived for 5 days. Or so we thought...

... We have picked up a saying since arriving in Turkey. The plans of sailors are made in the sand at low tide.  Well, that bloody tide has been all over the bloody place, and we are hestitant to even approach the beach these days.

I'm not going to launch into a long-winded rant (what a nice change), as in reality we're not in the Ukraine, or Syria, or the Sudan, so nothing to complain about. Suffice to say that we ended up staying in Marmaris for 2+weeks, with repeat trips back for bloody-hell-what-now repairs.

View from the old town across part of Marmaris Bay

We had 1 week free in the marina at Marmaris as part of our contract with the Setur Marina group, and the rest was spent on anchor around Marmaris Bay. The marina is huge, officially with places for 720 boats, but to us it looked like thousands!! There was a tantalising swimming pool in a restaurant at the end of our jetty - ooohh posh - but despite the heat, we were too busy to visit this until the end of our stay. Very noice it was finally.

Thank heavens this was a share platter

Our first week started incredibly well. We had contacted an agent, Jes, prior to arriving with a list of things we needed help with, and he coordinated the work with specialists he knew and trusted. Our minds were blown when the tradies turned up so quickly and got started. We had riggers on the top and perspex fitters inside the boat at the same time. Mike and I just looked at each other in amazement. Jes visited each day to check on progress, and sourced parts for us. He even got down 'n dirty helping us fix a leak in the water heater (trying to stop our mysterious freshwater leak). 

Unfortunately things did slow down, a natural consequence of ordering parts, and then needing to schedule installation, as hundreds of yachts try to get work done before June. Thus, we moved into the bay to wait. This gave us more opportunities to perfect our anchoring and stern-to skills..... sadly still far from perfect.

We got too familiar with the all night doof-doof and laser lights and swinging boats, and chaffed at the bit as days went past. Luckily we were joined briefly by Ian and Malia from SV Longo Mai, who had experienced their own frustrations with repairs in Finike. We had a brief visit to the castle I'd been gazing at from afar for days, before they left to continue on to Istanbul. 

The castle has been well restored; indeed people were living in 18 'houses' in the complex, until it was restored in 1991. Walls surrounding the city were first erected in 3000BC, but records show that the castle was built by Suleiman the Magnificent in the 15th century.  The Turks are proud of the defence of the castle during WW1 against the French: 

"In 1913 a German ship escaped from the French cruisers and by passing the strait of Marmaris took refuge in the port. The Turkish soldiers protecting the port did not surrender the German ship to the French and duly performed their duty. Thereupon, the French ships mined the port. ..   the security officer and the gunnery officer demined and rendered about 48 mines harmless overnight. Faced with this situation in July and August of 1914, the French ships bombarded the Marmaris castle. The cannon shot caused great damage in the castle and most of it is destoyed. Afterwards, the French navy disembarked but had to go back to sea against the superhuman efforts of the two officers and the heroic resistance of the Turkish soldiers to protect the castle."

Our extra days also gave us also gave us to wander around and appreciate more of the old town and port areas of Marmaris, which were touristy, but very pretty. 

Most memorable modifications? well, since you asked...

1. The weird smell in the aft head (speakada lingo) turned out to be dangerously frying batteries under the berth (bed) about to be inhabited by our guests. One call at 5pm to Jes resulted in alarmed electricians turning up 20 minutes later. Immediately replacement of all house batteries. We were lucky to be in the marina, and not go up in flames and down into the sea.

2. Turning down the suggestion we get get lithium batteries we eventually spent money on an electric winch - our baby. Mike tells everyone it's because I'm so weak, we need help to get him up the mast. True. But he/we have used it for unfurling and furling the mainsail, the headsail, and the lifting the heavy end of the dinghy. Love love love it.

3. The loo. I hope you're not eating right now.....   due to an unfortunate brainfail when reconnecting some hoses, on our 'nth' attempt to get the front loo/head working, we had a very unpleasant version of a chocolate fountain. Cannot tell you how yucky this was. Cleaned and fixed. But more shuddering on Mike's part when he had to cut a hose to fit a one-way valve - which then failed. So we had to wait for another one... I do feel sorry for the electricians who were on board at the time. But it's now working !!! Oh the relief.

4. Mike took the boat out with an engineer on board to see what the problem was with our propeller, and why the overdrive function of Gori folding prop didn't work as it should. Unfortunately the diagnosis wasn't encouraging - the gear box ratio is inappropriate for the size of the boat's propeller, so cannot reach the revs it is supposed to, and clogs the turbo. So we need to replace the propeller with either a smaller one, or a standard propeller. This means taking the boat out of the water, we won't be doing that yet, so for now we use the engine without the overdrive, which is noisier and uses more fuel. Bummer.

What we had done or did ourselves:

Rigging - The shrouds (standing rigging) were back to front (??) - so these were taken down and installed correctly; The boom vang had seized, so this was serviced; The furler mechanism for both sails were checked and serviced, as were the clutches; The traveller bracket was replaced; The riggers installed fittings for a detachable inner forestay, so we can add a staysail (small sail for bad weather). 

Electrical work included 3 fans, new batteries, relocate and replace the bilge pump, new anchor control switches, installation of the electric winch, and new macerator for the loo.

We had the perspex in 3 large hatches and 2 side windows replaced. In less than 24 hours. So happy.

The engine was serviced professionally, identified problems with the turbo, which was taken away for repairs. The anchor windlass was serviced, the outboard propeller fixed (it couldn't cope with all the trips ferrying the tradies to the boat in the bay), and the start motor solenoid was fixed. 

In between all the work we had a great few days visiting Bozukkale, Bozburun, Turunc and KaDirGa Koyu (sounds like an '80s boy band) before returning to Marmaris for the great sister's reunion.

Turunc, with Kirrikie at top right