Marmaris, Turkey

 Time for another Turkish haircut and of course the burning of the flame - that is so hot!  Admiral Maria loves watching!

Taking a break from all the work on Aspen and trying to cool off in a Turkish Bath?

Turkish McDonalds and the big salad that Maria likes.  The McDonalds has air conditioning!

Mezes mezes everywhere - Maria is in heaven

The guys working on our rigging in the marina.  We like that the mast stays upright on the boat!

Cleaning as usual under cloudless skies.  The temperature is 105 degrees in the shade!

Another dinner of mezes - they are so good!  Well maybe the Raki helps too?

Aspen ready to go back into the water with new bottom paint.  Now maybe we can sail faster?

Another view of the rigging that we had replaced.  What a job that was.  You have to leave that to professionals to do!

August 9, 2013 - Marmaris Turkey

105 degrees in the shade with no clouds at all, day in and day out!  Wow this is hot hot hot.

Aspen is back in the water and we are cleaning her up for the journey ahead.  We have new paint for Aspen’s bottom and the new rigging was installed right on schedule too.  The Turkish workers that we used are really enthusiastic and like schedules.  We like that too!

Now we are putting the 150 pounds of parts away that we brought with us, including a portable Honda generator. 

The generator caused lots of problems in Customs in Turkey.  Captain Steve felt like he was in the TV series Locked Up Abroad when the customs officer calmly called him over to look at the x-ray screen.  “What is that???”, the armed officer asked at 1:00 AM in the morning at the airport when we landed.

Captain Steve looked at the screen and it showed coils of wires everywhere along with many dark objects nestled among the coils.

Thinking quickly the jet lagged captain of Aspen said, “hmmmmmmm”.

Two days later and without going to jail we had our generator back from customs (after paying a little Turkish lire for the privilege!).

Taking some time away from the boat we are sampling the Turkish delights of mezes and hamams to keep us cool during the day (food and Turkish baths).

Turkey remains one of our favorite places on this long journey!

Sail on, sail on and sail safe Aspen…