Mike Having Too Much Fun

I wasn’t feeling so hot today. Maybe it was a little bug passing through but I had absolutely no energy so spent most of my day hanging inside the cabin not doing much of anything. Mike however, stayed busy and put on the lazy bags and hoisted the mizzen sail, put up the radar dome, measured for new rigging line. And even made a couple of videos…here’s one!

(Well, it says that it is posted but I don't see in on our actual blog. Maybe it's our poor internet connection or not being allowed to access 'You Tube' in Turkey. Let us know if it doesn't come through!)

No Words

An incredible fire red sun tonight

For some reason it feels different writing this blog now. And really can’t pin point why, maybe because we are in this middle ground, done with the hard haul out but not out sailing yet. And even though we made it to the water and we’ve reached that milestone, for some reason there doesn’t seem much to write about. But I have made it my mission to write an entry every day! And so I will try not to bore you to tears.

I spent most of the day starting the cleaning process of the boat (sorry, not off to a good start!). After 2 years of being on the hard we had quite the layer of dust and grime coating most everything. So out went the cushions in the saloon to bake in the sun for a bit. The shelves got emptied, useless stuff made its way into the trash. The walls and floors got washed down. Ahhhhh…much better.

Mike spent his day by running into town with the priority of finding a new mast head light. He had some luck and the shop came to the boat to eye ball just what we need. But that meant hauling the worker up the mast. I am really glad Mike doesn’t weigh 90kg because this dude did. And it looked like Mike was working hard on the winch, with me tailing the line, to get him up there. But then later in the day, a new mast head light delivered! Now it’s my turn to haul Mike up the mast so he can install it… We then ended the day with watching a new DVD series, ‘True Blood’. We have been told that you either love it or hate it. Well, I think we are definitely on the favorable end because we stayed up way too late to just watch ‘one more”.

Life Is Good

Upon awakening I realized something was different. I knew it had to be after 8am but it was quiet. On the hard I could set my watch to the sound of grinders that immediately started at 8:15am. But not out here, there was only the sound of the occasional scooter or people chatting as they were walking by. After drinking my coffee and taking the long stroll to the bathroom (a compromise, no more ladder but a heck of a long walk), I put on my bathing suit and started washing off the decks. Finally, we can wash all of the dirt, twigs, leaves off and they won’t just blow back on making a muddy mess! Mike was doing some odds and ends but then realized he was pretty wiped. So I was happy to see him take a swim, followed by a nap and just trying to sort out this next phase in his head. I took advantage of the quiet afternoon and took a swim, laid in the sun trying to get rid of my farmers tan, and gave myself an insanely needed mani/pedi. And it is seriously 15 degrees cooler in the cabin now. It's actually a pleasant temperature and we're not dripping in sweat. Thank god for wind scoops! A wind scoop is piece of nylon material that you attach to your hatch and it funnels the breeze down into your cabin. 100 times more effective than an electric fan. There was no way we could have used them on the hard or we would have been knee deep in dirt. Just another bonus to being in the water! Later in the day, we realized that a celebratory dinner of burgers on the grill sounded pretty good. So Mike got the dinghy out, worked on the engine which finally started, and we zipped across the marina to pick up a few groceries. Upon our return we sipped on a gin and tonic waiting for our hunger to kick in and then fired up the BBQ! Oh my god, those gin and tonics and burger were the best ever! We concluded that everything must taste better on the water! But even with this mellow day, and finally being on the water, there still isn’t quite the feeling of being out from under this boat. I think we both know there is still a lot of work to be done in the next couple of weeks. Now it is just staying focused so we can sail out of this marina to meet up with Heather, Shan and Lucca! Now that is going to feel good!

Here is a photo again of the marina. We are on the outer pontoon, about where those two boats are directly above the double 00 in the telephone number.

Our new swim hole

Launch Day!

We made it! Independence is now floating in the water after 2 years of being on the hard! After getting the fuel polished and cleaning the tanks this morning, the lift crew came for us. But not before we downed a little brown courage to ease the nerves. And of course this morning I found myself getting a bit sentimental for this dusty yard and the place we have been. It’s just little things like the smiles and goodbyes we got from some of the Demir boys as we were leaving. It even felt like the lift guys were happy to see us finally getting in the water. It’s funny how you can build small relationships by a daily nod or a simple hello. That in comparison to a boat hauled out next to us a couple of months ago. They may have been on the hard for less than a week, the woman spent her entire time sitting in the cockpit reading Glamour magazine as hired workers scraped and painted the hull. And then get this, as the lift team arrived they were scrambling to get ready. She then picked up a bucket on deck, and without looking threw the contents off the boat barely missing the lift guy, who I then saw grimace and wave his hands in front of his face. She almost threw her bucket of piss on him! Where is the awareness? Or the desire for that feeling of satisfaction by doing something yourself? Anyways, despite these past 3 months being a rough go, and at times greatly envying the ones who didn’t lift a finger, we know that we can own this experience and there is depth to the time spent here. But now back to the story! Again, after a little brown courage, they pulled Indy to the ‘pool’ where they lifted her out of the cradle (we both wondered if the cradle would rise with her since she had been sitting in it for so long!) and lowered her into the water. I like to think that I could hear her go “ahhhhhhhh”. Then Mike was quickly below making sure water wasn’t sprouting from a thru-hull or some other unexpected spot. Our only discovery was water trickling from the cockpit drain thru-hulls but nothing that would make us go back on land, just a little monitoring After all seemed ok they pulled the straps out from underneath her and there we were…floating.

Mike then decided to start the engine and make sure it would turn over, and it did. He even tested out the gears and forward and reverse ‘were’ working. After sitting there for what seemed like forever, the guys in the tenders came to lead us to our new home…Bravo pontoon. Oh god. That is the outer break water that is a million miles from anything. But who cares! And of course, there has to be a glitch in this story somewhere. So as we start to motor toward Bravo Mike realizes that we now have no throttle, we could only move forward at idle speed which wasn’t enough to overcome the winds. But good news, the tenders came to our rescue. One driver could see our anxiety increasing and simply said “Don’t worry, be happy!”. We then remembered that these guys are professionals and move boats around with no one on board. Our stress quickly dissipated as he happily climbed on board with a smile and laughter to handle the mooring line, while the two tenders shoved and pushed us into place. A smooth landing into our new home.

And what a view! Again, we are on the inside of the outer breakwater so just the open bay behind us. And the boats directly to our port and starboard are empty. Oh, it feels really good to be out of the masses. Not to mention away from all of the noise and dust. It’s almost hard to believe that we were just in the parking lot a few short hours ago. After getting a little acclimated and taking a shower to wash all of the dirt away, we put our new cushions in the cockpit and enjoyed a glass of Retsina we had chilling just for this occasion. And we both had separate times where we noticed the feeling of weight suddenly being lifted from our shoulders. Our reality has suddenly taken a 180 degree turn. There is still a lot of work ahead of us but the goal feels more tangible since reaching this milestone. Not to mention being able to jump off the boat for a swim in the middle of a work day! While lounging in the cockpit for a bit, we found ourselves getting really hungry and sleepy. So after an early dinner we made our way to bed with light still in the sky, with fresh breeze on our faces and the boat rocking us to sleep.

One More Sleep!

Neither of us slept very well last night. Mike got up for a few hours in the middle of the night, where I just took forever to fall into a fitful sleep. I definitely have some butterflies present among the general excitement about getting in the water TOMORROW! Mike spent another day cleaning up and putting things in their place. I ran into town and bought some material to make fender covers, and then spent the rest of the day screaming at our geriatric sewing machine. She is a beautiful thing but man, temperamental. And it doesn’t help the fact that I am not a seamstress or anything close for that matter. But with Mike’s help (and patience) he was able to fix the problems, that arose every 10 minutes, and I was finally able to get 4 big covers done. Then it was enjoying our last night (fingers crossed) on the hard with some dinner and a movie. Hopefully this time tomorrow we will be gently rocking back and forth with the sound of water lapping at our hull.

Meet Big Red!

It’s official! We are on the list to be launched on Wednesday, the 14th! Holy shit. Are we ready for this? Hell yeah! Today we got another coat of pain (I mean paint) on the boot stripe and the name. This means that we’ve officially finished all the planned painting projects! Of course, there will undoubtedly be some touch-ups to come, but the big stuff is done. Despite any misgivings about our painting technique, I have to say that we are both very pleased with how she turned out. Indy is looking GOOD! After finishing painting we ran into town to pick up zincs for her belly and a few other items, and on the way back to the marina we actually were able to spot Indy from the road. I think her new paint job might stand out a bit. But what the hell? Why not have fun with it?

Here she is.....!

Kinda funny, huh? It wasn't even on purpose. I just couldn't reach the I and N!

Three More Sleeps

We are starting to wrap stuff up around here! We got a coat of paint on the boot stripe and ‘Independence’ painted on the transom. We hauled Mike’s butt up the main mast so he could bring down a broken mast head light that we need to replace. Uhmmm, what else? I tackled cleaning the fenders and the BBQ, while Mike continued to button up some of the loose ends. The BBQ was about one of the dirtiest jobs I have done yet during this haul out but how exciting that we are getting to that point! The feelings of tedium seem to have worn off, and I am now getting PSYCHED!!!