Final weeks in Marmaris

We arrived back here in Marmaris 14 November after a great visit back to NZ & Queensland, visiting family & friends. John & Alice had meanwhile been looking after Envoy in mainly atrocious weather with very heavy rain, gales, & cold temperatures.
On our return the weather suddenly changed for the better with very sunny, mostly cloudless days and daytime temperatures about 18dC. In fact, up to today, we’ve had only about three days with any rain, although it's cooled to about 14dC in the last few days.
When we wrote the last blog update we were deliberately vague about our future plans.
Our original plan had been to stay in Marmaris until end February, then cruise until June, lift Envoy out of the water, and then return to NZ in July. However, very recently my company, Hunt Agencies, received an acquisition offer, and during our visit to Auckland we met with the prospective buyers, and a deal was struck that subject to completion of due diligence should proceed - effective probably 1/3/08. One of the conditions of the deal is that I continue to lead the company as CEO for the next two or three years, so we have changed our plans to accommodate this and will pull Envoy out of the water on 15 January and arrive back home on 23 January. More details about Envoy under Technical.
When I do retire from Hunt by mutual agreement with the new owners, we will return to the Med with an open timetable and continue our cruising. This will probably involve going SW to Crete, through the many Southern & Central Greek Islands to Northern Turkey, back through the Northern Greek Islands to Croatia, across to Venice and then down to Sicily and into the Western Med. Our long term plan is to bring Envoy back to NZ via the Indian Ocean route.
It was great to catch up with John & Alice again before Alice left for Canada on 22 December and Amy arrived on the 23rd. Envoy was nicely decorated with a Xmas tree, decorations and lights, so we had a real Xmas atmosphere.
Plenty of activity was organized at the Marmaris marina for the cruising residents, in fact possibly too much. Di made the comment that it’s a bit like a Butlins Holiday Camp here!
Di, Amy, John & I hired a rental car for a couple of days and stayed down in Kalkan, which is one of the most picturesque of the coastal villages, being a previously Greek settlement. We had a great time there and the first night went to a nice restaurant called Ottoman. We got talking to a waiter there called Namic, and had a late night.
The next night Namic invited us all to his house for dinner, where we had some interesting conversation about Turkish culture etc. There was no “hidden agenda” to this; Namic did not have an uncle who is a carpet salesman, but is just a really nice guy.
Amy & John left on 30 Dec but it was not a sad parting as John will be in NZ when we arrive back, while Amy arrives there on 4 February for a month. John has decided to go back to Auckland Uni and do a two year Masters degree (in urban planning).
Since Amy & John left we’ve been organizing Envoy for her long time out of the water.
We have offloaded a lot of gear that has never been or is never likely to be used and making arrangements for Envoy’s storage. We have found a very good engineering company called Demir Marine owned by an nice guy called Ilhan. He has a very good reputation, and in fact he did work on Envoy for the previous owners when they were in Marmaris.

Technical – this is going to be quite detailed. If you don’t like it please switch off!
A lot is happening because we left quite a bit of routine maintenance until now, and we have a lot to do in preparation for leaving Envoy on the hard for two to three years. I am indebted to Frank Curulli for his research, thoughts, and subsequent written plan regarding storage. During this storage time Demir Marine will check Envoy every 2 weeks or so.
Envoy will be on shore power, and the battery chargers will be left on charging our AGM-type batteries. We have installed two dehumidifiers and Demir will check these and empty them of water as required. Additionally we had a full custom-designed waterproof cover made for the boat from a pvc-coated polyester fabric, which has a five year guarantee. The company making this cover is on site and undertake to check it regularly and repair if needed.
Water tanks have been left full of water with some bleach added to prevent bacterial growth.
The diesel tanks have had their diesel treated with biocide, but were not able to be left full as planned, because it was not possible to add fuel on the hardstand (a misunderstanding). Anyhow, the air breathers have been blocked off, and the tanks have good inspection ports which can be opened for checking the tanks on our return.
The diesel filters have been left and will changed before re-launching. The oil and oil filters have be changed in the three engines, the water pump impellers removed from the Yanmar & Genset and the water pumps serviced. The impellers will be replaced with new ones on re-assembly.
The following jobs were comleted:
- saloon 12v light repaired – faulty switch
- repair to fuel leak at Lugger fuel pump
- leaking Naiad stabilizer seawater cooling pump rebuilt
- 2 x alternators on Lugger serviced, and some suspect wiring replaced
- alternator on wing engine serviced
- most v-belts replaced
- all sea water hoses on Yanmar replaced
- Maxwell anchor winch removed & stripped, motor serviced and new shaft machined to replace present one showing corrosion, gearbox oil changed
- watermaker u/v filter wiring repaired
- watermaker “pickled” with chemicals for long term storage
- new flurorescent light fitted in engine room
- new fuel transfer pump installed (thanks Brian) and the old one repaired for use as a spare
- domestic water circulation pumps replaced with new ones, and old ones rebuilt as spares
- domestic water supply filters replaced
- repairs to wing engine exhaust system – new s/s elbow, hose and repair of muffler
- fitting of Teflon wear strip on saloon door to aid operation
- 2 x outboards winterized
- start battery on large rib discarded, and will be replaced later
- waterblasted all growth from hull & running gear
- identified there is some osmosis on hull which will be repaired by stripping back the gelcoat and laying up a new epoxy gelcoat. At that time all seacocks will be removed and serviced
- all equipment which uses seawater for cooling was run with fresh water by connecting a freshwater supply to the inlet of the relevant seacock
- all v-belts loosened and pulleys protected from rust
- sprayed all metal parts with WD40 (CRC Longlife not obtainable here)
- sprayed all accessible electrical parts with contact cleaner
- the keel cooler through-hull fitting is leaking sea water and needs repair. We will also check if the keel cooler should be removed and acid bath cleaned. This will be done at the time of the gelcoat repair
- heads were emptied and holding tanks filled with fresh water
- anchor chain removed for re-galvanising
- bow thruster motor removed and rebuilt, thruster gearbox oil changed
- a couple of minor blemishes on topsides gel coat to be repaired during our absence
- all interior woodwork was polished for protection
- all interior and exterior stainless steel was polished and then lightly coated with clean engine oil
- the mid aircon 110v pump was removed for checking. It is faulty and needs replacement on our return together with its 110v power supply
- props & shafts being cleaned and protected with grease
- rudder bearings & Yanmar cutlass bearing to be checked
- the stbd stern cleat, which was badly bent, has been removed, repaired, and re-installed
- mattresses were stowed vertically, and all interior drawers, cupboards, hatches were left open for air circulation
- we contemplated leaving taps in the open position to rest the washers, but decided against this, in case while work is being done the fresh water supply is activated

When we return, apart from re-commissioning Envoy we will:
- get the RIB inflatable pontoons repaired (they are leaking air), hull tidied up, navigation lights, 12v power outlet & fuel guage fixed, and the seat re-upholstered to make the RIB like new again
- repair port side for'ard saloon window, so that it opens
- antifoul the hull - probably using International Micron 66
- replace all zincs
- clean & polish the hull & topsides
- fit new bilge water high-level alarm
- galley stove to be serviced
- new roller in anchor pulpit