Hello all.
We left you in Alanya with repairs up in the air, and I'm happy to report
that all is now well. Well, it's never "all", but the engines work, and we
have electricity!!! Unlucky for me, Rose is heading out for the UK again
for her appointment with the rheumatism specialist. Lucky for us we were
able to use air miles from Istanbul. Some quirkiness in the internet
booking from here to Istanbul--all the fares on the internet search sites
were about $600 return or more. Fortunately, Never-say-die Tim checked with
Turkish air direct and they have a one-way fare of TL95--about $65!!!! She
did have another asthma attack in Alanya, so we're hoping to get her asthma
sorted as well when she's there. Nothing much to report on Alanya since our
last letter except Rose got a nice surprise when Nathan, her son, and family
decide they needed a warm getaway and, coincidentally, there were great
deals to Alanya. Nice visit, quality family time. We also took Charlie
(the cat) to the vet for a general check and booster shot of some sort.
He's been a bit under the weather and losing weight so even though the vet
there gave him a clean bill of health, we (really "I" since Rose is
deserting me again) plan to get him in for a look-see here in Marmaris.
So we did the sea trials--successful--about 2 weeks ago in Alanya and left
for Kemer, 65 miles across the Gulf of Antalya. I must have checked about
ten weather forecasts, all in varying degrees calling for light winds.
Right!!! Don't believe Turkish weather reports! About an hour or two after
departure the wind and waves just built up and built up and pretty soon we
were getting 35 knots with 10-15 seas on the starboard bow. Rose was ready
to turn around but we were half way there so we altered course to the south
to another bay and hunkered down. For the first time in twelve years and a
lot of poor conditions, we actually had a wave roll over the entire boat
including the rigid bimini top. All sorts of crap fell on the floor inside,
etc., etc.. Needless to say the boat was a mess. Broke a bunch of slides
on the tramp as well. It's never easy!!!!
The next day we scooted around the corner, only about 30 miles in good
conditions, to Finike where some friends are wintering. Daily rates at
these marinas are prohibitively expensive--as much as $150/day--so we
anchored out. That was a week ago Saturday and there was an SPCA benefit
BBQ that night so we dropped the dinghy in, which miraculously is finally
fixed (or was it?), and motored in for drinks on Katanne and the steaks on
the barbie with Efes beers. About 10, the party broke up so we walked back
to Katanne to dinghy back out to the boat. Yep, dinghy wouldn't start.
Fortunately, we were just outside the harbor entrance, and I had just
reconditioned our old wooden paddles as they nicked the nice aluminum ones
accidentally when they fixed the dinghy in Ashkelon. We paddled out, and
you wouldn't believe the old rheumatoid girl out paddling the old man. Only
took about 10 minutes.
We'd planned on a few days there so there wasn't an undue holdup, and the
marina graciously and for free, towed us into the repair shop the next
morning. I stopped in about noon, and the guy said it was fixed but needed
the plugs cleaned and fuel. Oh, oh. I had put about 15 liters in the night
before. Turned out there was a hole in the integral aluminum tank,
basically impossible to repair cheaply so we threw a plastic tanks in.
Cleaned the carburetor as well and it's running fine once again. Fabulous
and cheap dinner that night after happy hour, and we set off on Monday for
Kastellorizon, a small Greek island about 45 miles away and only 1 mile off
the Turkish coast. The Greeks and Turks have an agreement that if the
population drops below 80, they'll cede it to Turkey. Why the Turks didn't
invade and take it over when they invaded Cyprus is a mystery to us. We
just anchored out in a nice bay and stayed on the boat as we were leaving
early the next morning.
Next day, we were crossing Fethiye Bay and while the forecast was iffy, it
was uneventful until we arrived at our planned destination, Ragged Bay.
Looked like a good anchorage, and the book showed a nice picture of all
these boats anchored behind a little islet in the bay. Many of the
anchorages here require you, for varying reasons, to anchor and then put out
a stern line to the shore. This is a real hassle so we picked places where
this wasn't necessary. The problem here was the depths were too great for
our measly 220 feet of chain so we left in search of a better spot. Just
down the coast was a popular spot, and we lucked out in that the local tour
boats (gullets), large junk-like boats were just leaving to go back to port.
While there was plenty of room, it was one of those stern line places. BUT,
Rose got the English guys next to us to swim in our lines. We did a good
job the next morning with the dinghy getting the lines backs and dropped a
bottle of wine off with them as a thank you.
Finally, the last leg to Marmaris had an even worse forecast, but Rose could
smell a nice dock and wifi so we took off anyway. The weather actually
cooperated, and we got to Marmaris about two. I called ahead to ask about
fenders, and they said not required. Of course, when we arrived, the
"pilot" boat said "where's your fenders?" A bit of a fire drill later we
were secured and will remain for the winter. Turns out we're just across
the dock from our friends on Freebird, and there are a few other familiar
faces here as well. We've had a few welcome drinks and dinners since our
arrival last week, but most of our time has been sorting out the place and
getting a car for the winter.
On line, the car rates are ridiculous especially considering it is off
season. Fortunately there is a well organized and large cruisers' radio net
in the morning. There are probably about 3,000 boats around including all
the ones on the hard in the boatyards, and some people have been here for
years!! A Scottish guy replied to my car inquiry and gave me a number
explaining the guy would start at about TL650/month but I should be able to
get him down to TL550. Lucky us, the car guy volunteered TL600/month pay as
you go or TL500/pay in advance. Since we're splitting the car with
Freebird, we opted for the advance deal and have a pretty nice Hyundai for
about $175/month each. We're about 8 miles out of town, so, while there is
good bus service, a car is a must for we that are spoiled.
Internet has been poor here at the marina, but there is a Turkcell deal via
cell that is cheap. Waiting to see what the service ends up here longer
term before doing that, but I'm anxiously awaiting a return of service as
the sail makers have sent in quotes for a new jib. I forgot to mention that
the hellish time on the Gulf of Antalya put a tear in the jib and, at twelve
years old, it just isn't worth repairing. Oh well, what's another few
thousand. After all, BOAT stands for Bring Out Another Thousand.
So we are nicely tucked in for six months with transportation. The weather
here has been pretty awful with thunderstorms and rain, but fortunately we
are no longer the biggest stick in the harbor so a third lightning strike is
fairly unlikely. We have out our winter stuff--Rose is getting more in
England--and the electric heaters are plugged in. All in all, seems like a
good spot with superb services and parts availability, so we're happy right
now except for bad wifi which we can remedy. Rose takes off on another
marathon trip tomorrow and her return is open as we don't know how long all
the docs will take, so poor Tim is baching it again.
Cheers to everyone.
Tim & Rose
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Turkey w/o Rose Sept. 19,2010
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
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
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.
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.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
rendezvous in the holy land june 8 2010
Hi everybody.
Before we continue our saga, everything seems to be okay here. We're just
24 km from the Gaza strip, but aside from the periodic bang from Israeli
artillery practice, it is quiet. Even the Israelis seem unhappy about the
big raid and have demonstrated in Tel Aviv, but it's pretty much business as
usual.
Who would have ever thought it? Tim and Rose hitting every holy site in
Israel; well almost every one. We rented a car with our friends from The
Southern Cross for three days. These guys amazingly exceed all of my
previous measures of frugality to the extent of trying to turn off the A/C
all the time to improve mileage. However, that being said, he drove and we
saved a bundle on the car by sharing. It was also a slightly better deal
for three days than a shorter period so we kept it just for ourselves the
last day as they had already done the stuff we planned for that day.
On the first day, we couldn't get the car 'til about 9, and what with doing
the paperwork, etc. (our friends insisted I put up my credit card as we
would
have the car the last day--felt like they thought theirs would melt or we
might somehow use it), we didn't get to the Old City of Jerusalem
until about 11. It's only about an hour drive--everything is close in this
tiny country. Navigation was a bit challenging. one of the few annoying
things about Israel, and I must admit I was surprised, is that almost
nothing is in English, including maps, but there was enough, minimal as it
was, to get us around. Every other tourist oriented place we've been has
had dual or treble language. So the rest of this will probably read a bit
like a travelogue because that's what it was.
We entered the Jaffa gate at the old city, finally around 11:30. Yes,
almost
lunchtime; the sites could wait. The main drag from there to the wailing
wall was one stall after another offering souvenirs. Only a few
restaurants. After a quick lunch of gyros, we walked down to the wailing
wall through tons of security. There are more guns in Israel than even the
States, and those gun nuts at home would love it here as everyone seems to
carry an assault weapon with a backup 45 automatic pistol. One restaurant
owner in Nazareth was like the old Saturday Night live routine where Ackroyd
plays a repairman with his pants halfway down showing major butt crack (and
Murray and the chick who married Gene Wilder roar with laughter), except our
guy had a 45 automatic stuck in his crack. I confess I had a hard time not
"cracking"
up. Ok, back to Jerusalem. women and men can't go to the same section of
the wall, so Rose went over to the female side and wrote up her prayer,
note, whatever, and put it in the wall while I people watched. Then we
went looking for the Dome of the Rock, the site of both Solomon's temple and
where Mohamed rose to heaven. The entrance we found to that complex was
only for Arabs so we backtracked through security and went up a special
kafir (that's Arabic for infidel) walkway. The mosque was just closing
down so we only got a quick look--pretty impressive.
After that, we walked over to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (CHS) through
the Christian Quarter, discovering along the way that, even though we had
paid less than half the asking price for some of our souvenirs, the Arab
merchants in the
other section had out-bargained us. Most of the stores in the Christian
Quarter had marked fixed prices so we could compare. The CHS is a combo
deal, allegedly the site of Christ's tomb as well as the site of Calvary.
In any event, there was not too much Christian activity going on in there as
people were elbowing each other to get closer and, all-in-all pretty rude.
Finishing there, we were to meet our friends at 5:30 to go to the Mount of
Olives and, as it was a bit early, we wandered through the Armenian quarter,
where they seem to specialize in ceramics, and the Jewish quarter. I have
no
idea why the Armenians rate their own quarter. Why not the Poles or the
French. Besides, the other quarters all represent a major religion. Maybe
they're Greek Orthodox, but then why isn't it the Greek Orthodox quarter?
So we met up, finally found the car park and took off around the old city
to the Mount of Olives where Jesus ascended to heaven. We got lost and
ended up in the Jewish cemetery. Not a total loss as Schindler of
"Schindler's List" fame is buried there, but we ended up at a dead end in a
dodgy neighborhood. Back down and around, we found the proper road up and
got to the scenic overlook for some pretty awesome views of Jerusalem at
sunset. Our driver (not me) decided not to make the turn down the hill on
the way back from which we had ascended and just followed a bunch of other
cars figuring they knew where they were going. Maybe they did, but this
route took us right off the map, and we took 3 hours to get home as we got
totally lost. Of course, the CS's (cheapskates) wouldn't think of stopping
for a bite to eat, so we arrived home famished at 10 pm. Now what would
have
made sense was staying the night in Jerusalem and avoiding all this hassle
as we were headed just north of there to Nazareth the next day, but the
CS's wouldn't hear of that either--something about going through the West
Bank territory--really just too cheap. As an amusing aside, we did another
late one the next night,
and they knew I would not be denied, so we pulled into Mcd's at about 7:30
pm. the husband wanted a cappuccino to help him stay awake on the drive
home but gagged--I kid you not, GAGGED--at the 8 shekel price for the
coffee--about $2. They couldn't believe I spent almost $10 on my burger and
fries. By the way, has the rest of McD's gone to the giant size quarter
pounder or, a la Pulp Fiction, a Royale in Israel. I should add by way of
explanation these people, the CS's,
are very nice, they are just the most unbelievably penurious individuals
I've ever met, and I've met a few. Right, Bob Doyle knows who I mean--Mr.
Window Shade.
The next day was even more chock full of activity, and the drive was about
twice the distance so we got an early start as we already had the car.
Traffic through the outskirts of Tel Aviv was abysmal---every Israeli must
drive through there on the way to work. Fortunately, we did not get majorly
lost that day. We finally made it to Nazareth where we visited Mary's
Well--a couple of them, at least, as nobody is really sure. There were some
other sights, including the 45 in the butt crack there, but one church runs
into another after a while. After lunch, we headed up to the Sea of
Galilee, a hotbed of religious sites. This was the Sermon on the Mount, the
feeding of multitudes with a bit of bread and 2 fish (Rose brought some pita
and a can of anchovies, but nothing happened), calming of the waters,
Peter's house and more I can't remember. Now, I'm not terribly religious
and am doing this mainly for the historical significance, but I do pretty
much believe, having been raised a Catholic. However, my faith was tested
here as the Sea of Galilee is not a sea at all, but, rather a very small--by
Lake Michigan standards--fresh water lake about 2 miles across. In my book,
the biblical tempest Christ calmed couldn't have been too severe as you can
almost walk across the lake!!! So what else did they exaggerate? After the
Sea Of Galilee--our friends had this master plan, you see--off we went to
Mount Tabor, semi on the way home. Tabor is the alleged site of Christ's
transfiguration where the apostles saw Him light up and also talk to God who
called him Son, and Moses. Great views, 16 switchbacks on the way up.
Unfortunately, all the monasteries and churches closed by the time we
arrived. We still got home really late for us old folks, but at least I got
McDonald's!!!!
The next day, Rose and I had the car to ourselves, but, ah, I have forgotten
another CS story. On our late return the prior evening, the CS's suggested
we fill up the car so there would be no question on the cost sharing. I
guess we couldn't be trusted to provide an accurate accounting of the fuel
costs.
Unfortunately, most of the petrol stations close by that time so they
dropped us at the marina and drove around for another hour to fill up just
so we couldn't possibly cheat them the next day. What else could be the
reason for that hassle. Then, in spite of the rental place checking off
that the tank was full, they had determined that it was a bit less when we
picked it up, so I had
to eat that. All this over a possible couple of dollars. I guess their
time isn't worth anything--Rose and I had to stay up waiting for their
return to settle the tab. So, it was with great relief that we had the car
alone.
Since we had a lot to do and relatively long distances to travel, we had
planned to get an early start but ran into some other friends who had
arrived late the day before, but we did get off at about 8:30 for Bethlehem
which is south of Jerusalem. The place to see there is the Church of the
Nativity which is the site of the manger--rrright. We got marginally lost
but someone directed us, and, when we arrived, a Palestinian guy helped us
find
parking, etc. For the prior 2 days, I had sweltered in long pants having
been misinformed by the CS's that some places required them. Nope, the only
remotely similar instance was in Nazareth where one of the caretakers
wouldn't let me cross my long pants clad legs inside that church whilst
waiting for the
others--figure that one out!!! Anyway, that particular day was meant to be
extremely hot so I wore shorts. Of course our helpful Palestinian
shopkeeper said the priests wouldn't let me in the church in shorts, so he
lent me an Arab sarong which, of course, I could return to his shop before
our departure. Turned out I didn't need that either and felt like a fool
walking around this church in a dress. We did manage to get in the back way
and avoid lines as there was some Canadian bigwig (oxymoron, I know) with
the whole nine yards of security guys--black suits, Chevy Suburbans, talking
into their wrists. We sort of snuck by them (not very good security, are
they?) and entered through the exit. Then Rose hooked up with some guy who
took her
into the cave or whatever from the end of the line. I waited in my dress.
I don't think they let transvestites in there.
Our next stop was the Dead Sea, lowest place on earth. To do that, you have
to go through the center of Jerusalem as there are no roads through the
Negev desert. Yep, got lost, but not too bad. Oh yeah, twice, but neither
time too far out of the way. The only way to get there is to drive over to
the north end from Jerusalem and then pick up the Dead Sea coast Road down
to Ein Gedi where you can swim--about halfway down the coast. Got a bite to
eat there and then walked down to the water. Rose went for a swim, and I
was
going to wait for her but it was 43 C in the shade; that's about 105
Fahrenheit!!!! I don't think I've ever been so hot. Went back to the car
and took a nap in the A/C while Rose floated. But wait, there's more.
Leaving the "spa", we headed south to Masada. Masada, you may recall was a
seventies ABC miniseries starring the miniseries king, Peter Strauss.
Around 100 AD (I refuse to use the politically correct BCE and CE), the Jews
revolted against the Romans and held out here for years before pulling a Jim
Jones and committing mass suicide by leaping hundreds of feet to their
deaths. Masada was originally Herod's resort palace and is built at the top
of a 1000 foot plateau. There were actually some crazies who walked up in
the heat but
for the old folks they have a cable car. Round trip was about $2 more than
one way; the CS's walked down when they visited earlier this month. We
paid the extra $2 since it was 105 outside. We were very hot, very tired,
and touristed out, so we made the visit pretty quick and were back at the
boat by dinnertime. Did not get lost!
Having been exhausted from all the sight seeing, we took several days off
and the time to arrange our trip to Petra. If you watched Indiana Jones and
the Last crusade, Petra was the site where the guy was with the Holy Grail.
Looks just like that, except the entry canyon is even more spectacular and
longer than in the movie. Petra is the sight of a desert civilization that
was pre Roman and ran most of the middle east around the time of Alexander.
Was rediscovered by Europeans in the mid nineteenth century and is an entire
huge city carved out of rock in the canyons in the wilderness of Jordan. It
is next to Wadi Musa which is Moses' Well in Arabic. It is a big tourist
destination about 200 km from Aqaba in Jordan which is where the border
crossing from Israel at Eilat is. Both Eilat and Aqaba are at the north end
of, not surprisingly, the Gulf of Aqaba, and both are huge Miami beach
affairs with temps in the 100's. Fortunately, Petra, in the mountains, is
somewhat cooler. It's possible to fly down there but we chose the bus which
are air conditioned modern coaches. What we didn't realize is they are also
a major mode of troop carriers for Israel, and many of the soldiers are not
too proud to elbow their way in ahead of you to take all the seats. And
they've got guns!!!
Anyway, you need to leave early as it is a long way down there from
Ashkelon, so we arranged a cab to the bus station, and, despite the language
barrier, managed to get the right bus to Beer Sheba to change for Eilat.
Beer Sheba (BS) has an interesting story in itself, and I encourage you to
rent the movie "the Light Horsemen" about Australian mounted infantry in WW
I. this city played a key role in the war here, and it's sort of a Charge
of
the Light Brigade with a reasonably happy ending. The ride from BS is
through the Negev desert south. Half the bus was armed forces with weapons,
and the bus actually stopped at about 4 or 5 bases to drop and pick up.
Once at Eilat (we were a bit worried with the Gaza raid having just occurred
that they might close the border but they didn't. Jordan, along with Turkey
were the two Muslim countries with good Israeli relations), you hop a 10
minute cab to the border and walk across. Once again you skip getting
stamped as the Lebanese can figure out you've been in Israel with an Aqaba
stamp. Then, if you are the CSs, you cab it to the bus station and take
that up to Petra. Hotter than hell, we had prearranged a car with the hotel
that picked us up right at the border. Cost about $50 more that the cheap
way.
So, based on Tripadvisor.com and a bit more checking, we had picked the
Valley Star Inn, breakfast included. Mixed reviews here. It's small (10
rooms) and the guys who own it are the children of the late mayor of Petra.
Apparently they believe this gives them the right to take liberties with
their claimed amenities on their web site. ATM on site, Turkish bath, room
service, alcohol and cocktail lounge. No, no, no, no and no. But, the
rooms were nice if a bit over priced, and the owners were super for service,
driving us all over the place on unscheduled trips. Really good sat TV!!!
The real disappointment was, at breakfast the first day, which was pretty
good, some other guests raved about the food the night before. We had
elected to eat out that night and eat in the next day figuring we'd be tired
from walking around Petra all day. Unfortunately, not enough people wanted
dinner so Mama, yes, mama, wasn't cooking and we had to eat out again.
The owner gave us a special ride down to the gates at 8 and we were to meet
him at 5pm for the ride back. It ain't cheap here and entry was about JD35
each. A dinar is $1.40 so it's about $50, but it is amazing and really
worth it. I estimate we walked about 15 km and it could have been more, but
we took donkeys most of the way to the Monastery, an equally impressive
"building" as the Treasury which is featured in the Last crusade. Otherwise
it's a two hour uphill trek with about 1,000 steps. Rose,
wimp that she is, of course, got spooked on the donkey and kept asking to
get
off. In truth, as I rode hers part of the way back down, it had a bad
saddle, and you felt like you were going to fall off. You need to walk the
last 1/2 mile to the Monastery, and it was awesome. We stopped for a rest
and drink for an hour or so, chatting with some interesting tourists, one of
whom was an old guy who had just come from Manchu Pichu. There was also a
very hot Air Emirates stewardess??!! On the way back to the donkeys, Rose
informed
me she was not getting back on and would walk. Right, this is about 2 or 3
miles most of which is steep stairs. But she was firm, so I informed the
donkey boys that we would give them half the round trip price as their
saddle sucked. They offered to meet us at the bottom of the steps so I
tried to get a discount, but Rose was still having none of it. So--it
ended up with me offering JD15, they snorted and said forget it; they would
get the tourist police. We said ok. So it finally ended up that we did
pick them back up at the bottom for JD25 total, and Rose took my donkey and
I
ultimately took the head donkey boy's donkey as the saddle really was crap
on Rose's ex donkey. It was all pretty funny but I guess you had to be
there.
By this time, it was about 2:30 and we still hadn't had lunch, and all the
food places were back where we'd come from so, being old farts and tired
and hot, we hired a horse drawn cart to take us back the 3 miles to the
gate. This guy was pretty funny as well. He, he claimed, was the last guy
of the day, JD50 was
a discount, yada, yada, yada. We went back and forth until about 4 other
"last carts of the day" pulled in and settled on JD25 for the ride.
Hungry, hot and thirsty (Rose was sure they would have drinking water fill
taps all over as they did at Masada, so we only brought one bottle of
water),
we decided to get a snack at the Movenpick hotel ($850/night; yep, $850)
which is just outside the gate. After a false start at the restaurant which
had a huge, but expensive, buffet, we were referred to the Atrium (can you
see my nose in
the air as I say Atrium with an English accent?) for drinks and snacks.
Expensive, but we were tired and hungry and treated ourselves to some good
grub and drinks. So now it's 4 and our ride isn't due 'til 5. This is a no
brainer--for less than the cost of one vodka tonic, we took a cab back to
the hotel. Shower, nap and it's dinner time. The place the guy took us
to was a bit pricey and touristy but pretty good. Oh, we had planned on
the bus back to Aqaba, but negotiated a JD35 deal to the border with our
afternoon cabbie, so next morning, bright and early, it was breakfast and
into the cab at 7. We were hoping to get an earlier bus than the 11 AM out
of Eilat.
Made it in record time to the border. Jordan side no problem, but got the
usual grilling on the Israeli side, and then Rose was so flustered she
forgot
to tell them not to stamp her in so we'll need to deal with that getting
into Lebanon. We think, as long as we're coming from Cyprus, it won't be a
problem. There wasn't an earlier bus so we sat around for an hour but at
least it was assigned seats. Not so lucky on the bus from BS to Ashkelon.
That one's luggage compartment wouldn't open so I stood for most of the
trip. Rose had boarded earlier (yeah, I had to deal with the luggage) and
saved me a seat in the back. However the aisle was jammed, and she couldn't
see that I had boarded with the bags, and there was no way I was going to
get back there. It was pretty amusing; the first 15 minutes of the trip
Rose,
and her new found Israeli army studs were all calling to me to come back to
the seat they'd saved.
Happily back "home", we chilled out for the weekend waiting for Sunday and
the workmen. Sunday, the electricians showed up on time and crawled all
over the instruments, ultimately taking both radar displays and the tridata
with them to check out. No sign of the mechanic, but the boatyard guy came
with the electricians, and there is some drama about who will clean out the
oil in the bilge prior to the mechanic working on the leak. Yesterday, I
finally gave up and actually cleaned it up myself. Need to catch the
mechanic today (Tuesday) to get him out here. Yesterday, the electricians
called with basically all bad news. the replacement radar I put in, an
RL70Plus, cannot talk to the old RL70 repeater at the nav station. In any
event, the RL70 had a blown connection and nothing at all can talk to it,
anyway. The tridata is also causing communication problems between the
instruments and neither can it be repaired here. The guys here have a
source for a replacement 70Plus, but it's way too much money, and, besides,
in Turkey, I'm putting in a plain RL80 which couldn't talk to the plus.
So--the answer is to do nothing now-everything works independently-and buy a
used RL80 or 70 display to go with the already purchased RL80. The tridata
can be repaired by Ray Marine, I assume, and I can send it off this fall--a
new one of those is about $700. Generally bad news, but the good news is
now I know what the problems are and can address them at my leisure and at a
reasonable cost.
The plan is to get the instruments back installed which happens Thursday,
get the mechanic out here--I'll see him this AM--and take off for a short
trip to Cyprus since it's difficult to go to Beirut directly from Israel.
Don't know how long we'll stay in Cyprus, part of which depends on the
marina situation--they're very crowded so if we can't get a spot we'll
shorten our stay. The idea is to spend some time in Beirut and Lebanon and
then head up to the east end of Turkey and cruise west towards Marmaris, our
home for the winter.
Cheers 'til next time.
Tim & Rose
Before we continue our saga, everything seems to be okay here. We're just
24 km from the Gaza strip, but aside from the periodic bang from Israeli
artillery practice, it is quiet. Even the Israelis seem unhappy about the
big raid and have demonstrated in Tel Aviv, but it's pretty much business as
usual.
Who would have ever thought it? Tim and Rose hitting every holy site in
Israel; well almost every one. We rented a car with our friends from The
Southern Cross for three days. These guys amazingly exceed all of my
previous measures of frugality to the extent of trying to turn off the A/C
all the time to improve mileage. However, that being said, he drove and we
saved a bundle on the car by sharing. It was also a slightly better deal
for three days than a shorter period so we kept it just for ourselves the
last day as they had already done the stuff we planned for that day.
On the first day, we couldn't get the car 'til about 9, and what with doing
the paperwork, etc. (our friends insisted I put up my credit card as we
would
have the car the last day--felt like they thought theirs would melt or we
might somehow use it), we didn't get to the Old City of Jerusalem
until about 11. It's only about an hour drive--everything is close in this
tiny country. Navigation was a bit challenging. one of the few annoying
things about Israel, and I must admit I was surprised, is that almost
nothing is in English, including maps, but there was enough, minimal as it
was, to get us around. Every other tourist oriented place we've been has
had dual or treble language. So the rest of this will probably read a bit
like a travelogue because that's what it was.
We entered the Jaffa gate at the old city, finally around 11:30. Yes,
almost
lunchtime; the sites could wait. The main drag from there to the wailing
wall was one stall after another offering souvenirs. Only a few
restaurants. After a quick lunch of gyros, we walked down to the wailing
wall through tons of security. There are more guns in Israel than even the
States, and those gun nuts at home would love it here as everyone seems to
carry an assault weapon with a backup 45 automatic pistol. One restaurant
owner in Nazareth was like the old Saturday Night live routine where Ackroyd
plays a repairman with his pants halfway down showing major butt crack (and
Murray and the chick who married Gene Wilder roar with laughter), except our
guy had a 45 automatic stuck in his crack. I confess I had a hard time not
"cracking"
up. Ok, back to Jerusalem. women and men can't go to the same section of
the wall, so Rose went over to the female side and wrote up her prayer,
note, whatever, and put it in the wall while I people watched. Then we
went looking for the Dome of the Rock, the site of both Solomon's temple and
where Mohamed rose to heaven. The entrance we found to that complex was
only for Arabs so we backtracked through security and went up a special
kafir (that's Arabic for infidel) walkway. The mosque was just closing
down so we only got a quick look--pretty impressive.
After that, we walked over to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (CHS) through
the Christian Quarter, discovering along the way that, even though we had
paid less than half the asking price for some of our souvenirs, the Arab
merchants in the
other section had out-bargained us. Most of the stores in the Christian
Quarter had marked fixed prices so we could compare. The CHS is a combo
deal, allegedly the site of Christ's tomb as well as the site of Calvary.
In any event, there was not too much Christian activity going on in there as
people were elbowing each other to get closer and, all-in-all pretty rude.
Finishing there, we were to meet our friends at 5:30 to go to the Mount of
Olives and, as it was a bit early, we wandered through the Armenian quarter,
where they seem to specialize in ceramics, and the Jewish quarter. I have
no
idea why the Armenians rate their own quarter. Why not the Poles or the
French. Besides, the other quarters all represent a major religion. Maybe
they're Greek Orthodox, but then why isn't it the Greek Orthodox quarter?
So we met up, finally found the car park and took off around the old city
to the Mount of Olives where Jesus ascended to heaven. We got lost and
ended up in the Jewish cemetery. Not a total loss as Schindler of
"Schindler's List" fame is buried there, but we ended up at a dead end in a
dodgy neighborhood. Back down and around, we found the proper road up and
got to the scenic overlook for some pretty awesome views of Jerusalem at
sunset. Our driver (not me) decided not to make the turn down the hill on
the way back from which we had ascended and just followed a bunch of other
cars figuring they knew where they were going. Maybe they did, but this
route took us right off the map, and we took 3 hours to get home as we got
totally lost. Of course, the CS's (cheapskates) wouldn't think of stopping
for a bite to eat, so we arrived home famished at 10 pm. Now what would
have
made sense was staying the night in Jerusalem and avoiding all this hassle
as we were headed just north of there to Nazareth the next day, but the
CS's wouldn't hear of that either--something about going through the West
Bank territory--really just too cheap. As an amusing aside, we did another
late one the next night,
and they knew I would not be denied, so we pulled into Mcd's at about 7:30
pm. the husband wanted a cappuccino to help him stay awake on the drive
home but gagged--I kid you not, GAGGED--at the 8 shekel price for the
coffee--about $2. They couldn't believe I spent almost $10 on my burger and
fries. By the way, has the rest of McD's gone to the giant size quarter
pounder or, a la Pulp Fiction, a Royale in Israel. I should add by way of
explanation these people, the CS's,
are very nice, they are just the most unbelievably penurious individuals
I've ever met, and I've met a few. Right, Bob Doyle knows who I mean--Mr.
Window Shade.
The next day was even more chock full of activity, and the drive was about
twice the distance so we got an early start as we already had the car.
Traffic through the outskirts of Tel Aviv was abysmal---every Israeli must
drive through there on the way to work. Fortunately, we did not get majorly
lost that day. We finally made it to Nazareth where we visited Mary's
Well--a couple of them, at least, as nobody is really sure. There were some
other sights, including the 45 in the butt crack there, but one church runs
into another after a while. After lunch, we headed up to the Sea of
Galilee, a hotbed of religious sites. This was the Sermon on the Mount, the
feeding of multitudes with a bit of bread and 2 fish (Rose brought some pita
and a can of anchovies, but nothing happened), calming of the waters,
Peter's house and more I can't remember. Now, I'm not terribly religious
and am doing this mainly for the historical significance, but I do pretty
much believe, having been raised a Catholic. However, my faith was tested
here as the Sea of Galilee is not a sea at all, but, rather a very small--by
Lake Michigan standards--fresh water lake about 2 miles across. In my book,
the biblical tempest Christ calmed couldn't have been too severe as you can
almost walk across the lake!!! So what else did they exaggerate? After the
Sea Of Galilee--our friends had this master plan, you see--off we went to
Mount Tabor, semi on the way home. Tabor is the alleged site of Christ's
transfiguration where the apostles saw Him light up and also talk to God who
called him Son, and Moses. Great views, 16 switchbacks on the way up.
Unfortunately, all the monasteries and churches closed by the time we
arrived. We still got home really late for us old folks, but at least I got
McDonald's!!!!
The next day, Rose and I had the car to ourselves, but, ah, I have forgotten
another CS story. On our late return the prior evening, the CS's suggested
we fill up the car so there would be no question on the cost sharing. I
guess we couldn't be trusted to provide an accurate accounting of the fuel
costs.
Unfortunately, most of the petrol stations close by that time so they
dropped us at the marina and drove around for another hour to fill up just
so we couldn't possibly cheat them the next day. What else could be the
reason for that hassle. Then, in spite of the rental place checking off
that the tank was full, they had determined that it was a bit less when we
picked it up, so I had
to eat that. All this over a possible couple of dollars. I guess their
time isn't worth anything--Rose and I had to stay up waiting for their
return to settle the tab. So, it was with great relief that we had the car
alone.
Since we had a lot to do and relatively long distances to travel, we had
planned to get an early start but ran into some other friends who had
arrived late the day before, but we did get off at about 8:30 for Bethlehem
which is south of Jerusalem. The place to see there is the Church of the
Nativity which is the site of the manger--rrright. We got marginally lost
but someone directed us, and, when we arrived, a Palestinian guy helped us
find
parking, etc. For the prior 2 days, I had sweltered in long pants having
been misinformed by the CS's that some places required them. Nope, the only
remotely similar instance was in Nazareth where one of the caretakers
wouldn't let me cross my long pants clad legs inside that church whilst
waiting for the
others--figure that one out!!! Anyway, that particular day was meant to be
extremely hot so I wore shorts. Of course our helpful Palestinian
shopkeeper said the priests wouldn't let me in the church in shorts, so he
lent me an Arab sarong which, of course, I could return to his shop before
our departure. Turned out I didn't need that either and felt like a fool
walking around this church in a dress. We did manage to get in the back way
and avoid lines as there was some Canadian bigwig (oxymoron, I know) with
the whole nine yards of security guys--black suits, Chevy Suburbans, talking
into their wrists. We sort of snuck by them (not very good security, are
they?) and entered through the exit. Then Rose hooked up with some guy who
took her
into the cave or whatever from the end of the line. I waited in my dress.
I don't think they let transvestites in there.
Our next stop was the Dead Sea, lowest place on earth. To do that, you have
to go through the center of Jerusalem as there are no roads through the
Negev desert. Yep, got lost, but not too bad. Oh yeah, twice, but neither
time too far out of the way. The only way to get there is to drive over to
the north end from Jerusalem and then pick up the Dead Sea coast Road down
to Ein Gedi where you can swim--about halfway down the coast. Got a bite to
eat there and then walked down to the water. Rose went for a swim, and I
was
going to wait for her but it was 43 C in the shade; that's about 105
Fahrenheit!!!! I don't think I've ever been so hot. Went back to the car
and took a nap in the A/C while Rose floated. But wait, there's more.
Leaving the "spa", we headed south to Masada. Masada, you may recall was a
seventies ABC miniseries starring the miniseries king, Peter Strauss.
Around 100 AD (I refuse to use the politically correct BCE and CE), the Jews
revolted against the Romans and held out here for years before pulling a Jim
Jones and committing mass suicide by leaping hundreds of feet to their
deaths. Masada was originally Herod's resort palace and is built at the top
of a 1000 foot plateau. There were actually some crazies who walked up in
the heat but
for the old folks they have a cable car. Round trip was about $2 more than
one way; the CS's walked down when they visited earlier this month. We
paid the extra $2 since it was 105 outside. We were very hot, very tired,
and touristed out, so we made the visit pretty quick and were back at the
boat by dinnertime. Did not get lost!
Having been exhausted from all the sight seeing, we took several days off
and the time to arrange our trip to Petra. If you watched Indiana Jones and
the Last crusade, Petra was the site where the guy was with the Holy Grail.
Looks just like that, except the entry canyon is even more spectacular and
longer than in the movie. Petra is the sight of a desert civilization that
was pre Roman and ran most of the middle east around the time of Alexander.
Was rediscovered by Europeans in the mid nineteenth century and is an entire
huge city carved out of rock in the canyons in the wilderness of Jordan. It
is next to Wadi Musa which is Moses' Well in Arabic. It is a big tourist
destination about 200 km from Aqaba in Jordan which is where the border
crossing from Israel at Eilat is. Both Eilat and Aqaba are at the north end
of, not surprisingly, the Gulf of Aqaba, and both are huge Miami beach
affairs with temps in the 100's. Fortunately, Petra, in the mountains, is
somewhat cooler. It's possible to fly down there but we chose the bus which
are air conditioned modern coaches. What we didn't realize is they are also
a major mode of troop carriers for Israel, and many of the soldiers are not
too proud to elbow their way in ahead of you to take all the seats. And
they've got guns!!!
Anyway, you need to leave early as it is a long way down there from
Ashkelon, so we arranged a cab to the bus station, and, despite the language
barrier, managed to get the right bus to Beer Sheba to change for Eilat.
Beer Sheba (BS) has an interesting story in itself, and I encourage you to
rent the movie "the Light Horsemen" about Australian mounted infantry in WW
I. this city played a key role in the war here, and it's sort of a Charge
of
the Light Brigade with a reasonably happy ending. The ride from BS is
through the Negev desert south. Half the bus was armed forces with weapons,
and the bus actually stopped at about 4 or 5 bases to drop and pick up.
Once at Eilat (we were a bit worried with the Gaza raid having just occurred
that they might close the border but they didn't. Jordan, along with Turkey
were the two Muslim countries with good Israeli relations), you hop a 10
minute cab to the border and walk across. Once again you skip getting
stamped as the Lebanese can figure out you've been in Israel with an Aqaba
stamp. Then, if you are the CSs, you cab it to the bus station and take
that up to Petra. Hotter than hell, we had prearranged a car with the hotel
that picked us up right at the border. Cost about $50 more that the cheap
way.
So, based on Tripadvisor.com and a bit more checking, we had picked the
Valley Star Inn, breakfast included. Mixed reviews here. It's small (10
rooms) and the guys who own it are the children of the late mayor of Petra.
Apparently they believe this gives them the right to take liberties with
their claimed amenities on their web site. ATM on site, Turkish bath, room
service, alcohol and cocktail lounge. No, no, no, no and no. But, the
rooms were nice if a bit over priced, and the owners were super for service,
driving us all over the place on unscheduled trips. Really good sat TV!!!
The real disappointment was, at breakfast the first day, which was pretty
good, some other guests raved about the food the night before. We had
elected to eat out that night and eat in the next day figuring we'd be tired
from walking around Petra all day. Unfortunately, not enough people wanted
dinner so Mama, yes, mama, wasn't cooking and we had to eat out again.
The owner gave us a special ride down to the gates at 8 and we were to meet
him at 5pm for the ride back. It ain't cheap here and entry was about JD35
each. A dinar is $1.40 so it's about $50, but it is amazing and really
worth it. I estimate we walked about 15 km and it could have been more, but
we took donkeys most of the way to the Monastery, an equally impressive
"building" as the Treasury which is featured in the Last crusade. Otherwise
it's a two hour uphill trek with about 1,000 steps. Rose,
wimp that she is, of course, got spooked on the donkey and kept asking to
get
off. In truth, as I rode hers part of the way back down, it had a bad
saddle, and you felt like you were going to fall off. You need to walk the
last 1/2 mile to the Monastery, and it was awesome. We stopped for a rest
and drink for an hour or so, chatting with some interesting tourists, one of
whom was an old guy who had just come from Manchu Pichu. There was also a
very hot Air Emirates stewardess??!! On the way back to the donkeys, Rose
informed
me she was not getting back on and would walk. Right, this is about 2 or 3
miles most of which is steep stairs. But she was firm, so I informed the
donkey boys that we would give them half the round trip price as their
saddle sucked. They offered to meet us at the bottom of the steps so I
tried to get a discount, but Rose was still having none of it. So--it
ended up with me offering JD15, they snorted and said forget it; they would
get the tourist police. We said ok. So it finally ended up that we did
pick them back up at the bottom for JD25 total, and Rose took my donkey and
I
ultimately took the head donkey boy's donkey as the saddle really was crap
on Rose's ex donkey. It was all pretty funny but I guess you had to be
there.
By this time, it was about 2:30 and we still hadn't had lunch, and all the
food places were back where we'd come from so, being old farts and tired
and hot, we hired a horse drawn cart to take us back the 3 miles to the
gate. This guy was pretty funny as well. He, he claimed, was the last guy
of the day, JD50 was
a discount, yada, yada, yada. We went back and forth until about 4 other
"last carts of the day" pulled in and settled on JD25 for the ride.
Hungry, hot and thirsty (Rose was sure they would have drinking water fill
taps all over as they did at Masada, so we only brought one bottle of
water),
we decided to get a snack at the Movenpick hotel ($850/night; yep, $850)
which is just outside the gate. After a false start at the restaurant which
had a huge, but expensive, buffet, we were referred to the Atrium (can you
see my nose in
the air as I say Atrium with an English accent?) for drinks and snacks.
Expensive, but we were tired and hungry and treated ourselves to some good
grub and drinks. So now it's 4 and our ride isn't due 'til 5. This is a no
brainer--for less than the cost of one vodka tonic, we took a cab back to
the hotel. Shower, nap and it's dinner time. The place the guy took us
to was a bit pricey and touristy but pretty good. Oh, we had planned on
the bus back to Aqaba, but negotiated a JD35 deal to the border with our
afternoon cabbie, so next morning, bright and early, it was breakfast and
into the cab at 7. We were hoping to get an earlier bus than the 11 AM out
of Eilat.
Made it in record time to the border. Jordan side no problem, but got the
usual grilling on the Israeli side, and then Rose was so flustered she
forgot
to tell them not to stamp her in so we'll need to deal with that getting
into Lebanon. We think, as long as we're coming from Cyprus, it won't be a
problem. There wasn't an earlier bus so we sat around for an hour but at
least it was assigned seats. Not so lucky on the bus from BS to Ashkelon.
That one's luggage compartment wouldn't open so I stood for most of the
trip. Rose had boarded earlier (yeah, I had to deal with the luggage) and
saved me a seat in the back. However the aisle was jammed, and she couldn't
see that I had boarded with the bags, and there was no way I was going to
get back there. It was pretty amusing; the first 15 minutes of the trip
Rose,
and her new found Israeli army studs were all calling to me to come back to
the seat they'd saved.
Happily back "home", we chilled out for the weekend waiting for Sunday and
the workmen. Sunday, the electricians showed up on time and crawled all
over the instruments, ultimately taking both radar displays and the tridata
with them to check out. No sign of the mechanic, but the boatyard guy came
with the electricians, and there is some drama about who will clean out the
oil in the bilge prior to the mechanic working on the leak. Yesterday, I
finally gave up and actually cleaned it up myself. Need to catch the
mechanic today (Tuesday) to get him out here. Yesterday, the electricians
called with basically all bad news. the replacement radar I put in, an
RL70Plus, cannot talk to the old RL70 repeater at the nav station. In any
event, the RL70 had a blown connection and nothing at all can talk to it,
anyway. The tridata is also causing communication problems between the
instruments and neither can it be repaired here. The guys here have a
source for a replacement 70Plus, but it's way too much money, and, besides,
in Turkey, I'm putting in a plain RL80 which couldn't talk to the plus.
So--the answer is to do nothing now-everything works independently-and buy a
used RL80 or 70 display to go with the already purchased RL80. The tridata
can be repaired by Ray Marine, I assume, and I can send it off this fall--a
new one of those is about $700. Generally bad news, but the good news is
now I know what the problems are and can address them at my leisure and at a
reasonable cost.
The plan is to get the instruments back installed which happens Thursday,
get the mechanic out here--I'll see him this AM--and take off for a short
trip to Cyprus since it's difficult to go to Beirut directly from Israel.
Don't know how long we'll stay in Cyprus, part of which depends on the
marina situation--they're very crowded so if we can't get a spot we'll
shorten our stay. The idea is to spend some time in Beirut and Lebanon and
then head up to the east end of Turkey and cruise west towards Marmaris, our
home for the winter.
Cheers 'til next time.
Tim & Rose
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