We have been in Marmaris Turkey for just over 2 weeks and managed to accomplish a few things that were on the list. We have new standard rigging. This involved the mast coming off and taken away with the aid of a crane leaving us to spend 3 nights without a mast. First night was in the Nestel Marina for a whopping 192 Euro a night ( The most expensive marina fee we have ever paid and it is not a stellar marina to justify charging that kind of money, welcome to Turkey!). Needless to say we only stayed the one night and then went back to anchor in the bay which without a mast turned out to be rollier than usual, there is no balance without a mast. On top of the new standard rigging we replaced the mast light with a tri-colour light and had a new antenna installed, new windex installed, removed the old tv antenna which never got used because it never worked, and did a few other repairs at the top of the mast. A big one was to secure the inner foresail halyard so that it didn’t interfere with furling the sail, which had caused us some grief with the top of the stay unwinding. Replaced some new running rigging as well, new foresail furling line, in-haul line for the mast furling. However, . the one thing that we noticed later is they forgot to put our radar deflector back so when we are back in the water new one has to be installed.

We decided to get the sails washed and minor servicing whilst at the dock, the mast came off earlier than was expected because of a scheduling issue that we suspect came about because our fellow boaters Dave and Di on Mon Ile experienced an issue with their genoa that required the rigger to give them a hand. Anyway all was good and we got scheduled in to the boat lifting area a couple of days early, the mast went back on 3 days later at the same location albeit we waited awhile for the crane and the balance of the work to get completed. Managed to get back out to anchor with new rigging minus sails after dark which made for a bit of a challenge. All in all they did a fabulous job, efficient, professional although it felt very rushed we would not hesitate to recommend Mustafa from M2 Yacht Services.

Whilst at anchor without the mainsail the furling”profile” inside the mast was banging around without a sail to cushion it. We managed a “Googled” solution that didn’t quite cut it. Got in touch with the sail guys the next day and they came out in the dinghy where we were anchored and quickly applied a solution that I think should be patented. Genius stuff! They take a line and attach it to the halyard block and as the halyard is hoisted up they wrap the line around the profile. First thing is to have enough line to reach the top of the mast. This acted as if there was a sail wrapped on the profile and stopped all the banging.

They needed the weekend to clean and repair the sails. Got them back on the Monday. Again they came out in the afternoon and brought the sails. As always the wind picks up in the afternoon, however being the experts that they are, they managed to get the sails up with no problems. During all of this we were discussing with them how to “fly” the asymmetrical sail that we have for downwind sailing. There is a way to attach something to the furled foresail that moves up and down the furled sail like a large piece of PVC pipe. So we asked if they could make this for us versus modifying the bow sprit which we got a 900 euro quote for, they did a fabulous job and can’t wait to try out the Gennaker with this addition.

New solar panels were installed, we added 3 new 340W panels with 2 Victron SmartSolar Charge Controllers giving us over 1020 watts of power., A big plus for us as we had experienced a drop in power after a couple of days with no engine running or not being plugged into shore power and obviously when more visitors are on board. Oh, and we also discovered that the wind generator that we brought back from Australia in April was doing absolutely nothing. Apparently a bad charge controller. We will be taking that back to Australia for a new controller or credit.

Other things that we got accomplished.

We were constantly looking around the chandleries in Marmaris, never seen so many in one town, for odds and ends, new blocks for the main sheets, fender and dinghy cleaner, more plastic containers for all the odds and sods. Feeling a little bit more organised.

One other major service we had done was a complete Windlass refurbishment. The guy came out to where we were anchored and took it away to get it cleaned tested. Brought it back and installed it again, all of this without speaking a word of English and us not speaking a word of Turkish.

And on top of all this we still had time to grab a daily beer or two in the afternoon (30 Turkish lira about $2 CAD a beer) had to be done!, Maybe that’s why we have matching tattoos. Well Marmaris turned out to be a boaters delight……. so many trades, chandleries you can get anything done to your boat or find anything you need, it was a awesome stop for 3 weeks and MAD is looking mighty fine!!!!