Merhaba Türkiye

In Crete, we looked at the hull for the first time in a few months (we don't like swimming in cold water!). It was clear that the antifouling paint we added in Penarth at the start of 2022 needed renewing. We also discovered the anode that protects the propeller against corrosion had gone completely (but its screws were still in place). I swam and replaced the anode in the water but had to omit thread locker.  Not being overly confident it would stay in place, I fitted a partially used anode, The lack of a significant tidal range in the Mediterranean prevents us from doing these maintenance jobs properly without lifting the boat out. Until we can do that, we will be regularly hand cleaning the hull to keep the growth off.

The Venetian fort and ex-leper colony at Spinalonga

 

We'll be flying back to the UK for short break in August. Looking at the price to leave the boat in Kos marina, we decided to kill two birds with one stone and have it lifted into their boat yard while we're away. We must have been feeling particularly flush because we also plan to have the yard apply new antifouling painting for us. But we wanted to see the boat yard before committing, so leaving Crete, we headed directly for Kos. Although the wind was quite light, the 130NM trip went smoothly and we ended up off Kos early in the morning, twenty four hours later. It then took the whole morning to sail in vanishing winds around the bottom of Kos to anchor off the marina. All was good there, and we confirmed our booking.

We were going to settle in for an afternoon in the sun, but then we looked at the wind for the next week: there was a little for the next two days, and then nothing. We needed to check out of Greece that week to fit in with our Schengen visa plan, and we wanted to do so in Symi, so we set off again back the way we came and anchored that evening off the interesting pumice stone mine on the island of Yiali.

Sara swam to clean the hull a little. The propeller anode was still there. But boat work never stops and I discovered a broken sail batten. 

It took a while to figure out how we did this, but I'm now sure it was due to standing on the sail pack the last time I went up the mast. We fixed the batten a few days later by repairing the broken section with a short length of pipe, filled with epoxy, and inserting it the other way around. Here 's the fix in progress, keeping the messy goo contained...

We then had a short holiday in Symi, starting at anchor in the bay of Panormitis.

I swam to clean the hull, and the anode was gone, along with the screws! We'll fix it properly when we lift out, but in the mean time our next guests have been tasked with bringing out some Nordlock washers that will allow a more secure in-water replacement.

For our last night in Symi, we headed to the town. We've been there many times, but it never fails to impress.

Thanks to a very helpful police woman, we were able to complete all our paperwork the day we arrived. The next day we made the short hop across the water, changed the courtesy flag, and we were in Bozburun, Turkey. Check-in to Turkey is much easier with an agent. We found a really good one this time around, Gürdan at Pera Yachting, who was efficient and an excellent communicator.

Bozburun had most things we needed, including laundry and a good running route, but we couldn't get a local SIM card there. We headed up to the town of Datça to rectify that. We also bought some diesel in Datça and were presently surprised to find it was even cheaper than Gibraltar.

We're now cruising around the Gulf of Hisaronu, slowly working our way north to pick up our first guests of the year in Bozburun. Summer has definitely arrived. The sun is shining and the water is getting warmer. And yes, there's been more boat jobs to adapt Vagrant to the climate.

Still, at least we've built our fan base.