Moving is the theme for this week, and more next week all of which is a VERY good thing!  Albeit eXtremely short trips, literally a couple of hundred yards each, they still represent movement both progress wise and boat wise so it is all good.  When I left you last week we had just moved onto one of the many brand new concrete docks not far from the infamous “end wall” dock inside the Free Zone Harbour where we have tied up several times in the past few months since we splashed on Feb. 20th but they had another big cargo ship coming into the port here so all of us tied up on the end wall needed to move to other locations so the Big Guys could come and go.  I’ll show you more of that in a moment. 

The other even more eXciting moves, yes plural, are hopefullly happening this coming week.  On Tuesday we will be moving Möbius out of the Free Zone harbour for the last time and taking her around the corner to Setur Marina where she will officially begin her life as XPM78-01 Möbius.  Not sure how long we will be there, basically as long as it takes for Christine and I to get her fully seaworthy and ready to cut the dock lines and head out to sea.  I will chronicle all of that here in future weekly Progress Updates so you will get to see what all is involved as it happens. 

But WAIT!  There’s MORE!!!  What could possibly top having Möbius start her own life with us?  Easy, because the other big “move” which I am even more eXcited about is that my Beautiful Bride, aka Captain Christine flies back into my arms on Thursday night!  She’s been away in Florida having a whirlwind of a time with all her family and friends back there in the Fort Lauderdale area and especially enjoying her much needed Gramma time with our grandson Liam.  So it’s been great for her to get away from this non-stop boat work, and even more so jettison out of “Wayne’s World” for two weeks but I miss her terribly and can’t wait to meet her coming out the exit doors at AYT, Antalya Intnl Airport on Thursday.

And as you can see, I’m not the only one who has been missing the Captain.

For those who may not have met them yet, Ruby the Wonderdog is the mass of Black curls on the Left and Barney, aka The Barnes, our Yorkshire Terror at her side.  Other than the past 3 years while we’ve been dirt dwellers during the build of Möbius, both of these guys have spent all their lives on boats, and a fair number of planes, trains and automobiles.  14 years worth for Ruby and 9 for Barney so they have a LOT of miles under their paws and more to come soon.

So it is easy to see why “moving” is the theme this week and next and now let’s move on to Showing & Telling you more about all the moves and other progress here on the Good Ship Möbius during the week that was April 19-23, 2021.

Commissioning Continues

As with most posts for the past two months, the primary activity aboard Möbius is the commissioning of all the many bits of kit that make up our many systems. 
Not too eXciting to watch quite frankly but eXtremely important to do and get everything right, working and tested.  Sometimes we do this virtually, with the technician from the manufacturer coming aboard via the internet and truly eXciting scenes like this one!
Ismail, our electrician, and I are talking with Alex from Victron who is in his office in Istanbul and we have him patched in via a shared desktop on my laptop on the Left which is in turn connected by ethernet cable to the Victron network aboard Möbius, and via WhatsApp on my smaller computer for text and voice. 
Together we are able to run and test all the Victron equipment such as the 5 MultiPlus Inverter/Chargers, Isolation Transformer, MPPT controllers and so on.  Took us about 5 hours but we were able to get everything configured and they are now all good to go.

Similar virtual commissioning going on with our Kabola KB45 diesel boiler, though it was not so cooperative and we still have more to do to finish the commissioning and testing so we can finally have hot water aboard!
Part of the remaining work with the Kabola is getting this Grundfos Alpha2 circulation pump installed, filled with antifreeze solution and bled.  This circulates the hot water for one of the heat exchangers which transfer their heat to our domestic hot water.
Commissioning also often involves some good Houdini skills such as Ismail up on top is demonstrating as they try to get the Kabola lifted up and put into it AL frame bolted to the Workshop shelf it lives on.

Mr. Gee gits ‘er dun!

While he is ailing and I have not had a spare moment to investigate the cause of his sudden loss of oil pressure on the first sea trials a few weeks ago, Mr. Gee was able to power the move here within the Free Zone harbour with no problem. 

This was Mr. Gee’s oil pressure at start-up, right around 30 PSI, which for a Gardner is not much below the 38 PSI he normally runs at, however as the oil warms up it drops down to around 20 PSI so there is definately something very wrong that I need to get to the bottom of as soon as we are over in Setur Marina and I can make the time to start digging into the source of the problem. 
Unfortunately I am relatively certain that I know what the problem is and it is not good news nor a quick fix.   But I will leave all that  until I have time to find out for sure what’s going on which means a significant dismantling I’m sure.  Stay tuned for more on all that starting next week.

New Neighbors and Neighborhood

You may recall seeing this birds eye view from the last move we did from Setur over to the Free Zone harbour and this aerial view of the Free Zone Harbour on the bottom Left and Setur Marina on the bottom Right will give you a bester sense of the move this week. 

Last week were at position #1 on the End Dock Wall and this week we are now back over at position #2 where we were about a month ago.

Next week’s move has us going from #2 over to #3 in Setur although we don’t know just where we will be in Setur just yet.
We are Med Moored in our new home this week, which means there are lines off our Bow as you can see here, which extend out to a massive weight at the bottom of the harbour with all these lines firmly attached.  On your way in, you pick up the float that is on the end of one of these lines and bring it aboard while you back down with your stern to the dock.
Like this.  It takes a bit of getting used to this style of docking but the key advantage, at least to the marina, is that each boat only takes up its width on the dock rather than its length if you were to be side tied.  So you can have a LOT more boats docked on any given length of dock.  This is the norm in the Mediterranean and hence the name Med Mooring.
If you look closely at the bottom of this photo you will see how we are able to use our swim ladder for a passerelle or “gang plank” for getting on/off the boat.  You can’t really see it but there are massive black rubber fenders or bumpers all along the edge of the concrete dock and that’s what the end of the now horizontal swim ladder rests on.  Works well and makes getting on/off the boat quite quick and easy.
This is our new Starboard side neighbor, a brand new Bering 77 “Veronika” which just launched.  There was some good press coverage of the launch that you can see HERE if you’re interested in knowing more.
If this boat looks vaguely familiar, there is a good reason for that as you saw this boat two weeks ago when I was showing you the “Launch Fest” going on here when the new 560 Ton TraveLift started working after more then 4 months with no launching capabilities here.
Based on hull length, Veronika is just one foot less than Möbius at 78 feet, however these shots are a great example of how length of any boat tells you so very little about the boat itself or provides any real comparison.  This is a much more traditional “Trawler” and so you can perhaps understand why I hesitate when people ask me if an XPM such as our XPM78-01 Möbius is a Trawler?

For a quick comparison, Veronika’s basic measurements first followed by those of Möbius:

• Displacement:     165 metric tons vs Möbius’ 45
• Beam:                    7.3m/24 ft vs 5.0m/16.4 ft
• Cruise Speed:       8 kts vs 10-11 kts
• Range:                    4000nm vs 8000
• Accommodation:    6cabins, 6heads + up to 4crew vs Möbius 2cabins, 2 heads and no crew thanks very much.

Take a moment to study the differences between Möbius and Veronika and you will quickly see that other than being about the same length, they share almost nothing else in comparison.

You can find the whole set of specs on the Bering 77 HERE if you’d like to learn more and see more photos.
Just so we are clear, it is not a question of which one is “best”, they both are, just depends on your use cases and taste.  There’s a boat out there for everyone and every use case.  We are just SO eXcited that thanks to Dennis at Artnautica and everyone at Naval Yachts  we now have our Goldilocks Just Right, Just  for Us, boat!
And that’s a wrap for this past week folks.  Lots of activity, just not much visual results to show you but hope you continue to enjoy coming along on this ride with us and that you will be back again for more next week.

In the meantime, please do leave any and all questions and comments in the “Join the Discussion” box below.  While I am atrociously behind in responding to your most recent comments, they add a HUGE value to this blog and for Christine and myself and I am eXtremely appreciative of each one so thanks for that!

-Wayne