Mum's Email 3
Yachtforeverfreedom
Sat 24 Oct 2009 13:20
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Day 8 Sunday 18th October.
Easy day just cleaning, washing and the usual
chores. Captains' meeting at 6 pm. We book out of Turkey on Tuesday. Then
overnight to the Lebanon. The stops in Turkey have been really good. Quiet
anchorages, friendly helpful people. Mersin was a disappointment. A
huge marina; unfinished with only a few boats and a lot of litter in the water
and ashore. The town is very industrial and different from the tourist
areas we have seen previously.
We purchased from the USA a Winch Bit at $$49 and
we use the portable electric drill with the winch bit to hoist our very large
mainsail. It works like a dream; really good bit of kit. The steps
up the mast were, in hind-sight, a bad idea as they seem to get every bit of
rope wrapped around them.
Day 9 Monday 19th October.
Last minute shopping. We have treated
ourselves to a shopping trolley; really useful when we have a fair way to walk
to the shops.
Day 10 Tuesday 20th October.
The Rally Organiser and all Captains leave on a bus
at 0830 for Immigration and Customs, to clear out of Turkey. They return
at 1530 having got themselves lost on the way to Customs. 4 of the yachts
leave Tuesday afternoon, Mistral and us decide to leave early Weds morning
so as to have only one night at sea.
Day 11 Wednesday 21st October.
Up at 0300 and leave pontoon at 0315 - we follow
the Rally Organiser's boat out and are the last to leave. It gets daylight here
at around 0630 and dark again at 1800 so it seems like short days and long
nights. We experienced all points of sailing but the wind increased
and we had to put 2 reefs in the main. Wednesday night we have a
thunderstorm with lightening and rain. The lightening hitting the sea
beside us. At this point I finished packing our Grab bag ready to put into
the liferaft just in case. The sea by now has a good swell and sea
sickness sets in. Peter stayed on deck and I went below - that
way I could not see the big seas behind us. The boat behaved very well as
usual but the crew are not so confident. Lo's crew of 2 Indian boys
were both sea-sick as was the younger of his 2 dogs, a Welsh Terrier
puppy called Banja. His Fox Terrier, Hugo, is well used-to sailing and just
takes things in his stride.
Day 12 Thursday 22nd October.
The sea state and the weather get better. We
cannot hoist the main as ropes have wrapped themselves around the mast and now
is not the time to climb up the mast to untangle them. The foresail
is up but the forestay fitting on the deck has become detached. Yet
another problem. We arrive offshore from the Lebanon and the Navy
call us up to ask various questions prior to entry. One is "have you any
women on board". No - just a wife.
We arrive at Jounieh marina 20k north of
Beirut. An up-market place with a very large swimming pool area, a huge
restaurant and tennis courts. $50 entry fee and our passports are held by
Immigration until we are ready to leave - we are issued Shore-passes so we can
out of the marina.
Day 13 Friday 23rd October
We both have had a good long sleep and feel
refreshed and ready to go on with the Rally. Yesterday's rotten passage
put at the back of our minds. We are certainly learning new skills,
especially for getting mains electricity onto the boat. Every place we
stop seems to have a different electrical connections - luckily Lo, the Rally
Organiser had an electrical company for 30 years so knows a bit about these
things. The members of the Rally are
helpful and someone is always around to help out. Peter has fixed the
forestay problem and the foresail is now ready to use again.
Day 14 Saturday 24th October.
This morning, Dan Webster the American
skipper off "Still Dreaming" has been up the mast for Peter to fit a preventer
line joining all the steps down each side of the mast so that ropes cannot wrap
around individual steps and get caught. Unfortunately one of the Swiss
boats, Adalante, may have to pull out of the Rally due to a prop shaft
problem. They have now been lifted out of the water and engineers are
assessing the problem - this is the 6th time this has happened in the last 3
months so something is seriously wrong - at a guess, the engine is moving on
it's mountings and causing the prop-shaft to move out of alignment.
We are going on an excursion tomorrow to a huge ruin about 2 hours inland,
called Baalbeck. A coach will pick us up at 0830 tomorrow. We are
staying probably until next Wednesday then onto Larnaca in Cyprus. There
we will re-provision the boat ready to go onto Egypt.
 Dan Webster from "Still Dreaming" fixing some
things on our mast
 Dan's view of our boat from up the
mast
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