Barbie has Risen

Yat Marine had a bit of its own ascension on Easter Sunday.  MV Barbie has risen.  The salvage operation for this luxury steel motor yacht has been plagued with disaster after disaster.  A few weeks ago we noticed that the big salvage barge and tug were no longer at the marina but sitting in the middle of Marmaris Bay.  We also noticed that Juliet pontoon looked a bit wonky.  It looks like the salvage barge took a little trip during a big wind and clipped the pontoon taking out a whole section, spewing bits of Styrofoam across the water.  This salvage operation is not ecologically friendly. 

Twisted reinforcing wire and sections of a pontoon

Piles of waste Styrofoam

About a week later the barge returned aligning itself differently. Big holes were dug on the shore in which were buried the huge anchors.

That's one way to set an anchor - dig a hole and bury it.

Days passed amongst much speculation as to when Barbie would come up from the deep.  We frequently would go by and watch the operation which usually consisted of lots of workers standing around and doing nothing.  It looks like the Australian council workers method of creative contemplation is international.

Not much activity

 Then on Easter Sunday MV Barbie rose from the deep and a rather sorry sight she was indeed.

Listing and muddy - Poor Barbie

Burnt out shell

A sorry sight

The Annual On the Hard

We are on the hard doing the annual maintenance chores. The big job is painting Songster’s bottom with anti-foul to prevent marine growth taking up residence on her.  We also have to fix the windlass (the chain stripper broke last season - no that is not some sort of exotic dance but a device to prevent the chain from jamming on the windlass gypsy), regrease the sea cocks, revarnish the cockpit table, repaint the anchor chain to mark every 10 metres, clean up the propellor and a few odds and ends.  That should keep us busy during the scheduled two weeks on the hard.  The marine environment is harsh so there is always something to fix and refurbish on a boat.

We are getting fit climbing up that ladder a dozen times a day

Last year, being newbies, we had arranged for one of the yacht maintenance companies to do the job of anti-fouling.  After seeing that the chore wasn’t much more than painting a room in a house (something we have done quite a bit of in the last few years), we decided we to do the job ourselves this year.  The first task was to scrub the hull removing any remaining slime or barnacles.  The pressure wash done when Songster was lifted out of the water was fantastic so the scrubbing process was fairly easy, if a bit messy as it has to be done wet.

Before and after the pressure wash

Old and new Zinc anode from the propeller.  It is amazing the amount of electrolysis that goes on in salt water. Better the zinc than our propeller.

Next we had to choose which anti-foul to use.  We had used a fairly basic product last year and wanted something that would last two years and save us the cost of a haul out next spring.  Well ask ten sailors their opinion on anything and you will get ten different answers.  We researched the different brands and got prices from the various chandlers but in the end didn’t really feel any the wiser as to what would be best for us.  So we chose a mid-priced product that is suppose to give us two years in the water.  Time will tell.  We gowned up and got on with the job.

All gowned up ready to scrub and paint

Rolling on the anti-foul. Despite the protective clothing I still had spots of paint all over my face.

While Bob was doing the sea cocks, I sanded the old flaky varnish off the cockpit table to get it back to the bare wood.  This took days so the 4 coats of varnish needed to refurbish the table will have to wait until we are back in the water (and I can count on 5 days of no rain).

Sanding the old varnish off the cockpit table

And so it goes.  The Marvelous Marlin Men are fixing the windlass and there are a few odds and ends left to do.  We are not killing ourselves ploughing through these chores so we may need to stay on the hard a few more days to finish everything.  Plus Mother Nature hasn’t been co-operating and the weather has turned nasty.

Mother Nature showing her stuff - the view from our aft cabin

Never mind, it was a treat to have a bit of a lie in and catch up on emails.

Back Home on Songster

We have been back aboard Songster for nearly three weeks now after our whirlwind eleven week European tour.  After her winter storage in the water, Songster was clean and dry inside. We unpacked her and have quickly gotten into the rhythm of marina life.

There is a small but socially active group of live aboards at the marina and we have activities to go to almost every day.  Monday is movie matinee, Tuesday is Mexican train dominoes, Thursday is quiz night and Friday is happy hour.  Then there are ad hoc conversations on the pontoons and shared meals in the workers canteen or marina restaurant.  Sometimes it seems our social life has become a veritable whirl of interaction.  When I think back to how infrequently we went out to social events when we lived in Canberra, I realise how profoundly our lives have changed with our itinerant peripatetic peregrinations and nomadic seafaring voyaging in retirement. (sorry, couldn’t help myself there...)

Mexican Trains Dominoes night

The big event that occurred while we were away was the demise of The One.  The One was a huge motor yacht that was berthed at the entrance to the marina, next to the hanger for the owner’s seaplane.  The yacht was notorious in the marina as the owner is currently in jail for, depending on which rumour you believe, tax evasion, fraud or disagreeing with the government.  One night in January, The One caught fire.  It was gutted and the smaller but still massive and expensive ($10 million) motor yacht next to it, Barbie, also caught fire and then sank.  See the Youtube of the incident. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IUBe9a-VTU

 

The One now sits forlornly by the lifting pool, a mere shadow of its former self and a massive salvage operation is still going on to bring Barbie up from the bottom.

The One, burnt but still floating

That white shadow is Barbie 

The crane, tug and barge for the salvage operation.  The white building on the left is the seaplane hanger.

The salvage barge, a bit rusty but does the job

The salvage team by the crane.  Check out the size of those anchors on the right.

 So life goes at the marina.  Soon we will be lifted out onto the hard and will have to stir ourselves from pontoon lassitude and social activities to do some hard yakka of boat chores and anti-fouling.

Songster on the pontoon

Marvellous Magnificent Madrid

Madrid for us was art and subways.  We could not find a hotel in our price range in the centre of Madrid but found a very nice business hotel in the suburb of San Blas.  This gave us the opportunity to explore the subterranean life of Madrid.  Madrid’s subway system is extensive and very good.  It is a whole other city underground.  I am sure that the entire population of Madrid could fit in the metro’s tunnels and walkways and I think we wandered through most of them.

Madrid metro system

When we surfaced from the underground world so magnificent buildings were before us.

Post Office building at night

Ministry of Agriculture building near the train station

Arch King Carlos III

The must see for me in Madrid was the Prado and see it we did.  We spent 7 hours walking through the galleries seeing the most amazing artwork.  It was heaven but exhausting.  There were works of Rubens, Francisco Goya, El Greco, Caravaggio, Titian, Diego Velázquez and so many more.  I especially liked the works of Jaoquin Sorolla and Carlos de Has, two artists which I was not previously familiar.  The signage was excellent throughout the museum so I learned so much.

Another day we went to the Royal Palace, another magnificent building filled with artwork.  The Royal Palace is the official residence of the King in Madrid but the family live in a more ‘modest’ palace on the outskirts of the city.  The Palace was built in the mid 18^th Century and contains over 3,400 rooms.  The public is allowed in perhaps 30 rooms and just that sample is overwhelming in its splendour.  The walls are covered in paintings of the masters and rare tapestries.  The ceilings are decorated in ornate and intricate frescos and plasterwork.  There is also an extensive 13 - 15^th Century Armoury that makes the one at the Wallace Collection look small.

the Royal Palace

Ceiling Frescoes and decorations

More ceilings

Close up of Armour

We also went to the Museum de Arte Reina Sofia.  I had missed out on the Picasso museum in Barcelona so wanted to see some of his work as well as Dali and Miro.  The Reina Sofia museum is certainly the place to see the work of these artists.  Modern art is not my favourite but these pieces were quite thought provoking.  There was Guernica, Picasso’s masterpiece on the Spanish Civil war and several very strange Dali’s.

The Enigma of Hitler

Imperial Monument to the Child Woman

Finally on our last day the weather cleared into a sunny, if crisp, day.  We took the opportunity to explore the Retiro Park and the Crystal Palace.  Retiro Park is a lovely public space on the eastern of central Madrid.  The Crystal Palace in the park had yet another art exhibit.  Inside this beautiful light and airy glass building were fossil bones of every shape and size hanging on bits of wire and tucked amongst these bones was a Jesus figure.  Interesting symbolism.

The Crystal Palace

Art installation - fossils and Jesus

So ended our visit to Madrid and our European Tour of 11 countries in 11 weeks.  Next stop back to Turkey and Songster.