Hello everyone.
No, the subject does not refer to me but to the country--Alanya, Turkey to be precise, where I have been ensconced whilst Rose lived it up with family and friends in the UK for almost 4 weeks. She has now returned to the blissful environment here on Rendezvous Cay. Much has transpired in her absence!! I should note without further adieu that Joe Stonich is now officially captain of the 57 foot Grand Banks "ID" which he is readying for delivery to Hong Kong. We are now to refer to him as "Popeye" even though he hates spinach--something, he claims, that has to do with being a captain, and, yes, he can help you. He is also in love again, this time with a very nice girl in Singapore (rich, too). Lizzie, in the meantime, while keeping her part-time job with FedEx (YES!!!!) has also taken another part-time job with Best Buy (double yes!!!!!). She and Ben have also moved--hence my new address that none of you pay any attention to--and is renting with an option to buy in Winston Salem. Way to go, kids!!! Jobs and houses without the old man's help!!!!!
Back to the business at hand. Well, with Rose's departure the shit really started flowing downhill on Rendezvous Cay. You'll just have to pardon the whynging!!
My idea was to clean the boat thoroughly since I really didn’t have anything more to do. So that actually worked out pretty good. I broke my head's shower sprayer, but the spare I've had for years was a lot better. Smaller holes so the spray was stronger. So while doing all this cleaning, the office stopped by. For the first time since buying the boat, someone actually wanted to see the corporation papers to be sure I was the owner. The Harbor Master wanted to see them since the boat is owned by PRI Inc in an IBC, and I, in turn, own that. No problem, so I did some other stuff and then went to look for the boat IBC papers. This was not good. Found the corporate seal, found some other stuff but no stock certificates and what I remember was a nice binder with all the stuff in it. Looked in my cabin in the bag of papers I keep under my shirts, looked in the regular boat papers, looked in the cap'ns cabin and had to pull a bunch of crap out there to get to old files. Looked in the file box I keep under there in a locker. No dice, nada, nothing. Found the boat bill of sale which says it's to PRI-Tim Stonich and I figured that will do, but who knows, so I emailed the BVI lawyers to send me a replacement or a cc of the original as they might have the stuff. Anyway, before giving up and doing that, I figured it must be in the forward pod, where we store a lot of "stuff", because it USED TO BE the driest place on the boat. Hassle pulling everything out, but I needed my winter stuff and had to stow the empty jugs anyway. Oh, oh!! What a mess!!!!!!!!! Just enough water had gotten in there to dampen everything and rot all the paper --boxes, books, etc. No standing water, but mildew everywhere. I think it must have happened when we were crossing the Gulf of Mannar on the way to India, when we just got the crap kicked out of us. But that's not all. The good news is I found a missing gallon of Semco teak sealer--$100. The bad news is when I moved it, the rusty bottom gave way, and about half a gallon spilled before I could get another container. This in turn managed to run down in the very bottom of the pod where the jugs go. Between the 100 plus temp and humidity and the solvent fumes, I almost croaked down there in the bowels of the boat. I guess there was a bit of a silver lining in that it needed cleaning out anyway, and I threw a bunch of stuff out, including, unfortunately, all my CD's which were damaged. All backed up on the hard drive so not too great a loss. Also took out the old props and metal detector for "eBaying". Sold the detector, but no dice on the props. Looking to get rid of them and my sea anchor here in Turkey via a flyer. Speaking of eBay, Rose brought back my 7 inch monochrome displays, I had bought in England, so I put the 10 inch color up for auction. Should have gotten close to $1,000 for it judging by past sales but no luck there--got about $500--still better than a kick in the teeth.
But the shit really hit the fan when the boys went to fix the starter motor on the starboard engine. This, you will recall, was the NEW, in Cyprus, replacement for the one I paid $800 to get fixed in Israel. But it gets worse. The entire engine is somehow crap. Nobody knows why but major salt water damage everywhere. The quote started off at $5,000!!!!! However, eliminating some niceties, self ordering to reduce or eliminate tax, knocking off the duplicate pistons, and bringing some stuff in from the states, we've about halved that. They didn't have the right pistons here in Turkey, and normal delivery is 8 weeks--express delivery from Holland was going to be €450--about $600--for $500 worth of parts that weight less than 10 pounds. Hah!!! No way, Jose. Got Lizzie (thanks even though she is now my PAID US agent) to send them for about $100, and the price was much better for the parts too. While this was going on, the plumber fixed the leaking kitchen faucet(needed a new one) and deck shower, too. Galley sprayer was bad as well, but in the course of cleaning, I found a couple of spares I forgotten about, so that was good.
But that's not all!! (sounds like an infomercial) A few days after Rose's return last week, I awoke to no fan on in our cabin. No biggie, I figured; probably kicked out the plug--it's happened before. No luck. All the 110 volt power was off. Shouldn't be the inverter which was new after the lightning strike, but probably a cooked wire from the lightning. The boat gets all its AC current through the inverter. When on shore power it simply passes through; when not, it is generated from the batteries via the inverting process. To make a long story short, the electricians didn't believe me. So first they spent hours checking the transformer and shore connections. Then they brought in the heavy duty outside guys who concluded the inverter was bad, and all the while I'm telling them it's a bad cable past the inverter as it simply passes AC current through. Nope. Off they go with the inverter. While being without shore power or AC is mainly an inconvenience--no TV, no toaster, no microwave--without it, I need to crank up the engine for a couple of hours a day to run the freezer. Don't like that at $8/gallon for diesel, but I could if need be. But wait, I've got the old inverter, mistakenly replaced 4 years ago in the Cook Islands (I'm sure you ALL remember that story). Nope, they try that and claim, surprise, surprise, that it's not working either but they can at least get it to charge the batteries. Ok, I'll use the engine to run the freezer. Of course, you guessed it; that crapped too. Anyway, now, five days later, the engine driven compressor is working and, lo and behold, when they brought in another outside electrician yesterday, they found some really crappy melted short circuited wires going into the grounding bus bar. So now the new inverter is off somewhere, 'til Monday anyway, but the old one is working fine--might try to sell that too. Nice to be vindicated as I am pretty much an idiot when it comes to electricity, but I look like a genius now--pays to know your boat. I have no idea what all this will cost me, but you can rest assured I will remind them, I diagnosed the problem before they wasted all that time on the other stuff.
But is the crap over yet. Nope. Rose's asthma has been kicking up since we hit the Red Sea and her occasional wheezing, which had abated for the previous four years, was well under control with a pop or two from her inhaler. She caught a bad cold in the UK, and, on her return, kept getting worse and worse so we figured to see the doctor a few days ago. No good news there. The doc wasn't sure what had exacerbated her condition but he actually wanted to admit her for 3-7 days at $1,200 per day. She (no insurance) negotiated a half day admittance with a bunch of treatment and meds. Still expensive, but manageable, and Rose is much better already. Return trip to the doc next week. Hopefully for full recovery.
As if anything else could go wrong, when they were cleaning out the engine room they discovered a leak in the water intake seacock for the generator. Hopefully, the 5200 I gave them to use will work wet and fix the problem. You may recall that's the compartment where the bilge pump wasn't working, but I think they've fixed that now too. Too much to keep track of. I have been put on suicide watch, and my already sparse hair has all been torn out. ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
On the positive side (FINALLY, if you've even bothered to read this far, you are all saying), Alanya is really nice and there was a great group here for most of the time Rose was gone. It's been blazing hot so the A/C's been on--cooled off some now. There's a good happy hour with reasonably priced drinks, and the same pub has decent and cheap food. I was reminiscing with Rose that we thought Robinson Crusoe island was cheap at $10 for a big dinner. All in perspective--that was coming off super-expensive French Poly. Here a pretty good meal is about $6-8. The only problem is somehow the "pub" has not broken the code on hamburgers. Looks great coming out of the kitchen---fries (good ones), a bit of salad, bun loaded up with everything--everything that is except a hamburger. I'm not kidding you. The burger is smaller than McD's--about the thickness of a Heineken coaster, but smaller diameter. I have offered to consult with them on improving this pathetic attempt, and they agreed, but have yet to invite me into the kitchen. The rest of the food is good and plentiful. There is also a really nice restaurant across the harbor and Rose and I ate there before her departure. It was simply superb. And, if you didn't drink, the cost was quite reasonable. When she's back feeling herself, we'll return there for sure.
The usual suspects here were pretty interesting. There was Dave the retired car dealer who had what looked to be some commercial affection with him. Of late, however, he's had some problems getting women to come out here as he keeps asking their dress size beforehand. Seems the one after the bimbo had porked up a bit since he'd seen her last, and he didn't want any further fatties on board. Then there was Rob the retired North Sea chemical freighter captain. He was pretty interesting--on his fourth wife and couldn't get her to cut back spending even though he was retired. She was a bit over the top, but, fortunately, was in the UK most of the time before they left. There was Ian and Pat, he a retired oil rig guy and she a bitch. He spends a lot of time away from home even though he's retired. Delivering a drilling ship from Malta to Venezuela. She bought 17 pairs of shoes in one trip. Then there was Val and Steve who have just returned after a bit of cruising. Don't know what he used to do but she was widowed, but previously married to an MI6 spy, and, according to my last suspect, Neal, is totally connected. They are very nice and not so strange. Neal, on the other hand, if that is his name, is a 64 year old retired SAS and black ops guys. Awarded the Queen's medal (just down from the Victoria Cross) guarded royalty, John Majors (PM after Maggie), involved in the Irish Bloody Sunday thing and the deal in Gibraltar 20 years ago. He was here to help Ian deliver the boat, but it needed unexpected repairs so he was just hanging out single and took me under his wing--I think he was just looking for a mate to hang with. After a few beers, he bared his soul but swore me to secrecy at the marina. Believe me, there is even weirder stuff going on with him, and I think he said he had to change his name as his father was a gangster, etc., etc., etc. This was not BS as the rest all knew him and said it was true. Did a few outings with Neal whose approach to women reminds me of Tom Petrone. Highly amusing was a road trip, via bus, to a place called Side--about 60 k from Alanya. It's the site of some really cool Romanesque ruins including a 15,000 seat, pretty much intact, coliseum. So, anyway, we did that but I also wanted a massage and we both needed haircuts, so the two queens find a "coifuree" and get started. Neal also wanted a pedicure. So I swished into the back to the massage table. Unfortunately, Mustafa, the masseur should not have been working on men. I had to remind him on several occasions that I liked women and to please remove his thumb from where the sun don't shine. Neal, upon hearing this was somewhat leery and refused to fully disrobe for his massage. BUT, maybe it wasn't Mustafa's sexual preference. Resting at a shopping mall, I took the opportunity to use one of those massage chairs. While I know it didn't have a thumb, it was certainly shoving something up there. Maybe, just maybe, it's a Turkish massage thing. Anyway, beware of those chairs. They sort of lock your legs in there so you can't escape no matter what it's doing to you.
Unfortunately, about a week before Rose's return, everyone took off to cruise or deliver drilling rigs or whatever, and the incoming crowd was a bunch of Germans--need I say more.
So our mechanical and health problems have delayed our departure for Marmaris. It's not far, but there are some nice cruising grounds we wanted to explore before tucking in for the winter. If the weather holds and the parts arrive and Rose stays out of the hospital, I'm hoping we can depart in about 10 days. Nathan. Rose's son, had planned, just by luck, to come out to a resort only 10 k away, but changed his mind when he heard there was a mosque right there. You've heard my stories about the 4:30 AM call to prayer before, but they’re pretty minimalistic about that stuff here.
So that's the latest and, unfortunately, not so greatest update.
Cheers from us both. Wish us luck!!
Tim & Rose
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