Boatyards - the bane of our lives

Hi to all,

As always we hope this finds you in the pink - 

We are not quite in the pink, frustrated as we are with progress (or the lack of it) in the boatyard.Yesterday we were told that the "engineer" who was to have been involved with replacing our rudder had broken his leg in a hit and run accident and was out of commission! Not surprising given how these idiots ride motorcycles. However, Levent, the yard owner says he is investigating alternatives.

Then the painter used the incorrect roller on the topcoat for the port side with the result that the finish is "stippled". Much the same as at Penang until we sorted them out. The boatyard owner is quite volatile and at one point said that we should do the whole job ourselves but we insisted that they do it as arranged and verbally contracted. So, they are carrying, but what a performance.

Another reason for us not doing this work is that the equipment isn't safe and in NZ would result in the yard being shut down. Unstable trestles on uneven ground and only one plank. We don't need broken limbs or worse at our time of life. We feel very concerned for the painter who speaks a little English and who seems to be a very pleasant guy in his 60's. But he told us that he has bone cancer in at least 4 sites and here he is still working in an environment which almost certainly gave him the problem in the first place!

In the meantime we have more or less finished our painting and varnishing above deck and will now be re-caulking some more deck seams that need attention. In Australia we did this in various marinas, but here the marinas get very precious about noise and so-called pollution, which is another cynical joke because we have never seen such a polluted boatyard ( and using grossly unsafe practices) as at the "Levent Yard". High pressure washing of hulls and dry sanding of antifouling is all carried out without any means of capturing highly toxic run-off from entering Fethiye Bay or the use of safety equipment such as overalls and masks/respirators. Sanding dust and high pressure washing debris just lands on the porous ground from where it would just undoubtedly just leach into the water. Then they have the confounded cheek to insist on holding tanks for even small yachts. It's all so hypocritical.

Then we need the pulpit modified for "medmooring" - again it's like pulling teeth! We have told them that we need to be re-launched no later than June 10th. as there seems to be no discipline as regards job organisation. We have rsorted to getting Turkish translations from the internet and texting on a regular basis to Levent (the owner of the yard) in Turkish to try and accelerate progress. Seems to be having some slight effect, although typing on the phone in Turkish is a drawn out affair. His English is reasonable but we are trying in all ways that we can to bend over backwards to progress matters.

Between Fethiye Town and the boatyard in the next bay is a large Guilet boatyard where they work on all those gorgeous Turkish Guilets - mostly built in timber and many well over 100' in length. They haul these massive craft across a public road on timber skids lubricated with pig fat! No doubt being Muslims, they consider this to be an appropriate use!! Many Guilets have varnished hulls and have been ashore for the winter - now they are all going back in the water for the tourist season. Hopefully for all their sakes tourism will increase again after the drought of the past few years due to political unrest. At least with the Turkish Lira losing nearly 11% in value against the Kiwi dollar in the last 2 weeks,tourism should be getting some sort of boost. The flip side of course is that anything imported will rise in cost astronomically - including Russian oil!!

Today (26/05) it was drizzling (a rare event here at the moment) so no work. The weather here in the summer in the run-up to the summer has been a disappointment to us. Apart from the fact that it is getting hotter,which we expected, the lack of rain means that everything is dusty and there is a great deal of haze - said to be heat haze but we think it's fine dust from north Africa which is only about 300 miles south of here. Given that NZ gets dust (and insects) from the West Island, 1200 miles away across the Tasman, it's all entirely plausible.

But it's not all bad. We continue to enjoy many of the people including the Turkish husband of an Englishwoman (Jane) who together with Jane owns the Mulberry Cafe in town. Every time we go in there he shakes hands and declares himself (when asked how he is) to be "bombastic"!!! We've tried to suggest that "fantastic" might be a better choice but he says he prefers "bombastic", so that's where it remains. This weekend they have flown to England (the Norfolk Broads) for the wedding of a young relative of Jane's. It's only a 4 hour flight from Dalaman (nearest international airport to Fethiye) to the U.K. 

We now have a diesel Fiat as the Renault we did have needed some extensive servicing and so far (touch wood) we haven't had any serious problems. Although we find that the Turkish drivers are by and large extremely selfish and only think of themselves on the road. They'll double park in the most outrageous places with only room for one vehicle to pass through at a time. You don't try and push through because the opposing vehicles just won't stop and all they do is flash their lights. Then if you appear to be too cautious, there'sa chorus of horns from behind! We just try and drive carefully and ignore the rudeness, lack of consideration and impatience. By contrast the Dolmus drivers usually show a degree of courtesy lacking in almost everyone else.

The other day we drove up into the hills (many hairpin bends) to a village called Karakoy which is situated in a rich farming district with lots of market gardening down in the valley. Always of interest to Jim, given his misspent earlier years! There is a largely abandoned stone village built in a curve around the hillside, and which was until 1922 a Greek village. Then with the forced re-settlements of peoples resulting from the end of the sad conflict of WW1, the Greeks were sent back to Greece  and the village re-settled by Turks - from Greece! Greece had been part of the Ottoman Empire until then. However, the Turks couldn't hack living up the hill with no reticulated water so they moved down into the fertile valley where they've been ever since. They plundered the old houses for joinery and roofing materials so that all that remains today are the gaunt stone skeletons. 

Still, all this history, although in this case relatively recent, is fascinating. We met the owner of a small "museum" where everything is for sale and he filled us in on the history and he explained much about the various items in the "museum".Most tools and implements made on-site for household and farming use. His wife spoke impeccable English and had a small 4 month old baby in her arms. We love that old English expression "at foot" but of course that couldn't be applied here! There were also old irons which were heated on a fire. Jim had one which had originally come from the property in Paroa Bay, Bay of Islands in NZ - quite nostalgic'

Sunday it's back to the boatyard early to hose all the muddy Saharan dust off the old girl and then the Sunday market out here at Calis Beach. Such a variety of goods we couldn't begin to describe it. Utterly fantastic - bombastic!! Jean continues to research health recipes for us to combat night cramps (Magnesium), sore knees, and in her case unsatisfactory digestion at times. Most health products can be readily obtained here, but a basic for us of MSM flakes appears unobtainable. The only thing we can do is continue to import from California and run the gauntlet of Turkish Customs, but we know the ropes now and it should be more straightforward.

Apart from all the above, we have been continuing to enjoy the rich array of Turkish produce - strawberries, cherries, stone fruit now coming fully into season as well as vegetables and spices on offer. Some of which we still need educating about. In the meat area there are lamb steaks, beef pieces which are incredibly tender for stews, and all manner of salamis and sausages and meatballs which are delicious. You can also buy pork products in one supermarket from what we call the "sin bin", so as not to offend the delicate Muslim sensibilities!! And the Turkish tea (cay) grown upon the Black Sea Coast - delicious.

That's all for now - lotsaluv from us at Fethiye,

Jim and Jean

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