Not a very good start to being on
our own. I was just about to go ashore about 8pm on Wednesday, 9th
July when, as Dick pressed the button on the remote, to lower the passarelle,
there was a hissing sound and there, below the passarelle was a huge pool of oil
and the whole thing was now inoperable. We really need to get the problem sorted
before we move across the Aegean or
we will have to wait until we lay the boat up for the winter. The passarelle was
only fitted at the end of March, while the boat was out of the water, wintering
in Marmaris,
Turkey.
Had to bite the bullet and sail back to
Marmaris to get the passarelle repaired. It also gives us the opportunity to get
various other things repaired and sorted while we are here. Things always happen
for a reason and now we are in a marina. Actually on the outside pontoon, sea
side, but as near as dammit as far as a marina is concerned. We have 2 lazy
lines holding the bows and at least 4 lines ashore.
It was fortunate that we were
tied up safely as the evening of the day we arrived in the marina, a squall hit
us, raining briefly, on the decks which I had just cleaned, with the wind
blowing a hooley!
I had my hair cut very short
again today. I also had it bleached all over. It wasn’t possible to have
highlights as my hair has been cut much too short. I quite like it but Dick
isn’t too sure and reckons I must have visited the same barber as Annie Lennox.
It will be OK in 3 or 4 weeks when the roots have grown a bit and the sun and
sea have lightened it.
There are several Lagoon
catamarans at this marina. One is the same model as our catamaran, and is moored
just 100 metres away, on the same pontoon as us, wide open to the sea. The owner
picked his up from
France recently
and is sailing it to
Thailand, where
he lives. He is much impressed with all the improvements we have made to our
boat and is coming aboard later to get the details of the various types of
equipment, covers, etc.
After rushing from one to place
to the next, since we left Plymouth at the beginning of June, 2006, we can now
slow down and do what we wanted to do from the beginning, relax and cruise slowly from country to
country, island to island, bay to bay.
Dick has updated the blog so that
you can now see the passage that we have taken since leaving
Plymouth. The automatic update
ceased when we reached
Lebanon because
the satellite phone had stopped working. We hadn’t had a moment to rectify the
backlog until our forced stop-over in Marmaris.
The posting of this blog is the
14th July but I don’t expect to do another until the beginning of
August.
Until the next time, have fun and
enjoy the summer.
Below, Irene with new hair-do
