We’ve grouped together this two week period into one page as it mainly covers areas already written about in previous log entries. These include Ortakent, Cokertme and Gumusluk. We also took in a couple of new places including Pabuc proper, round the corner from the previous Pabuc entry. The reason why this two-week period is relevant, however, is because of the problems we had with both our rigging and our gearbox, plus a few lessons we learned on the way. So, a two week log in one paragraph:
Another coat of antifoul. New anodes added. Boat dropped back in water. Jolly good shakedown and anchored at Ortakent. Supposed to get help with rigging from some recommended English sailors based here. Made appointments but they couldn’t be arsed to turn up so, manual in hand, Liz and I attempted it ourselves with a little help from Mark. Joined by Tac, sailed to Coketme, Tac a little queasy. Bought a second hand backgammon board off Hassan at Coketme Restaurant, much to the amusement of the waiters. Nightmare leaving pontoon as the mooring lines wrapped round the prop and failed to engage gears. Esper drifting towards the shore so Liz ordered to jump in dinghy to grab another mooring line. Then I remembered an old trick – put boat in reverse to unwind the caught line. Worked, even if it did take 10 seconds to engage gear. Spent night at Pabuc where Liz invented a new aubergine recipe. Made our way to Gumusluk where we were joined by Tac and Idil which, of course, meant too much drinking. Made beaded choker and sporting a new earring – look like a complete ocean hippy twat now. Eventually went to leave, tried to weigh anchor and gears failed. This after spending stupid money to get gearbox fixed two months ago. Got Man brothers to come over from Icmeler to remove it from Esper, take it back to Icmeler and strip it down. Twice. Couldn’t find a thing wrong with it. Decided to get back to Yat Lift and throw a wobbly at them for wasting our money and time. There we were introduced to a new mechanic who claims to have solved the problem with some copper wire, WD40 and grease. Hmmmmmm……..
Lessons learned? Rely on no one but yourself. Beware of Turks bearing gifts: they may say ‘yes, we can fix it’ to every problem posed but this is not always the case. We have now spent £££s on this transmission issue (I no longer call it a gear-box issue as there was nothing ever wrong with the gear box) and have wasted over a week at anchor waiting for various mechanics and boat yards to fix this problem. Still, you live and learn, innit?
Actually the most useful people in our latest dilemma were the members of Oyster After-Sales service, back in the UK. Hoorah for Stephen Parkinson for taking the time out to actually listen to our problem and attempt, step by step, to find a solution. We’ve yet to put his ideas into practice as we await a verdict on Yat Lift’s solution but it was refreshing to speak to someone who wanted to help and not just dive in without listening to us. It’s been three years now that we’ve telling the boat yard we’ve had problems engaging gears and I’m still not convinced they are listening.
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