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Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Tue 27 Oct 2009 07:15
No idea where the time all went, but the evenings (which is when I usually
write this log) were all a blur of dinners or drinks on various friends
boats as we said our goodbyes etc.
In good marine industry tradition, all the jobs that were due to be done
were left to the deadline we gave them, so as we tried to do all our final
'putting the boat to bed' jobs and cleaning, we were host to a swarm of
people all busy working on various projects!
Sarah has certainly been setting the standards locally with various people
coming solely to admire Serafina's gleaming hull and stainless steel. But
the best comment was from the skipper of the huge catamaran that is on the
hard immediately in front of us. He has a team of Turkish staff busy
polishing this vast machine and he has pointed Sarah out to them as an
example of how hard they should be working!
We also failed to factor into our timings for the lay-up the incredibly
social nature of this marina. Last year the boatyard in Prevesa (Greece),
whilst busy, did not allow people to live aboard through the winter, so it
was something of a ghost town with 800 boats ashore but few people and very
few English speaking people around. Yacht Marine in Marmaris has 1000 yachts
ashore and nearly the same afloat including a good many super yachts. There
is a thriving liveaboard community and loads of activities and events
organised as well as a daily radio net which is just brilliant. Anyway the
catch has been that as we reached the last few days of the laying up, we
have been visited by endless numbers of people popping by to either say
goodbye, or check we're OK or in one fine case, bring freshly baked cake!
Eventually though we got it all done and the various alterations to the boat
are complete as planned and we just have the making and fitting of the solar
gantry on the back of the boat to look forward to next April.
Our flight home from Dalaman to Birmingham was a breeze, however there was
one set back that really upset poor Sarah. She has always been an avid
collector of stones from the beach. She is always on the hunt for unusual
ones that she can polish up and display at home and over the last two years
of sailing through the Med has found some really special ones. In Turkey all
luggage is scanned as you enter the airport buildings and the police
confiscated her small bag of stones which they found in her main case,
declaring that she was not allowed to take them out of the country. They
took her passport and for a short while we were both a little nervous as to
what might happen, but eventually she was given her passport back - but no
stones! . The very smart Onur Air aircraft was only just half full, left
early and arrived 30 minutes early. Our son Ewan picked us up and we
returned to find that the two of them had actually done a remarkable job in
getting the house clean and almost presentable for their mother's
homecoming!!
We have had a wonderful 6 months and would like to say bye to all the lovely
people we have met along the way and we will recommence this log on 13th
April 2010 when we return to Marmaris.
Next season is scheduled to be a real monster with roughly 7,000 miles
planned in a trip that will take us from Turkey to Syria, Lebanon, Israel,
Egypt, Malta, Sicily, Gibraltar, the Canaries, Cape Verde Islands across the
Atlantic to the Caribbean.
Thanks for following the adventure so far and hope everyone has a good
Christmas and winter/summer.
Rob & Sarah Bell
Yacht Serafina
Photos at http://www.rhbell.com