So what now?

So; what happens next? Boat: Tick.  Paid for: Tick. Pangs of Angst: Tick.  Rick has been waking up at 2am every night with thoughts running around in his head.  When I ask him in the morning what kept him awake he just says “the hamster only needs a very small wheel you know”

Currently our boat is on the hard stand (out of the water) in Marmaris Yat Marina while we have some work done on her.  We have rented a rooftop apartment in Marmaris town centre ($30 a night – just so you don’t think this is a penthouse even though the view is. It’s really more like an attic!).

This is while all the paperwork gets done as it just isn’t practical to live on board when a yacht is high and dry in a dirty, dusty, grotty boat yard with no running water. This means that every day we get on board a local Dolmus (minibus) and for around 80 cents take the bouncy 20-minute drive to the boat yard.  

Being out of the water meant that her bottom has to be cleaned and needs a new coat of antifouling.  Her charming signature Hallberg-Rassy blue stripe needs a polish to remove her old name as she will be getting a new one in due course. Then there are the jobs that are essential before we launch her and head off sailing for the next 5 months.  Things like out of date flares and fire extinguishers that need replacing or servicing.  Most important of all though, are the jobs that need doing in order to satisfy our insurers that she is all ship shape. We can’t go anywhere until these are rectified and we have documentation to show so.  We are hoping to have her back in the water and at a berth on the marina in the next few days….Monday if we are lucky.

Now about the name.  It’s supposed to be bad luck to change the name of a boat but we both believe that if we change it in accordance with tradition we can go ahead.  We want a name that reflects us and our journey more than her prior name did. After having a boat in Australia called Ard Righ that no-one could understand, except the odd Scotsman, we decided her new name needs to be short-ish and easy to spell out over the radio (Alpha-Romeo- Delta ….)_ So our plan is to register her in the Port of London, UK where we have nominated our name preferences. It’s kind of like claiming a company or domain name –  you have to submit 4 choices and hope that at least 1 of your choices is still available. The boats paperwork then has to be couriered back to us once it’s complete. After this we need to follow the ritual for the change by letting Poseidon and the wind Gods know. They are not so big on paperwork but embrace symbolism, deeds and actions to erase the old name and take note of the new.  More on this when we do it but I believe it conveniently involves the drinking of Champagne (us as well as Poseidon).

The next job was to delve into all her nooks and crannies as a starting point for making her ours.  In true Rick and Cath form this has meant hauling every little thing out of every cupboard to check what we have, whether to keep it and where it should go. Hopefully the boat will eventually look like it did the first time we stepped aboard! There will be a boat tour to come too, by the way.

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The galley turned up a few things that made me smile.  As you can see from the photos there’s quite the array of bottle stoppers and bottle openers.  Much can be deduced from this, I believe.  Also, there are quite a LOT of glasses on board. Pretty sure I counted 16. Then there’s the drink coasters. Not quite sure why there are 7 knives. Meanwhile Rick has determined there are about a 100 wire brushes between the ones the ex-owner left on board and those he bought from Australia.

After putting it all back away in boxes and making lists of what is in each cupboard or drawer Rick got stuck into servicing the anchor winch and hauling all of the chain out of the chain locker to make sure it’s marked for various depths and the “bitter end” is tied on! You wouldn’t believe how many folk have actually lost their anchor and all their chain by not checking this out.  He was particularly chuffed that the first tool he used was a rubber hammer he had bought from Australia and which he effectively employed to free up the anchor windlass (winch to all you landlubbers). Obviously one very special tool. He even actually climbed right into the small oddly shaped anchor chain locker – I really wish I had been there to witness that.

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I have spent hours and hours over the last few days trying to find the type of kitchenware shop I am used to in order to buy a long list of items.  They just don’t exist here.  Just where is IKEA when you need it? Tea towels are not a thing here for example. Nor are bread tins, zesters, baking trays or snap lock bags, nor is crockery by the single piece.

Look out kids there might be a list of stuff to bring with you when you visit!

So clearly you can see we are trying to be productive and make ourselves useful while we wait, wondering if everything we do will need to be done all over again once we get her into the water and the big post boatyard clean-up begins!