Dance night

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Tue 29 Sep 2009 19:07
Monday & Tuesday 28/29th September

Monday morning the carpenter turned up along with a translator to look at
the jobs Sarah had lined up. All seemed to go well and indeed he returned
later in the day with the parts made and following a trial fitting he then
took them away to varnish.

Highlight of the day undoubtedly was the evening event hosted by the marina
and billed as the 'End of summer party'. Great buffet and free wine and beer
(well 'free' once you had bought a very reasonably priced ticket) and before
the disco got underway we were treated to a Turkish folk dancing display.
This was actually very good and was an interesting blend of east meets west
as it echoed western and Arabic cultures. I was a little underwhelmed at
first as it seemed little more than mixed 'morris dancing' dressed in leg
tight trousers with a strange nappy effect at the back for the men and lots
of (hot) layers for the women, but it did improve and ended with a good deal
of willing audience participation.

We met up with Paddy Diamond at this party who we had actually first met
back in April when we were about to launch Serafina in Cleopatra Marina,
Greece. Paddy hails from Belfast and has spent the summer taking loads of
friends sailing on pretty much an endless charter.

On Tuesday we got up bright and early and dropped the downwind sails off the
furlex ready for the laundry and winter storage. Carpenter returned later in
the day with Sarah's finished shelves and they have been fitted and are a
first class job. Had a meeting with John from Demir Marine about the rest of
the work and probably frightened him a little with a printed list of jobs
and their status and our required time frames.

Our next door neighbours have been talking a lot about moving off for a week
to get their antifouling done elsewhere and suddenly this afternoon they
were off. Bit of a panic but they got away OK which was the perfect
opportunity for Sarah, who was keen to make a start on polishing the hull,
but cannot do so whilst we jammed in check by jowl. As luck would have it
she got nearly three and half hours (which sadly only equates to a washed
hull and about a sixth of the polishing) at this before the marineros
ushered another boat into the vacant space.

The thing is that not being pushed for time at the moment, we find that
various people we know and new ones we meet almost daily, pop in for a chat
or stop as they pass us on their way down the pontoon and the time just
slips away. Very enjoyable but hardy productive. Mind you talking of
productive.... Sarah has been using the Brompton bike to travel around the
site, but for some reason I never do. Today I resolved to speed things up a
bit and use the bike myself. I picked up the lock and key and was half way
to the toilet block before I realised that I had forgotten to get on the
bike! Roger from the boat beside us was very understanding about this senior
moment as apparently he frequently cycles to places around the boatyard and
then absent mindedly walks home!