1 - 31 December 2018: We are settled into our berth on the east side of the lagoon. This is the same place we had when we returned to Israel in 2013. They fixed my port mooring line on 4 Dec, so we are safe and comfortable here for the first storm of the winter. We are expecting ~30 knots of wind although most of that will be blocked by the buildings. We are already getting a lot of rain, thunder, and lightning and that will continue until the 7th. Our niece Shira is getting married to Gidi on the 20th and Tsipy made them wedding cakes from towels. His is decorated for a chef and Shira's as a princess. We gave them to them at a gathering of clan at Lushi's.

This week I sanded and varnished the handrails. I also removed the top of the windlass and the chain locker fitting, had them chromed in Tel Aviv, and refit them on 9 Dec. I installed new sun screens on the portlights on 11 Dec. Ziv installed an upright hand rail on the end of the gangway to make it easier to exit or enter and welded on a fitting for my satellite dish/utility crane. I replaced the rubber flooring in the engine room since it was a trip hazard.

I received the remote oil filter for my starboard engine and plan to install it next month when I change oil for the engines and generator. I will do most of the internal work during the rainy season, then shift to external projects.

This is may last entry for 2018. We had a great year with all our friends in Turkey, Cyprus, and Israel.

1 - 30 November 2018: We are entering the final phase of the deck replacement. All the teak is installed, the caulking gaps are clean, and Sikaflex will be installed today and tomorrow (2-3 Nov). After 4 days of curing, they will finish the job with sanding. We hope to be done by the end of next week. I will finally be able to wash the boat on Monday, it is really dirty from the shipyard, teak work, and salt spray from the storm last month. We celebrated Tsipy's birthday at Hemingway's with Dov and Ilona. Orkan made her a brownie cake and Yosi delivered drinks after dinner (from Israel). The cake was so large, we shared it with everyone in the restaurant.

Tsipy has restored order to the boat; working hard to polish the stainless and clean the aft deck and interior. The strong winds during the storm tore our solar panels loose from the tie down straps. I removed them and am now planning to build a hard top once I return to Israel. I have been working on the fresh water system, engines, and running gear in preparation for our crossing.

They finished the teak deck this morning (15 Nov). We had several rain and weather delays but the finished deck looks great. We are very pleased with the workmanship and the final product.

We returned to Israel during a great weather window on 20 - 21 Nov. Yehuda Deri and Nir Cohen flew over on the 19th. We enjoyed a last happy hour and meal in Hemingways' with Dov and Ilona and then left at 0500 on the 20th. We had to return to the marina to replace the raw water pump on the port engine and then left about 0730 for Israel. The weather was great, no wind and very little swell. We arrived in Herzliya about 1230 on Wednesday and are now in the lagoon. Hani met us at the check-in dock and then helped us into our spot. We may have to move within the lagoon in the next week since one of our mooring lines is too short. Yehuda Altman, Yosi, Mike, Kenny, Roger, and Sarah all stopped by to welcome us back to Israel. Ilan and Judy kindly invited us to dinner on our first night back so Tsipy didn't have to cook. We will settle in, wash the boat, and then start our winter routines. It's good to be back.

1 - 31 October 2018: On 2 Oct, the painters and I removed the side panels below the hand rails for painting while I am gone. I departed Karpaz on 3 Oct and met Tsipy in Istanbul (she flew from Tel Aviv) for our trip to the US. The boat was scheduled to be launched on 2 Oct but due to a death in the family of the travel-lift operator, they launched her after I left. Dov stood in for me to ensure the launching was smooth. They moved her by dinghy to the side wall near the shipyard to continue work on the teak.

We arrived in Miami on 3 Oct and stayed in an AirBnB in Ft Lauderdale for a few days. It was a great little studio apartment with a pool in Wilton Manor near Steve and Zak. We renewed our drivers' licenses and and visited Steve and Zak on Thursday. They received and held all of my boat parts. We enjoyed a nice meal at "What the Pho" a Vietnamese restaraunt in the Manors. We did more shopping on the Thursday and Friday and I did some on Saturday. On Monday, we traveled to Boca Raton for my physical and then stayed with Bev and Dave, our friends from Cloverleaf. We had a great time there - many discussions, great meals, swimming at their pool, workouts in their gym, a visit to Holly and Fritz in Port St Lucie, and more shopping. We had a nice brunch with friends from Ft Lauderdale, had a BBQ at Steve and Zak's place, and reconnected with Yaniv (a friend from Herzliya). All in all, a great trip thanks to all our friends.

Tsipy left on 16 Oct for Tel Aviv and I left on 18 Oct for Karpaz. The flights were good but long and all our boat parts arrived okay. The teak deck is not completed; the first carpenter quit, the new carpenter just started work on 18 Oct, and we are now facing some rain delays. I hope it will be done before the end of the month. With all the deck fittings out (and my gorilla tape removed), we leak a lot of water when it rains. The side panels are done and reinstalled on Monday (22 Oct). I added the name and hailing port to the aft section before it was installed. I have a couple of dolphin decals for the side panels but will add them later. The carpenter continues to work on the deck, he has finished the side decks and has about 1/3 of the fore deck to go. After all the wood is glued, then he has to prepare the new deck for sikaflex, caulk it, and then sand the whole deck.

1 - 30 September 2018: Tsipy left for Israel on 3 Sep and they hauled me out of the water on 4 Sep as scheduled. Sercan (Sarjan) and Selcuk (Selchuk), the painting crew, arrived and began to prepare the hull for painting. After 10 days, the work is shown above. They had to use paint remover for the hatches, the powdercoating was bubbling everywhere but was still difficult to remove. The rub rail on the toe rail was not expoxied when the boat was built, so after they scrapped it clean, they had to paint it with epoxy, and then recaulk all the gaps. The lower rub rail on the port side was damaged while docking in Limassol and they repaired that area. You can also see they are using epoxy filler along the rub rails. Odelia looks like she has a special green and tan chickenpox with all the filler on the sides.

They sprayed two primer coats on Sunday, the photos show the first coat going on and it looks great. The primer looks better than my original paint job. You can see the reflection of the painter in the hull. You could still see a shadow of the green trim lines after the first coat but that disappeared with the second coat. The primer cured on Monday and they have been wet sanding the hull for the last two days. The carpenter arrived with the teak and began to remove the old teak deck. He is working while the painters continue to prep the hull for the top coats.

The teak guy finished the deck removal on Monday. The painters sprayed on three coats of snow white top coat on Sunday (23 Sep) and it looks great as you can see. It cured on Monday and they removed the tape and screening material. Selchuk and Tarjan did their touchups on Tuesday and painted the blue trim lines on Wednesday. As you can see, the finished product looks great.

Now that the hull is painted, they will sand and apply anti-fouling paint to the bottom. After relaunching, the carpenter will continue to replace the teak on the fore and side decks.

1 - 31 August 2018: We remain in Boynuz Buku. Hava is off to Izmir with our friend Ersal Yavi. She will return later this week.

We have finished all our work in Gocek. Nasuh built a strong-back for the dinghy and new mounting blocks for the dock boxes on the flybridge. He also modified the dinghy hold down to accomodate the strong-back, the dinghy handrail, and the life raft holder. Salih recovered the mid-cabin sofa and made new covers for the flybridge chair, instruments, life raft, the four Bowmar hatches, and the dinghy seats and console. As usual, their work is great.

I am now sanding the flybridge supports and the front seating area for priming and painting. That will complete my planned work for the summer. We plan to leave here around the 15th for Karpaz and I am plotting our routes and organizing duty free fuel.

Ofer and Yolanda on Alba came for visit and rafted to us for the night. Their son Omri, his girl friend Sarah from the US, and their daughter Mayam were with them. We had sun-downers on the foredeck with Birem and Derin and then dinner together. After breakfast on the 1st, they left for Wall Bay and sailing. Derin returned with Birem's father, brother, and niece. We had sundowners on the foredeck.

We are planning to depart for Cyprus around the 15th. Berk, our agent in Fethiye, is trying to organize duty free fuel for us. If not, then I will purchase enough normal fuel for the crossing and get duty free fuel in Karpaz. Hava is remaining with us and Ronen is coming in from Israel to cross over with us, so we will have plenty of help on the way. We plan to stop at Kekova, Cavas, and Annamur before crossing to Karpaz.

We were not able to organize duty free fuel, so we went into the city marina. Nazif organized a discount for fuel from a local distributor. With the rapid decline of the Turkish Lira, it actually saved me money, since the duty free fuel is sold in USD and the local fuel is fixed at a lira rate. We checked out on the 14th and left Gocek on the 15th. We had planned to stop at Kekova on the way but the weather predictions changed and we decided to make the entire crossing. Weather was as predicted, less than a meter of waves and maximum winds of 14-15 knots from the stern. We are having a problem with the starboard engine, the "low voltage" alarm chatters and that caused the engine to shut down once and the stabilizers to reset a few times. While troubleshooting that, I discovered a leak in the raw water hose into the after-cooler. After I replaced the hose, all the chattering and stabilizer problems disappeared. I am not sure of the correlation, so will continue to troubleshoot it. The crossing went well, with four qualified crew onboard, the shifts were easy and we got plently of rest. We arrived on the 16th about 1600 to the normal warm welcome by the marina. Yosi sent me the photo of our entry to the marina from the lighthouse camera. At Happy Hour we met Dov and Ilona and we had a great dinner in Hemingway's. We had Dov and Ilona over for Shabbat dinner. Ronen left us on Saturday to return to Israel. We appreciated his help on the crossing. Yosi arrived on the 20th for a three day visit to the marina. We enjoyed seeing him again after so long.

Bahadir, the new marina manager in Karpaz, is organizing our maintenance period. We will be hauled out on 4 Sep. Tsipy is flying home for the holidays on 3 Sep with Hava, Dov, and Ilona. I am remaining here for the boat work. The haul-out and bottom painting are part of our contract and I plan to have him spray the hull Snow White with 2 component paint and then add trim lines in Lauderdale Blue. They are also going to replace the teak on the foredeck. Once we return from the US, I will add a vinyl name and hailing port on the stern and a gold trim line along the blue trim line at the hatch levels. I also plan to put a jumping dolphin on each bow. Combined with the painting Utz and I did in Gocek, it will give Odelia a completely new look.

We made reservations to travel to the Miami on 3 Oct. Tsipy will leave from Israel and we will meet in Istanbul for the flight to the US. Both of us need to get a new drivers' licenses, Tsipy needs a new military ID, and I need to have my annual physical and assorted medical and dental checkups. We hope to see Steve and Zak in Ft Lauderdale, Bev and Dave in Boca Raton, and as many other friends as possible. I plan to make a short trip to Las Vegas and meet Terry.

1 - 31 Jul 2018: We made an unscheduled move to the Gocek on 1 Jul. On our return from the market, I discovered a leak on the portside tube of the dinghy. We moved the boat into the anchorage for the night and in the morning moved into the marina while the repairs were done. Although it was very hot in the marina, it gave us an opportunity to have a 4th of July party on board. Our guests included: Fatoush, Baran, Emile, Eitan, Liora, Batu, Ron, Seoun, Utz, and a couple more. Thanks to Tsipy, Utz, Fatoush, Liora, and Seoun for the fantastic food. We had an enjoyable stay in the marina, spending lots of time with our friends.

On 6 Jul, we drove to Fethiye and bought fabric to cover the flybridge cushions and then on to Saklikent Gorge to cool off. Utz is sewing the slip covers for us. We returned to the Gocek anchorage on 7 Jul, will stay here for the Sunday market, and then return to Boynuz Buku.

On Sunday, (bowing to pressure from my friends Yosi, Ron, and Utz) I am having a teak deck guy come to give us an estimate for replacing the teak on the front deck. I had planned to remove the deck and paint it with non-skid but will investigate my options. We only have a few more days with Utz (he leaves on Wednesday for Germany) and we still have a lot to do on the flybridge. The teak deck guy arrived, gave us an estimate, and requires two months to do the work, so we have deferred it until Israel or next spring.

We returned to Boynuz Buku on Monday. Utz and Tsipy were busy cutting and sewing the new slip covers for the flybridge during the heat of the day. They look great as you can see in the photos. Utz and I prepared the rest of the flybridge (the area by the satellite dome and along the sides) for primer and paint. We were able to get the primer, sanding, and one top coat finished before he left on Wednesday. We really enjoyed having Utz on board, he taught us a lot, did a lot of work, and made us very happy. Good luck on the new job.

I finished sanded the top coat after he left and put on another coat that afternoon after the sun went down. On 15 Jul, I painted a second coat on the floor to finish the painting.

Liora and Eitan joined us in Boynuz Buku with their friend Semona. We had them over for dinner, drinks, and Shabbat dinner. Tsipy and Semona tried out their inflatable kayak. On Sunday, we went into Gocek for the farmer's market and I bought a two-person raft for Tsipy. She and Liora tried it out.

Hava arrived on 16 Jul and will stay with us for about a month or so. She plans to cross with us over to Karpaz in mid-Aug. By chance, I ran into Alec (from Voyager in Herzliya marina) while riding a scooter to visit Nasuh. I had Nasuh make new plastic feet for the three storage boxes on the flybridge. On 17 Jul, I re-installed the boxes using Sika-Flex on the feet. Salih came out with me and took measurements and patterns for new covers for the flybridge instruments, bridge seat, life raft, and Bowmar hatches.

Alec and his son Omri and daughter Atalia came to Boynuz Buku with his new boat (Karma - a Nauticat 41). They rafted to us one night and had dinner with us before continuing on to Fethiye. Our Turkish neighbor gave Omri a tube ride during the evening.

Our friends on Derin (Birem, Derin, and Ediz) arrived and anchored on our starboard side. It is great to see them again. We are enjoying having drinks and dinners with them. Cem, Birem's husband will arrive on Friday for a few days. We made a trip out to the Migros market boat together. As promised I have included pictures of the competed flybridge. I finished painting the non-skid and Salih completed the new covers for the instruments, chair, and life raft. It looks great!

1 - 30 June 2018: I am continuing work on the boat. I varnished the aft hand rails and reinforced the front compartment of the dinghy. I decided that the damage to the front compartment was likely caused by the extreme angle of the lifting chains to the davit arms. I am having Nasuh build a strongback to make the lift more vertical.

On 16 Jun, we went into Gocek to pick up Utz and to celebrate Fatoush and my birthday. We had a wonderful meal in Lotis restaurant. Liora and Eitan arrived the day before, so they also attended.

On Sunday, we went into town again for the weekly farmer's market. We had our breakfast on the back deck of Nazif and Fatoush's shop. On Monday, Utz and I removed all the hardware from the flybridge to prepare for painting. We continue to work on the flybridge and visiting town for parts and work. On the 21st, we had another birthday dinner for me at the Kabab Hospital. Ron has visited us iserveral times in the bay, he rafted to us the first visit and then anchored on our starboard side. The photo shows him relaxing in the hammock and Seoun serving him a wine. It shows the tough life we lead.

1 - 31 May 2018: We are allowed to stay in Israel for up to six months. Since we arrived on 15 Nov, we had to leave no later than 15 May. We saw a good weather window on 3 May and departed for Limassol. Yair and Yacov came with us for the crossing. The weather was as predicted, less than a meter of waves and winds averaging less than 8 knots. We did see about one hour of higher winds in the middle of the night. We had a visit with a pod of dolphins just off of Natanya. Click here if you want to see the video (be aware that it is a 13 MB file) then use the back button or close the video window to return to this page.

We arrived on Friday morning at 0600, checked into Cyprus, relocated to our slip, and then had the new anchor chain delivered. Yair and Yacov helped me stretch it out and mark it every 50 foot. We then pulled it aboard from the dock using the windlass.

Yacov was only able to stay for one day and he left late Friday night with some Israelis we met that were returning on the same flight. They stopped by for a sundowner and tour of Odelia. After that, we visited the boat show and had happy hour with Easy, Orit, and Aviram at the North Sail booth.

Well, it's now 15 May and we are still in Limassol. Tsipy left today to return to Israel for Yoni's wedding and to have an eye exam. She is seeing flashes of light on the periphery of her eye which is a symptom of a retinal problem. Effy, his wife Daniella, and Ronen (Yaacov's son-in-law) are flying in tomorrow for the crossing to Turkey. We are planning to leave on 17 May in the morning. If the weather continues as predicted, we will cross directly to Fethiye. Hopefully, Tsipy can join us there if she doesn't need followup appointments for her eye. If the weather changes, then we will head to Finike and wait for good weather to continue and catch up with Tsipy when and where we can. Such is life aboard.

Effy, Daniella, and Ronen arrived on schedule and we departed Limassol at 0530 on the 17th. The weather was perfect, almost no wind and most of the trip was in smooth water, no waves or ripples. We arrived in Fethiye at noon on the 18th. The crew was great, they put up with my limited cooking skills and survived with no hot water when our water heater failed and leaked about 1/2 of our water supply into the containment tank under the port engine. Effy spotted the leak during an engine room check and we were able to block it off to save the remaining water supply. To top it off, my generator wouldn't work, which meant that I couldn't anchor, so we decided to go to the marina.

After check in, we met up with Tsipy and later went to Pasha's for dinner. The crew left early on Saturday morning on the ferry to Rhodos with onward flights back to Israel. Our thanks to them for the great company and for helping me relocate the boat while Tsipy was in Israel.

We are remaining in Fethiye for the holiday weekend. I was able to repair the generator, it turned out to be a sea water impellor. The water heater was simply overheated by the engine heating loop which caused the water to expand and vent. On Saturday, I plumbed in a ball valve to allow me to turn off the engine heating option while underway. Finally, I had to replace the check valve for the water heater.

We relocated to Boynuz Buku on Monday morning. Our normal spot was taken when we arrived so we anchored across the bay. When they left around 1500, we moved into "Odelia's Home". I commissioned the water maker and we are now set for the summer.

I plumbed in an expansion tank into the water heater to protect it from overheating and expansion and I am replacing the hoses on the engine heating loop to the water heater. The weather was been cool and a bit raining but I am now preparing for varnish and painting. On the 29th, I took in the mid-cabin seatee for recovering and the plans for the new hatch covers to Salih (the uphostery guy). I also took in the plans for the crane support to Nasuh (the stainless guy). I should get these back in a week or so.

If the weather holds, I will start work on the dinghy, I need to reinforce the front vee compartment, it has cracks on both sides. Utz comes in mid-June and will help me strip the teak from the foredeck. I plan to fill in the screw holes and paint the deck with no-skid instead of the teak. It will be easier to maintain and a lot cooler.

1 - 30 Apr 2018: This month we received a email from Michael Berman from Netanya. His daughter Odelia was visiting the marina and took a selfie with our boat in the background. While discussing this with a colleague at work, found out that they anchored with us in Tersane Creek in Turkey. Small world at work. In any case we invited them to visit and take a tour. Michael, his wife Rachel, her parents Philip and Rena, and their daughters Haviva, Odelia, and Ma'ayan came by on 2 Apr for a visit. A lovely family and we enjoyed meeting them and showing them the boat.

When we returned to the boat on Sunday evening, a boat from Ashdod marina had tied up behind us. Tsuri, Ravit, Haim, and Fane invited us over for breakfast on Monday and then came aboard to tour our boat. We took a picture of them departing. We enjoyed meeting them and hope to see them again.

On 12 Apr, Lukas, Desiree, and Ethan came for a visit. We originally met Lukas and Desiree in the Bahamas in 2003 and have maintained contact with them. They had visited us before in 2012 but this time could bring their son Ethan. We celebrated his 9th birthday on board and visited Ceasaria, Masada, the Dead Sea, Rosh HaNikra, and Tel Aviv. He also got to drive our dinghy around the marina and take a thrill ride in a large RIB near Rosh HaNikra. We had a great time with them and hope to see them again.

19 Apr is Israeli Independence Day (the 70th) and we hosted Lushi and her friend Iris and her family on board. The air show was nice, with the new F-35s flying in formation and the new El Al Dreamliner (787). I've include a sampling of photos.

1 - 31 Mar 2018: On 1 Mar, we had our family Purim party at Noa and Eyal's house. Most of the family were able to attend. The theme was supposed to be singers but many of the attendees dressed in other costumes. I dressed as Kenny Rogers (The Gambler) and Tsipy as Diana Ross and we performed "We are the world" with most of the family joining in. The food was great with felafel from Dvora's in Karkur and lots of other goodies. Some photos are included of the singing and dancing.

So many people came to the 9 Mar gathering that we invoked shifts. Initially, we had Yosi, Gadi, Israel, Kushi, and Shmulik. Then Nir, Hane, Ed, Mike 1, and Mike 2 (the new crew chief) came. Finally, new friends Derin and Sansanee followed by Vanessa and her friend Curtis arrived. A full house but with some seat juggling, we made it work.

11-15 Mar, saw me working in the engine room and the pilothouse and on the dive compressor.

I needed to fill my air tanks but the compressor stopped working after just a few minutes. I replaced the worn drive belt but that didn't fix the problem. With help from Bauer technical support, I isolated the problem to either the 3hp electric motor or the overload protection device. My friend Ofer and I removed the motor and he checked it on the bench and it was okay, so I have isolated the problem in the overload protection relay. I will try adjusting the trip amperage and if that doesn't work, I will need to replace the relay. While he had the engine in the shop, I removed, sanded, and revarnished the wooden cover for the compressor.

In the ER, I built a new mounting plate to replace a broken mount for the raw water pump for the compressor of the holding plate refrigerator/freezer. I also cleaned and rebuilt three Racor fuel filters (for the engines and generator) and replaced all the filters. All I have left on my predeparture repairs is to check and replace the zincs on the engines, generator, and oil coolers.

Mike brought in some electrical parts that I had ordered, so I installed new LED lights over the computer and printer, installed a car charger unit for my MacBook Air, and rewired the weather station and iPod Amp directly on the house bank. This cleans up the wiring mess in the pilothouse and saves energy by eliminating three small chargers running on the inverter.

19 - 20 Mar: Once I reinstalled the motor in the compressor, I tried using it while on the generator. I suspected that the difference in using a 50Hz shore power connection caused the motor to overload enough to trip the overload protection relay. Since the generator is 60Hz, the compressor worked fine and I was able to fill my tanks without a problem. Learned quite a bit about the compressor circuitry during the troubleshooting. I am filing this as an unintended consequence of replacing the A/Sea power converter with the Center Tap Isolation Transformer.

I finished replacing all the zincs in the engine room. Next on the departure check list/service schedule is to service the anchor windlass and check the bow thruster.

1 - 28 Feb 2018: I was able to get the starboard railing sanded and varnished before the weather turned wet again. It was the worst of the two rails with sun burns in about three areas.

On Thursday, 8 Feb, Etty, Lushi, Tsipy and I went to Givat Ela to spend the weekend with Moti and Jackie. We had a lovely time and got to see their kids and grandkids.The weather was delightful for Febuary, about 72 degrees and sunny and we took a drive to Gilboa to look at the blooming flowers. As usual, Jackie and Moti were wonderful hosts and chefs. We all enjoyed the jochnun on Saturday morning and wonderful food throughout the weekend. Thanks for a great weekend getaway!

We returned on Saturday night and on Sunday I installed a remote panel for the MasterVolt Combination Charger and Inverter. This allows me to view it's status and turn it off and on from the pilothouse. I sanded and varnished the port side rails and will put a second coat on both sides when the rain stops.

On 14 Feb, I went to Shimon's with Gadi for Yemenite soup. As you can see in the photo, I really enjoyed it. The Friday gathering on 16 Feb was great; Yosi, Gadi, Israel, Shmulik, Dov, Kushi, Alona, Amosea, Sari, Steve, and Ed were all able to attend. Great food and company.

Steve brought in the last parts for the solar project and I will be starting work on it this coming week. I installed Loxx pullup fasteners on eight of the panels and on the webbing to connect the panels together.

On 22 Feb, I removed the bimini top and took off the old panels and their support frame. After that, I met Yosi and Amos at Kyoto for our Thursday sushi and shashimi fix. If the good weather holds, I will be able to install the new panels and connect them to the system this weekend.

Steve and Ron helped me install the new solar panels on Wed, 28 Feb. I initially installed all eight panels in series but the output voltage of the panels exceeded the 150V allowed for the regulator, so I had to split the array into two sets of four panels in series with their outputs in parallel. At peak sunlight, I now have ~80V at 10A into the solar power controller/regulator which converts it to the 13.3 to 14.4V to charge the house bank. The system is working well, providing about twice the charging power of the previous panels.