Category: Works and Repairs

Goodbye Turkey, Until Next Year

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IMG_4163Our flights are confirmed, our bags packed. The boat will be hauled out for a while now for repairs, and Skipper and I will be ready to head to the airport tomorrow morning.

Istanbul is being kind and providing us with torrential rain and dark skies to get us used to our visit to the UK. (Although I’m told it’s hotter than Cyprus in London today.)

It’s been a long and busy season for us, and we are looking forward to a couple of weeks off before starting our new adventures.

There are new challenges back in the Mediterranean over the winter, and one or two intriguing offers further away to consider. Last night we got talking to an Australian couple who shared stories about their beautiful classic wooden boat, and persuaded us that we really need to put Australia on our list of top places to sail.

Now, we could really do with a holiday…

A Day in the Life of Galley Girl: Part Three: Evening

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IMG_4036It’s taken rather a long time to get round to the third part of this saga. We’ve been away cruising between Greece and Turkey. We’ve had a great time but the days have been long, with lots of playing on the jet ski and other garage toys.

I hope you can still remember the afternoon of Galley Girl’s day from my last post – thank you for waiting so patiently for the evening.

Anyway, finally, here is the third and final part of the saga of A Day in the Life of Galley Girl: Skipper has everything under control after a long day of fixing mechanical glitches. He’s been in the water a lot, mostly unexpectedly, fully clothed…

All is calm as the owners and guests relax on deck with fruit, sweetmeats and tea.

What could possibly go wrong….?

Continue reading “A Day in the Life of Galley Girl: Part Three: Evening” →

A Day in the Life of Galley Girl. Part Two: Afternoon

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The morning has been a busy one. In the second part of A Day in the Life of  Galley Girl, it’s already looking like it’s going to be a long day. And we have a problem with the anchor that we’re keeping quiet about.

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The owner’s daughter wakes up. She is completely lovely and I happily make her breakfast and put it in the bin virtually untouched afterwards, just as I do every day for her brother. One of the guests asks for Turkish coffee and the daughter says she will make it. It’s a Turkish cultural thing, and like tea, it has its own mystique and ceremony. A prospective bride will make coffee for her future husband’s parents as a test of her suitability as a wife. Of course we have a machine to make coffee for us, but still there is something quite charming about this gorgeous girl meticulously arranging cups on a pretty tray and serving coffee to a very elderly and tubby old man. Once she’s finished the coffee and chosen the designer bikinis she will wear today I make her bed and clean her bathroom.

After an early start we have served three rounds of breakfasts, umpteen rounds of coffee, started on the housework, moved the boat to a new anchorage and got the toys out of the garage for the owners and guests to play with. We still have to fix the anchor winch which failed as we dropped anchor on arrival. Without it we can’t raise the anchor when we leave. Hauling 50 metres of chain up manually with a big anchor at the end is not an option…

Continue reading “A Day in the Life of Galley Girl. Part Two: Afternoon” →

A Day in the Life of Galley Girl. Part One: Morning

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There is never a typical day, ever, on board a boat. The weather, sea state, maintenance routines and repair issues all have a bearing on how the day will go. And if you are working aboard, then of course the demands and whims of your clients or owners and their guests will dictate where you end up and when. Some days are more memorable than others however…

0630 At anchor

photo-13The alarm goes off. I’ve been lightly awake since sunrise. The oblong square of the hatch, which is also our door, is open as always. We drape a mosquito net over the space and the sunlight streaming in is softened by the mesh. The air conditioning booms into action with the thud that always makes me jump. My bunk is not much longer than me but surprisingly comfortable, in a dark den kind of way. Skipper sleeps above in the longer bunk, which is set at right angles to mine, above the washing machine. The cabin is cosy, to say the least. And not in the least bit conducive to romance.

Continue reading “A Day in the Life of Galley Girl. Part One: Morning” →

Shock Absorbers for a Quiet Night In

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IMG_3927We had a particularly roly night in our berth a few weeks back with strong winds and a swell and Skipper had had enough of the creaks and groans of the warps. (A warp, or mooring line, is a rope that ties the boat to the quay or pontoon.) Every time the warp slackens and then tensions again it creaks. At 4 am, in the dark, in our cabin in the bottom of the stern of the boat, it sounds like we’re living on a big old wooden galleon rather than on a modern fibreglass powerboat.

So Skipper weIMG_3930nt out and bought rubberised shock absorbers that compress and minimise the snatch when there is a swell. They are attached to a cleat on the pontoon with chain and then the warp is attached to the other end of the shock absorber. They work a treat: lovely silent nights.

It is really noticeable when you walk along the pontoon on a swelly day how much creaking goes on. Several of our neighbours have come to see what the English Captain has done to achieve blissful silence. Now all we have to do is persuade them to do the same thing.

The Day Worker

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We have been paying a day worker for the past few weeks to come and help on wash-down days. The skipper and I are not on a really big boat, but with 72 feet either side and a bit at the back, it’s still a lot for just two of us to manage several times a week.

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We have lift off…

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Need your windscreen replacing? On a 70′ powerboat?

Easy! You just need one of these.

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The skipper and I really weren’t sure about this. Especially not about offering the owner’s two million pound boat up for a guinea pig trial of this sputnik style baby crane. That’s quite a responsibility. Could those four sucker pads really lift and swing 110kg of glass off the boat and onto the wharf without dropping it through the deck?

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A New Windscreen

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We’re back in port for works on the boat after a great few days cruising. The lovely owners of the boat have left while we get on with managing the schedule of repairs.

Each of these two pieces of glass in the windscreen weighs 110 kg. The marina yard is supplying a crane to lift off the old glass and deposit it on the dock. Then the new glass will be lifted into position. It’s a lifting technique achieved with giant suckers that has never been used before in this marina.

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First off, two chaps from the UK have arrived to carry out and supervise the work. It’s over 45 degrees up there while they loosen the old glass. Hot work.

Tomorrow we move the boat to the boat haul wharf where the crane will be set up to lift the glass. Wish us luck!