Hang Dog Day?
Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Sun 5 Jul 2009 18:55
After all that excitement we had a day in Pendik, although Sarah could not
resist another dolmus ride so she took a trip to West Marine, which is a
large American chandlery store around halfway into the city from here. All
went well; although she was impressed by the team discussion involving all
the passengers who debated where best one of the passengers could find his
destination address - and he was not allowed off (driver controlled door)
until he had heard everyone's suggestion; and on the return trip there was
the driver who reversed up the one-way, three-lane highway in Friday night
rush-hour traffic to pick up an old lady!
Saturday and Sunday 4th & 5th July
The running entertainment over the weekend has been the boats leaving and
returning to the marina.
As mentioned before, this is a new marina and there is very much an air of
new 'boaters', new money and new staff. There is no culture of marina use
and what might in the UK be termed social behaviour! Lovely people, but in
the absence of any speed limit, all boats from the smallest inflatable
upwards, apply full power as soon as the string is untied, causing an almost
constant wave action throughout all the moorings, day and night. Music is
'broadcast' by many boats rather than played, but the greatest fun is the
remarkable lack of skills on display and the apparent lack of interest in
all proceedings by the almost all the women.
The key to everything is the staff in their fast inflatable boat, who direct
boats to their slots and then recover the lazy line for them. Nothing too
remarkable here, but it is at this point that we watch in awe as firstly the
staff have to bring the line to the bow of the boat, climb on board, lead
the yachts mooring line through a ring on the lazy line and then stay to tie
off the ropes and handle them as the boat backs into its slot. The marina
inflable now has to be used as a tug and it pushes the bow or stern round as
required until the boat is in line with the mooring at which point the owner
puts it into reverse and storms the quay. On arrival, the owner and crew
largely stand around whilst the marina staff now handle the stern ropes and
everything is made safe. In fairness some owners are more involved than
this, but not much! Fortunately on Sunday when they mostly came back in, the
wind was non-existent, because the prevailing wind is at a right angle to
the moorings so (according to our next door neighbour) the mooring process
can be pretty chaotic and destructive.
Sunday morning also was 'Dog Poo Day'. There is one particular small dog
that the owner allows to roam along the pontoon and this morning there was a
significant pile of poo near our stern. The owner seemed to feign
indifference and we were unsure about whether to set off an international
diplomatic incident, when the problem was solved presumably by someone else
complaining as suddenly swarms of staff, including security guards, appeared
and the pontoon was thoroughly scrubbed and hosed down helped by the husband
of the dog's owner!