so i managed to get up at dawn and get underway back up to gocek. i had a ton of stuff to get finished off today on the boat (see photo) and still had to get stuff for my birthday event. of course before i even got half way to gocek i got a text from karli asking if it was ok for her to come down from yoga a day early. of course i said absolutely but i was not close to ready for her arrival. i was totally excited to see her again but also a bit concerned how everything was going to go. i had hopped to welcome here back to a spic and span chore complete palapa but alas this was not going to be.

i found a couple of moorings on this little island about 1 nm away from the town of gocek. the plan was to enjoy the beautiful solitude of the island while still being able to dingy back and forth for supplies (there would turn out to be a few problems with this plan). i managed to pick up a mooring flawlessly by my self (all those trips to catalina where good for something). i got the stern line in place with no problem either and got to work finishing up the autopilot rewiring in the aft cabin and getting all the spare parts stowed. i was only just getting started on this when karli called to say she was here. this was great and i was hoping she would want to be picked up right away. unfortunately she had some stuff with her bank to finish up in town so i had to keep working for another hour or so. i had to time my drive in to go with seth as i was just about completely out of dingy fuel so i worked until he called then took a quick swim/shower wanting to look and smell my best for karli.

i set off for shore with seth and jamie behind me and waited for them for a bit for them to close the gap but they seemed to never catch up but i figured it was just they could not plane so i blasted on into the marina. i got my gas tank filled and still there was no sight of them. i was getting concerned when they finally appeared. apparently their engine had conked out and had to get towed in and seth was quite grumpy. i was feeling a little overwhlemed, i was planning to have a nice romantic lunch with karli and now everything was spinning out of control.

i offered seth the use of my dingy to go get my extra fuel tank and or motor and went off to find karli. she was not super happy either as the bank card had arrived and she had just spent and hour on the phone and been charged 10 lira for a "free" call to the bank. i gave her a biq hug and twirled her around in the post office and we went off to lunch and to collect her stuff. we got a nice spot by the water at our favorite little restaurant and sat down for a nice romantic lunch, alas this was not to work out exactly...

i had asked seth to swing by and pick up karlis bags before heading out to the boats. he eventually arrived but pointed out that this red light that looked like an oil light on my outboard was on. i confirmed this was not normal and checked the oil, not very much so off he went to find oil and i went back to lunch. a bit later he got back and i again excused myself to fill the oil and test. no oil light! great! by this point karli (and i) where getting a bit frustrated at the dingy centric turn the day had taken!

while we waited on seth karli and i went pirate costume shopping, she got this cool black and gold princess hat with a vail thing. i got a black stray hat with a skull and bones on it. after this we went to get some groceries and after we finished up dingied over to see karli's new yoga friend on this mega yacht. the yacht was quite nice and she and her boyfriend are kiwis and have been crewing using the money to pay off a house for the last 5 years. of course after leaving the mega yacht our engine died and took some time to restart. i called seth and made plans to rendezvous again for a convoy back to the island as i did not have a lot of confidence in either motor. we got about 1/3 of the way and i could see we where opening the gap so we looped back and took them under tow. you have to love towing 2 dinghies and 4 people and a ton of groceries with a 6hp motor. it was a great welcome back to sailing for karli!

after we got back to palapa we where exhausted so took a nice nap. after the nap i we made dinner on board. for dinner i bbqed some lamb kebob and karli mad some vegi stir fry very good and relaxing after the crazy day. we also went over karli's list of things to do to make her happier on palapa, i got a few action items from this as well such as:
1. make more hot water - at least while it is still frezzing
2. create yoga spot on palapa - not sure how hard/ easy this is
3. add water filter to palapa drinking water - aparetnly they had awsome spring water at the retreat
4. more reliable dingy engine - think this may have occured after the retreate
5. spend a couple of days a month on a dock for date night activites
6. set up skype in for karli's ausi friends who can not manage skype
7. "work" time every day - this should be good for both of us
8. fix ipod shuffle - not sure how this got in here
9. full length mirror

her list included things like:
1. exercise every day
2. no more lunch wines except on special occasions
3. a couple of alcohol free days per week
4. one karli day per week
and a few others

should be fun!
cheers, roger