Greetings all!
I'm typing this as we are doing our final packing. Tomorrow at this time, we'll
be on a plane to Seattle!
First off, I want to thank everyone who wrote to see if we were ok after the
recent Turkey earthquake. Turkey is a large country, and the epicenter was
nearly a thousand miles from where we are, so we never knew it occurred until I
opened my email to see the flood of inquiries.
Epicenter of the recent eathquake in
Turkey. A long way from Sans Souci!
The earthquake did cause Roberta and I to ask each other, "What if it had been
closer?" Sadly, we know the answer to that question. A marina we were in during
2009, in Japan, was near where the tsunami hit last year. I've seen aerial
photos of boats washed onto land, and the town destroyed.
Speaking of which, I've always said that bad things tend to come in threes (they
don't really, but I do confess to believing in some superstitions).
So, here's the other two:
Engine room fire?
While waiting to enter the marina, anchored in front of the town of Gocek, Roberta asked me why smoke was pouring from
a boat near to us. Looking over, it appeared to be an engine room fire. I
phoned it in to the Coast Guard. Luckily, the fire suppression system in the
engine room must have activated and put the fire out. After thirty minutes, the
smoke stopped.
80' boat, with a very brave marina staffer
The third incident in the series arrived right on time, as I suspected it might.
We had entered the marina and were tied to the dock. I was sitting at my
computer, doing email, when I felt the boat rock strongly to the right. Had
something hit us? Or, was it a large wake? How could there be a wake inside
the marina? I ran to the pilothouse door, and saw the 80' boat in the picture
above being pushed away from our boat by the tender you see in this photo.
Roberta came running up the stairs. "Did you see that?" she asked. "We were
almost struck by that boat!" Apparently, the boat had been moving rapidly
through the marina, and was turning to enter a fairway when the captain either
lost control, or the engines lost power. I'm not clear which. Roberta said
that she was downstairs on our boat when she saw the other boat's stern rapidly
coming at us on a collision course. Amazingly, a marina employee saw the
incident occurring and interjected his tender between the other boat and
Sans Souci, instants before the collision. He was joined almost instantaneously by
another tender, which appeared out of nowhere. What I had felt was their tenders
bouncing off of our boat as they were pushed into our side.
I didn't know whether to thank the marina employees for risking their life on our
behalf, or shout, "What were you thinking?????" Putting yourself, and a plastic
raft, between two large heavy boats, just to save a few thousand dollars in
fiberglass repairs, is not the wisest of moves. I do thank them, and their fast
action did save me money, but I hope they never try a stunt like that again.
And, speaking of the amazing marina staff, here at D-Marin, in Gocek
Turkey....
Sans Souci is now in a new marina. We decided to move, in hopes of finding
better protection from the winter storms. This also puts us closer to the office
of the company that is watching over our boat. And, best of all, we were able to
find a side-tie!
One of the "joys" of entering a new marina is figuring out the shore power.
The ends of my shore power cables
[
WARNING -- these next few paragraphs get a bit techie. Non boaters may wish to
nap for the next five paragraphs]
I have had bad luck in Europe with each new marina having different shorepower,
and different physical connectors for attaching to the shorepower. On the dock
where Sans Souci is now sitting there are two kinds of shorepower, 220v single
phase, 50hz, and 380v three phase, 50hz. The pedestal closest to me was of the
220v, single phase, variety.
Ordinarily I do not mess with the connectors that are attached to my shorepower
cables. I keep pigtails on the boat (short pieces of shore power cable with bare
wire at one end, and a female connector at the other). This allows me to put
different connectors on my shore power cables, as I move from marina to marina,
without physically touching my actual shorepower cables.
At some marinas I've had the office lend me the shorepower adapters that work in
the marina. At others, I've had the marina sell me expensive adapters, or just
shrug, and leave it as my problem. In all situations, prior to Turkey, it has
been up to me to wire and test my own shorepower cables.
This is only my second marina in Turkey, but, at both marinas, the marina has
sent an electrician to my boat. Here at D-Marin, the electrician was great to
work with. He struggled for a couple of hours, in the heat, to get the
shorepower working with my boat. Finally, I discovered the problem. There is a
rotary switch inside Sans Souci which identifies which shorepower connector to
use. The boat was turned to Cord B, and he was attaching Cord A. This was very
embarrassing. By the time I discovered the problem he had shifted to trying the
3-phase power on the other side of the dock. I discovered the problem with the
rotary dial at the same time he discovered that the 3-phase power worked for my
boat. (Sans Souci has an international shorepower converter that makes it very
friendly to different shorepower voltages.) I tried to explain to him that
we could go back to single phase, but communications between languages are not
always easy. He had convinced himself that I needed 3-phase power, and that's
what I was going to have.
I only half-hearted tried to explain the confusion to him, because the truth be
known, I greatly prefer the higher voltage power. With 3-phase, 380v power, and
twin 50 amp cables, I can get something like 40kw of electricity into the boat.
This means NO POWER MANAGEMENT! Unlimited electricity!
Hooking up my shorepower
To get my cables to the other side of the
dock, without anyone tripping over them, the cable was run under the dock
A very professional job! However, if
the boat ever needs to leave the dock rapidly, it will be impossible
The water in the marina is amazingly clear!
The clarity of the water in Turkey is
amazing. This is the prop on the boat ahead of me on the dock. That prop is
about eight feet under the water. Incredible, and even clearer when you leave
the marina
So, Roberta and I decided to go to Oludeniz...
Roberta and I came to Turkey with grand plans of seeing historical sights.
And we have seen a few, but really, it's just the tip of an iceberg. There is
MUCH here to see. We know we are coming back next
May, and wanted to save most of the sightseeing for when our friends arrive.
In any event, we decided we'd go see Oludeniz, a
waterfront city about a 45 minute drive from the marina in Gocek. It looked pretty incredible in the pictures.
Oludeniz - A beautiful lagoon
At one time it was possible to anchor inside the lagoon, but now, to keep it
nice, you have to anchor at the entrance.
We thought about anchoring out when we passed by here with the boat, but the
seas were rough, and the anchorage isn't well protected. I can see though, that
on a hot summer day, this would be my kind of anchoring.
Paddle boats can be rented to explore the
lake
Even though we were at Oludeniz after the season, at the end of October, we saw
LOTS of tourists lining the beach. The vast majority were British.
Roberta and Coco on the beach
We have found Turkey to be amongst the best countries we've ever traveled with
our dogs. Usually when taking the dogs to a restaurant we call ahead to verify
that the dogs can join us for dinner. In Turkey, thus far, no restaurant has
said no. Lately, we don't even think about it, or call to ask permission. Dogs are
fine everywhere! More importantly, our dogs are really liked by the people we
encounter. They have had their pictures taken dozens of times. American tourists
are rare, and tourists with dogs are even rarer. Coco and Toundra are going
to have to readjust to life outside Turkey. They have become very spoiled.
Want a genuine fake Rolex?
Both the good, and the bad, of Oludeniz, and many parts of southern Turkey, are
that they are tourist towns. Oludeniz was the most touristy tourist-town we
visited. Roberta and I live in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, five months a year, which
is also a tourist town. T-shirt shops, lots of forgettable restaurants, and
stores selling stuff no one really needs. But also, incredible beauty, beautiful
beaches, and wonderfully friendly people. We felt right at home!
These are real Turkey-Turkeys. How
could I not take their picture?
Sans Souci, at the D-Marin marina, Gocek Turkey
And, here's a topic that didn't seem to fit anywhere, but I thought was worth mentioning...
Last week, Roberta and I found ourselves anchored in a situation where we didn't completely trust the anchor. We were anchored deeper than
we liked (122 feet),
and on a gentle incline.
After dropping the anchor we always back up a bit, to verify that the anchor is set.
Looking at the anchor chain
Roberta drives the boat, as we back up gently, and I watch the chain. I stop her when the chain reaches a direct line between the boat and the anchor, and the boat stops backing. The goal is to verify that the
anchor is well set, and dig it a bit deeper into the bottom, not to jerk at it until it comes free.
Recently, another cruiser commented to me that I should start paying attention
to the wind, and the angle of the anchor chain. He said, "If the chain isn't taut, and at the angle you tested
when you dropped it, it isn't going to drag."
After a while, you get to know how much wind it takes to make the chain go taut. I've never really thought about it this way, so I can't honestly say what the magic number
(where the chain is completely taut) is on
Sans Souci, but the other night, when I was standing anchor watch, I took out a flashlight and watched the chain at different wind speeds. At 22 knots, the anchor chain was
still hanging vertically in the water, which tells me we were no where near dragging. I'll experiment more next year...
Lastly, I would like to close out the season by mentioning that although it is usually just Roberta and I on the boat, there is really a team behind Sans Souci.
I confess to being somewhat lazy when it comes to PERSONALLY doing boat maintenance. I suppose it is possible to take great pleasure from
fixing the toilets, washing the boat or changing the oil,
and I have done those things, and many more, at various times. However, I prefer to cherry pick the bits of boating that
are the most fun, and to outsource as many maintenance and cleaning tasks as I can. Each year before
arrival at the boat, and each offseason while we are gone, I have a team of people who keeps Sans Souci clean and well maintained. Much of what Roberta and I have been doing
the past few days is making lists: lists of spare parts to be ordered, lists of things to be cleaned, lists of things to be fixed.
[Note: Roberta said I should mention that just because I'm lazy doesn't mean she
is! Over the past few days, she has been cleaning the interior virtually
non-stop] We've been taking pictures of
anything that looks worn or in need of repair, and as soon as we leave the boat, Sans Souci will be made
new again. I'd like to thank these people who are the
hidden heros behind our cruising adventures.
In Seattle -- Jeff Sanson, at Pacific Yacht Management
And, in Turkey -- Riza Cagdas Cakir, at Emek Marin
And, of course, I'd like to thank all of you, without whom the blog wouldn't be possible.
See you next season!
Ken Williams
PS As this is likely to be my last blog for several months, I thought I'd close on a personal note. I've been reading Steve Job's biography. I
dealt with him a few times over the years, and as you can
imagine, he has always been one of my heroes. The first few chapters of the book speak about his relationship with his father, and how his father influenced his career. Of course,
that got my thinking about my own dad, our relationship, and his influence on my own career.
Some of you may remember that this blog started as a way to keep my dad informed
while we were away. He lost a battle with cancer, in 2008, just after accompanying me on Sans Souci
for the Fubar rally (San Diego to La Paz Mexico).
I miss him, and would like to share this video that my son sent me, a few years ago when he was in Japan for college. I hope it reminds you of your own
parents, and how they affected your lives...