Yard Sale

Another morning of getting up early to get a third and final coat on the topsides! And after taking all of the plastic off the toe rails it looks fantastic! Maybe some brush strokes here and there but I really don’t care at this point! As Mike reminds me (ad nauseam) “It doesn’t have to be perfect, it’s not a perfect boat”. We are also in the process of trying to clean up our junk yard. Three months of serious projects as well as a ton of donated “goods” has left the area under and around us chock full of boating stuff. Some useful, some not so much. So Mike painted ‘free stuff’ on a big piece of plywood and announced it on ‘The Net’ this morning. We had a handful of people come and rummage through but a lot of it will ultimately go to the rubbage bin. It feels good to purge ourselves of all of this stuff, and it feels even better to realize that we have all of the big jobs done! But unfortunately today, the small jobs are feeling tedious. At least to me. Mike seems to like just putzing around on one little thing or another. I keep telling myself that we are so close and to “get motivated!” but think I am still just really tired. Tonight was also kinda rough due to realizing that all of my girlfriends were spending the day together celebrating our good friend Heidi’s bachelorette party. It’s times like these that make it hard to be away from home. Mike and I also realized that we got engaged one year ago today! Man, what a year it has been. Makes me wonder where life is going to take us this next year…

Them's some dirty feet!

Early to Rise

The wind howled all night long which I blame on my poor night’s sleep. But surprisingly, it wasn’t too hard to get out of bed at 5:30 am to start painting. We were out there before the sun rose and the second coat is making quite the difference. It looks awesome! We even got some smiles from the Demir boys as they showed up for work! But after that I was done and never really recovered. I am tired. So I spent the rest of the day updating our blog and was secretly thankful it took so long because I failed miserably when I attempted to do anything that took more energy. By 6pm I was starving and ready for bed. After a quick meal of beans and a failed attempt at watching a bunk DVD, I headed to bed while there was still light in the sky. And it felt really good.

Spring Cleaning

It felt like we were waiting to paint most of the day. Mike got the final prep for the topsides done and then we putzed around on other little jobs while waiting until it cooled down enough to start painting. This included Mike diving into the lazarette to organize things and to rid ourselves of many, many useless items. I think I married a packrat. Mike has a tendency to keep anything that “might come in handy some day”. Given, some of it may, but the chance that we will need THAT particular item is close to nil. I guess it stems from the need/desire to be completely self-sufficient.
Unfortunately, painting seems to bring out a bit of stress in me (and therefore, us). Maybe because of all of the prepping we do I want it to look good, not like we just slapped it on. So after reading about painting polyurethane on the internet, I felt like I had some good tips. We briefly discussed our strategy, and then got to work. And of course, that’s when the wind decided to pick up. I mean really pick up. And all our planning quickly went out the window. At one point our tray full of paint was actually blown off the scaffolding. We then decided to switch to the leeward side of the boat, and after Mike moved all of the scaffolding we started again. We followed the recommended technique of one person rolling on the paint and the other following with a brush to even things out, but the results looked like shit, which only added to our developing stress fest. We then decided that only one of us would ‘roll’ which turned out to be me with Mike as my paint lackey. Luckily, we just got the first coat on when the skies grew dark. And then immediately went inside and drank a bottle of wine for dinner. Now it’s just getting up before sunrise to get a second coat on. As much as we hate setting the alarm for 0530, it’s gotta be done. Especially before the Demir boys show up and can see our work!

Day 100 of Haul Out...

Today we got the anti-fouling painted on. And if you aren’t familiar with anti-fouling paint, it is nasty stuff. The kind we are using is a self-polishing which releases ‘biocide’ in the water. Basically, its purpose is to kill anything that tries to attach itself or grow on the bottom of your boat. So the last thing you want to do is breathe it or get it on your skin. And this stuff was THICK! It was like painting the boat with toxic chocolate pudding…in a clown suit.



Despite being pretty tired and really wanting to just spend a quiet evening on the boat, we headed to Missing Link to watch a soccer game with our friend, Uli and his wife, who were back from Germany. We should have stayed at home because we probably weren’t the best company. The meal was awful (weird, because it is usually super fantastic), the Germany vs. Spain game was a complete bore and anti-climatic. And then we had to yell at the dolmus drive to SLOW DOWN as he was practically skidding off the road passing the dolmus in front of him on what seemed like a blind corner (now that was called for). You can say that our tolerance is quickly diminishing and it was showing. I kept hearing our friend Amy saying “build a bridge” which she says to her 2 and 4 year olds. It’s good advice.

Rejuvenated

I think getting off the boat and out of town for a bit gave us a much needed chance to relax and rejuvenate. We woke up this morning feeling recharged and found ourselves ready to get to work! Mike continued prepping the topsides. I finally got some very needed varnishing done. While the putty was drying we spent some time trying to clean out the cabin and v-berth. It felt a little premature to spend the time organizing and mounting the life raft, passarelle, BBQ, etc but we need to clear out this space since the cabin has gotten a bit full and cluttered. And you should see our pile of junk underneath the boat! Some of it is ours, but most of it has been ‘gifts’ from our neighbors and other cruisers. Old stiff line, hatch covers, fender covers, a vacuum cleaner. For some reason everyone has chosen us as their ‘donation’ center. We are in desperate need of announcing a boat jumble of our own so we don’t have to leave it all next to the garbage cans. In the late afternoon I got the FINAL coat of paint on the dodger and in the cockpit. And we are realizing that we are getting really, really close. All of a sudden the cockpit and decks aren’t a patchwork of putty and paint and covered in tools. This place is starting to look like more like a boat and less like a swap meet as we clean, organize, and things make their way back to where they live. All of the things we have talked about for so long are now on the boat….roll bar with solar panels, new windlass, new dodger, new floors, shade bimini, cockpit cushions for our bums! Exciting to say the least. And to end the evening, we ran off to the bar to watch the Uruguay vs. Netherlands match. I don’t think I had ever been so amped to watch a game in my life, I really wanted to see Uruguay go down. And they did! Take that Suarez!
And the best news of all!!! Our trip with Heather, Shan and Lucca is on! They are flying into Athens the first week of August and are going to meet us somewhere in the Greek Islands. The trip has been touch and go for quite awhile. We are so excited to finally realize that it is going to happen! Thanks for hanging on to the roller coaster ride. It's going to be so worth it!

We've Got to Get Outta Here!

15+ hour overnight bus rides should be illegal. Thankfully, our lack of sleep the previous 3 nights helped us with some fitful dozing most of the way. But we still felt a bit crunchy as we had to fight our way onto the dolmus which would take us back to the boat. And we both had the same reaction while walking into the marina. We have to get outta here!!! But first, catching up on sleep. Unfortunately the boat was too hot for a siesta so after some time sorting through a gazillion pictures, we got Herbie and went into town to pick up our paint for the topsides (the color will be a surprise…). We also did a run to the cash and carry and stocked up on can and dry goods while we had the chance to haul it. And figured while we had the car for the last time (sadly, no one is around anymore to share the costs) we would spend the evening in an air conditioned movie theatre. I’m already missing our room in Cappadocia but I am sure our little aft cabin will suffice just fine tonight for a glorious and solid 8 hours of sleep.

A surprise when we got home.... our cockpit cushions!

No Stinkin' Tour Bus for Us!

Thank god we didn’t have to get on that tour bus this morning. After 6 hours of sleep and too much wine it was all I could do to make our 10 o’clock check out time. Despite my touch and go situation the morning was amazing. We met up with Sanjay and started our tour of the country side. Instead of taking the main road, the boys navigated with a very simple (and not to scale map) and we snaked our way through farms on bumpy dirt paths and through villages to find ourselves in Derinkuyu, where we visited an underground city. According to Lonely Planet, these cities were occupied around the 7th century BC. At times of peace, the people lived and farmed above ground. But when they were invaded, they retreated to the underground where they could live safely for up to 6 months. Let’s hope they weren’t invaded much. It was all I could do to make my way down to the bottom of the 7 levels, look up the ventilation shaft and then make my way back out. They say a tour last 45 minutes…no way. Most of the stairways leading you down (which were the same leading you back up) were only shoulder width and maybe 5 feet high. I was praying that we didn’t time our escape at the same time a tour bus was descending. They made them small on purpose so if they were attacked one enemy could be killed at a time. So what happens if you are half way up and then 40 tourists are in front of you trying to get down? With no spear in hand, I didn’t even want to think about it.

As we were walking back to the truck and basking in the sun and fresh air, I was once again sucked in… by a sweet old lady this time. She eyed me on the way in and wanted me to buy one of her dolls. She had a face that was hard to resist, especially when she saw me again, stuck the doll down my shirt and looked up at me with her toothless grin. The doll is kinda strange but the 2 lira is worth the photo!

From there we decided we didn’t have time to drive to Ilhara Valley so started to make our way back to Goreme. This time by winding our way through the most spectacular side roads with scenery ranging from wheat and squash fields, mesa plateaus, canyons, fairy chimneys, lush valleys and lakes. And finally, I feel like I am in Turkey. We drove through small villages where we were definitely the event of the day. Sometimes it seemed like there were more tractors than cars. And a common sight, the women hard at work in the fields adorned in their head scarves and billowy, flower printed pants while the men huddle together in the shade of an outdoor café playing backgammon and dominos.

And of course, a stop for a Ruhf photo shoot!

But all good things must come to an end. We said our goodbyes to Adam and Zoe (you guys couldn’t have timed your visit and friendship any better, thank you!), Sanjay and Ramazan and got on another overnight bus to Marmaris. But we feel rejuvenated and ready to tackle the boat for the final push. This morning we got an email from Mike’s family letting us know that they want us to stay with Independence and continue our adventure. So that’s what we are going to do. Get this boat in the water and sail it home.