Category Archives: Maintenance

Where we did maintenance to keep the boat running well.

Finishing up the Haul Out Work

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We have been agonizing over a pasarelle. A passarelle is basically a walkway that connects your boat to the sea wall when you are Mediterranean moored. Mediterranean moor means that you back into a spot in between two boats and tie the back of your boat to a sea wall. The boat is not usually close enough to the back wall to easily get on and off the boat, which is where the passarelle comes in. Many people skip installing a passarelle and simply use a wooden board. We tried the wooden board in Greece, but it slid around and it felt unstable. In Greece and at DMarin, we would yank on the ropes to bring the boat close enough to the wall that we could jump to and from shore. Both the wooden plank and the jumping were a little scary.

So why would installing one be an agonizing decision? First of all, Continue reading →

Dry Dock Work and Touring the Bodrum Peninsula

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Our first task of the day was to wash out the chain locker. We cleaned out all the salt and dirt and picked up all the debris that had collected at the bottom. It wasn’t nearly as dirty as we had expected it to be, but there was more debris in the bottom than we expected, which affects the water’s ability to drain.

Once the locker was done, Eric Continue reading →

Dry Dock Work in Turkey

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Today we were up early and got right to work. Christi scraped barnacles off the metal on the underside of the boat for 7 hours. It was infinitely easier to scrape most of the metal out of the water than in. The exception was the stabilizer keel cooler, which is equally hellacious both in and out of the water. Christi found barnacles in every crack and crevice, including places that she hadn’t even realized existed. She was shocked to find that several of the barnacles stuck to the top of the main engine keel cooler were bigger than American half dollar coins. It is amazing that the keel coolers continue to work just fine despite the barnacles.

Eric’s first task of the day was to Continue reading →

Kosmos Haul Out and More Turkish Food

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Recently, someone e-mailed us from Bodrum, Turkey. He said he read our blog, admired our trip, that he owned a boat yard, Yatlift, and would happy to be of service if we needed work done. He generously offered to haul us out for free. Wow. We have mentioned a couple times now that we really needed to give Kosmos some more attention. We weren’t planning on taking her out of the water to do the work, but this was an opportunity way too good to pass up. Most of the work to be done would be easier out of the water than in.

Yesterday we spent the day preparing for the haul out. Christi did laundry and housework. Eric found and read the manuals pertaining to the various jobs he was planning on doing, and also gathered together the tools, which required some digging into storage spaces.

We did go out to breakfast and dinner. For breakfast, we got a traditional Turkish meal, which consists of one egg, cheese, sliced meat, tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, white bread, honey, butter and a cup of tea.

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For dinner, we tried coban kovurma, which turned out to be Continue reading →

San Diego to Crete, Adjusting Back to Life Aboard

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When we got back to Egypt from the US, we had a hard time getting over the jetlag. For three days we slept a lot, slept at weird hours, and were incredibly lackadaisical. This time the jet lag has been much worse, with us sleeping even more and at even odder hours. Today is day three back in Agios Nickolaos, day 5 back in Greece, and our bodies are still out of sorts. Of course, it may be possible that this is our way of decompressing from the fast paced lifestyle back in America.

It is also really, really hot outside here in Greece. Last time we went home, we had a hard time adjusting to the cold weather in Southern California (compared to Egypt and the tropics, at least). We were actually happy to go back to the warmer weather. This time the weather in San Diego was idyllic, and we are having a hard time re-adjusting to the heat.

In between all the sleep, we have managed to do a few chores. Unpacking and lots of laundry topped the list, of course. We had to do some reorganizing of storage spaces to put away the stuff we brought back. We filled up the stabilizer oil, which sounds easy, but is in fact a messy, two person job for us.

Eric also tried to fix the slow draining sink in the master bathroom. It seemed like just a simple clog. He undid the pipes and cleaned out all the goo, then put the pipes back on. It was better, but still not draining quite right. And now the pipe was now leaking. Hmmm. He must have broken the seals on the pipes. He brought out the plumbers tape and taped up every area where it could be leaking from, then put the pipe back on. He tested it out. Still leaking. He re-taped again and used silicone. The second try did the trick, so no more leak. But still draining slow, and we can’t figure out why.

Costas and Koralia and a couple of their friends came to visit us yesterday. It was good to see them. We spent a low key evening catching up on the last few weeks and getting to know their friends.

We tried more new foods. The first is called keleftiko. It is a leg of lamb that is amazingly tender, juicy and delicious. We think it is cooked pot roast style, and it is cooked with assorted veggie chunks, including carrots, potatoes and zucchini. The second is called stifado, and is a tasty beef stew. We are partial to stewed meats. We like how tender they are. The third was thin slices of pork wrapped around prunes. It is really good, and we don’t remember the name of it.