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