This week’s chores were sooo exciting! (Can you hear the forced enthusiasm?)
We got to grips with The To Do List again – it’s a very long list – and this week we tackled:
Adding a 220 volt power outlet to the Princess Suite
Changing the O-rings in the side hatch handles
Cleaning the saloon seat cushions
We also had fun exploring the Roman temple ruins at Letoon and Baz found out how astringent olives are if you try and eat them straight off the tree!
What, no power?
When we bought A B Sea, we discovered that the Princess Suite was devoid of electrical outlets. Who designs a bedroom with nowhere to plug stuff in? How on earth are you supposed to watch movies in there at night time if you can’t power the monitor or laptop?
Well, for months now, we’ve been running a thick orange extension cord from the nav station forward to the Princess Suite. But it’s not an ideal solution. For one, it’s a tripping hazard. Plus aesthetically it leaves a lot to be desired, and if I want to work on my laptop at night but want to close the door I can’t as the cable is in the way.
So, Baz removed parts of the floor (sole in boatie terms), drilled a couple of holes, and ran a cable from the Princess Suite back to the nav station area. He mounted a new power brick on the shelf behind the monitor and now we can easily power the screen and laptop whenever we want. While he was at it, Baz also secured the power brick (that had been sitting on the saloon seating with wires running all over the place) on the base of the least used side of the settee. Now the whole place looks so much tidier. Good job Baz!
O-Rings and silicone spray
While we were cleaning the hatches we noticed that some of the O-rings on the hatch handles looked a bit squashed. Baz inspected one and it was very misshapen and so he ordered enough O-rings from Aydin the mechanic to replace all of them. Before replacing them, he sprayed them all with silicone spray, then changed out all of the old worn ones. Now the hatches will be that much more watertight than they were before.
Saloon cushions get a good scrub
I’ve been looking at the saloon cushions for a while now and noticed that they’ve become a little grubby. Well, a lot grubby in the places where we sit as I hadn’t given them a super clean when we bought A B Sea as they were very presentable but after a year they were in need of TLC. So I decided that while Baz had the sole of the boat up and a lot of the under seat storage open in the saloon, I’d make the most of the sunny weather and clean them all.
It wasn’t a hard job, just fairly long. I used mild soapy water as per Jeanneau’s instructions in the boat manual, and after a lot of gentle scrubbing with a non-scratch sponge, they looked as good as new.
Surprises at Letoon
This week’s YouTube video also screens our trip to UNESCO World Heritage Site, Letoon, which is a large complex of Roman Temples about one hour’s drive from Kaş, approached via narrow roads. There is a model of the excavations at the entrance and it costs just 10TL (AUD2.60) per person.
Half of the ubiquitous amphitheatre was cunningly carved out of the bedrock, with the second half of seating sculpted from the excavated rock taken from the first half. Whoever thought to do that was a genius. The temple area was quite large and was originally the centre of pagan cults dating back to as late as the 6th century BC. During Roman times the emperor Hadrian founded an emperor worship cult at the site. Nothing says I have power than “Worship me in a temple, I’m a god”. Around the 5th century AD when Lycia was ravaged by attacks from Arabs, the area began to silt up from Xanthos River sand, later being abandoned around the 7th century AD.
There are many Lycian and Roman ruins to be found in Turkey, but one of the aspects that impressed me at Letoon was evidence of the Lycian mother goddess – Leto - worship that was found dating back to the 6th century BC. In fact, matriarchal customs persisted over the centuries and could be seen in the fact that a woman was to preside over the annual Letoon national assembly.
Another surprise was a gaming checkerboard scratched into the steps of one of the temples, which brought a very personal feel to the place.
Baz took some great drone footage, and also managed to nearly take his face off with the drone’s blades when he got the controls back to front and the drone shot at him from hovering at head height from about a metre distance! Luckily he ducked in time and the drone came to a definite halt when it hit the wall behind. Crash #2 with no damage to either human or drone!
It was a cold day that day, and after we’d spent a good time exploring the ruins and imagining the past, we called it a day. As we walked back to the car Baz spied some ripe olives hanging from a tree. He pulled off a couple and offered me one.
“You don’t want to eat them straight from the tree,” I advised. “They’re very bitter.”
Baz took a bite anyway. His face said it all as the acrid bitterness registered on his taste buds!
“Ew!” he spat out the olive. “It’s really bitter!”
“Really?” I rolled my eyes. “They need processing before you eat them.”
We strolled on back to the car through a small orange grove that had large ripe oranges hanging, ready to be picked. However, not sure who the trees belonged to, we passed on by leaving them on the tree. When we got to the gate, the attendant beckoned to us back to the orange trees and we thought we were in trouble for walking through the grove. It turned out he just wanted to give us a gift! He plucked three big fat oranges off the tree and gave them to us, smiling broadly.
How kind! We left Letoon, once again reminded of how generous the Turks are.
