The work continues to get things on Tsamaya. We had been noticing that the water pump was not working correctly as it seemed to be leaking air so the pump would turn on even when we werent turning on the water. The water pump is in a very awkward location to get to easily so even though Bob could do it, we are getting smarter in our old age and picking and choosing the jobs that we farm out to others. This fell into that category for sure.
We made contact with Erika again to find out who to work with – she put us in touch with Merlin, and they came out quickly to look at the problem. They diagnosed a problem with the accumulator, had another one in stock and came back and installed. It seemed that the problem was fixed until later that evening when the same problem existed. Made contact again, and they again came out quite quickly. Made a few more adjustments/test and again thought it was fixed. The next day we reported the problem again so this time they installed the new water pump (that of course we just so happened
to have on board as a spare!). Still the problem existed so the next time they did some more adjustments with the connections and now everything is working fine. It took a few visits over a few days, but all is good again. It really is great to be in a place where there are many technicians that can assist with the numerous problems that can arise on a boat.
Our canvas has now been taken off, repaired what needed to be done zippers, add cover material over the zippers, install new windows in our dodger, etc.) Once they got started on the job, it went very quickly indeed. We had canvas work done when we were in Tunisia a few years ago, but with the damaging sun on stitches, etc. it was time to get things We also had a couple of things we wanted done as improvements which was done very professionally. It truly has been great working with Sharp Marine Riggers and Canvas – not only is the work top quality, Berkan and Riza are great guys to work with (and they laugh at Bobs joking around!) W e only have one more piece
The installation of the inverter/charger that we brought back from the US went quickly and well, but as with so many instruments there seems to be a need for checking/adjusting and updating of software. that did the install, AC/DC, have been another to work with as they have been responsive to any problems Bob sees on the monitor and out to make the needed adjustments. When AC/DC finished the work, we had enough (just enough) local currency, the Turkish lira, onboard to pay them in cash as we had taken out quite a bit from the ATMs the last time we were in Turkey. That was great but then we quickly realized that we were left with only 30 Turkish lira ($1.73). We had been getting our cash out of a particular banks ATM in town as they never charged a fee, but knew it would take 26 lira for both of us one way on the bus! We did have to chuckle that we were the poorest we have ever been (at least with cash) in our nearly 48 years
We had heard for years from other cruisers that if you want work done on your boat, you should wait til you get to Marmaris, Turkey – that advise was spot on as we have been very pleased not only with the quality of the work, but the technicians themselves have been great to work with.
We missed a Thursday market day and Bob was still working on projects, so I got to go to the Sunday market by myself. There are definitely fewer vendors as well as customers, but it was fine as it was easier to get through the aisles and there was still plenty of produce to choose from. There are definitely 2 downsides to going by myself – the main one of course is not having an outing with Bob, but secondly it means that I had to somewhat limit my purchases a little more as didnt have Bob to help lug it all back to the marina! I still managed to load up my backpack and 2 recyclable grocery bags (brought from the US for this purpose).
