This is my first attempt at writing a blog site, so excuse the mistakes!
Before flying down to the yacht, Kathleen and I spent some time in Turkey playing tourist. This time in Istanbul we stayed on the european side which has a completly different feel from the old quarter. Enjoyed exploying the markets and come across some fantastic cheap seafood restaurants and antique shops.
Enjoyed an afternoon on a local ferry exploring the Bospherous viewing the palaces and mansions. The next day drove down to Gallipoli and spent the afternoon walking around the landing beach and assembly areas. Althought Kath and I are not military inclined people, it was an amazing feeling. The landing beach and assembly area are really small. From the beach you could see the impossible task the anzacs had to defeat the Turks. Walking through the trenches gave you a feeling of what the soldiers would have experienced, at some places the enermy were only eight metres away!
The following day was dissappointing with a visit to the ancient city of Troy - old rocks covered in grass.
Back in Istanbul we flew to the Capadoccia region where the "Star Wars" movies were filmed. Two experiences there stood out, the visit to two underground cities where up to 10,000 people lived for up to six months being eighty metres below the surface. However, the highlight was a dawn hot air balloon flight over this incredible landscape. Pre dawn, we enjoyed a breakfast while the balloon was filled with hot air, then boarded the cane basket with twelve other "aviators". Being afraid of heights, I was hesitant but did not realise we had taken off until I looked down and we were two metres off the ground. For the 1.5 hour flight the pilot controlled our height, but the wind contolled our direction. We cruised along at 8 k/h with eighty three other balloons, a fantastic sight.
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| eighty three balloons
At our hotel, the booking agent must have made a mistake, and upon arrival we where given the royal treatment before being escorted to the "Royal suite", being the size of a small apartment.I thought it inappropriate to tell the manager that a mistake had taken place.
Returning to Istanbul we flew down to the boatyard. "Coorabell" was scheduled for launching in two days time which give us time to organise tradesmen to carry out pre launching work. In the meantime, we managed to catch up with sailing friends from last year, of course, over a glass or two of wine!
After being told that we would be launched at 9am the following day,we finally floated at 6pm the following day and motored around to our berth.It felt good to be back aboard and afloat. After being left abandoned for six months,the boat looked in great condition.Within a day or so,we had the interior "ship shape" and liveable.
Next came organising technicians to install all the electronic and navigation equipment that we had brought across. Thank godness, luck was with us and we where remembered from last season and managed to get priority treatment.
For the yachties, we installed the latest AIS transciever with an interfaced VHF DSC radio, along with a 160 amp alternator to battery charger which will reduce the use of the engine to charge our batteries by 50%.
For those who visited last year, we are proud to announce that we have purchased a new hard floor dinghy with a 10hp outboard-so we can now zip everywhere at speed and comfort.
The sails have been placed back aboard after the winter storage,and yes, a vital small part for the mainsail has dissappeared,so am waiting for a new one to arrive from Istanbul, and then we will provision and start out for Greece via a few weeks on the Turkish west coast.
I hope that you have enjoyed my first blog, I promoise that they will improve with time and please send some comments,we would love to hear from you.
Regards.
Captain Ron and First Mate Kathleen
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