dinsdag, 9 mei 2000 00.04

The list grows longer,

I have spent last night writing down all jobs still to be done. On one hand a miracle I can now sum up all jobs to be done, in the beginning the list was simply too long. So, the end is nearing. However frustration is mounting. I spent the last days working like mad, but at the end of the day, when we come home, I check my lists and expect to b able to erase some of the jobs. On the contrary, new jobs are added at the bottom and none of them can be taken off.

Still it gives a good feeling to be able to deal with a substansiated amount of work, instead of the „ everything still has to be done‰. So the list gets longer, but the jobs smaller.

I was in Potugal for a week, as my father had fallen ill, but Marit strongly held the fort. The „boys‰ (carpenters, painters, engineers and rest) had to deal with Marit instead of me. For all these Turkish men (and the limited role women play in this society) a challenge. But they accepted without protests and continued the works. Checking with Marit if things were okay, so I learned (again) that being absent does not mean that the world stops turning. But, hey, that is what all you folks with a real job think as well (indispensable, irreplacable, etc) well, put it to the test and be surprised. So basically nothing new here.

All doors were fitted. The matrasses were deliverd and made with craftmenship. The canvas-cushions for the exterior of the boat were done and it looks great. The cushion for the helmsman will be a masterpiece as this exists of three parts (a foldable seat was made in the teak deck, so that you will have a support in your back, if you have to sit there long hours).

Marit and I went marble-shopping one day and have found a gorgeous colour of marble for the kitchen and bathroom tops. We will be the first saiboat with marble tops, but we do not want to win races and do not have to bother about a few hundred kilo‚s more or less. It will be our house as well and we want to feel at home.

The carpenters have finished the cabins, kitchen and shower. So now they are concentrating on the saloon. The tricky part is that three wood types mingle in this interior. Cherry (for wall and cabinets), mahogony (for handrails and coachroof-sideplanking) and the floorboards. However strange this feeling was in the beginning, a fistr layer of varnish on all the new wood changes everything. So we were assured that all looks beautifull in the end. The new handrail in the caochroof (to prevent you from slamming through the saloon like a snookerball, while under sail) is a masterpiece by Osman, and even he is proud of it.

The aft deck and cockpit has finally been covered completely in teak, and it is quite a strange sight to see this Œgap‚ closed again. During my absence they had done it wrongly, so it was done again (and again). But the final result is okay. The painting of the hul is progressing. The first two layers were put on her and now the endless process of fairing has begun, in orde to give Sylphe this mirror-like finish.

Today I discovered the painfull lesson of what happens if one postpones certain jobs. A few weeks ago I was in the process of fixing some screws between the mainsheet-traveller and the hull (forget it, if you do not know what mainsheet-traveller means) I did not finish that job, at that time. Today I wanted to finish it, but did not bear in mind that in all those weeks, other parts of the boat were fitted under, in front, above and behind it. So, it took me now 3 hours to fix 9 screws, as the place was so awkward to reach by now. The guys all laughed their heads off, when they saw me diving (head first) into this small whole in the deck, hanging upside down,trying to reach the screwdriver left behind on deck, asking for yet another instrument to be handed (like a surgeon), but I managed in the end. So, yet another lesson learned.

So, I now stick to my lists, and have decided not to start a new job, if theold one is not finished. Wandering how long I will keep this promise (My character simply does not allow me to do just one thing at a time). So I won'‚t tell you what is on for the next couple of weeks, but for tomorrow:Bringing the steering pedestral back in place, making the ventilation nipples through the hull for water and dieseltanks, fitting the drain of the shower and fitting the diesel filling hose between deck and tank (wish I had that last one weeks ago as well, as it will now have to be made behind and through a cupboard)

Four items less on my lists, tomorrow night, Insh‚allah

Summer has finally started in Turkey, shorts were taken out of the wintercupboards.

Love Roland and Marit