Fun Onboard with Steven

So, on the 29th June, after settling ourselves into Netsel Marina in Marmaris, with the knowledge that our stay was completely free, due to it being part of the annual contract we had last year, we cleaned the boat inside and out, provisioned her, in readiness of Steven’s arrival.

Having confirmed he was en-route from the airport, we took up position in a cafe by the entrance for him, but unbeknown to us he got dropped at the rear entrance and took us by surprise, rather than the other way round. It was great to see him and we planned to go out in Marmaris for a bite to eat and probably more than a few drinks, as we caught up on all his news. So at about 1am after a ‘Hookah’, which is the local name for a Shisha / hubble-bubble pipe, we wandered down Bar Street, what a strange name for a road containing multiple bars, clubs and shot bars..  Deciding that if we entered a club playing music at 120db’s that we wouldn’t hear anything, so we had a few shots in a bar on the fringe until about 2.30am and crashed.

The next day we sailed over to Ekincik, which really amused Steven, as it was the first time for nearly a year that he had managed to not sail downwind. So sailing close to the wind put a big smile on his face. As the day wore on, it was very clear that given his experiences over the last year, that he had both a very calm approach to sailing but also a significant amount of knowledge, so we learn’t some new tricks along the way. Although quite clearly, having worked on a boat that was professionally run, and then coming onto Seaclusion, it was clear that we don’t do half the things, in terms of maintenance that we should ! So Steven suggested a trip to the ‘sweetie shop’, a boat chandlers, so he could advise on a number of products to buy to assist us..

We anchored for the night and ate on board whilst having a laugh and a giggle at his experiences, with Chantal also reminiscing about their time together on the Oyster World Rally.

Following a lazy morning, we set sail for Gocek where we planned to stop in Kapi Creek, the winds were light at first, but got stronger as the day went on, sadly for Steven, downwind! Our arrival at Kapi Creek went without a hitch, and soon found us in the local restaurant with a bottle of vino on the go!

The following day, believe it or not, Chantal relinquished the controls of Seaclusion and let Steven show off his mooring capabilities, before setting sail in the direction of Fethiye, Steven still on the helm, happily racing another yacht. Having done the Oyster Regatta a few months before, his nerves were clearly more of steel than ours, as he tacked right in front of the other yacht, thankfully without a collision!

On our approach to Fethiye, a rip tide caught us all unawares and we soon found ourselves surfing 3 metre waves into the bay, Steven still smiling his head off! After a nose around the harbour, we turned back towards Gocek, trying to avoid the rip tide this time. A couple of hours later saw us anchored safely in Yassica Aldari.

It however didn’t take us too long to realise that the yacht next door had one very drunk owner/skipper on board who was hell bent on testing his stereo to the max with wonderful Turkish music,not! After a couple of hours of wishing he would shut up or f… off, Chantal finally resorted to matching him with our own, playing Eminem at full whack, much to Steven’s amusement. Oh did we pity the others in the bay around us. Did it have the desired effect, sadly not, but it gave us a chuckle. As the sun was setting and no change in the music or volume was apparent, Chantal decided to swim over to the yacht to ask politely if he would shut up, ha ha ha, fortunately on sighting her determined face, rather than talking to her, he simply picked up his anchor and buggered off. Well who wouldn’t.. Whoopee!!!!

The other entertainment for the afternoon was watching a Gullet almost squashing a powerboat it was moored next too, when its anchor failed. I will let the pics do the talking!

Finally we had some peace and quiet, except for our own chuckles on board, and watched the sun go down!

So Day 5 of Steven’s stay saw us off sailing again, having crossed half way around the World on a yacht, you would have thought Steven had had enough, but no, upwind sailing was the order of the day again, to Fethiye, this time dropping anchor to stay the night!.

Later in the afternoon, when the heat was starting to drop, we jumped in the dinghy to wing our way into Fethiye town so Steven could see a proper Turkish town, Marmaris and Gocek being a little touristy to be classed as that!

Having had a wander around and Steven taking the photos this time, we went in hunt for some cushion covers for our “apple” back home. Somewhat exasperated by Chantal’s dithering, the boys disappeared for, in their minds, a well earned drink and came back to give their seal of approval later, thankfully!  Dinner followed, bless Steven, he footed the bill as a thank you, not that that was necessary, and then with a couple of bottles of wine inside us, we ventured into the nearest leather and handbag shop… thankfully not to add to Chantal’s collection, but to purchase a wallet for Steven. It was however when we came to pay, we realised that our credit card was still in the cushion shop, now well and truly closed for the night! I guess a return trip into Fethiye in the morning was on the cards!

Day 6, after Steven and David secured the safe retrieval of our credit card, leaving Chantal on board to vinegar wash, as per Steven’s recommendation, all our brakes and clutches, we set sail back to Gocek , this time heading for the town itself. En route we realised that clearly the accumulated dirt in the clutches were assisting in holding the main sail halyard fast, the vinegar having done its job, the halyard soon started slipping through the clutch, allowing the sail to drop slightly, still enough to cause a problem. Having secured the line through two winches, we managed to hoist it back up enough to furl it away, a urgent job to be done, so we headed straight to Gocek instead of playing some more.

Our first attempt at mooring was at the cheap municipal marina, but having been shuffled from pillar to post, we gave up and bit the bullet, heading for the posh D-Marin Marina! Safely tied up, Chantal set about getting some help to service the clutches, whilst the boys went off to the “sweetie shop” and Steven soon got David departing with more than a few euros on cleaning products, before even more euros on a fab final night out!

Steven’s final day saw him teaching us how to give Seaclusion an “Oyster” World class clean, polish, nanotech, the works. Suffice to say she is very shiny now, gelcoat, chrome, the lot !

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Job done, we ventured into Gocek for a milkshake and a trip to the deli as our reward.

The final chapter of Steven’s visit saw the rigger come to advise that the issue was not the clutch, but rather the halyard itself and having suggested reversing it rather than replacing it, he set about doing just that, as we said our sad and tearful goodbyes to Steven, who was on his way via London en-route to Antigua the following day. 30 minutes later we sent him a couple of  WhatsApp pictures as below to make him chuckle, not that we were too amused!

Steven’s response following our update, a simple “Numpty”.

We had a fantastic week with Steven and wished it was longer as we all had a really good time with lots of laughs along the way, and we wish him well back on the job looking after Red Cat in Antigua.

So on the 5th July, our rigger returned to rectify the issue and get us back underway, and we set sail for the rest of our adventure, sadly back to just the 2 of us on board.