Cyprus Aug 17, 2010

ello everyone.

We're actually now in Alanya, and loving it. New phone number is country
code 90, number 535 913 8000. Reads like an infomercial number doesn't it?

It's another midnight watch letter as we head off to Alanya, Turkey after a
five week stay in Larnaca, Cyprus. It was a 200 mile uneventful overnighter
from Ashkelon to Larnaca. Because Rose inadvertently got an Israeli stamp
in her passport coming back from Petra, we are unable to go to Lebanon. Let
me get the bitching out of the way first. On arrival in Cyprus, the down
switch on the windlass packed it in so we needed to spend the night on the
fuel dock while I effected repairs. Bright and early the next morning we
were ready but the engines weren't. I still have some sort of electrical
problem with the port engine, but it will start once I put the generator
on. However, the problem with the starboard engine is the, $800 rebuilt in
Ashkelon on an emergency basis, starter motor was totaled. Fortunately, I
got some assistance over to the anchorage by the marina dinghy but $400 for
a new starter was especially painful!!! Now let's talk about my ongoing--3
months, at least--oil leak. Once again, sparing you all the details, the
mechanic's " guaranteed" it was fixed. After about 4 hours this AM, I
thought I ought to give it a look. Not only was the bilge full of oil, but
there was smoke as well. On one engine into the wind we've made about 4
knots on our 180 mile journey, but we are now happily motor sailing on a
better angle at about six. I fear the solution will involve pulling the
engine as well as remounting the water maker pump. Did I mention before,
the Yanmar mechanic that worked on it in Israel actually made it worse!!!

So, bad news out of the way, we had a great time in Cyprus and hated to
leave. We did culture--the philharmonic doing an outdoor concert of Russian
classical at the old fort, followed by a Georgian ballet--that's right
folks, a ballet. It was really more of that Cossack stuff like they did at
the end of Patton, but, nonetheless, I have now lost my "ballet
virginity"!!!! Interspersed in there was a few days touring the
island--third largest in the Med. There was the Byzantine tour into the
central Troodos mountains, north to the old walled city in the capital,
Nicosia, and west to Paphos, birthplace of Aphrodite. There are tons of
archaeological digs going back to 10,000 BC. Later, we also shared a car
with our friends on Freebird to the wine country. Cyprus is, apparently,
the birthplace of wine and it is both good and cheap. They also make some
stuff from grapes that is sort of like tequila and, believe it or not,
licorice flavored ouzo is made from the grape leavings. They must steep the
raw alcohol in anise.

Cyprus is still divided after Turkey invaded in 1974 to protect the small
Turkish population there, and we did not go to Turkish Cyprus. There are
still UN peacekeepers, and the feelings are very bad as they just kicked all
the Greeks out and stole their stuff. Southern Cyprus is its own republic
with remaining close ties to Greece. You really can't move freely between
the two so we took a pass, and our route to Turkey takes us the wrong way to
stop by boat. The marinas here are all full all season and most of the
yachties elected to go west to Paphos where they can accommodate a few
visitors. Larnaca gets a bad rap as they put you in the outer harbor which
is, apparently, horrible in easterly winds. However, there are NO
easterlies this time of year and with free water and paid electricity, the
basic rate out there is 60 euro cents a meter or 9 Euros a day for
Rendezvous on the dock Med moored. This compares to up to 150 a day in the
more popular haunts in Turkey and Greece!!! Sweet. We knew all this in
advance as other friends on Katanne were there ahead of us.

Larnaca itself, like most of Cyprus, is a resort town, and the marina is
right in the middle of it within close walking distance of bars,
restaurants, the beach and the Saturday open air market. Prices are low by
European standards, but diesel is over 1 euro a liter--about $5/gallon!!!!
Mcds., Pizza Hut, KFC, Starbucks--a slice of home in the Med. And, a one
month subscription to the local telephone company wifi hotspot system, which
was very fast and available at the dock, was 11 Euros. I sure wish this
damn Arab computer had a euro symbol somewhere--I'll have to research that
as I'm sure it is hidden somewhere in the keyboard. In the meantime if
anybody wants a letter typed in Arabic I can handle it!!!

People come and go on the outer wall, and some other guys we know made a
quick stop so a few happy hours were arranged. Rose went to the beach
almost every day with Nicolette from Katanne, while I spent a few Sundays
watching Formula One racing with her partner, Tom, at an English pub. Yep,
they have something for everyone here. Other days, I was spending an
interminable amount of time trying to get my home made passerelle (gangplank
for you landlubbers) to work properly. Too short, scrape the dock, scrape
the boat, portside, starboard side--fiddle, fiddle, fiddle. Fortunately a
nice Englishman was next to us--in fact, had a few cocktails on the
boat--and he and his partner were scroungers, sort of like James Garner in
the Great Escape. For instance, in one place they knew some guy who was
going to do a runner--skip out on his marina bill--so they appropriated a
bunch of his stuff. So one day I have the damn passerelle on the dock
making some adjustment, and up the guy walks carrying the real thing and
says "here, looks like you could use one of these". Apparently, he makes a
scrounger practice of snorkeling around anchorages and found the thing on
the bottom. Now it is not in like new condition, but it's pretty good, and
these things cost about two grand. Of course, then there was the fiddling
with that and the custom bracket I had made to attach it, but now all is
well. Rose is especially happy as she does not like narrow tippy things,
and we have it pretty well stabilized with a rope railing.

Other things consumed our time. The EU, we found out, only allows non
residents to spend three of every six months in the EU. There is, after
exhaustive research, no way around this, short of a heart attack or
something. This is really going to screw us up for next season as we could
easily spend 3 months in the Greek islands and then the rest of Greece and
Italy are out until the end of 6 months. This leaves us Croatia and Turkey.
We'll have already covered Turkey and I can't imagine 3 months in very
expensive Croatia, so we'll be winging it. If you overstay and they catch
you, you can be banned for ten years. Next winter we spend in Tunisia, so I
guess we could head down there early. We'll figure something out. Of
course, then Turkey decided to do a similar deal to the EU. Used to be a
one day in and out like Thailand or Malaysia would suffice. That would
really have messed us up, but apparently the UK got them to squash that
change as they want to get into the EU, and the UK is one of their few
supporters, problems due mainly due to their invasion of Cyprus!! HOWEVER,
this got us to thinking about what to do when we're finished with the Med,
and the boat. Ol' Cap'n Tim has to get residency somewhere. With nothing
else to do and good internet, some research was called for. Actually,
Cyprus is pretty easy to get into, and the cost of living is relatively
cheap, but we prefer a non-island environment, so we can just pile into the
car and go somewhere. Spain has a pretty good climate and costs, but it
seems to be a pain. They require an FBI report on me and a bunch of other
superfluous stuff in Spanish, of course. Okay, what about the UK where we
could get a mailing address and accommodates relationships like Rose's and
mine. Apparently they check on you actually living there, and as one might
expect, the info on the website is in almost unintelligible bureaucratese.
Someone mentioned Italy, which we had ruled out figuring it would be a
nightmare, but on checking it seems pretty easy. You go there, go to the
post office, get some forms and demonstrate financial responsibility and
that you have medical insurance and, bingo!!! They grant one year renewable
residency. Oh, and you have to have a place to live. I think we need to go
there and check out the Southwest coast below Naples which we can do next
year, but it is looking good and is apparently very cheap in the
countryside.

This flash just in!!! When we were just outside of Alanya, I checked the
oil in order to fill it up and have both engines available to dock.
Hallelujah, it wasn't leaking oil after all. Did I mention when I went to
get rid of the oil, I had to hand pump it out as the bilge pump is out on
that side. That's how I know how little oil should have been there. The
smoke was steam from a cooling system leak--not good news, but at least not
oil--and the condensed water must have filled the bilge with the residual
oil floating on top. Hooray. I've also forgotten to mention that the power
tilt electric motor on the dinghy was kaput. Found that out in Ashkelon
where I finally got the electrics on the dinghy fixed. I kept running
through dinghy starter batteries and have told untold numbers of dinghy
mechanics that there's a short somewhere ruining these batteries. This guy
in Ashkelon finally found it and replaced some cables, seemingly fixing the
problem. So the tilt is now working, but this teensy plain electric motor
with a simple shaft to operate the hydraulics was $500, thanks to Yamaha.
Probably $50 at Radio Shack!!!

Anyway, our other excitement in Cyprus was rather mundane. Lizzie sent me 3
big boxes of stuff with forged invoices so I didn't get hammered too bad at
customs. Included were my 48 mile radome which the local guy refused to go
up the mast to install and the 10 inch color display for it which, while
really cool, is, unfortunately, way too big and must go when I get the 2
replacements sitting in England for Rose to bring back with her. However,
the instruments now repeat below deck AND I lost my eBay virginity selling
the old display for $250. The bigger color unit will probably fetch close
to $1,000. I also got a new cool Blackberry flip phone which I have no idea
how to use yet but know it is, in fact, cool. We also spent a fair amount
of time washing desert dust off the boat. Had a very happy b-day and went
out to dinner to a great steak place with the Freebirdies.

Anyway, we arrived at Alanya about 6 pm to the best greeting of any marina
so far. A guy came out in a dinghy to lead us in and, as we tied up, the
office sent someone down to square us away--they do the check in which is
pretty informal and done the next day--and a bunch of maintenance guys came
along as we indicated we had some mechanical problems. Then followed the
Head and ass't head honchos, all this at about 7 pm.

Alanya will be a good place for me to stay while Rose is in the UK for the
next 3 weeks--she left yesterday, Monday, the 16th. Pool, really good
restaurant which we have used already, and a pub with 2 fer happy hour.
Quite a few cruisers around and you can get a massage for $33 right here in
the marina. They have free busses to the Tues. and Fri. market, a deal on
rental cars and public bus service every 10 minutes to town. We get varying
discounts on all of that as marina guests. Yesterday I rented a car to take
Rose to the airport about 100 miles away as a taxi is 55 Euros each way and
I had to be there at check-in since it went on my credit card. All that
went off without a hitch. (Rose is comfortably ensconced in Plymouth for
the time being) Unfortunately, the ride home was more eventful. First, I
lost my parking ticket and had a big and expensive hassle leaving the
airport. Then, of course, they give you the car empty, really empty of fuel
with the red light on and just a pint to get you to the gas station. The
kid said 15 liters should get me to the airport and back so I put that in
and it was $33. Yipes!!!! $8 gallon. So, on the way back, I could see I
was getting low but was damned if I would give the rental place an extra
dram of fuel. I relied on the ubiquitous red light to inform me if I was on
the brink of empty. Damn light failed, ran out of gas 26 k short, and had
left my fancy new phone on the boat. Fortunately, I was next to a hotel,
they were very gracious and called the car place for me, and all was
corrected in less than half an hour. We put a gallon of gas in and, guess
what, the damn low fuel light started working again.

So I'm baching it for 3 weeks and planning on catching up on my cleaning.
Started on the decks today, but it ain't fun in the blazing heat so the A/C
is on and I'm writing this letter. Watched Avatar last night and was
unimpressed. Happy hour tonight.

If there's anything of actual interest for me to tell in Rose's absence, I
might write again before her return, but what are the odds of that?

Cheers to you all. Life is good.

Tim & Rose
P.S. I just read that and I'm starting to sound like Joey, for whom life is
really good. New rich girl friend in Singapore and steady employment for
the moment with some pretty hot job prospects, including captain on the 66
foot Grand Banks he's delivering to Hong Kong. Lizzie has worked out some
temporary dissatisfaction at FedEx--thank God for that. I need her working
there. She's also negotiated a rent-to-buy deal on a house down the
street--really good for them as they were foreclosed and lost all their
money in the Edenton house.