Marmaris Finale, Haul out and Greece May 15 2011

Hi everyone.

Yes, it’s been a while and I know you are all on pins and needles to hear of our latest adventures, but, first: Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear. A fiery woman with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty Hi Yo Rose, the Lone Arranger. Yes folks, overcoming overwhelming odds, the opposition of the female dock Nazi, the off again on again cooperation of the marina and no tables and chairs right before the start time, Rose pulled off a charity afternoon tea for the benefit of a local handicapped children’s school, raising over $1,500. Her fame was far reaching with Turkish TV covering the presentation, and, while she will modestly assert that she had lotsof help, it wouldn’t have happened without her persistence, management and a lot of hard work. It was so well received that the returning yachties are going to carry on the tradition. And, yes folks, Rose will live in immortality as they all voted to dub the event the Rose Charity. Who was that masked woman?

Now for the rest of the letter, as the preceding announcement deserved the lead position. Well, we haven’t written in two months, and neither Rose nor I can remember anything else much of consequence at the marina since we both returned in early March, except the tea, that is. So you are probably thinking, Thank god, it will be a short one. Nope, you are just not that lucky as a lot of other stuff has happened. The downside of the tea was they had a nurse doing blood pressure tests for 1 lira. Mine was way high—it’s been 120 over 70 my whole life—which I attributed to the nurse’s massive cleavage. But, I figured I better get it checked for real at the free clinic. Oh, oh, 150 over 105. A little googling indicated this is not something to mess around with so $1,000 of cardiologist and test fees later, I have to take blood pressure pills until further notice, probably ‘til I die. The good news is they are about half price in Turkey so I loaded up enough until I get on Italy’s national health program when they’ll be free or pretty close to it. I figure just owning the boat is worth several points so maybe when we sell it, it will come down!!!

We had the boat hauled in May, first time ever actually all the way out as we are too wide for most travel lifts and have come up on a marine railway. Of course, the same chick in the office who ripped me off on my 5% discount on the winter contract also tried to deny me the 10% I was told I would get on the haulout as a result of being there for the winter. After a too long conversation and some harsh words, I gave up and came back the next day to see the nice girl who didn’t even question it and knocked off 150€ from the bill.

We had hoped to only be out of the water for a few days, like it used to be in the Caribbean, but Turkish time is worse than island time and they didn’t even start work for the first week. Lots did get done ultimately, however, including genset repairs, bottom paint, special prop coating, buff and wax the hull and decktops and a million other little jobs. The old tub looks and works (see later comments) pretty good.

While we were out, Rose refused to go up and down the ladder so we stayed at a hotel in town. The marina has rooms to let for this purpose but rip you for 50€ a day and half the time there isn’t hot water. I bowled with a couple who own a small hotel and just happened to remember our last day and asked what their rates were—40TL/day or about 20€ and you get a full English breakfast with that. One of the owners is the chef and makes his own sausage—almost as good as Jones--and knows how to make a proper burger in addition to all the other really good normal stuff. Homemade marmalade too. The Turks seem to think jams and the like are simply chunks of fruits in a sicky sweet thick sugar syrup—YUK. We kicked ourselves for not finding the restaurant sooner and had a great time there, eating, karaoking and having drinks competition. Paul, one of the owners, won the bloody mary contest only because he had local knowledge and knew the celery salt wasn’t salty enough, but I totally trumped him with mud slides which no one had even heard of before. We had a controversial tie on the pina coladas but I was working with inferior local ingredients.

So finally, the boat was ready to launch, and they dropped us in but there was a nice but impaired French boat in front of us that took an hour and a half to figure out he needed to go to the office to pay for his water fill up. At last off at about 6:30 and getting dark, we only went about ¼ mile to anchor for the night. Oops. Windlass ain’t workin’!! Just release the clutch to get it down you say. I say the #@&*### clutch wouldn’t release either. So, at great personal risk to my fingers, I lifted the chain off the gypsy and let it run, figuring it would slow down or stop when on the bottom. Nope, the chain was hurtling out of the locker so I ran up and wrapped a rope around it at the bow—again at great personal peril—and got it stopped with about 6 feet left. Called the guys at the marina who promised to come out the next day and fix it. I called it right, another wiring problem. But wait, there’s more. The next day we had to wait until the afternoon as there was torrential rain. When it stopped, I dropped the dinghy to go in and pick the guys up. Right, can’t prime the fuel as it isn’t sucking a vacuum. You may recall we changed the tankage in Finike, and those yahoos put on quick release fittings that didn’t seal properly. Only took about an hour to figure that out and, finally, I had to directly connect the hose to the tank. Fortunately, the King of Spares had a proper sized threaded nipple to do the job.

Oh, I almost forgot, we replaced our countertops, mainly to help appearances to sell the boat and they look great. Big problem getting anyone to do it and our yard guys finally found someone in Bodrum, two hours away. Great job, looks great and worth every penny, but they somehow screwed up the stovetop when they temporarily removed it. The allegedly stove guy, who was also our A/C guy—did I mention I had to replace the forward condenser AGAIN—sort of fixed it, for about a nanosecond and then was impossible to get hold of. Well, he actually showed up with the windlass guy and again supposedly fixed it. This time it took about 10 minutes to fail again. The damn thing would light but wouldn’t stay lit. Captain to the rescue. How is Rose meant to boil water for her tea without working burners. I figured if I took off the knob and stuck something in to hold it in the light position, that would work. Better than we dreamed of. Must have been some gunk down in there and just poking around without leaving anything in there worked!!!

So now we’re sorted,right? Wrong. Needed to commission the watermaker. Against my better judgement and on a friend’s advice, I decided not to replace the membranes while in the marina. The water was marginal at best, but good enough for bathing, washing dishes, etc. just not for drinking. We didn’t want to wait around to do the replacement in Turkey and decided to wait for Greece—more on this later.

In the meantime, we hung around for good weather to depart and, of course, to see the royal wedding. Went back to our hotel for a large screen TV viewing. Did I mention the owners are all English which is why they had decent food. While all of this was going on, I was trying to get my last care package from Lizzie. I had had at least 7 shipments, some of which with quite expensive parts included, but had been advised that if the manifest showed under $150, it would sail through customs which they all did thanks to lizzie’s fake invoices, except, of course, for the legitimate low value—maybe $70-- last package. Turned out FedEx wanted about $100 extra for doing nothing; then I would have to hire an agent for about $200 and, oh yeah, there was duty and taxes of $13!!! FedEx wanted $330 to return it even though it only cost $100 to ship it. It went the way of Joey’s stuff in Australia—abandoned. Bastards!!!

Okay, so now we get to the good stuff. We finally got out of Marmaris about 2 weeks ago and just took a short trip—35 miles—to our first Greek island, Symi. Based on the advice of poor Freebird who are having an awful time of it wherever they go, we went into a bay with a big monastery which is very well protected. Just as well. One night my wind indicator couldn’t even register the top speed!!! You need to understand that, starting in about a month, the “Meltemi”, gale force winds, sometimes for days, start kicking in in the Aegean. They can still be quite strong even now so we are very conscious of where and how we anchor, and it is the reason we are heading west for the Corinth canal to get into the Ionian where the effect is much less.

So we got checked into Greece in the main town, a ½ hour bus ride away. The only problem was the bus had broken down but the operators did come with a compact 5 seater car. Unfortunately, there were four other people who beat us to the punch, but we finally got in and did our paperwork. Coincidentally, in our anchorage was the guy Rose strong armed into playing some mood music guitar at the tea. Had drinks with them and got the lay of the land as they had been there before. Symi,due to the meltemi, was the only island we got to when I visited Norman and Rose in Rhodos about 10 years ago. Either we went into a different town or it has grown to be unrecognizable in that time. Still charming friendly people, 2€ really good gyros and it was interesting to watch the boats come and go. The grocer even threw in a really nice bottle of white Greek wine free with our purchases. Rose found a hand made silver Greek cross to restart her collection after her old stuff got ripped off in Cyprus. We stayed about 5 or 6 days and got phones but not internet sorted out. I need to digress for a minute to talk about my Kindle. I was convinced to get one after I checked out a friend’s. Lizzie is pissed off at me because I stupidly refused one for Christmas from her. Anyway, as you all know, you download books wirelessly with no extra charge. BUT, the really great thing is, Amazon has put some experimental stuff on the latest generation, one of which is internet access through the same mechanism by which they send books. It amounts to a totally free and mobile 3G internet connection, so while we didn’t get broadband until Kos, neither did we need to hassle with the netbook into town or internet cafes. It’s not quite as good as using a computer but it was a life and hassle saver for us!!! Thoroughly enjoyed ourselves in Symi, but we had some nice weather to head to Kos, north and west of Symi. We actually sailed for part of the 45 mile passage.

We are trying to plan our stops where it is sheltered and anchoring is possible. The stern to, Med moor is a real pain in the ass so the first stop in Kos was a bit shorter trip than going all the way north to Kos Town, and we had a nice little bay all to ourselves. Of course, the best laid plans…so on arrival we scoped out the anchorage outside the marina, found it wanting and got a place alongside—no Med moor—in the marina. Well, all we can say is so far so good. We’ve also planned to avoid marinas as we keep hearing horror stories of $150/night for our size boat, but the prices here, while not cheap, are comparable to what I was paying in Tortola. The people and the marina—a major charter base—couldn’t have been nicer. Even though they are packed over the weekend with returning charter boats they are letting us stay. The reason we need to stay is we’re trying to get these membranes for the watermaker replaced. Price--$1,500--and availability—days or weeks—made it unattractive to buy them here, so I’m saving half the cost with 2 day FedEx bringing them in. Fingers crossed Greek customs doesn’t hassle me!!!

We’ve done some sightseeing here and there is an ancient agora (Greek market) and medieval fort right in town. Saw Hippocrates tree where he used to teach and yesterday took the tourist “train” 15 min. out of town to Asklipieion, a huge ancient site in pretty good repair, that was an ancient version of a hospital. Tomorrow, we’re renting a dune buggy to go exploring.

So not too long.

Cheers for now

Tim and Rose

Marmaris III and Istanbul March 13 2011

Hi everybody.

No doubt your lives are totally boring since you have not received one of our witty travel notes in almost 2 months. Well, contain your excitement!!! Entertainment is at hand.

A quick check of my last letter revealed we have not yet reported on the camel wrestling outing. Actually, this was a pretty cool deal. It cost us about $180/person and included transportation, tickets to the various events, a professional Turkish tour guide and lunch and dinner the first day, breakfast the second as well as a really, really nice hotel. So they picked us up at about 7 AM in a minibus. The woman who puts these tours together lives on her boat in the other marina across the bay, and makes her living this way. Besides talking way too much on the morning radio net selling her stuff, I think she takes a little advantage. For instance, she crammed 17 people on a 16 person bus for this tour. That being said, everything else was very good--even the weather cooperated.

Our first stop was Ephesus, about 2 hours or 3 away. This is a very cool archeological site going back to pre-Roman times which was an important seaport before sea levels dropped--it's now 5 kilometers from the coast. During Roman times it grew to the third largest city in the ancient world with a population of up to 350,000. Had villas for the rich on the hills overlooking the sea, only a fraction of which have been excavated, with running water. There are even public toilets that sort of self-flush along with baths and broad avenues with many temples. It's still a huge site and we spent almost all day there.

Following Ephesus, we had a late lunch and then we hit the local museum and a famous mosque--I forget why it's famous--senior moment. Our last stop was one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world--the Temple of Aphrodite. Unfortunately, most of the 60 or so columns had been dismantled long ago and used in other construction so there's just one remaining. Obviously, this was not a long stop. After, it was on to the hotel overlooking the sea which had great rooms and a terrific dinner buffet. It was just too bad, due to the timing of everything, that we'd eaten lunch so late as the food was great but appetites were small.

The main event, camel wrestling (hereafter called CW, not conventional wisdom), was the next day. After convening following breakfast and checkout, we were supposed to tour the little resort town, but one of our party got wind of a Starbucks so we scrapped plan A for a trip to get some decent coffee. We were due at CW at about 10, and it was a hoot. The event is held in a natural coliseum without seats. We knew this from talking to people who had done it before and took our own folding canvas chairs. The hillside was packed with 5-10,000 Turks enjoying their version of an American tailgate party complete with BBQs. Dave and I decided "when in Rome..." and bought a bottle of Rake, the local firewater that is like ouzo or anisette. The guys next to us watched us have a couple before handing over some BBQed chicken with an admonition that one does not drink rake on an empty stomach. Then, people from all around started offering us oranges, nuts and assorted other goodies. The CW itself took a backseat to the festivities, but just to be complete, they fight with their necks (and teeth if they hadn't been muzzled) and the idea is to put the other camel down. These are bulls, only, but they keep a couple of females in season around to stir up the hormones. They slobber all over the place and are riderless, but in full regalia with decorations, saddles, etc. We had been making fun of the whole thing beforehand, but it was one of those events that turned out to be something that shouldn't be missed.

After the wrestling, we grabbed some lunch and went to a specialty wine making village for a tasting which really wasn't necessary after all the rake. Touristy place, but quite interesting and fun. Hopped on the bus and were home by the evening, laughing about the day all the way home.

Back to the real world, I finally got the nerve to see if the new transformer--yes, more new stuff getting the boat ready to sell--would run the AC/Heating. I think it will, but the forward unit--the one we'd really use, wouldn't work. A visit from the AC guy gave us the bad news that we needed a new compressor. Just try getting one that uses 110 volts here in the Med. Fortunately, the manufacturer felt bad about it as I'd replaced both about 3 years ago and gave me a deal. Sent it to Lizzie who will work some magic on the invoice to put the price below Turkish customs' radar, and it will be on the way shortly. Could have used it the last few days when spring turned back into winter and 70's have made way for a freezing cold snap (it's warmed back up now, thank God). Our portable heaters seem to be keeping up, thank goodness. The other major expense we're now facing is redoing the counter tops. Had a hell of a time getting anyone to look--they're Corian--but finally someone from 2 hours away gave us a quote. Lots of money, but considering the labor involved getting the old ones off--21 tubes of Sikaflex that's like iron were used to glue it down--I think we getting a good deal. We thought it was important as first impressions can make or break a sale. The old counters just couldn't cope with all the flexing in some of the bad weather we've had and had cracked in several places. The new counters will be 50% thicker and we shouldn't be in those conditions anymore so I think they'll hold up just fine.

I just realized--it's now a few days later--what I thought would be a short letter may turn out to be a large volume. SO--you are forewarned. If you don't want to hear anymore about our recent adventures, delete this now.

After our return from all the excitement of the CW, life continued at a leisurely pace with our next outing on Feb. 10 to Istanbul for the boat show and sightseeing. The marina pays to bus us all up there and walk around wearing marina jackets to promote themselves. More on this later, but, first, it was necessary to do a visa run to Rhodes. I wasn't going to make another mistake and have a 200€ fine. Since my visa would have run out while in Istanbul, we could have ridden over to the Bulgarian border, but figured that had to be time consuming and expensive. Also, due to poor planning on our part, Rose was departing for the UK for a doctor's visit, one miserable day beyond her visa. That was a costly miscalculation as they raised the ferry rate to 45€, and we had cabs, lunch, etc. The trip was complicated by the fact that the USS Enterprise was in port and security was up, so we got the rust bucket, slow ferry instead of the fast cat. This meant we had about an hour and a half to get to the store to buy pork products. Freebird came, too, with similar circumstances. Actually, that part was good since they brought their Kindles--Amazon's e-book reader--and it was so cool, I just got one myself. Just as an aside, the new ones are free 3G connections, and they've added a browser so you can even surf and check your email. Not as good as using a computer, but it saves toting along the heavy laptop or netbook for short trips. The trip turned out to be a bit humorous as someone said they spot check bags when returning to Turkey and won't allow pork--or any fresh products--in. So we, of course, were ignoring the restriction craving some good salami and ham, and we bought loads of the stuff plus some sausages--real polish and good hotdogs--not that chicken stuff you get here. The problem was to smuggle it back in so we stuffed Rose's loose top and around her waist with the flat packages and Istuffed the salami and other stuff in my inside jacket pocket. I was going to put the salami in my pants but there wasn't any room. As it turned out, Turkish officialdom didn't check anyone or even give us a second look. So we are now legal into early May and will be departing around then for Greece so we needn't suffer through that ordeal again. Next stop Istanbul. Unfortunately, all four of us picked up a bad cold with varying gestation periods and severity on the damn ferry which took the edge off the Istanbul trip. I was the first to be cursed.

As a result of my cold, I can't say I enjoyed the 16 hour bus ride north, the discomfort of which was compounded by a few unauthorized BS stops so someone could show off their knowledge of local conditions. In fact, the next day, I booked a return flight rather than facing another marathon bus ride to get home. We finally got to our room, which was quite pleasant, about midnight after an 8AM start. There were 60 or 70 of us and most everyone stayed in the one hotel right in the center of the old district. Next morning, it was a leisurely, if somewhat skimpy Turkish breakfast which consists of a hardboiled egg, olives, cheese, tomato and cucumber with fresh bread. At 10, we reboarded our busses for transport to a tour boat--again all at the marina's expense--for a 5 hour cruise up the Bosporus. This was a first class deal with a lovely ship, and tons of free food and booze as well as a live band and belly dancers, all in addition to the sights. Our friends from another marina farther east came up to visit us, and we managed to smuggle them in to all the events which added to the fun. I consumed mass quantities of vitamin C in the form of red wine, purely for medicinal purposes which actually seemed to work.

The next day was the boat show all day and, if you wanted, they would ply you with more free wine at their large display area. I decided not to push my luck. The owner of the marina was there who is allegedly a Turkish mafia guy, and it was kind of like watching the wedding scene in the Godfather's den with various people coming over to pay homage. The show itself was quite large, but mainly smaller power boats and really not too much gear. Well, that was it--Saturday--for the marina deal, and they were leaving early Sunday on the bus for the marina. We were staying 'til Wednesday with Rose flying out early to the UK and me in the evening back to Dalaman and Marmaris. Freebird by this time was in full flower with colds, but they stayed until Friday. Our other friends, on Katanne, left Tuesday, so we did some stuff together and cruised by ourselves part of the time.

As I said, the hotel was in a great location, within close walking distance of all the things you've read about in the city. In fact, we were only about 100 yards from the Blue Mosque. I actually downloaded the movie, Topkapi, which we watched before departing Marmaris, and it is truly amazing with all the stuff including the dagger they stole in the movie. It's huge but we got most of it in. We also went into the oldunderground Roman cisterns nearby which are an ancient engineering marvel. Tombs, mosques, basilicas--we did it all. Over the next few days we also went to the Grand Bazaar which was a big disappointment. We expected excellent, after negotiation of course, prices and all sorts of cool stuff in the 5-7,000 shop complex. What we found were blasé merchants unwilling to negotiate and prices higher than Marmaris. They wanted $60 for knock off Levis, and they were all 34 inch inseam requiring more money for tailoring. I needed a new cheap digital watch, and they were trying to get $40 for the local cheap brand which I ultimately bought here for $20. Big bummer as you always hear about the Istanbul bazaar. Not a disappointment was the much smaller spice bazaar where some good deals were to be had.

The weather was getting pretty cold by then. Early on the trip for the cruise, etc. it had been sunny and 50's. Changed to cloudy, drizzly and 32 late Sunday until departure. Overall, it was something we just had todo, but neither of us have much interest in returning. So, we got Rose off around 10 on Wed. and I had the rest of the morning and much of the afternoon to kill. I opted for a Turkish bath and massage to knock out the remnants of my cold. While it was a bit expensive, I went for a famous historical old bath near the bazaar which was built in 1300 or something, maybe earlier. About quadruple the $25 cost of the same deal in Alanya but includes the steam room (sort of--you really have to do it to understand), body scrub, soapy massage, shampoo and oil massage--about 2 hours for the whole deal. Finished that, had lunch, fruitlessly wandered the bazaar, and then it was the bus to the airport. The only glitch was the transport service to Marmaris at Dalaman was waiting at the International terminal. Panic stricken with no ride at 9PM and no phone number for them, I lucked out as one of the other drivers at domestic knew my guy and called him. Back on the boat, alone again, not even Charlie to greet me, by 10:30.

Now, as I think I've mentioned--we're on the home stretch, folks--I need to get some kind of EU residency. In their infinite wisdom, the Europeans limit many nationalities' stays, including Americans who bailed their asses out of 2 wars, to three months out of six ( I don’t think so !! from me, Rose. ). This makes staying in a marina for the entire winter illegal, and I am not comfortable staying with our friends for three months. Besides, most of them live in colder places than where we'll be‼! While many countries sort of ignore this rule, since I want to stay in Europe, I thought it best to be totally legal. Research has led us to Italy as a choice for several reasons. We both think we could live there; we're heading west this season and there is an exceedingly cheap deal for the winter at a new marina in Sicily, and Italy seems to be pretty receptive to granting residency. Hell, who knows, maybe I could supplement my income with some Mafia jobs. Anyway, I've been trying for 4 months to get somewhere on this only to be totally jerked around. Theembassy in DC says talk to Istanbul or the consulate of my permanent residence. Philly, which is the latter, said, sure they'd help. Just come on in. Istanbul referred me back to the states. The states referred me back to Istanbul. My plan had been to combine the boat show trip with getting the visa, but 25 emails later, nothing was happening. UNTIL, of course, I was already in Istanbul with no paperwork and got a call. So I, at least, discovered while there what is necessary. First, I need a long term visa prior to arrival which will allow me to apply for residency. To get the visa, I needed to present to the consulate certified financial docs showing I can support myself, proof of medical insurance and the boat papers proving I have a place to stay. Basically the same procedure is repeated on arrival in Italy to get a residence permit. Easy, peasy, Japanesy.

So the person who finally called was the head of the visa department in the Italian Istanbul consulate, and she was very helpful and cooperative. Unfortunately, this was going to require another trip to Istanbul. So I gathered the papers and back I went. The process only took about 2 1/2 hours from start to finish, so I now have a one year multiple entry visa for Italy. The only glitch was getting there. The same yahoos who went to international on my last trip were meant to pick me up at the marina at 6:30 AM. Timing was critical as Turkish Air had some BS problem and wanted me at the service desk early--this turned out to be nothing at all, but I didn't know that at the time and had to make this flight as the Italian visa person was leaving on vacation. Well, the ride never did show up. The difference in cost between them and a cab is 9€ versus 60€--$12 versus $80+‼ Fortunately, at about 20 to the hour, a German guy drove through the gate and asked if I wanted a lift--turned out he was on the way to the airport, himself. Phew, this visa was expensive enough already what with fees, airfare, Istanbul cabs, etc. The transport company claimed they had a guy at the gate from 6:20 to 6:40 and refused me a refund which I wanted on principle. Damn liars‼‼ Big win there--when negotiations failed, and I finally called Citibank to bounce the charge, they just said okay, no problem. No affidavit, no letter, no nothing--just OK.

Since Rose returned 10 days ago, not much has been going on. We've hooked up with a nice crowd, and there've been a few parties; my bowling continues to improve and we're going to the other marina today for a lambroast lunch. Later today is rugby in the bar here with cheap eats--England v Scotland so it will be crowded with many fans on both sides. Really good sport to watch once you figure it out which is not rocket science like Cricket. Our departure is getting closer and we're both ready to go--pretty well sick of the marina cliques and politics--and anxious to move ahead.

The Rose report is good. She continues to be in fine form and got a 3 month cortisone shot in England. Very little pain now. The doc she had this time is pretty cooperative so she needn't return until the fall when, by the way, both of us will be in the UK for her son Nathan's longggggggggg overdue nuptials at the end of October.

Too long a letter I know. Cheers for now. Let us know how you are doing.

Tim & Rose

P.S. Joey continues to parlay his job into a love fest in Singapore, but work is beckoning as the boat is finally ready, and he departs Singapore and his love for Hong Kong later this week. Safe Sailing.

Marmaris Holidays 2010

I didn't realize it had been so long since we last reported to you. I'd like to get the sad news out of the way first. I'm still getting over it, but we had to put darling Charlie, the best cat ever, to sleep last week. He was only three. If you've been following our progress, you know he had been in and out the vet for the last few months. The last time, he had just come back from some infection, but his health only held for a few days before he stopped eating and drinking so back he went over New Year's. The vet really couldn't find anything wrong, but he was losing weight at an alarming rate. Rose suggested a test for Feline AIDS and Leukemia. He tested positive for AIDS, so it was normally non-problematic bacteria and viruses causing him the problems. A little research led us to conclude that the cat that beat him up in Ashkelon must have transmitted it to him. Everyone, even non-cat people, loved Charlie, and those of you who met him know what I'm talking about. Rose and I both cried like babies, but it had to be done as he was suffering. A couple of pictures below in his honor. We really miss the big furball.

Ok, I’ve dried my tears, so on to the main event: the rest of our lives for the last six weeks. Lots has happened but much of it mundane and of which I will not bore you.

The other marina near town had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, so we dodged the bullet and didn’t have to cook. We went with our friends, Dave and Judy, from Freebird and sat with them as well as two Finnish couples, one of whom got progressively more drunk and rowdy as the evening wore on. Took a lot of pressure off me, as both Judy and Rose cautioned me ahead of time to be on my best behavior, fearing the worst. I was an angel by comparison. I also met a guy from Chicago who knew a bunch of the same business people I did. Had a nice chat with him and we had similar views of some of those slime bags. Dinner was quite good.

As Christmas approached, we spent our time on Turkish Lessons (Rose), bowling (Tim), and Monday quiz night as well as various other organized activities. We took an overnight road trip up to Izmir—a larger city—and shopped til we dropped. Some advance presents were given and received as the weather was starting to get chilly.

Up until the Charlie situation, we had one of the nicest holidays ever. There was Christmas caroling in the yard and a nice Christmas Eve dinner at the marina with live entertainment. Christmas day (we had special ordered a turkey earlier), we started out at ten with bloody’s and eggs benedict with Freebird. Tim had baked home made English muffins for the occasion. English muffins are a 19^th century AMERICAN invention from trying to make English Crumpets. They went home, and we watched Love Actually and rested. About 6, they returned for Tim’s homemade egg nog —yes I was a cooking fool—and turkey. It was great.

Not much happening then until New Year’s Eve with another gala at the marina. Big turnout and lots of fun. Some of us—not me—were over-served, but all was well the next day for the boules (like bocce ball)tournament in the yard. Rose and I did not fare too well and found out that our balls—given to me by a charter guest—are oversized. Big kahones, so to speak.

I do need to report that bowling started again, and I placed second this week. I had been embarrassingly bad the first several times, failing to break 100, but rocked to 146 and a second place finish this time. Yesterday, we won the quiz night, so we have to prepare the questions for next week with another couple. Hey, we won 6 lira, too.

Rose is doing extremely well and has a planned check-up trip to the UK in Mid February as we’ll be in Istanbul for the boat show at that time, anyway. She’s off steroids altogether which had been the only thing that seemed to work. She’s up to the clinical dose on the other stuff which is supposed to cure or, at least, stem the disease. She is feeling great with little pain and has even started working out and doing pilates. Into previously too small jeans already and committed to “babe” up. The captain is an overweight couch potato and definitely with no plans to change.

This weekend we take an overnight trip up to Ephesus for a bunch of stuff with the main event being Camel Wrestling. Hey, anything to relieve the boredom and get out of the marina. So far, the weather hasn’t been too bad, but we did have some pretty cold 40’s a few weeks back and some torrential rain. However, it is now quite beautiful with 60’s daytime and 50’s at night with brilliant sunshine and clear skies. Unfortunately, for the next couple of months the usual pattern is for rainy cold weather. We’ll see. I’ve bought a new transformer as my central air is 110 volt. Been too chicken to try it in case the breakers continue to blow—one of those things I just don’t want to know-- but we have very nice free standing 220 volt electric heaters keeping us toasty. Unfortunately, we don’t trust leaving them on all night, so it’s a bit frigid in the AM. Fortunately, one of my gifts was a really nice velour robe, so we’re managing all right. Rose just bought some flannel sheets if that gives you some idea of our expectations!!

So, that’s the latest and greatest from Turkey. We always appreciate hearing from all of you to find out what’s up in the real world.

Cheers

Tim and Rose

Marmaris II

Hello all.

Well, once again I screwed up my distribution list, but I hope I got everybody
on.

We've been here about one month, and Rose just returned last week from the UK.
Her trip was a nightmare getting there with late flights and broken luggage.
Worse yet, when she got there, the vaunted National Health, that people like
Hillary extol, was a joke. First, they simply put her back on the meds that she
started on in Penang, which the Malaysian doctor revised. NH refused to listen
to that. Or consider alternatives. Rose had been told by another doc that
there were some amazing new meds out there. Then they said they wouldn't treat
her unless she remained in England and made her wait another two weeks before
even starting them. On the bright side, the steroids they've given her have
made her pain free (but they are to be tapered off over a few more weeks) and
just when we had given up, they called, and she was at least able to get a free
prescription for the other stuff which is so evil one must get monthly blood
tests to check liver functions. So she is sorted and we can get the medication
here w/o a scrip or go over to Rhodes, Greece on the ferry and get free EU
treatment there. We had hoped for a newer gentler drug, but they wouldn't even
discuss it. On the asthma front, the news is a bit better. The asthma nurse
(the docs in the UK really don't do much themselves--great system, eh?) said the
heavy duty stuff prescribed in Alanya was over the top and reduced her back to
the good old ventalin inhaler which is working well. She was actually glad to
return to the boat as the UK weather was pretty awful, and ours has been great
with sunny days in the 80's and nights in the 60's. So, overall, Rose is feeling
pretty good, and we'll just have to see how it goes.

The captain, on the other hand, had something seriously wrong with his shoulder,
BUT, fortunately, we were able to find a German chiropractor who fixed me.
We're talking serious pain before treatment that even the heavy duty painkillers
we keep for emergencies didn't work. I also found a really good massage guy for
TL30--about $20, so even the old git is feeling pretty good. Even Charlie has
been plagued. Was "off' before Rose left so I took him to the vet who diagnosed
a liver problem. He needed daily IV's as he hadn't been drinking and spent 6
days at the vet before returning home. Was fine for about 10 days and then
started again. I think that was food poisoning and am happy to report he is
back to his old self and eating like a pig to regain the weight he lost.

While Rose was gone, I organized some repairs and other stuff. Turns out the
problem with my brand new inverter was just an internal fuse. But Nooooo, could
the manufacturer tell me to check that? About a five minute job to check and
replace. Spent hundreds with the local guys testing before Xantrex would let us
open the box. We have now received our new genoa sail which tore, you will
recall, in the gulf of Antalya. Got a pretty good deal from the local Doyle
sail guys avoiding a lot of shipping cost and hassles with customs. Other than
that, my time with Rose away was spent cleaning and minor repairs and organizing
work to be done on the boat. Right at the marina are some very qualified
(yahoo!!!!) for a change jack of all trades boat management and repair places.
The yard, itself, does nothing except haul you out when ready--we'll go in
April, so there are all these on site contactors. Very convenient and very good
so far.

As for Marmaris, the marina is pretty nice, but not as upscale as the
double-the-price marina right in town. All in all, there are probably about
2,000 boats wintering here between the two places, about 2/3 out of the water.
With so many people around, there is a very active radio net at the civilized
hour of 9 AM each morning with the usual announcements of social events, stuff
for sale and help wanted or provided for all around advice about how to get
things done. As I said the weather has been stunning but we are told it turns
windy, cold and rainy after the first of the year. There are tons of things to
do with group trips overnight to see various sights--we're especially looking
forward to the one to Istanbul in Feb for the boat show--although not to the 12
or 15 hour bus ride. There was a Halloween party and there is a big
Thanksgiving do at the other marina on Thursday. There's yoga, Turkish lessons,
bowling, walking tours, picnics, etc., etc., etc.

The town, itself, a tourist destination, has wound down now and has changed
quite a bit from my one day trip eight years ago. There is a special ferry
terminal now outside of town, the Grand Bazaar is now all organized and under
roof and prices have shot up. The Turks seem to be pretty friendly though and
we are enjoying it.

The one bummer was my "visa run" on the ferry over to Rhodes. You get 90 days
and then have to leave--not even overnight--and get a new 90 when you return.
It should be a piece of cake with a 2 hour run over there and a nice day
shopping, like getting reasonably priced pork products, and 2 hours back.
Leaves at 9 AM. Fortunately, I checked, and the daily schedule had been
curtailed to twice a week. No problem. I booked a ticket on the phone 3 days
in advance of visa expiration. Schlep down to the ferry only to be told I could
get there, but the return had been overbooked and couldn't get back for five
days. You would think immigration would be understanding, but nooooo, since the
next ferry was 2 days after expiration, I got hit with a $150 fine and there was
no talking them out of it. To make matters worse, it was a Sunday so no
shopping. None!!! We even had trouble finding a restaurant that was open.
I'll book a week or so in advance next time in February.

On a final note, now that we know the "program" for marinas in the Med, it may
be economical enough to winter next year in Italy. We'll see as I've written to
several marinas for their rates with no replies yet. We could, me really, sort
out getting Italian residency without the hassle of travelling over from
Tunisia. Besides, although Turkey is pretty secular, we're tired of Muslim
countries for long term stays.

Cheers for now. Happy Thanksgiving to all you Yanks.

Tim & Rose