Light at the end of the tunnel

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Sat 1 May 2010 19:27
Thursday, Friday and Saturday 29th, 30th April and 1st May

These last few days have seen us getting close to finishing all the bits and pieces like bending on the sails and working out all the storage issues. We have Trevor and Lesley joining us for the next 7 weeks whilst we take part in the East Med Rally and we needed to make some space for their luggage.

Certainly with the sails all back on we are looking more like a real boat again and there is a definite sense of achievement in the air.

Moby delivered our new cruising chute known as a Screamer and it was with a great sense of relief that we found that it fitted perfectly into the space we had made for it in the forepeak.

On Thursday morning we both went into Marmaris to the fruit and veg market which is quite an experience and I will be posting a few photos later. On Friday I had a little technical difficulty with Lloyds TSB with regards trying to pay a bill for work done using our credit card. This peaked with an astonishing conversation that I had with their Customer Services, based in India which they ended by terminating the call having achieved nothing at all. It did not seem to trouble them that of all the security questions they can ask us, they chose on this occasion to ask things that we could not answer without the last statement in front of us. Really not too helpful when you are away abroad. In the evening we went to the marina restaurant for the first time this year joining David and Jill whose boat is anchored out in the bay at the moment.

On Saturday Sarah went off with Chris and Steve from Scott Free in the car that they have been sharing over the winter to do a big shop in town and we plan to go out with them on Sunday night for a meal in Marmaris. This was Labour Day here but it seemed to make no real difference as the Demir Marine stainless welders were still working hard to finish off the last little jobs for us. The work that they have done has been superb and we will be sending photos of some of these improvements to Najad Yachts just to let them know what they could do to make their boats better still.

We were given a guided tour over Skye which is a 78ft South African steel catamaran which was standing on the hard just in front of us during the winter. It is absolutely vast and the boat they like to call their tender that goes round with them is a 40ft powerboat with no less than four 350hp turbo charged Mercury Outboards to drive it along at a cool 65 plus knots.