Back in June, when Manny announced that he had just accepted a job delivering a sailboat from Turkey to Israel, I blanched. Perhaps you don't remember, but June was the month of the Peace Flotilla debacle and for anyone living in Israel, Turkey was not a recommended vacation destination. However we are both Canadians and Manny assured me that as we would be traveling among cruising sailors, we would be fine.

By August the intense politics of June had cooled, the Peace flotilla was old news and we were ready to go. Our only problem was exactly how we would get ourselves to Gocek, a small town on the Lycian coast. In any other year, we would have simply bought two tickets on a charter flight to Marmaris and taken a half hour taxi ride from Dalaman airport straight to the boatyard where the sailboat lay. Unfortunately this summer all charter flights from Israel to Turkey had been canceled. Israeli's were spending their holidays elsewhere and we had to search for the cheapest and most direct way to Gocek.

After hours on the internet, we found our route. We would fly into the Greek island of Rhodes, spend a night in a small family run hotel and next morning take a ferry across to Fethye Turkey. From there we'd take a taxi to our boatyard. However, even the best laid plans can go awry when you set out on your journey just as the planet Mercury goes retrograde.

Boat deliveries are so much more than the delivery itself. Often just getting ourselves to the boat's location is a challenge. Finding available seats on a flight to Rhodes wasn't easy and the ferry to Fethye didn't sail every day. Coordinating the two meant spending three nights in Rhodes, but the small Hotel Anastasia was a fine place to cool our heels.

Meanwhile, we walked the streets of Rhodes town and explored the marina. Right away we understood why sailors often give Rhodes a miss. The harbour is big and well sheltered but mooring space is non existent. Boats that anchor in the adjacent commercial harbour are rocked by constant wash from ferries and other craft and there is no comfortable space to land your dinghy. Later, we took a local bus down the island to explore the small town of Lindos and saw the anchorage there. In Lindos bay we saw good protection and lots of swinging room. The town of Lindos although busy with tourists was very pretty.



When the day of our scheduled ferry arrived, we woke up early to organize our bags. What had started as one big pack, one small pack and our laptop had grown to include a duffel on rollers. The need to carry safety harnesses, pilot books, bedding and warm clothes had expanded our luggage weight considerably. We began what was soon to become a familiar chore, dragging our luggage long distances over cobblestones and dirt paths.

The ferry to Turkey was late and we arrived after dark. The boat was sitting in dry dock in a yard outside of town accessed by a dirt path and between two other yards. Our taxi driver didn't speak much English. He misunderstood our directions and we spent some time driving around trying to find our destination. Finally we got out to walk, dragging our luggage up and down the dirt path, until a friendly security guard who spoke a little English and had a good flashlight, guided us to our dry dock. We walked through the yard following the owner's hand drawn map and the guard's torch fell on the boat. Manny laughed and I let out a couple of good explicatives. Even in the dark, she looked a little rough.



Back in Cananda, we knew a sailor that everybody called "The Wiz". He was renown for buying the oddest little vessels. You know the ones - the boats that lie neglected in boatyards for years, until one day a buyer comes along with light in his eyes and sees a deal. That buyer was The Wiz and he would have loved this boat.

We had seen pictures and had heard stories of wonderful vacations aboard this "comfortable pilot cutter". We even had a friend who sailed on her just last year. How then could we begin to explain the rusted, neglected boat that lay before our eyes? However, just as boat owners may view their vessels through rose coloured glasses, maintenance technicians find it very hard to turn down a challenge.

Manny was unperturbed. He would fix the boat up and we would complete the delivery. Over the next two days, Manny checked the engine, electrical and steering systems. We had been warned that the rudder was a little stiff. Immediately upon boarding Manny tried to move the tiller and found it was completely seized. Next morning he chipped several centimeters of old paint off the rudder hinges and began to lubricate the area. Throughout the following days at regular intervals he heaved the tiller side to side and sprayed on more lubricant. Within three days even I could move the tiller enough to steer the boat. He hooked up the autopilot and checked that it worked. He checked the batteries, the VHF, inspected the anchor and chain and went over the rigging. Meanwhile I opened up the canvas cover and cleaned the deck, sweeping off pine needles and hosing off mud. In the galley I began to go through lockers and shelves throwing out old jars and rusted utensils. I cleaned and organized the cabin so that we could liveaboard offshore. We made lists of jobs needing to be done. Each day Manny felt more confident that while in need of lots of maintenance, this boat could sail back to Israel.

We approached the yard manager for a launch date and were told that Ramadan was coming to a close and there would be a four day holiday for Ramadan Bayrum, followed by a one day of voting in a national referendum when the business would be closed. Our launch date would need to be the following week. Since we had time on our hands, Manny decided to put a coat of antifouling on the hull and we talked about painting the topsides too.

Early the next morning, I began my day with my usual yoga practice in a shady corner of the yard. Manny set about cleaning the hull with a metal brush on a drill head. One hour later, I rolled up my mat and found Manny motioning to me. The wire brush had gone straight through the hull in several places. We climbed aboard the boat and began to open up all the floor boards and deep lockers and found corrosion everywhere. This was no small maintenance job, if we were to complete the delivery, we would need a metal thickness gauge and a welder.



I turned on our laptop and began what was to be almost a week of regular emails and Skype conversations with the owner. Pictures were taken and sent. Manny went over the hull with a hammer tapping for thickness and then using the wire brush to open new holes. He quickly ran around town getting quotes for the work before the holiday began. The boat's owner was traveling in Europe on work and we often had to wait a day or more for an answer. Finally the Ramadan Bayrum began and most of the town went on vacation. So did we. While we waited for answers, it was time to see a little of Gocek.

We were in a waiting zone.

Mornings Manny would poke around the boat finding more and more neglect. The wind vane had a bearing that was gone and if he released the blades the vane would shudder and shake as it rattled around. The zodiac looked fine under it's canvas cover with pontoons fully inflated, but when we lifted the cover we found that the floor had separated from the rest of dinghy. One day we got out the binoculars to check out a pretty little boat coming into the bay and we found that only one lens worked and even then vision was obscured. All signs of an owner that simply expected equipment to work forever.

Around noon, I'd make us some lunch onboard. Fruits, vegetables and other provisions are modestly priced and available most anywhere in Turkey, so we ate well. Then we'd organize ourselves for a walk into Gocek, pulling our newly purchased bundle buggy behind us. We both consider a bundle buggy to be an essential piece of equipment for provisioning. It saves your back and also allows you to stock up on cases of beer and other drinks. We use our bundle buggy to haul jerry cans of fuel and gas bottles too.



After exploring town and enjoying dinner out in a local eatery, we'd return to the boat yard. We'd haul our bundle buggy of purchases onboard with a rope and go for a swim. On one of our first days while we sat drying off, we met Jeff, a British cruiser who had just completed his haulout and was waiting to launch. While he entertained us with stories of jobs gone wrong, we rolled our eyes. Finally he asked us which boat we were on. As soon as he learned that we were on THAT boat, he invited us for beers. Surely he thought he was in for a good story and we didn't disappoint him.

After Jeff launched, we met another British couple bedding their boat down for the winter season. We watched them polish and clean and marveled at what a good job they were doing. How different this delivery job would have been if this boat's owner had done just a little of that work himself.

Once the sun set we'd head for the marina office. What with all our need to keep in touch with various people this trip, internet was essential. We really appreciated all the kind help we received from the boat yard. Right on our first day the manager told us to use the marina office where WIFI reception was the best. The security guard would open the office for us and let us have the run of the place. Some evenings we sat for hours trying to solve all the problems that came up with this job. Once we'd close our computer we'd head back to the boat and sit high on her deck where the view over the bay was first rate. We'd crack a beer and enjoy the spectacular scenery.

Finally the owner made a decision. We listened quietly as he told us to leave the boat and come back home. He had decided to call the whole thing off. While we realized that this was probably the sanest choice, we were disappointed. After spending days ogling this splendid cruising ground, we wouldn't even get a chance to be afloat.

Now our energy turned towards finding a return passage to Israel. Once again we had to juggle ferry schedules, flight times and holidays both in Israel and in Turkey. It wasn't an easy task and we weren't very enthusiastic. There was the incomplete feeling of having to walk away from a job mid stream.

We tidied up the boat and began to repack our luggage which had expanded some over the past two weeks. Our last morning we were up bright and early to begin the long trek home. A mini bus picked us up and drove us to the ferry where we sailed for Rhodes. From the ferry docks we pulled our luggage over almost a kilometer of cobblestones back to Hotel Anastasia, where we stayed two days until our flight. Then we pulled our luggage another kilometer through the busy streets to the central bus station, hauled the luggage on board the bus and drove to the airport. We flew back to Israel where we were met by a friend with our car. Once we'd loaded all our luggage and ourselves into the car, we all drove for five hours down to Eilat.

At the marina we hauled our luggage aboard Yofy one last time. Manny and I looked at each other and remarked on the return trip from Gocek. It had taken us four days long days to finally get home. We could have sailed back in just about the same time!