36 36N 030 34.297E Kemer

Pipedream
Mon 28 Mar 2011 07:34
Well we are nearing the time when there is nothing (critical) left to fix and no excuses for not setting sail. Planning for this next leg has been fluid to say the least. With the news we are getting, now Syria, here mainly via the Wall Street Journal on line it looks like the decision to pass this year's Emyr was a good one. We were planning to leave on May 1 but are seriously eyeing a trip up to the Black Sea. For some unknown reason I have always fancied sailing to Russia. If we leave Kemer say April 4th we will be able to add a month to our travel season and make the Black Sea trip feasible. I brought a new set of long johns from the army surplus store in Orange Park. The weather up there before June is iffy but we would be close. There is a couple here in Kemer that did the trip a few years back and it sounds great. They drove into Transylvania and toured the Count Dracula castle used to make the original movie... drop in for a bite.

We pick up our rental car tonight (I hope...) and drive up to Konya (home of the whirling Dervishes - sounds cool) tomorrow morning to see Karen, my sister, and her friend Kathy. From there it is on to Cappadocia.

We should be back in Kemer April 1 for the marina cook out and then have a few days to provision up before shoving off.

Boat notes: I replaced the drum on the staysail roller furler (retro fit from cursing designs) and used the parts from the old one to rebuild the Genoa roller furler. I am still waiting for my staysail to be delivered from UK sails in Marmaris after being repaired. It is supposed to come in on April 1 and as we will be traveling I hope I can talk the Marina office into catch it for me. I could not change the bearing in my B&G wind instrument without drilling out the set screw so I left it alone for now and put it back on top of the mast. While I was up there I brought down the FM antenna. The coax is so brittle from sun exposure it broke off at the connector and remaking a good connector up there is just not going to happen. When I take down the mast again I will completely rewire it. Got all the new parts into the anchor windlass and installed the mechanical parts for the chain counter. I still need to run a 6 conductor cable the length of the boat to get it to work. Katie top coated the primed spots from or pre-Christmas rust hunt with new Awlgrip paint. All for now... today I need to fire up the dingy outboard and tune up the rigging.