Marmaris, life in the boatyard.

/ Türkiye / By

Marmaris has a vast yachting support industry and it is an excellent location to get boat work done. All required trades are available. A perfect location to restore our old boat (see; https://www.twobatsea.com/shipping-disaster/). As you can see, we were not the only one.

Yat Marine yard, packed to the brim with yachts undergoing maintenance.
All kinds of boats are being serviced like this yacht of Angelina Jolie.
Or this Türkisch gullet.
Replanking of the hull of the gullet.

It is easy to make friends in the yard since everybody is “in the same boat” as they say. People help each other out, exchange ideas or just pass by to see what you are doing or for a chat.

Birthday dinner on board MV Louisa with the Filipino crew. The owner of this yacht is the French "King of Macarons".

Accidents do happen in a boatyard. The above boat caught fire the first night it was put on the hard. An electrical fault in the engine room was the probable cause. Nobody was injured.

Living in our comfortable home, safe and conveniently moored adjacent to the toilet and shower block.
Saturday night was our happy night and we religiously went down town Marmaris for dinner, to relax and to be away from boat work.
On June 21, 2021 victory was ours with "the splash" of our old boat back in the water.

Our old boat could now be put up for sale. We decided to live on board for as long as she was not sold. This way we could keep her in top shape. We would put our new boat on the hard to get work done to her as well.

"In" with the old and "out" with the new.
We could finally change out the dangerous escape hatches. The new hatches were provided by the manufacturer under a worldwide recall.
The 400 hours maintenance for the two Volvo engines had to be performed by an official dealer to maintain manufacturers warranty.
Adding a micropump in the hot water pipe from Webasto heater to the startboard owners' side of the boat to improve the heating capacity. After this modification the water temperature in both Port and Startboard hull is the same.
Another Saturday night out in Marmaris.
Lovely Marmaris boulevard at dusk.
New bottom paint. It turned out that the paint system was not correctly applied by the yard so we redid the paint job starting with a bare hull. 5 coats of epoxy (in stead of only one!!) and two coats of anti fouling.
Servicing the folding propellors and new zinks for props and sail-drives.
In July 2021 disaster struck Marmaris. Wildfires erupted at several locations in the national park and beyond, almost simultaneous. Over the following days it became painfully clear that Türkiye is ill-equipped for these kind of emergencies. Türkiye does not have a single firefighting plane while its president owns 11 planes!!
Firefighters were working around the clock with the little equipment that was available. The few helicopters with a "bucket" didn't have any effect. The dry pine-forests and the strong afternoon winds only made things worse.
The boaters were sitting on the pontoons watching the disaster unfold. Although the scene provided for some spectacular pictures, everyone was aware of the gravity of the situation. Tourists were evacuated from the hotels and resorts under threat of the encroaching fires. The tortoises and wild boar for which this area is famous have no means to escape.
It took two full days before we spotted firefighting planes that were leased from Russia, Ukraine and one from Azerbaijan. Those planes did make a difference compared to helicopters as we could see but it was still too little and definitely too late. Note that the planes' engines are on top of the wings to enable the plane to scoop up water in flight.
The sky remained hazy for days and partly blocked the sun. Ashes were raining down and breathing smoky air day and night without end caused irritation to our throats.
The extend of the damage can be clearly seen. It will take nature 20 years to develop enough shrubs to make the hills look green again. It will take 50 years to develop small trees to form woodlands again.

Many months later, when in a taxi from the airport back to the boat, the taxi-driver was one of the firefighters who put out those fires. According to him the area was deliberately set on fire at 6 different locations by politically motivated arsonists.

Regardless of the tragedy, Saturdays remained our weekly night out, here at Neighbours' Restaurant.
Pistachio ice-cream for desert,...... if you can catch it......
Turkish life music at Vazgal Cocktail along the boulevard.
We had a cover made for the dinghy by Bashar Abad as extra protection against chafe when tying to a wall or jetty. The initial result was very disappointing, a sloppy rush job, that we rejected. He basically had to make the cover twice.
Final result. The fit is acceptable although it doesn't follow the rub-rail well. At least the cutouts for the handgrips now line up. Since you really use the dinghy as your car when at anchor we refer to it as "our Ferrari". The bright red makes it easy to identify and works as a theft deterrent, so we hope.
The marina is build on a narrow isthmus between the mainland and Cennet Adasi or paradise island, which is a nature reserve and hiking area. On the island is a small cave called Nimara Magarasi. We hiked the island a couple of times when we wanted to get away from boat work.
The island had been spared from the fires. With best intentions the authorities have now constructed a network of (plastic!!) pipes to distribute water in case of future fire (if the pipe don't melt or burn).
Early morning view looking East towards the marina.
A small "Lycian Rock Lizard". The big ones are too fast to take a decent picture of them. We collected wild Thyme, Sage and stinging nettle (for soup) during our hikes.
Since ancient time Nimara Cave was used as a place of worship and there is evidence of human presence as far as 12,000 years back.
A bee-keepers' barn. Türkiye is the worlds second largest producer of honey, after China.
At the top, looking South with Egypt behind the horizon.
Our "holly" Saturday night out. Here at Girit Meyhanesi. Dinner consists of mezze's only, combined with Raki (anis spirit, the milky drink) and Shalgam (fermented turnip juice, the red drink).

We need to take our old boat out of Turkey to avoid taxation. When given a lemon, make lemonade so we turn this tax-run into a summercruise. But that is for a different post.

 

Thank you for reading this post and we hope you enjoyed the reading as much as we enjoy the making.

 

Warm regards; Liza and Frits.