First Splash

It's a bimodal world in the Mediterranean. There is 'the Season' and then there is everything else. Life to a large degree is ruled by this division. During the Season, there are tourists and cafes, charter boats and ferries to exotic islands. The rest of the year is quiescent and dormant. The first sign of the Season is something rather remarkable that happens to the water. The dull steely grey stuff that's rather impenetrable is replaced by the most marvellous translucent aquamarine stuff. The water become silky and inviting, rather than cold and forbidding.

 

The change in the water is accompanied by feverish activity on land. Everything is being renewed, rebuilt, cleaned and fettled. In the boatyard, remarkable activity is transforming the boats left forlorn over winter. We know, we've just finished 9 coats of paint on Pavlov's sweet little bottom. Last winter, we scraped all the old paint off, back to bare gelcoat. So for this season, Pavlov sports four coats of epoxy (International Gelshield 200) in snazzy alternating colours of green and grey. Megan definitely had a preference for the green, and moaned when we had to cover it again with grey. Then one coat of Primacon, a sealer and barrier layer. This year we're trying a new strategy for anti foul as we hope to keep the boat in the water next winter. So Pavlov had one coat of red International Ultra, a hard non-ablative anti foul. Then she had three coats of a pretty blue Micron EU, a soft ablative. We hope that the Micron will last two seasons, but if we have to scrub the hull and rub through the ablative, there will still be a layer of hard to inhibit further growth.

Pavlov showing her final coat

You've got to admit, that's a shapely stern.

So all this activity leads to just one thing, a lemming like return to the water. And today was the First Splash. The first boats in the yard started to leap headfirst back into their natural element. This was worthy of documenting, so I've experimented with old world black and white photo's to recreate the photojournalism styles of yesteryear.

We're getting excited (and exhausted from all the work), ready to shift off land and rejoin Pavlov in our natural watery element. We've adapted to land, but miss the dynamic changes of scenery and motion that we experience on the water. The new curtains have been hung, we've still to install the new autopilot and tidy up the interior. We should splash in another 4 or 5 days.

Still a few boats ahead of us.

A Yildiz charter boat rejoins the pod.

 

Awaiting a delivery crew to take them to the charter base in Orhaniye

I had to take a photo of the next boat, its quite sentimental for Megan and I.  Papalagi was a sweet little 34 foot Jeanneau Sun Odyssey that we chartered back in 2011. It was our 'sanity check' to see if we liked life afloat in the Mediterranean. We had such a great time and adventure on that boat,  so it was a surprise to see it turn up in Bozburun. The charter company Yildiz, has moved their base from Bodrum, where we initially chartered Papalagi. They're relocated to Orhaniye, another of our favourite ports. Orhaniye is just around the corner, so they chose Bozburun as their winter haul out site.

We've grown quite fond of this ugly, cramped and minimally resourced boat yard, and we will add Bozburun to the list of towns that we now call home. Its a short list so far, and includes Fethiye and Orhaniye. So next week, it will be a round of goodbye's to our new Turkish friends and neighbours who work in the yard.

Mustafa, the crew boss 

Ersan Bey, one of the owners of the boat yard.

So, until we too splash, adios.