Saturday 21 June 2014: In the state of being born

Tomorrow we head off to Marmaris by dolmuş, get a hotel for the night, hop on the cat to Rhodos, jump on the ferry to Piraeus, grab a bus from Piraeus (North of Athens) to the international airport South of Athens, fly to Dubai, wait for 4 hours, crawl on the plane to Singapore, wait another hour in Singapore, roll onto the plane to Brisbane, and finally slump into a taxi from Brissy airport to home. We're very much looking forward to travelling the world with mechanised means.

But that is tomorrow. Today we have to finish as much of the packing as we can. Chris is the main packer, Francis is still trying to get bits and pieces for the boat, cleaning the bilge, and finishing the laminated charter handbook. In the process of exchanging the speedometer impeller (which fouls easily) with a 'blank' placeholder, the O-ring of the placeholder breaks and blocks the placeholder from being pulled out, but not enough to prevent water to come in. Water is getting in quickly through the hole in the hull and a mad dash ensues for some tools to pry the placeholder out so it can be replaced with the original impeller-baring one. Bit more water in the bilge to scoop out. But we have another 24 hours, so not to worry.

We talked with one of Tolga's many friends, Alaatin (no, not from AB and his 40 companions), who is going to connect the solar panels after the arch has been delivered and installed. He seems to be a very knowledgeable (and friendly) guy, probably the last person alive still capable of repairing electronics instead of replacing it.

We also cramp in a very short visit to the Robinson stainless-steel workshop to have a look at signs of progress. We're being shown a piece of bend stainless steel (see inset) that looks like one of the two main arches parts that will eventually make up the arch. Can't go wrong!

Chris is doing a marvellous job, and beside packing the containers, is polishing the stainless steel on deck. We hope Tolga is not going to just throw his hands in the air and the (too many) containers overboard by the time the charter starts on the 12th of July. We slept well that night.