As is often the case, life often seems to be doing the dance with 3 steps forward and 2 steps back and such was our overall experience this past week as we continue to make our way NW along the Turquoise Coast of Turkey. But always worth remembering that this is still one step forward in the positive direction so can’t complain.
Not too much in the way of Show & Tell this week so will be mercifully shorter than many of my “brevity challenged” norm, lucky you! But fortunately Christine has put together a very fun and informative video of our recently launched Tender Möbli so be sure to check that out below.
Let the dance begin!
One of many “steps forward” was our discovery of yet another little bay where we were able to be the only boat there. Christine is continuing to log more flight hours on our Mavic Air 2 drone and she was able to take some photos like this one that I’ll use to start of with a visual teat for you. This actually turned out to be more like 2 steps forward all at once as the 3 other boats that had been there when we first arrived pulled up their anchors and left the bay all to us. We added even a third step forward when Captain Christine found this little piece of paradise in the midst of the very large and very busy area around Göcek which you can find on this same map you saw in last week’s update. As you can see on the map, the large area around Göcek has a huge total coastline around the large bay that is a series of rocky indentations and bays everywhere. However, take one step back because as per this aerial view of one tiny part of Göcek, this is also is home to a large number of superyachts, charters and boats in general and boating season is in full swing here now so when we headed off in search of some little place to anchor without too many others around us, we didn’t have much luck for the fist few hours. But Christine kept moving us along and wanted to check out just one more little bay that looked like it could work well and as we rounded the point and could see inside we were delighted to see that there were only two other boats at anchor compared to the tens or hundreds in most other places. Serendipity and perseverance triumph once again!
Med Mooring at Anchor and Dock
Some of you might be thinking it is rather selfish of us to want a place all to ourselves, and we take your point but the other challenge with anchoring in Turkey and much of the Med is that the bottom stays very deep until just a few meters from shore when it rises rapidly to depths you can anchor in. BUT, this also means that you are dropping your anchor too close to shore two swing as the wind shifts and so the defacto practice here is to “Med Moore” where you drop your anchor and then back in towards shore and then take two long lines known as “shore fasts” off cleats on the stern of the boat and tie them to rocks ashore. Works very well as the boat can not swing but also means that as soon as one boat does this, no other boats can anchor nearby as they would swing when the Med Moored boat does not and the end result would not be good. Med Mooring is pretty much the universal way of docking throughout the whole Mediterranean, hence the name and is pretty much the only method of docking in marinas as well which is done as per this illustration. We are getting more and more practice at this and ends up working quite well, just requires more shore side assistance from the marina staff as they usually don’t want everyone dropping their anchors wherever they decide so instead all the marinas put in large lines that are permanently (we hope) attached to the bottom out in front of all the docks and when you come in the marineras come out in one of their RIBs and hands you one of these lines and you attach that to your bow and then back down till your stern is just a few feet away from the dock and they help you secure the two lines from the stern to shore. Med mooring is pretty new to us but we are getting more and more practice with every marina we dock at along the way and will need to learn to do so in many anchorages on the horizon. To do that we need to add some more “kit” to Möbius in the form of some reels with several hundred meters of line on them, some chain or webbing to attach to the rocks ashore and miscellaneous bits and bobs of hardware to create our shore fast equipment list which is sort of one step back but just what we need to do.
Love Me Tender
Christine has put together a real treat for all of you who have been asking for more videos and more information about our Tender Möbli. She has put together a very nicely done synopsis of the building and outfitting of our Tender which is just under 5 meters LOA with an inboard Yanmar 4JH4 HTE 110 HP diesel engine driving a Castoldi 224DD Direct Drive jet. In addition to the equivalent of being our “car” or more like an SUV if we were living ashore, we have also designed and built this to be our emergency backup in the unlikely event of loosing our main propulsion system and would enable us to use it like a mini tugboat to push or pull Möbius to safety ashore. Hope you enjoy this short and fun video, all thanks to my incredibly hard working and talented Bride.
A few steps back…..
When I left off in the previous post we had just arrived in Fethiye and anchored out in the relatively large harbour. Fethiye is a medium sized city along this coastline and we took advantage of this to get Christine’s knee looked at again. As I mentioned last week she had originally torn her meniscus way back in 2015 when our previous boat was up on the hard and was blown over when the 2nd most severe cyclone swept through where we were in Fiji. Since then it had seemed to have repaired itself as they often do but there have been two previous times when it has flared up in the years since and did so again quite out of the blue just before we left Finike a few weeks ago. Long story short it has gone somewhat bad to worse and so clearly we needed to make this our #1 priority and are doing that now as we make our way along the coast. She has now seen three different experts and the consensus seems to be that given the long history of this damage, the best course of action is to repair the tear via relatively straightforward anthropogenic surgery.
So this morning Christine travelled back to the hospital we have both used in the past with rapid and excellent results and has an appointment with the surgeon and other experts first thing tomorrow morning. I am therefore left with no adult supervision, Ruby and Barney don’t count and so at the risk of over sharing this illustration shows what a meniscus tear looks like which neither of us knew too much about previously.
That will provide us with the answers we need to put together our plan for the next few weeks and hopefully she will be able to get this all looked after within that time and be able to be back aboard the Good Ship Möbius where she can recover and be diligent with the what her doctors recommend for the best physio therapy for a rapid and complete healing and she hopefully regains full use of her knee. Will do my best not to bore you will all this or too many details but thought it best to be up front with all of you and just let you know this aspect of the dance steps we are waltzing to in our world of late.
The REAL Turkish Delight is called kahvaltı!
To end with a few dance steps forward this past week when we were anchored off of Fethiye for two nights and Christine went ashore to meet with the medical experts there, we took advantage of a lovely little restaurant on the shore right across from the hospital and enjoyed what is likely one of our last few Turkish breakfasts. Mobius is anchored a few hundred meters just outside this far left side of this photo and our inflatable kayak is in the water right in front of us. Both of us prefer savory over sweet by a wide margin and so the infamous Turkish Breakfasts which are called kahvaltı, are our version of what is the real Turkish Delight. Knowing we don’t have too many of these opportunities left before we leave Turkey in a few weeks so we took our time on this gorgeous morning to really savour this one. Several steps forward indeed! I’ll leave off on that high note and look forward to bringing you the next weekly update next Sunday to catch you up on what’s the latest in Möbius.World. Till then, thanks for taking the time to join us and please keep those questions and comments coming in the “Join the Discussion” box below.
We were underway all day yesterday in some rather boisterous weather so not able to put together this weekly update and get it out to you until today. We continue to climb the learning curve with this very unique boat but all is going well and we could not be happier to have finally thrown off those pesky dock lines and start our new adventures aboard the Good Ship Möbius.
What’s the Plan Stan?
As many of you know I life life on The No Plan Plan and have hopes and intents instead but in the coming weeks we will continue to make our way along the beautiful Turquoise Coast of Turkey which you can see in this map. Möbius was built at Naval Yachts in Antalya so that’s where the adventure began. Last July with our Granddaughters and family aboard we moved West to the marina in Finike where Möbius has been tied up most of the time since We took time to go fly over to North America for a much needed “Nauti Nomadic Grandparents Roadtrip” to visit family and friends in October and November. Since then and as per all the weekly blog updates since, we have been eXtremely busy checking off all the To Do list items to get Möbius fully sea worthy and ready for us to finally head back out to sea-ing this awemazing world of ours. Both Christine and I will admit to wondering at times if this day would ever come but finally, on Tuesday the 17th of May 2022 we threw off the dock lines and were “free at last” as we left Finike in our wake and our new adventures out sea-ing the world on our new floating home began. Our friends Matt and Cindy have also got their relatively new Amel sailboat in the Finke marina and they are recently returned from the US to get “Speed of Life” all ready for the sailing season and they kindly helped release the lines from the dock and give us a good send off. They also took some video of us leaving the dock and so here’s a look at that for you and our thanks to Matt and Cindy for taking and sending these videos.
One thing that is working eXtremely well is using the huge rudder and CPP prop to act as a big stern thruster. Very well shown in this video as you watch Möbius pull away from the dock, clear the bow lines on the boat to our Starboard/Right side and turn on a dime. I put the rudder over at 35-40 degrees (limit is 45) and then push the Pitch lever full ahead for a few seconds and then back to neutral. You can see the water being kicked up from this at the stern and then watch as the boat turns almost on its center point to make the 90 degree turn in this narrow waterway. As I get more and more used to this the bow thruster won’t be needed at all though always there to help out and for other uses as well. We designed the rudder to be very large and to be able to turn 45 degrees in both directions for this purpose so it is great to see it all work out so well in practice.
And with that, we were off!
Another thing we are eXtremely happy with is how well this hull slides through the water. In this shot of us leaving the marina we are doing 6.5 knots and not a wake to be seen. Thanks Dennis!
And so we were free at last but we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to spend our first anchorage alone in the beautiful little bay near Kekova where you may recall this shot and Christine’s drone video from this April 12th blog when our friends John and Genna were with us for a week. Kekova did not disappoint and we enjoyed two blissful nights on anchor with nothing but the sounds of water lapping on the hull, some birds overhead and some goats with bells on ashore. This is the small hilltop castle above the village of Kekova which we pass going in/out of the bay. How could we possibly pass up a chance for a few more days and nights on anchor here to more indelibly inscribe this amazing spot into our long term memory banks? I think it is going to take me at least quite a bit longer to make the transition from the multi year building stage to this new underway stage, but as you can see I’m working on it! All thanks to Captain Christine manning the Helm most of the time while I look after the boat and keeping everything working and well logged as we go. So far we have only used the Helm up in the SkyBridge as the views from there are truly spectacular and this has been working out very well. The removable acrylic sliding windows allow us to move and remove the side panes to suit the weather and right now it is still a bit chilly during squalls and early mornings so we have left in two of the four sliding panes on each side which allows us to get just the right amount of breeze coming in or kept out as conditions change. As the hotter summer weather arrives we will remove all but the front three panes for maximum airflow and cooling.
Timely Transition
In all seriousness though, it really is going to take me a good while longer to make this transition back into the live I and we both love SO much. The build officially started on the 6th of April 2018 and we had been in Antalya since the end of 2017 so we have been landlubbers for over four years and that along with all the stress and strain of the build process has taken its toll on both of us. Our choice of Turkey and Antalya to build Möbius turned out to be even better than we had hoped and especially when you consider the safe haven this provided for us as we lived through the past few years of Covid on top of it all. We therefore begin our meandering exit out of Turkey with the fondest of memories, a fabulous new home and that bittersweet combination of melancholy to be leaving and excitement of getting back to life afloat.
Truth be told though we are also both exhausted mentally and physically. You know that feeling when you finally finish a big job and sit down for a quick breather and it hits you; “Oh! I didn’t realise I was THAT tired!”? Some supersized version of that is what I’ve been feeling these past few days after leaving Finike. Christine has her own similar but unique version as we both become more and more aware of the need to breath deeply and take our time settling into what in some ways is our very familiar past life and yet at the same time, our all together new life.
The Latest Voyage Begins
You can follow along on the map up above and here again, to see how we are taking our time to coastal hop our way along this beautiful Turquoise Coast. After putting Kekova in our wake we made the next short 20 NM or so hop West to Kaş. Our annual contract with Setur Marinas has a feature that we are now going to take full advantage of which is that we get to stay for up to 30 nights on any of the other 10 Setur marinas between Antalya and Istanbul! So we sailed into the lovely Setur Marina in Kaş and spent two nights there. We enjoyed three nights tucked in between these other boats which will give you a good sense of the diversity of boats that are in this area.
Unfortunately Christine twisted her knee last week and it has been getting worse so we rented a car and drove back down to the hospital in Kamlucha the town beside Finike and where we have been before. Their MRI machine was being serviced but they did a preliminary exam and prescribed some anti inflammatory to help reduce the swelling and those have been helping. We will go to the next big hospital for a full MRI scan at our next stop in Fethiye.
The Newest Member of Möbius.World Fleet
As you may recall reading last week, our Davit Arch is not working so we are unable to launch and retrieve our Tender Möbli and so we bought this newest member of the Möbius.World fleet. We actually have another inflatable 2 person kayak onboard which we had aboard our previous boat sv Learnativity, but alas when Christine when to pump it up the seams on the floor had all let go and and are beyond a simple regluing. We will order a new one from Advanced Elements but we will have to figure out how to get to us as we are “of no fixed address” once again.
For now though, this new kayak will work fine for short trips ashore when we are on anchor. Not sure on a name for the newest kayak yet though I’m thinking “Klein” because if you turn a 2D Möbius strip into 3D it becomes what is known as a Klein vessel or bottle. Let me know your thoughts on this and other names for our newest floating member of the family.
Testing, Testing ………
We now had about 100 nautical miles under Möbius’ keel with our various short test runs and trips since launching last year and all of these have been in very benign conditions so we wanted to push Möbius, and ourselves, a little bit harder. Weather forecast for Sunday the 22nd called for some thunderstorms and a bit of wind so we decided to make the longer run, about 60nm from Kas to Fethiye. We left Kaş marina in beautiful sunny morning weather but a few hours later as we were making our way along the coast the skies turned dark and stormy with winds gusting over 35 knots with about 1 meter seas. Both of those on the nose of course! So we got a bit more than we had bargained for but did provide us with the kind of testing and different conditions we wanted. Mr. Gee purred along for the next 8+ hours without a hiccup or complaint and we probably averaged about 7.5 knots overall. I was surprised at how much wind affected our speed which would reduce our speed up to one knot when against us and add about the same when from behind. We are in eXtremely lightships trim with only about 500 of the 17,000 liters in our tanks and I have not make our paravanes yet and so in the confused seas we experienced, when the swells came at us on the Port beam/Left side they rolled our smooth rounded hull much the same as our previous sailboat. However Möbius handled it all in stride and really did help us get much more of a feel for the way this new hull performs. It will be a completely different ride once we have full fuel tanks and paravanes in the water! With that experience under our keels we can now go back to the much more common calm sea and weather conditions for the remainder of our cruising up the Turquoise coast towards Istanbul. As Christine noted though, “getting those paravanes installed just moved up my priority list quite a few notches”!
We checked out one potential place to anchor on the way up as there were some squalls breeding up ahead, but we didn’t like the looks of it so we just continued back along the coast and made it safely into the very protected harbour here in Fethiye. Total trip time from Kaş to Fethiye was exactly 8 hours and was a good test for both Möbius and ourselves. We have anchored here in Fethiye harbour on a boat we were delivering back in 2017 and it is a very protected and large bay with good sandy bottom throughout at about 2-4 meters / 6-15 ft.
The rain and winds had started to die down as we approached Fethiye and put the anchor down and Mother Nature treated us to a HUGE rainbow, which was so stunning I forgot to take any pictures! This one taken a few hours ago will have to do. We enjoyed a peaceful night on the hook with yet another castle on the hills above us to admire for our breakfast up in the SkyBridge. I have just taken Christine ashore in the maiden voyage of our new kayak and she is now getting the MRI and other examination of her left leg looked after. I’m back onboard catching up to this overdue blog update and then tackle of few more of the ever present ToDo list items while I await her call to paddle back and pick her up. This is how we will continue for our last few weeks in Turkish waters before we check out and head over to Greece where we are VERY excited to be meeting Lia, Brian and our two Granddaughters Brynn and Blair when they land in Athens. Can’t wait for more time and experiences with that whole crew and we will need to take it slow and rest up between now and then to have enough energy to keep up with our two young crewmembers.
Thanks for joining us as we set of on this latest of life’s adventures and please continue to add all your comments and questions in the “Join the Discussion” box below.
A day late in getting out this weekly update and I will keep it short but it has been both a very busy and successful week as we get closer and closer to our “throw off the dock lines” day. Lots and lots of jobs on the “Must be done before departure” list have been getting checked off and if all goes well today we hope to leave tomorrow!
Christine has been busy with electronics and computer related jobs onboard getting all six of our monitors working properly with the Upper and Lower Helm computers, getting internet connectivity sorted out for when we are underway and going up the coast of Turkey towards Marmaris and just playing that always fun version of Whack-a-Mole as each new “Mole” pops up. I’ve been busy getting the Tender and the Davit system ready to launch and yesterday we both worked on bringing 500kg/1100lbs of lead pellets aboard that are now safely ensconced inside the watertight coffer dams on either side which are there for the potential future addition of active stabilizers. But I’m getting ahead of myself so let’s jump in with a quick Show & Tell of what all we’ve been working on this past week.
Our workload has been reduced a bit with the addition of a new member of Möbius’ Crew, this little turtle who is one of many we regularly see around Möbius and inside the Finike marina. Turns out he just LOVES eating the green grassy growth that is already starting to appear along our black boot stripe and is a real pain to scrub off. As you may recall we hauled out a few weeks ago and gave our InterSleek “Foul Release” silicone based bottom paint a close inspection and found it to be just fabulous with almost no growth at all after almost a full year in the water with very little movement. However the black boot stripe above the bottom paint and waterline is a different story and this area which is kept constantly wet as the water moves up and down the hull a bit and is getting lots of sunshine all day long is the perfect garden for the “green slime” and grass like plants that grow here. No big deal for the boat really, just annoying and so we were delighted to find that we now had this new crewmember who likes nothing more than to munch away on the grass. Thanks buddy, we can use all the help we can get. Not sure about getting his visa for leaving Finike and Turkey but we’ll see.
Loading Lead
As I mentioned earlier I got a good workout yesterday carrying 500 kg of these tiny lead pellets which we had purchased last year and have been sitting in a Bulk Bag on the dock behind Möbius. Christine worked on the dock to transfer about 40kg/88lbs of pellets into thick plastic bags that were then double bagged inside some heavy duty bulk bags which I then carried onto Möbius and down into the Basement under the SuperSalon. I had previously unbolted and removed the watertight cover plates over the two coffer dams on either side about midship on the hull which we had built just in case we decide in the future to add active stabilizers, most likely Magnus Effect type to help reduce roll more than our paravanes do. For now though, these watertight compartments made the ideal spot to put these lead pellets and improve the comfort of the ride by slowing down our otherwise “snappy” roll resistance. Working with Dennis our NA, we set up one of the design criteria for the hull to have a roll period that would have slightly less than the theoretically ideal roll period which is the time a ship takes from upright position to going to a particular angle on port side and then going to a angle on starboard side and then again returning back to upright position (zero list position) during natural rolling. We did this way so that we could dial in the Goldilocks roll period after the boat was built and fully loaded up to our actual weight/displacement. A shorter or faster roll rate provides more safety of returning the boat to upright but this faster or “snappier” motion can induce some nausea for some people and make crossings in rolly conditions less comfortable for the crew. Slowing down the roll is relatively easy to do by adding some weight/ballast that is further outboard and higher up than the centerline ballast, whereas speeding it up is very difficult once the boat is built. Hence we purposely went for a slightly faster roll period in the hull design knowing that we can then add some lead in the best locations once we have the boat in the water and in her natural trim and weight. So we will now operate Möbius with this additional 500kg of lead in the coffer dams which puts it well outboard of center and a bit higher up at just below the waterline, and se how this slightly slower roll rate feels and works for us. If we want to make further adjustments either way we can either remove or add more lead.
Being in small pellet form makes it easy to fill any size and shape spot we want and we are keeping them in these double bags for now so we can change if needed. Once we think we have the ballast and roll period at the just right, just for us Goldilocks point, then I will remove remove the bags of lead pellets, coat the aluminium with epoxy resin and then pour the lead pellets back into these spaces. Then I will pour some thickened epoxy over the top surface to fully encase the lead with the hull and keep it fully sealed to prevent any water from mixing with it which could set up some dissimilar metal corrosion.
As you might imagine this was a job that we were both very happy to check off the list and while we were certainly pooped at the end of the day we had big smiles on our faces and treated ourself to a “date night” of sorts and went out for dinner at the little café here in the marina.
Finishing the Tender Console
The other much larger job that got checked off the ToDo list this week was getting our tender we’ve named Möbli launched off the Aft Deck and into the water for the first time.
I spent the first few days of last week finishing up the last of the wiring that connects the Yanmar 4JH4 HTE 110HP engine to the Castoldi 224DD jet drive and the control panel and gauges for both in the center console. This Yanmar/Castoldi combination is a purposely matched pair and the two companies created a very complete kit package that provided all the custom wiring harnesses to plug into both the engine and the jet drive and connect these into the supplied instrument panel that is now mounted in the console. Most of these connections were done with very high quality quick connect watertight fittings but there were a few wires that I needed to look after to connect to the 12V AGM battery. A bit time consuming but not too difficult and this is how it looks so far. I’m very happy with how this has turned out so far and will work on getting the Standard Horizon VHF and Vesper AIS wired up after we launch and test Möbli out.
Fueling up
One more detail was to install the fuel filler cap in the cover of the 80 liter fuel tank up in the bow. I had previously installed the rubber fuel lines that run under the floor and back to the Yanmar so now I just needed to remove the cover plate, drill the hole for the filler cap and bolt that back down. Put in 15 liters of diesel for now and she should now be ready to start up for the first time.
Möbli Launches!
First though, we need to get Möbli into the water so there is sea water supply for the engine’s heat exchangers for engine oil and fresh water coolant and for the wet exhaust system.
Most of you will have seen in some previous updates a few weeks ago that I had all the rigging for raising and lowering the Tender inside the Davit Arch as well as rotating the Arch itself to launch the Tender over the Port side. A pair of triple blocks provide a 6:1 mechanical advantage for the Tender Lifting lines that go to the winch you see here on the vertical leg of the Davit Arch. Inside the Tender at each corner there is a welded in attachment point where the Lift Line snaps into. Then there is a separate set of rigging that controls the pivoting of the Arch itself so that it moves the Tender sideways off the deck clear of the rub rails and then the Lift Lines are let out to lower the Tender down into the water. This Pivot Control Line of PCL leads through 3 blocks and then over to the bit Lewmar 65 electric winch which allows you to rotate the Arch out and back in. With that all hooked up it was launch time and little Möbli was soon testing out the waters beside Möbius. She sits pretty much right on the waterline predicted in the 3D model which was good to confirm and put the exhaust pipe a bit more than 150mm above the water. I could then hop in and start it up and was delighted when the Yanmar fired up at the first touch of the start button. Must have been taking lessons from Mr. Gee!
So an eXtremely big milestone for us and puts us in position to head out to sea in the next few days. Of course these are boats and so there are always those pesky little Moles that pop up and need to be whacked down. Two popped up with the Tender; there is a small pinhole leak where the Castoldi bolts up to the bottom of the hull and then the larger issue is some problems with the Davit Arch setup that will take more time to “whack” down. The leak is very minor and slow but to be safe I didn’t want to take it out for a test run but I was able to run the engine for about 20 minutes and test out the steering and bucket controls on the jet drive while Möbli was tied up to Möbius and get the oil and coolant up to operating temperature. All of that checked out perfectly; ran well, oil pressure and temperature were right one, steering and bucket control which is how a jet drive directs the thrust of the jet to move the boat forward, reverse and sideways. So VERY pleased with how the Tender turned out and can’t wait for that first test drive which will hopefully be in a few weeks.
For now though, the Tender is back in the chocks on the Aft Deck and all lashed down and covered ready for us to head out to sea.
Christine is working on a video collage of building and launching the Tender so watch for that to go live here in the next few days.
We still have a few small jobs to get done but right now it is looking good that we will be able to finally throw off those dock lines some time tomorrow and leave Finike in our wake as we start working our way up the Turquoise coast towards Marmaris. As usual we are on The No Plan Plan so we will take our time and enjoy stopping wherever calls our name as we motor up this beautiful coastline. We think we will use Marmaris as our jumping off point to check out of Turkey and head over the explore some of the Greek islands in June. Then we have our two granddaughters, with their pesky parents who seem to insist on coming along (just kidding Lia & Brian!) flying in to spend most of the month of July with us so that’s the ultimate prize that is driving us forward from here and a BIG part of what we have build Möbius for so we can’t wait for their return to join us aboard and make more memories together as we explore Greece and perhaps Italy.
As always, thanks for taking time to join us here and please keep those comments and questions coming by typing them into the “Join the Discussion” box below and with luck I’ll be sending the next update from some beautiful anchorage between here and Marmaris.
First and foremost my best and biggest wishes to all the Moms out there! Every day should be Mother’s Day in my opinion so I hope this is just an extra special day for all of you extra special people.
The past week has been filled with a litany of little jobs for the most part and nothing too visual to show you so I’ll keep this short so as not to take up much time on Mother’s Day or better yet, don’t bother reading till later this week.
Christine and I are inching closer and closer to the day when we finally throw off the dock lines here at Setur Marina in Finike and begin our adventures making our way up the Turkish coast a bit and then start making our way West across the Med this summer. If all goes well we hope to take off in about two weeks as we whittle the To List down more each day. Thanks to the help of the great people at Electrodyne and WakeSpeed I think we have found the causes of the one alternator and regulator that are not working properly and have the new parts being put together to be shipped out next week. With us about to become “moving targets” with no fixed address I will need to figure out how and where best to get these parts delivered to us but after so many years out sailing the world this is a very common problem for us and we always manage to find a way to get boat parts and boat united.
One of the big things I need to get done before we take off is getting our Tender “Mobli” finished and running and also be able to test out launching and retrieving him with our Davit Arch system. So in addition to working on some of the remaining To Do items such as tracking down some new gremlins in our Shore Power setup, I have been trying to stay focused on getting Mobli finished. Last week you saw me finish installing the wet exhaust system and I’m waiting the arrival of two more hose clamps to finish that completely and that leaves just the electrical wiring to be fully completed. So as per the title, wiring was the focus this week. Christine has been my trusted parts finder and delivery person tracking down the parts and supplies I need to complete the work on the Tender. She has taking taking full advantage of her fabulous new eBike to pick up parts available here in our little town of Finike or take the 2 hour bus ride down to the big city of Antalya to bring back parts from there. One of those items was a 12 volt AGM battery and battery box which I now have solidly mounted on this shelf I created using some leftover composite grid that we used for the flooring in the ER, Workshop and Forepeak.
I had several of these large Red Battery Switches from Blue Sea left over from building Möbius and so I installed two of these. that This under seat area is easy to access, fully protected, easy to lock up and keeps the weight well centered so this seemed like the best location for the battery. I installed the second battery switch in the Engine Bay on the opposite side of the AL bulkhead under the seat. This isn’t really necessary but provides a very secure anti-theft device when turned off and the Engine Bed lid is locked. We would not likely need to use it very often so it will just be left on most of the time but will be good to have if we ever need to leave the Tender ashore for long periods of times or we are unsure of the security ashore. The primary 12V positive 1/0 size Red cable goes from this switch under the Yanmar engine and connects directly to …. … this stud on the starter solenoid. A bit tight to get to but it is now on and well tightened. The other smaller Red AWG 8 gauge cable comes off the same switch and goes back to the jet drive along with the other wiring for the jet drive and the two Black hydraulic hoses for steering the jet drive. The steering is also hydraulic but is manually powered by turning the steering wheel. The hydraulic pump that raises and lowers the jet drive’s bucket is electric so that Red cable goes to this 50 Amp breaker which feeds power to the pump behind it. There is also the same size Black negative cable that runs from the engine ground to the bronze stud you can see in the center of this shot. Some nylon zip ties help keep all the wiring and hydraulic hoses in place and well protected and with that the wiring inside the Engine Bay is now pretty much complete. Just need to add engine oil, coolant and hydraulic fluid and this should be ready to fire up as soon as we launch the Tender and have it in the water needed for the wet exhaust and heat exchangers. Next week I will move back to the console to finish connecting the Castoldi jet drive wire harness to the Yanmar harness. That leaves me with these 8 wires that connect to the ignition and starter switches and the bucket position gauge which I hope to get done next week. Depending on if I get the remaining parts in time and finish all the wiring, we may be able to launch Mobli over the side next week and fire him up so be sure to tune in again next week to see all that. Thanks as always for joining us again this week and be sure to leave your questions and comments in the “Join the Discussion” box below. They are all VERY much appreciated!
Now, let’s all get back to reminding all the Moms in our lives how awemazing they are!
Another week and another month fly by in a flash it seems but we are making good progress and cutting the dock lines from here in beautiful sunny Finike Marina is getting closer with each passing day. This week also felt like summer is definately on its way with day time temp yesterday getting up to a new high of 29C/84F so we tropical birds are loving this change.
Nothing too visually exciting for this week’s Show & Tell update unfortunately but I’ll do my best to get you caught up on what all we did get done this past week of April 25-30, 2022.
Decks are Done!
One of the larger jobs that we are very thankful to have finished is that the team from Naval finished redoing all the TreadMaster on all our decks.
Despite being very high quality, the West Systems epoxy that was used to affix all the sheets of TreadMaster to the AL decks had not adhered to the AL very well so it has become both an eyesore and a tripping danger. They carefully removed each panel of TM, sanded the AL down, applied Bostik Primer and then Bostik adhesive and glued them all back down with rollers.
Apologies for not having any photos of the completed decks but you get the idea.
Charging Issues
When my friend John was here two weeks ago we finished setting up and configuring the two WakeSpeed 500 regulators which control the two Electrodyne 250 Amp @ 24V alternators.
This upper Electrodyne is powered off of Mr. Gee’s crankshaft with a toothed “timing” belt.
The six large red cables carry the AC current from each alternator over to the Electrodyne Rectifiers which are mounted outside of the ER. Difficult to photograph this drive system I designed so this rendering of my CAD models will show it much better. Crankshaft pulley is at the bottom, sea water pump on the left and Electrodyne in the upper right. Works out eXtremely well as there is zero chance of any slippage of these toothed belts and I put in a spring loaded idler pulley (not shown in this render) which keeps the tension just right all the time. Also difficult to photograph now all the floors are in the Engine Room, the lower Electrodyne is powered directly off of the PTO or Power Take Off that is on the lower left side of Mr. Gee. An eXtremely robust and almost maintenance free setup as well. This older photo when Mr. Gee was up in the air shows how this PTO drive works. I went with these massively large and strong Electrodyne alternators in large part because they use an external Rectifier which is what you see here. The diodes in the rectifier are where the majority of the heat comes from in an alternator and heat is the enemy of electrical efficiency so keeping them out of the alternator and out of the ER really helps to increase the lifespan and efficiency of the whole charging system. Each Rectifier is then connected to one of the WakeSpeed 500 Smart Regulators and each WS500 is interconnected with the white Ethernet cable you see here.
Connecting these two WS500’s is a big part of what makes them deservedly called “smart” because they then automatically figure out how to perfectly balance the charging from each alternator which can otherwise be quite difficult and prone to errors. However, the biggest reason these WS500’s are the first truly ‘Smart’ regulators is because they use both Voltage AND Amperage do monitor the batteries and adjust the alternators to produce the just right amount of charging. With everything all wired up we started up Mr. Gee and after the initial ramp up time we were soon seeing about 220 Amps going into the 1800 Ah House Battery which was a joy to see.
Having two of these Electrodyne 250Ah alternators give us the potential for up to 12kW of electrical charging so in a way we actually do have a “generator” onboard. Unfortunately we soon noticed that some of the 24V circuit breakers were tripping when these alternators were running and I’ve spent the past few weeks trying to figure out what was causing that. Thanks to exemplary help from both Dale at Electrodyne and Neil at WakeSpeed, both of whom have been fabulous to work with from the very beginning, I was eventually able to track down the problem to an incorrectly installed aluminium bar that was used to fasten the two halves of the Electrodyne Rectifiers. One end of this AL flat bar was touching one of the AL L-brackets that hold the studs and diode in the Rectifier. Once found the fix was pretty quick and easy.
However somewhere along the way one of the WS500’s stopped working so I am now working with Neil to sort that out. In the meantime we have up to 250Ah charging capacity from the one working Electrodyne/WS500 combo and with all the solar power we have coming out of our 14 solar panels, we have no need for any of it most of the time.
Exhausting work on Tender Mobli
Most of my time this week was spent finishing off the installation of the Yanmar 4JH4 HTE 110HP engine and Castoldi 224DD jet drive in our Tender that we have named “Mobli”.
Similar to Mr. Gee and most marine engines, the Yanmar uses a wet exhaust where sea water is injected into the exhaust gas after it exits the turbocharger. This water dramatically drops the temperature of the exhaust gasses so you can use rubber and fiberglass exhaust hoses to carry the gases and water out of the boat. You can see the primary components I’m using to build the exhaust system in the photo below; water injection elbow on the Yanmar on the far Left with the Black rubber exhaust hose with the yellow stripe to carry the exhaust gas and water down to the cylindrical water muffler in the upper left. I will use the two white RFP 90 degree elbows to carry the water/gas up and out of the boat through the 76mm/3” AL pipe on the right. Like this. I am waiting for more of the SS hose clamps to arrive but this is what the finished setup will look like. Will need to fabricate and install a bracket to hold the muffler in place as well and that will complete the exhaust system.
Hard to see (click to expand any photo) but I was also able to install the black rubber hose that you see running parallel to the left of the exhaust hose and muffler. This carries the cooling sea water from the housing of the Castoldi Jet drive up to the intake on the sea water pump on the left side of the Yanmar.
Last major job to complete the installation of the Yanmar/Castoldi propulsion system is the mounting of the battery and its cables to both the jet drive and the engine and I hope to get that done this coming week. That’s how I spent my last week of April 2022 and hope yours was equally productive.
Thanks for taking the time to follow along, always encouraging to know you are all out there and along for the ride with Christine and me. Thanks in advance for typing any and all comments and questions in the “Join the Discussion” box below and hope you will join us again next week as we get May off to a good start.
One of many “steps forward” was our discovery of yet another little bay where we were able to be the only boat there. Christine is continuing to log more flight hours on our Mavic Air 2 drone and she was able to take some photos like this one that I’ll use to start of with a visual teat for you. This actually turned out to be more like 2 steps forward all at once as the 3 other boats that had been there when we first arrived pulled up their anchors and left the bay all to us.
We added even a third step forward when Captain Christine found this little piece of paradise in the midst of the very large and very busy area around Göcek which you can find on this same map you saw in last week’s update. As you can see on the map, the large area around Göcek has a huge total coastline around the large bay that is a series of rocky indentations and bays everywhere.
However, take one step back because as per this aerial view of one tiny part of Göcek, this is also is home to a large number of superyachts, charters and boats in general and boating season is in full swing here now so when we headed off in search of some little place to anchor without too many others around us, we didn’t have much luck for the fist few hours. But Christine kept moving us along and wanted to check out just one more little bay that looked like it could work well and as we rounded the point and could see inside we were delighted to see that there were only two other boats at anchor compared to the tens or hundreds in most other places. Serendipity and perseverance triumph once again!
Some of you might be thinking it is rather selfish of us to want a place all to ourselves, and we take your point but the other challenge with anchoring in Turkey and much of the Med is that the bottom stays very deep until just a few meters from shore when it rises rapidly to depths you can anchor in. BUT, this also means that you are dropping your anchor too close to shore two swing as the wind shifts and so the defacto practice here is to “Med Moore” where you drop your anchor and then back in towards shore and then take two long lines known as “shore fasts” off cleats on the stern of the boat and tie them to rocks ashore. Works very well as the boat can not swing but also means that as soon as one boat does this, no other boats can anchor nearby as they would swing when the Med Moored boat does not and the end result would not be good. 
Med Mooring is pretty much the universal way of docking throughout the whole Mediterranean, hence the name and is pretty much the only method of docking in marinas as well which is done as per this illustration. We are getting more and more practice at this and ends up working quite well, just requires more shore side assistance from the marina staff as they usually don’t want everyone dropping their anchors wherever they decide so instead all the marinas put in large lines that are permanently (we hope) attached to the bottom out in front of all the docks and when you come in the marineras come out in one of their RIBs and hands you one of these lines and you attach that to your bow and then back down till your stern is just a few feet away from the dock and they help you secure the two lines from the stern to shore.
So this morning Christine travelled back to the hospital we have both used in the past with rapid and excellent results and has an appointment with the surgeon and other experts first thing tomorrow morning. I am therefore left with no adult supervision, Ruby and Barney don’t count and so at the risk of over sharing this illustration shows what a meniscus tear looks like which neither of us knew too much about previously.
To end with a few dance steps forward this past week when we were anchored off of Fethiye for two nights and Christine went ashore to meet with the medical experts there, we took advantage of a lovely little restaurant on the shore right across from the hospital and enjoyed what is likely one of our last few Turkish breakfasts. Mobius is anchored a few hundred meters just outside this far left side of this photo and our inflatable kayak is in the water right in front of us.
Both of us prefer savory over sweet by a wide margin and so the infamous Turkish Breakfasts which are called kahvaltı, are our version of what is the real Turkish Delight. Knowing we don’t have too many of these opportunities left before we leave Turkey in a few weeks so we took our time on this gorgeous morning to really savour this one. Several steps forward indeed!
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