Graptolite - Turtles All The Way Down
Graptolite's Sailing Log
Martyn Pickup & Heike Richter
Sat 31 Jul 2010 20:07
Saturday 31st July 2010
Navigationally aware readers will notice that Grapto has moved on a little
bit. She was hoisted by a crane onto the hard last week. As expected there
was almost a marine park's worth of wildlife hanging off her bottom. These
included quite a few oysters on the bottom of the fin keel which were not
far off being edible but they usually make me sick these days. They didn't
thrill me to have to bash them off with a hammer either.
Anyway, the antifouling painting is now finished and she looks quite smart
again from underneath. Also, I retrieved an outboard motor which has been in
a workshop for repairs since I was last here; got the seal on the propeller
gearbox replaced at as it's been leaking sea water into the oil for over a
year; commissioned a new bimini cover and sprayhood as the canvas-work had
all but rotted away and had the tatty genoa sail cleaned and repaired so it
doesn't look like someone's dirty washing. Also I bought a passerelle
(French for gangplank) so I don't have to make death-defying leaps ashore
anymore in these stupid Mediterranean marinas.
Heiki came out last weekend but the boat was too hot to live on so we moved
into air-conditioned hotels in Marmaris and Datcha. And also a very smelly
hotel near Dalaman Airport which was full of Russians there for the mud
baths and the Green Sea turtles which they feed bread to like ducks.
The weather has been horribly hot here and with no shade canvas available
the inside of the boat has been like living in an oven with mosquitoes. I
was forced into buying a portable air-conditioner this week to avoid turning
into biltong at night. It's a big, noisy thing that has to sit on top of the
gas cooker like, well, another gas cooker but I don't care.
M