One month to set sail

We’re getting into the last bits of our stretch at Marmaris.  We have taken 4 trips since being here (2 weeks around Turkey in October/November, another week around Turkey with Ruth and Dave, a 5 week ski and touring trip across central Europe/France, and a 4 day weekend in Istanbul for a boatshow).  With a full 2 months of our total of 5 in Marmaris, it funny how much time it feels that we have spent here.  Now we are looking at the last 4 weeks and there is much to do.  We are going to try to sell the boat here in Europe for a number of reasons: we don’t necessarily want to spend a whole month at sea given the ‘limited’ time left, we think we’ll get a better price here, and we would like to invest the money in another boat at some point.

We are working hard to repair, buff, and shine the boat.  New stack pack for the sail, new sprayhood, fixing broken lights and some minor wiring, replacing a mirror, varnishing the woodwork - mostly little things, but they sure add up to fill up our days.  Aethan makes 2 TL (about $1) to polish each chrome station…it is about minimum wage. We give him an ‘adult’ rage for an adult job.  It is great for him and great for us.  These last weeks are filled with odd jobs on the boat, and the days go by fast, but it is far more mundane than trekking around Europe.

Aethan is busy selling lanyards.  He makes keychains, shackle and zipper pulls- even dog collars-out of various colored nylon twine.  They actually look quite smart.  He has made a business plan, marketing plans, and done a whole analysis (part of school) on profits and revenues.  He does ‘custom’ jobs and ‘installations’ on boats. He is quite proud of it all and is always scheming ways to drum up more business, including giving spiels at skippers meetings and riding around on his bike announcing ‘lanyards for sale’… 

We’re dog sitting again for that little black toy poodle that appears in the video back in the fall.   I am not a tiny dog person, but Gemma is really cute…and Aethan is definitely in love!  There is nothing like watching a boy bond with a dog.  I think there might be some animals in our future when we get home.  Graeme, on the other hand, wants a bird.  Preferably a parrot, but since they are extremely long lived, he might have to settle for a canary or a finch.