Marmaris Yacht Marina - last few days

08 October

At last time to go home and I did not think I would write any more on my blog as the last few days were only going to be about cleaning and clearing up jobs and who wants to know but..............

had a great evening on Sunday night at the end of Summer party where we possibly had a little too much wine but also lots of dancing (my husband (aka the Captain) in his enthusiasm to rock 'n roll faster than anyone, and believe me because of the average age of the other dancers they all knew how to rock 'n roll, managed to bruise my right hand quite badly - I thought he had broken my finger!).

When we took Sequel back to the UK in 2005 there were quite stringent safety rules in place (probably still are) and requirements for all sorts of safety equipment, including a life raft (of course).  Our life raft, in a bag of its own, was put at the bottom of a very deep locker at the stern of the boat and over the years has had many things placed on top of it, including the outboard motor.  We decided it was time to get the life raft out in order to free up some space (absolutely nothing to do with being able to use it in an emergency or that it should be checked every three years to make sure it works).  Anyway, could we get it out?  No way - we pulled as hard as we could; I got in the locker and tried to push from underneath and we managed to get it about half way up inside the locker - it is a deep locker. At one stage I panicked as I thought I was going to be stuck in there too.  And then in his attempts to pull the by now ******* thing out, the Captain decided to pull a rope which was poking out of the side of the bag - this rope was the 'painter' for the life raft.  This painter is used in an emergency and when the life raft is thrown overboard it is held on to and therefore when it is pulled it triggers off a gas cylinder which then inflates thee raft Another OMG moment.  The whole thing exploded in the locker - the Captain dashed down the side of the boat to get away from it and I rushed downstairs into the boat while the life raft proceeded to inflate inside the locker!  When we both reappeared to see the damage I am afraid to say I thought it was absolutely hilarious and fortunately the Captain did too.  No serious damage was done other than a bit of wood was splintered around the edge of the locker and we were then able to get it out and into a shopping trolley on the pontoon. Top of the shopping list for next year is a new life raft which can be placed in a basket of its own at the back of the boat and which will be easily accessible.

Sequel came out of the water yesterday and the only damage sustained in our last adventure was to the stabliliser on the port side which can fairly easily be repaired.  Since then we have been cleaning the boat - although I am not entirely sure why as we are in the middle of a massive yard which is absolutely filthy and with the winter rains and winds will soon become a muddy puddle - Peppa would love it.

Soon be home!