Inshallah

It was hot today, really hot. We have talked to other folks who simply can’t tolerate it and are retreating to other places…such as their farmhouse in northern France. Yeah, don’t feel too sorry for them. We actually bought a thermometer (not sure if that was a good idea) and the cabin read 34 C (93 F) today. And it was much, much warmer outside. While just standing in the shade we had sweat continuously dripping down. At least we are in the water and can now get away with just wearing our bathing suits. At least it cuts down on our laundry. And speaking of laundry, it’s been at least a month since anything was last washed except for some underwear in a bucket. And I finally got up the courage to tackle it today. It’s a task I dread. But the laundry gods were on our side today. After gathering every washable item we own (including a blanket we haven’t washed since I bought it in India. 4 years ago.) we loaded three big bags in the dinghy and headed to the other side of the marina. Our timing was perfect, both machines were working and empty! The third bag we splurged on and will pick it up on Monday all washed, dried and folded. Oh, the little things like clean laundry.
And the day just continues to get better. Mike went up the mizzen and got the radar wired. Also the rest of our electronics. As I type he is playing with our new Raymarine C80. We have seriously moved up in the world. We have radar, GPS and depth sounder all on one nifty screen in the cockpit! Plus Mike thinks the work on all the major projects will be done tomorrow (I’m giving him until the following day). I will believe the work is done when I see him drink a beer at noon. But really, we are getting so close! So tomorrow consists of doing some final projects, and more cleaning. Monday doing some shopping. Tuesday trying to go for a shake down sail. Wednesday or Thursday pulling out of this place??? Knock on wood… Inshallah… If the Gods are willing…

Heaven and a New Sail

Mike is tired, really tired. If I only had a nickel for every time I heard him sigh today. But he plugged along and got the wind generator up on its new support pole. It’s beefy and hopefully will do the trick and not shake our roll bar down. We also got the wiring from the roll bar (wind gen, solar panels, GPS antennas) all through conduit, snaked along the deck and down into the cabin. And they delivered the fixed main sail…and all of the reefing blocks are in the right place! Since the evening was so calm we decided to hoist the sail. Very exciting although the new rigging system feels that it needs a kink or two worked out.

Putting in the battens

And another beautiful evening in Marmaris. We celebrated our new sail with a half a bottle of wine from the night before and figured ‘who needs a glass’. So while Mike sat on the dock, I jumped in the water to cool off. And I had a brief but unforgettable moment. Floating in the cool pastel colored sea, tinged from the pink sunset, while taking a sip of red wine straight from the bottle handed down to me by my beloved husband. Heaven. Right there.

Sookeeee

The wind finally stopped howling sometime during the night and we awoke to a gorgeous morning. We decided to try and beat the heat and make our way into town and get a new, and bigger, stainless steel pipe fabricated for the wind generator. We had luck but Mike just had to return in the evening to pick it up and now lug a 2 meter piece of pipe on the dolmus. Thankfully the driver let him on with it!

1st attempt

2nd attempt

Later in the evening we attempted to put up our main sail. So after Mike got the lazy bags and bolt rope on the boom he realized that one of the reefing blocks is still on the wrong side of the sail! Oh my god! How difficult is it?! So he took it all back down and folded it up once more for it to go back and be fixed.


But it was such a beautiful, calm evening. And I just couldn’t bring myself to walk all the way to the shower so tried to discreetly soap up on the dock and use the hose for my shower. After looking both ways down the dock I found a window and oh, so nice. Afterwards, we watched the last episode that we have for 'True Blood'. What are we going to do with our evenings now? Oh yeah, go sailing, look at the stars, hang out with our friends!

Snug as a Bug

It was a windy one today! We were happy to be snuggly tied up on the inside of the pontoon. Those boats on the outside were having a bouncy ride. But it made for a fun walk to the shower tonight. My feet sure got washed clean by the time I made it to the end of the dock.
As for work, I spent the day inside multi-tasking…posting the blog while doing some sewing projects. Mike kept on keeping on. He is getting a bit tired though and I hope we are getting close to the finish line. At least our neighbors were brave enough to motor off into the winds and left us to our solitude again.

Nesting

About a month ago we had a little bird that was eager to get inside our boom. In order to prevent him from nesting we stuck a rag in the end which he did not like one bit. The little bird kept returning, chirping loudly and actually appearing a bit distressed. Mike even thinks the bird tried to poop on him. At that time we looked down into the boom and did find some traces of a nest that was in the works and pulled it all out, or so we thought. We were happy that we had caught it in time and the little bird didn’t waste too much of his energy. Well, this morning Mike discovered some more pieces of twig and twine, only to pull out a pretty substantial nest hidden deep inside the boom. No wonder the little bird was so upset!



For myself, I continued my own ‘nesting’ and went into town to buy more stuff to organize. Only upon my return to discover that we had neighbors! Directly across from us and in our swim spot no less! It’s funny because we both were a little out of sorts about it. I think we have gotten spoiled out here with our privacy. While waiting for our neighbors to depart, we were also waiting for the arrival of several people to help us get our projects done. Baron, the sail and rigging guy, Mr. Hussein, the electrician, and Engin with our shade panels. No surprise that Baron was the only one who did not show up. Mr. Hussein graciously came and answered some of Mike’s questions and helped him realize that he is capable of doing much of the installation and wiring himself. Engin delivered our much anticipated shade panels which has proven to be very welcomed in the late afternoon. Now if we can only get our main sail…

Gray Skies

My wish came true this morning, as I woke up and looked out the hatch I saw gray skies! They even stuck around for most of the day which I appreciated because I was still feeling a bit sun weary after yesterday. We are thankful for a day like this when temps cool down to the 80’s. And today I felt that I am starting to make this boat my own. I have always envied other people’s boats, the ones that have that really good lived in feeling. You can see the little things here and there that they improvise or make themselves to create a more safe and comfortable boat/home. Today, I had my first feeling of that with Independence. It was just something as simple as using an old pillow case to hang underneath our hatch in the aft cabin to keep the full sun from shining in during the day. It works perfectly, even though it made me want to lie down on our shaded bed and take a nap!

Our cozy (and now shaded) aft cabin

This evening as we were walking back from a shower we took a cue from another boat and sat on the dock with a glass of Raki while letting our toes dangle in the water. What a gorgeous, calm evening and at times like this we really appreciate being so far out on Bravo. There are maybe only 4 live-a-boards past us so the evenings are quiet with only the occasional person passing by on their evening stroll.

And a happy birthday to John, Mike's dad! And Judy, Mike's mom! And our puppy, Sunny! We love you all so much and wish we could be home to celebrate with you.

And I hope you all like photos of sunsets because I don’t seem to be able to stop myself.

Near Perfection

A day feels so much better when you can get stuff crossed off the list, even better if you only have to do it once! And near perfection when Mike finds out that his new rigging system works! This morning I was able to haul Mike up the mast from the comfort of the cockpit! He was able to get a bunch of stuff accomplished and then started tackling the electronics again. I had another great day helping Mike and then reluctantly doing some more sanding and varnishing. At least now I can varnish in my bathing suit.

Another view of Indy