Mizzen Drop

So you’d think that after a couple of weeks, my sleep patterns would have found some sort of normalcy. Yet I still find myself awake at odd hours. This morning I was unable to fall back asleep, so I got up, made a hot cuppa strong coffee, and while Serena continues to saw logs I try my hand at this blog thing. It’s been mostly her writing so far, with an occasional input here or there by me, so now it’s my turn.
But where to begin? This whole boat is such a long continuation of pieces, parts and projects that all bleed together… today’s project actually started last year. I think Serena has mentioned previously how the boat got the better of me last year. 10+ hour days, six or seven days a week, for three solid months with seemingly little progress is enough to discourage most anyone. It definitely left me feeling defeated and deflated. The big issue last year was rust (apparently, steel boats rust. Maybe you’ve heard?). Rust cropping up in places that you’d never expect it, or areas that show no outward sign of corrosion. Where did it all come from? I could blame the previous owner for a lack of maintenance. I could blame the surveyor for not doing a thorough enough job. I could blame myself for being too blinded by the imminent realization of my dream of having a boat in the Med. Trying to assign blame to someone really wouldn’t change anything though, would it? Instead I’m choosing to look at it as just my turn. This boat is 25+ years old, and some of these projects we’re doing won’t have to be done for another 25 years. A bunch of things have come due and we’re the ones who own at the time. Kind of like musical chairs.
Anyway, where was I? Oh yea! Rust. So three days before I was supposed to leave for home last year (I had already pushed back my departure date by a week or so in hopes of finishing up some other projects), it rained. Not unusual, but this time there seemed to be more than a little bit of water streaming into the aft cabin from the ceiling panels. A little investigation revealed that the fittings that take the wires and cables that run up the mizzen mast through the deck to the electric panel had failed. Or I should say the fittings were fine, it was the steel that surrounded the fittings that had failed. A little poking and prodding and soon I had a two square inch hole and a bunch of other really thin, corroded material surrounding it. This was within an inch or two of the mizzen, and it was clear that the metal plate under the mast itself would have to be replaced. Cool. No problem. I got three whole days! Actually, I was nowhere near as optimistic as that. I was done. I whipped up some epoxy putty, slathered the whole area in it, and called it good. Hopefully it would at least keep the rain out.
Fast forward to this year and the continuing masochism. Now that the dodger is out of our way and we have a relatively clear run of the decks, it is time to deal with the mizzen mast. It seemed a pretty straight forward process. Use the halyard on the main mast to lift the mizzen, have a couple of lines to control the swing, and Bob’s Yer Uncle! Since I had never done this before, and it was just the two of us, we thought it best to enlist the help of a friend and co-steel boat sufferer, Uli. Now Uli had dropped a mast before so I was eager to have his input. His approach was entirely different from mine. Instead of using a line from the top of the main to lift the mizzen, he wanted to use a line from the top of the mizzen, via a cantilever, to control the descent. Uhhh…ok! My biggest concern with that approach was being able to control the side to side swing of the top of the mast. We had control lines tied at the spreaders (about half way up the mast), but the best angle, and therefore purchase, that we could get on them didn’t seem like enough. But ah well, you’ve done this before, we haven’t, so we’ll defer. It was when the mast was at a 45degree angle, careened off to the port side, and looking to make a not so soft landing on top of the building behind us (which is a repair shop that was working on a new mast. Would you call that foreshadowing?), and Uli asked if we had insurance that I started to wonder if this was the best approach. But it was too late to retreat now! Onward through the fog! I would have closed my eyes if I weren’t using them. As it was I couldn’t spit by the time we were finished, but somehow we managed to end up with the mast in a mostly horizontal position. Its head was indeed on the repair shop’s roof, and this brought us a tirade of sharply spoken Turkish from one of the women who work in the office. But that and some doubtful/questioning looks from the shop workers were the worst of our injuries. Some more finagling and line wrangling allowed us to move the thing so it’s entirely lying on our deck. Man! That sucker is way bigger than it looked standing up!! The spreaders now have most of the cockpit, and our gloriously clean-run decks are no more, but at least I can fix the plate beneath where it was standing. Of course, putting it back up will be another story. Although… I hear that Sloops are all the rage!

Trying to figure out the best approach

At least it's down...well partially anyways

This shop is coming in handy after all!

Kinda ironic, bringing our old mast down with a bright and shiny new one RIGHT BELOW US!

Ahhhh... success!

See... Serena does have a mast in her cockpit. Our friends have dirty minds:)

Sparks and Bikes

We spent our morning waiting for the man to return to take down the rest of the dodger. He showed up around noon and got to work. I had a moment of where I needed to make a quick decision… stay on the obnoxiously loud boat or head back to the library! I ended up staying on the boat but it wasn’t long before both Mike and I were ready to retreat. After making sure the sparks from the grinder (that were flying inside the cabin through open holes) weren’t going to set the boat on fire, we set off towards town in ‘Herbie’. Thank god we had the car reserved to get the hell out of dodge and away from the possible fire of angry neighbors! Once in town, we seemed to hit all the usual spots for errands and then got hungry…and thirsty. We found a restaurant with a view of the “Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey” coming through Marmaris and were entertained by people watching and the bikers that came through town with much hoopla. We then came home to a boat that was coated in metal dust and cigarette butts. Once again, I armed myself with the shop vac and we started the process of cleaning up and taking down the tarps. Can I nominate the ‘Shop Vac’ as one of the best things ever invented? I don’t know how we would get by with out it.

Before...

...and after!

See ya dodger! Part 2 1/2

This morning we attended the second half of the talk about cruising in the Adriatic… today was Northern Croatia, Slovenia and Italy! Sailing to Venice?! How romantic does that sound?! But then we also heard the term ‘Schengen’ for the first time from another American. We knew the boat could only be in EU waters for a limited time but didn’t know about the time restrictions on us. It sounds like we can only be in the EU for 90 days out of 180. A little more research is needed but it shouldn’t interfere with our plans too much…that is if Croatia stays out of the EU! In the afternoon, someone finally arrived to start cutting down the rest of the dodger. Mike stayed on the obnoxiously loud boat while I retreated to the library. Only about half of what was remaining got cut away so the job will hopefully be finished tomorrow. At this point it feels that the rest of our projects (…and laundry if we don’t want it to end up dirtier than before it went into the wash) are in a holding pattern until this job is done.

See...clean laundry and cutting the dodger wouldn't mix too well

A Rainy Sunday

The forecast kept going back and forth…rain, no rain, rain, no rain. Well, during the night the rain came. The sound was so welcomed and the air was fresh. I enjoyed lying in bed in the morning and not feeling the need to get up anytime soon. That is until I heard Mike yelling “shit!” because water had found it’s way through a fairly large hole in the cockpit which was directly above our electrical box. The sound of pouring water alerted him to the situation and he quickly put up another tarp and set the electric heater up to try and dry out the wet wires. But I still managed to stay in bed a little longer…until Mike said the magic words and offered to make breakfast and brought me a cup of coffee in bed. After a delicious breakfast of French Toast sans maple syrup and mystery meat (that was all Mike) the rain was still falling. And after a couple of puddle jumping outings to the bathroom, we dropped the table and turned the settee into a great big day bed! We lounged under the covers and decided to start our movie marathon. Ok, so our bootleg movies were not worth the 2 bucks we spent on them. We started one which began to skip just as we were getting into it, started another and it fizzled 20 minutes from the end! And believe it or not started another, Precious of all movies, to only have that one also stop working 20 minutes from the end as well! It took some resolve, and some ouzo we found hiding in the cupboard, to not throw the computer off the boat. But by then it was time for bed and another (no work)Sunday had come to an end.

See ya dodger! Part II

We tackled another big section of the dodger! It was much quicker and easier than yesterday but this piece came down with a bang. It was anticipated but we were lucky that it missed the wheel by a couple of inches. It did take a nice chunk out of the decking, but nothing that a little putty can’t fix. Now we can actually stand up in front of the wheel which helps us to visualize and dream about what our new dodger will be like. And it is so nice to have the headroom! Also walking from the cockpit to the forward decks is so much easier for now, no shrouds to have to duck under. We just need to be careful not to impale ourselves on the steel jutting up around the cockpit. Mike’s old flip flops have come in pretty handy!

See ya dodger! Part I

The day had arrived! Mehmet was coming to cut off the dodger! Mike had tarped everything off and we were anxiously awaiting his arrival. 9 o’clock came, 10 o’clock came, 11 o’clock came and no Mehmet. Mike decided to give him a call and luckily his friend was present to translate. There was some mis-communication from his last visit and he thought he was supposed to come by today to just talk. Bummer. Big bummer. We had really been looking forward to have this bulky, in-the-way, rusty hunk of metal gone! So Mike decided to take matters into his own hands. He broke out his grinder, and I armed myself with the shop vac and we went in! It was a pretty dirty and nasty job under all of those tarps but we were able to successfully cut half of it away! But that was only the first part of the job. What do we do with it now? That sucker is heavy! Through the strategic use of a 2x4, various lines, and the mizzen halyard we were able to get the big piece of jagged steel safely lowered over the side of the boat. And no one yelled at us during the process! People can get very touchy when you are cutting or grinding steel next to their boats because of the dust. Let alone dropping a 200+ lb. hunk of steel on their heads! Afterwards, we strung up the shade tarp and enjoyed our more airy cockpit with a beer. It felt really good to do it ourselves and see the progress. Now tomorrow is the next half!

Going in!

What now?

Success!

Canceled=Destroyed

We had a full boat today. Ishmael finishing up the head, Steve (another cruiser) who is a marine electrical engineer came by to do a survey of our electronics. Then Engin from one of the local upholstery shops came by to talk about canvas work we need done for our new dodger. It was a little cramped at first but everyone seemed to find their spots. I attempted to start sanding the starboard toe rails but the next boat over kindly asked me to not sand today because they were varnishing. I can’t say I put up too much of a fight, but I did manage to get a coat of Teak oil on the port toe rail. Later in the day, we took ‘Herbie’ into town for some errands. We are now a part of a car share and this was our first outing. We already look forward to the day when we can take a leisurely drive down the Datca peninsula….. But our first errand was to stop by the bank because the ATM in the marina ate Mike’s debit card last week. I guess we forgot to inform our bank that we were going to be out of the country. All of the cash withdrawals and transferring of money must have finally looked suspicious to them. After his card was swallowed Mike immediately went into the marina office and the receptionist phoned the local bank to inform them that Mike needed his debit card returned. She said that they would not service the ATM until the next Monday or Tuesday and his card would not be available until Wednesday or Thursday. So we went in today (Thursday) assuming it would be an easy retrieval. The first woman looked up the information and told Mike that his card had been “canceled”. Mike was trying to ask her what canceled means exactly but her English was limited and she became a little flustered and sent us to customer service. This is where a very professional and nice woman made some phone calls and told us that indeed Mike’s debit card had been canceled. A nice word for destroyed. They only hold a card for 24 hours and if the owner does not claim it then it is destroyed and sent to Headquarters ‘for security purposes’. Fortunately, it will just be a slight inconvenience because I have a debit card to the same account. Lesson learned…go to the bank immediately if you are in a foreign country and your card is swallowed by an ATM! After a few more errands in town, we headed to ‘Orange’ for dinner. We ate at this restaurant several times a couple of years ago and it was always a treat. We sat outside despite the staff thinking it was too cold and enjoyed a cocktail as the sun came out from behind the clouds. It is a gorgeous spot on the bay and look forward to coming back when it is a bit warmer. We moved inside for dinner and enjoyed watching a group of older, very matronly looking Turkish woman play poker with the whole works…green tablecloth, chips and cash in hand. We also had some giggles while watching the owner trying to train a young waiter. He looked a bit like a deer in head lights and seemed almost afraid to approach us. But the food was delicious and it was nice to get out of the marina for a bit, although the boat was never far from our minds…