Covid, Covid, Covid

Gardens at University of Tennessee

 As it turns out there is quite an active community of ex-pats living here in Turkey.  Most from the UK but there are Americans and others as well.  There is one enterprising fellow that puts out a newsletter daily keeping everyone on his list apprised of the Covid situation here in Turkey as well as any other relevant news.  On April 26th, we learned via the newsletter that Turkey was going to institute another lockdown as the Covid numbers kept rising.  Michael and I had applied for and received Turkish residency (for one year) which made him eligible for the vaccine.  Priority number one after receiving residency was to get him vaccinated as soon as possible.  I had been vaccinated before leaving the US as I work in healthcare.  Thankfully, Turkey allows you to choose your vaccine so we set about trying to get his appointment to receive the Pfizer vaccine.  Several people spent several hours trying to assist us with getting the appointment to no avail.  And then came the April 26th newsletter.  

UT Gardens

 Not only did the Turkish Health Minister announce a three week total lockdown (as in cannot get off the boat at all) but also that there was a shortage of vaccine with no known resupply date!)  April 26th was a Monday and the lockdown was to start on Thursday evening.  Decision time.  Michael did not like it but I made a snap decision to get a quick flight home to get him vaccinated.  We were looking at three weeks of just sitting around doing nothing which did not seem like a good use of time when we could be working on getting him vaccinated.  By the end of that day I had booked a flight, booked a hotel room in Chicago, arranged transport to the airport and most importantly arranged for our pre-flight Covid test.  We had just enough time to get the test and the results back before the lockdown started.  And I had also made an appointment to have his first vaccination injection the Monday after we arrived home.  

Lots of deer at the campground

 So we flew to the US, gathered up our camper and went camping for a few weeks.  The timing was perfect as our son was graduating from college and we really wanted to be home for his big day.  Michael was two weeks out from his first shot so we felt comfortable having a graduation celebration for Ross at the campground.  We spent the rest of our time visiting with family and friends.  We even managed to make a quick trip to Tennessee to see Michael's favorite aunt.  

Coast road in Turkey - driving from Antalya to Kaş

 

So now here we are back in Turkey.  The lockdown is over and Michael is fully vaccinated.  Supposedly, the number of Covid cases are going down in Turkey so maybe the lockdown helped.  In one more week Michael will be two weeks out from his second injection and we will be able to get out and about more.  Our plan is to sail up the coast and then make it back down to Marmaris in time for our scheduled boat work.  But for now the weather is perfect and the days are sunny!
 

 

Boat Maintenance

Talaria at anchor - Gemeler Island

It took every bit of three weeks in Marmaris to make arrangements to have Talaria painted (the rest of the hull this time) and the starboard fuel tank replaced.  Marmaris (Netsel Marina) is a big marina with a big working boat yard.  Little did we know several charter companies have their fleets berthed at the marina.  As with everyone, 2020 was a dismal year for the charter companies so they were certainly looking for better business in 2021.  The race was on to get their boats serviced for the start of the season which left all boat workers booked up solid.  Good for them, bad for us!  Finally we found folks to do the jobs and set dates for all the work later in the summer.  We arranged with the marina to have the boat lifted out of the water on July 25th and are hoping the work commences on that afternoon!  Meanwhile as we were busy getting quotes and speaking with various workmen about the work needed we also managed to get the teak decks and cockpit scrubbed. 

We used Oxaclic acid and boat soap to clean the teak rather than a commercially prepared cleaner.  All the prepared cleaners have Oxaclic acid as the primary ingredient anyway.  In the past, we have just used soap to clean the decks so were quite pleased with how nice they looked after using the Oxalic acid.  Since Netsel Marina is a "working" marina  it was not a problem for us to work on Talaria there.  Doing that sort of work at Kaş Marina would have been a problem.  We actually are very happy that Kaş Marina works so hard to keep their water very clean but it makes it difficult when you have work to do.  Marmaris is most definitely the place to be in Turkey if you need anything related to boating.  There are around three blocks of chandleries and every kind of workshop and craftsman imaginable. 

New dinghy

In fact due to the abundance of boating supplies we decided Marmaris would be the place to find a replacement dinghy.  Our dinghy is very old and not holding air well.  We ended up purchasing a new four person Zodiac dinghy while there.  A new dinghy was not actually on our list of things to replace or repair but seeing its sad state we decided that now was the time to find a replacement.  Slowly but surely the work is getting done and I must say Talaria is starting to look pretty spiffy.  The new batteries are perfect, the bottom is painted, the hull scrubbed, teak cleaned and all the varnish stripped and new varnish applied.  We have rented an apartment in Marmaris while Talaria is out of the water again.  Once the work is done, which should be early September, our plan is to set sail for Greece.  We hope to spend around eight weeks sailing in Greece and then sail to Sicily for the winter.  Thats the working plan... but we all now know how plans need to be a bit flexible.  The EU is finally opening to "third country" citizens and just this last week Greece decided to let folks sail from Turkey to Greece.  All good news - so we will see :).

New Exide AGM batteries