Like many of the marinas here in Turkey, The Didim marina is no different the pilot comes to escort you to your berth when you arrive and when you want to leave you call the marina office and the pilot boat comes to help with the lines and sees you off.

Now that the gangplank has been installed we are ready to go. So the gangplank is folded, the bikes are loaded and we are off to our anchorage.

The first of several pictures to come.  I don't think they need explanation.

Well today we made it across the bay to the south from the marina and Didim.

First let me say that we got our credit card back from the bank. There really was a flaw in the ATM machine and all it took was a bike ride to the bank and after showing my passport they pulled my credit card out of a pile of cards from people all who had lost their card in the same malfunctioning machine. Not to worry for those of you who thought the worst!!!! I went right to the ATM in the bank and used the machine there to get some money and all worked fine.

The seal for the toilet still did not arrive however we told the people at the boat yard to keep it for us and we would pick it up on our return back to the marina. The disassembled, cleaned, and re-assembled toilet works 100 %

We did take some pictures of our newly installed gang plank, however i was right about the stick not wanting to let me up load pictures. Perhaps there is limited coverage in the anchorage where we are at the moment.

The ride to this anchorage was nice not too long, and not too rough even though there was a stiff breeze.  The anchorage is nice. Secluded, pristine clear, blue water and there are only two other sail (one flying a USA flag and one a German flag) boats in this bay which is only about 1 km deep and approx. 400 m wide.

Just before turning the corner to go into the bay we noticed a very large, brand new development build on the side of the hill.  This is perhaps not surprising as we are on the back side of a peninsula with Bodrum, a large tourist place on the other side of the peninsula.

Pictures to follow as soon as we have better coverage.

Back on the boat

I thought I better write something on the blog or people might think we had suffered the same fate as the Costa Concordia or something. We have been on the boat foe 4 days now and have been waiting for a few things to arrive. One thing being a stick with a sim card so we have internet on the boat. It came today courtesy of "Yacht works" the company that looked after the boat while we were gone. They also did some maintenance work and Can the owner of the company was here with us on Friday after noon (we arrived late Thursday night) to talk about the maintenance they did and then he went out for a test run with us. As expected everything worked flawlessly.  One last thing that needed to be done was the installation of the gang plank for "Med Mooring" this was done on Saturday after we decided  how it should be installed on the boat. They made a bracket that slip's in the swim platform and the gang plank fits in to it. The bracket is very professionally done and it looks and works great.  We still are waiting for a seal to arrive for the vacuum flush toilet and be installed by Yacht works. However Not having much else to do today I decided to start taking things apart so it would not take long to install the seal once it arrived. After taking it all apart I noticed a kettle stone type material had build up on the rubber seal making it hard and rough. After cleaning it thoroughly the rubber seal was smooth and flexible. I re-assembled the toilet and it works like new. So I guess we will have a spare seal when it shows up tomorrow.

We would have been ready to go tomorrow  except when we went for a bike ride up town today I went to an ATM to get some cash. Guess what The machine gobbled up my card!!!!! I wondered what I had done wrong when a lady came along also needing to use the machine.  I told her my problem and she decided to try it. Well.... she scored better than I, in-that she got her money ( I did not) but the machine also refused to give her back her card.  While we were standing discussing what to do an other lady came along and informed us that she and her husband had the same experience that I did and her husband had gone to the bank to sort things out.  The lady who got her cash but lost her card was from the UK but was able to speak Turkey's. After many attempts to get the right person she was told to be at the bank tomorrow morning  at 10.00 and we all would get our card,s back.

No pictures this time as I don't know if I have good enough internet coverage to upload them!!!

No we are not on the boat, but I thought this was a neat "aqua" picture. Anyone wants to guess where and who??

Good news from Yacht works.

The Nanni (our get home engine) took on water through the exhaust. Apparently when it was installed the air lock was not high enough and sea water found its way in through the exhaust and ended up in the oil pan. this caused the oil level to increase to the point where some of the oil was entering the compression side of the cylinders and caused the engine to smoke terribly.  Also the engine would  continue to run (on the oil) for a short time after the ignition was turned off.  Yacht-works discovered the problem and will correct it. The good news is that the analyses of the oil came back and it showed no significant wear of the engine.