A delay and a pleasant surprise.

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Mon 20 Jul 2009 21:03
Mon 20th July
The forecast had promised early wind and it was right. We woke to 25 knots
of wind blasting across the marina and whilst it was pretty much ideal for
our trip today, the bad news was that we were hemmed in by boats and their
lazy lines extended across our exit, so after much deliberation we decided
not to risk a disaster and wait for things to settle down.

Got lots of jobs done aboard during the day and finally resolved to leave
tomorrow morning as soon as David and Jill left on their large (63ft) motor
yacht, as that would clear our route out of the moorings.

Our turn to invite David and Jill for drinks, but as they had the large
shaded rear deck and we had packed our bimini away because of the wind, we
compromised by taking wine over to them. Had a wonderful evening as they are
both very good story tellers and then just as it was time to leave we saw
the man who had mended our gas system back in Istanbul standing at the
bottom of the gangway with his son and 4 year old daughter. This is the
Turkish boat skipper who was looking after a boat across the pontoon from us
in Istanbul, who had stepped in and done all the work to replace our faulty
gas valve and then had refused any sort of payment, who has not one word of
English. Fortunately his son is at university and spoke excellent English
and explained that they live here in Canakkale and have a 49 year old
Turkish sailing trading boat in the marina, just 20 yards from us! They
invited over to see their boat and have tea which we gladly accepted. Their
boat is a wonderful converted trading vessel that they have owned for 18
years and whilst we were looking over her a fireworks display started up
just across the marina. After our cups of tea and a discussion over some
charts of where we should visit during the rest of the summer, we invited
them back to Serafina to take a look round. Cengiz, the father was
particularly keen to know where we stored the folding bike he had seen Sarah
use and so along with his wife, daughter and son, they all had a good nose
round. It was now 10.30pm and we had not yet eaten so once Cengiz and his
family left we settled down to a quick supper.