2nd February 1999 I hate the rain. Not that a little shower turns my mood, but 6 days of continuous heavy rain, hail and wind are just too much. The rain cover of AMBERELLA was ripped to pieces and once again I had water inside the boat. But this was a little worry compared to what happend to another sailor. In Göcek, a little town 30 km further north , the storm was stronger and broke the ropes of a his yacht and it was completely smashed while bashing for hours against the stone dock. The yacht lays now keelover on the street and one can look inside through the keel ...
Thomas and Michael's 14 days holiday are over and they return to Germany today. With their help AMBERELLA's galley is almost in shape and I have a little clue about the electrical system. It was really a great support from the two and I am very grateful for what they have done, while taking two weeks of their holidays, in order to help on the project AMBERELLA. If the weather would have been more fortunate we might have had a bit more opportunities to make it a real holiday, but I hope I have a chance to give back another time. Michael makes his own musical webpage and Thomas business is specialised in German web services.
We were able to almost finish the galley. If I hade not lost so many time with the turks promises for parts we would have been able to finish the job. Thomas could not finish all the electrical wiring because it took a long time to find the proper cables, parts and tools. But we made a big step forward and thats what counts in the end. So thanks Thomas and Michael!
27th January 1999 Another black day in "Paradise" I spent the whole day with shopping and searching for material. Again I was tricked by the Turkish when I wanted to buy a kitchen work surface for the boat. In a store the clerk told me, they would built to order any size and I could come with the measurements. So I made a duplicate in plywood and plotted the sink and the hatch for the fridge onto it. In the work shop they would built the work surface in Mermerit, a mixture of marble dust and polyester. It looks like marble, but is not as heavy and tough to break. After I could get myself understood it was said that everything is no problem! We would only go again to the boat in order to verify the measurements and in 10 days he would finish the job. On board we agreed to a price of 20 Million per square meter, so I was calculating a total of about 25 Million for my galleys surface. This means with today's inflation in Turkey about 75US$ which is already a big steak of money if one considers the standard of living in this country. (A normal worker in Turkey today gets about 200$ a month and a teacher is entitled to receive about 380$). When we went down to the workshop the master suddenly told me he could not make the surface as one piece, but had to prepare two little parts which had to be glued together, an idea I was not very fond of. (knowing turkish craftsmanship and glue;-)) He was also not able to grind the surface the way that the submersible handle for the hatch was still in plane. And he was suddenly asking 40 Million for the job and was not even prepared to trade at all. So I realised again that he was not up to the job and just wanted to get rid of me. I mucked around the whole day seeing a Turk making a total fool out of himself. Sometimes I ask myself "Why do I spent my time in this country"..and I think a webpage about my viewpoint of Turkey is due.
If I had my yacht in a normal country I would just go into a big Do-It-Yourself shopping centre take my VISA card and get the bloody parts, tools and materials which are needed. But no, I waste a lot of time and money here in Turkey and just can't understand the mentality of this people.
