Telltale 108
Boat-maintenance
and more dinghy's. (part 2)
April 1 is around the corner, time for practical jokes.
Upon my return from Holland I had
more visitors here in Ayvalik: Rob came for three
weeks and Ahmed came for ten days. Next on the agenda is again a trip
to Marmaris to see Andre and his boat back in the water. I fly
regularly up and down to Istanbul, as there is a great connection over
the weekend, from a small airport only 40 km up the road, really
convenient for me.
Starlite is well under way. She is out of the water and the hull will
be painted in a new color. The doghouse will also get a new face and
look. And inside the boat all kind of works and jobs are ongoing. From
satellite TV systems, to a new sumptank for the drain water from the
fridges, to new windows for the saloon, to electric hatches and making
sunbeds -integrated- in the teak deck. Think about a gadget and a
convenience and we are puttig it in place from webcams, chaincounters
and remote controls, to underwater Xenon lamps, to a super-dooper sound
and media centre (all on Apple Mini of course.) Fun and challenging at
the same.
Gisela is slowly progressing, the gangway has finally been made, only a
few lamps to be added for the electricity and a new panel for the
engine instruments is made and will be installed soon.
And Sylphe...... ah well, I do give her attention as well. She has just
been given a new look on the charttable. I had too many loose screens
hanging around and it was slowly becoming a jungle. So, new cherry wood
and a new lay-out on the charttable.
Also finally installed a chain counter on the anchor winch, so now I
can say for sure how many meters are outside and lying around on the
bottom of a harbor. And Lady Sylphe is getting a face lift. The 15HP
Yamaha motor started to look beaten, although she still performs like
never before. So, a bit of paint and now she is custom made.
I will also finally have the covers made for Lady Sylphe in the same
color as all the suntents on Sylphe. Again, in style.
Oh .... and probably the nicest gadget is a timer to automatically
switch of the grey water tank pump. I keep forgetting to switch it off,
resulting in burning out rather expensive macerator pumps once or twice
per season. Too much costs, so a timer was made and now the pump
automatically stops after 20 seconds. A nice relief for me.
And to think that only the big boats keep me busy...no there is more.
As said Lady Sylphe is being looked after, but the same applies to the
Zodiac jetboat from Starlite and her 3 jetskis. All being painted in
the same color as the hull and without all these screaming purple and
yellow lines, that they all seem to come with. So that is another 4
boats to occupy me. Gisela does not have a tender yet, so the
motorbike figures as that.
And to make it complete, yesterday Heliodora arrived here in Ayvalik,
on a truck from Marmaris. I will take advantage and do her up as well.
I started to feel sorry for that little boat as she was certainly
sinking the last time I saw her. So, leaks will be repaired, a new
paint and a nice small teak deck on the front. That would be nice, but
I still have to start on that project.
Time flies by, the weather has been great so far as we had almost no
rain. temperatures are going up and t-shirts during the day is day now.
Summertime starts tonight and that will help working in the evenings.
Roland
www.sail-in-style.com