31 October - 31 December: Tsipy was able to travel to Israel via Turkey in the end of November and spent 2 weeks in isolation at Noa and Eyal's nanny apartment. I was finally able to get permission to come and arrived in the first week of December to take her place in the quarantine apartment. After two weeks there, we were able to reconnect with each other, family, and friends on a limited basis since there are still some restrictions.

We had a nice Friday gathering at Yosi's home with Gadi, Israel, and Shmulik. I was able to get the first of my Pfizer vaccinations at the end of the year. Tsipy had a Fluv vaccine so her first shot was delayed until the new year.

1 September - 31 October: It now 16 October and it has been a really long time between updates, so here is a summary of this fall and a preview of what we hope to do this winter.

We are still in Karpaz, the lockdowns and quarantines here really worked to limit the spread of the virus in the TRNC. The suspected case in the marina turned out to be a false positive test, further tests continued to show negative and tests of the stafff were also negative, so we were released from the lockdown within a few days. We felt and still feel very safe here. We are enjoying the marina, going to the gym 6 days a week, walking the breakwater every night, and enjoying our friends: Alona and Dov, Alison and Dave, Heather and Bob, and others from the marina and nearby village.

We took a test run to check the stabilizers and they work perfectly with no runs, leaks, or problems. We were visited by a pod of dolphins while underway and our friend Cian took a nice video. Click here to view it. I varnished the hand rails again, removing several layers with wet sanding and then applying two more coats. I may still do another coat later this month.

We hope to return to Israel in Nov for the winter. Right now, only Israeli citizens are allowed to enter the country but we are working to get me an exception to allow me to enter with Tsipy. If not, she will go there for the winter and I will remain here until I am allowed to come. We have a place to quarantine with Noa and Eyal and plently of places to stay during the winter. I hope to complete the Aliyah process (to get Isareli citizenship) once I have access to an Embassy (I need a fingerprint card for the required FBI check). We will also be looking for a place to stay once Odelia sells. Once I make Aliyah, I will be able to get a duty free car and appliances for our apartment or house, then it is on with the next stage in our lives.

1 July - 30 August 2020: We are still in Karpaz, it looks like we will be here the whole summer with the Coronavirus situation. We are lucky that Cyprus, particularily Northern Cyprus, is one of the places with the least number of cases and no active cases in several months. The situation remains good, we have access to the pool, beach, and retuarant in the marina and can travel without a problem. I have been lazy and not updated the site in a while, but will do so more often as I continue to work on the boat.

We have had a number of great meals with Dov and Alona: including Georgian food, grilled lamb, potato dumplings, sabich, and Romanian food. Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos there. We also had a great meal on White Sands, Allison made Scotch Eggs or stuffed mushrooms as a first course, the chicken or vegetarian curry as the second course. Lovely to look at and better to eat.

Nitzan brought my stabilizer hydraulics seal kits and tools from Israel. After his quarantine, he delivered them to the marina on 6 Aug. On Monday, 10 Aug, Dov and Dave removed the piston from the starboard side and rebuilt it. On Tuesday, I removed the port side piston and rebuilt it. The piston seals were in good shape but the gland seals were stiff and cracked. I replaced the seals and reinstalled the piston. After testing, I still had a small leak on the starboard side, so I had to remove the pin and eye fitting to tighten the gland seal. Now all is good. I wanted to take a test drive on Sunday, 16 Aug but it may be delayed due to the discovery of a Coronavirus case in the marina staff.

They have closed the marina to outsiders and are now working with the Ministry and the local government to develop the new rules for isolating us.

1 - 30 June 2020: We remain in Karpaz and since they are easing restrictions, we are able to go out to a restaurant. Dov, Alona, Bob, Heather, David, Tsipy and I walked down the road to Alevaya and had a nice meal on the cliffs above the bay. It was good to get out and was a nice walk (about 45 minutes each way). On Monday, the gym, beach club, and pool opened for boat owners (no food or drink service yet). Tsipy and I went to the gym and then the pool. It was a little too cool for Tsipy but I enjoyed my first swim of the season.

The weather has been nice so I was able to paint the bow pulpit and the new Magma BBQ table for the bow and do some touch up on the dinghy and radar arch. I am trying to arrange someone to come and repair my stabilizers. the actuator pistons are leaking.

I put the new grill table in place and we had a happy hour on Thursday (11 Jun). Dov, Alona, Bob, Heather, and Dave joined us. We had drinks on the fore deck but the wind picked up and we were unable to finish grilling the kebabs, so Dov finished them off in the galley. Nice evening with friends, too bad the wind forced us inside.

I ordered the seal kits and the tools necessary to rebuild the stabilizer fins since we are unable to fly any one in to repair them. Dov and Dave both have experience with hydraulics, so they will help me repair them.

My birthday was on the 21st and we had a wonderful party on board. We prepared my famous Creole Soup, Cajun meat pies, and veggies with remoulade sauce. Dave came over early to help prepare the meat pies and cut the veggies. Tsipy made my favorite dessert (lemon meringue pie). Our friends from the marina: Dave, Dov, Alona, Gunter, Ingrid, Bob, Heather, Sandy, and Kevin helped us celebrate. A great evening!

1 - 31 May 2020: We remain in Karpaz Marina in Northern Cyprus. There have been no new cases of Coronavirus in several weeks and the TRNC is begining to ease restrictions. Last week, the full lockdown was eased to allow day time travel albeit with masks and gloves while out shopping. The marina brought back a few workers and they have been catching up on maintenance, cleaning, painting, and repairs. This week, intercity travel will be allowed, some additional stores will be allowed to open, and the shipyard and boat maintenance can return to operation. I will be organizing a haul-out for Odelia for it's scheduled bottom painting.

If all continues to improve, they will reopen restuarants and other tourist areas on the 15th. We are still not allowed to leave the country but I am not sure where I would go even if allowed. I believe that the TRNC did a nice job with timely and appropriate curfews/ restrictions and it reflects in the low number of new cases. Neither Greece nor Turkey seem as effective. We are safe here and will probably remain here until I feel that Turkey has it under control.

It was Dov's birthday on the 6th and David, Tsipy, and I were invited for a wonderful afternoon and evening. The food was outstanding (albeit way too much) including: felafal, chips, humus, tehina, bread, pickled veggies, salad, soup, and kebabs for starters and finished with smoked and grilled lamb with roasted potatoes and onions. All of it was home-made and except for the meat, most of it grown in his garden. I ate way to much but it was too good to stop. Even our vegan was tempted to try the lamb.

On the 9th, we had a happy hour on the veranda outside of Hemingway's. Unfortunately, it is still closed due to the quarantine but we brought our own drinks and snacks and enjoyed the sunset. Bob, Heather, Dave, Dov, Alona, Gunter, and Ingrid joined us. Thanks to Dave for the photo.

On the 12th, we moved Odelia over to the lifting pool for maintenance and bottom painting. Yosi sent me a photo of us from the security camera and Tsipy took the others showing the boat in the slip being prepared for haulout. The marina power washed, sanded, and painted new antifouling paint from the 12th to the 20th. We replaced a few zinc anodes and checked the running gear. We returned to the water on Thursday the 21st just in time for a strong storm from the north. Winds were up to 30 knots and created quite a show with white water exploding over the breakwater. I took quite a few photos but by the time I snapped the photos the main part of the wave had passed. The two best shots are shown above.

1 - 30 Apr 2020: What an April Fools prank the world has played on us. Here we are living on a boat but confined to a marina unable to even plan for our summer cruise. We are lucky to be here in Karpaz, even though the country has imposed a lockdown. We are still able to get provisions from the local stores and the staff here in the marina are outstanding. We can walk around our backyard (in this case the marina area) and enjoy the sunshine. I am getting caught up on all my boat work and will soon have to discover other projects or maybe just relax.

With the lockdown, we were unable to get matzah for Pessach. I researched online and found recipes for kosher matzah and we made some over the three days prior to Pessach. The only hard part was mixing, rolling, and baking each batch within 18 minutes to avoid leavening. In any case, we had a nice Seder with lockdown friends from the marina: Dave, Bob, and Heather. We continue our weekly pilates classes and have added two game nights a week, this week playing Mexican train and Ferkel (a dice game like 10,000).

18 Apr, the TRNC relaxed their quarantine somewhat yesterday. We are now under curfew from 2100 to 0600 but allowed to travel to food shops and pharmacy during the day. The shops (and in our case the marina) provide mask and gloves. We are remaining in the marina this weekend but will probably travel some next week. I need a new battery for my dinghy outboard and more battery water and antifreeze. We hope to see Dov and Alona again after more than three weeks of isolation.

We saw Dov and Alona on the 19th and hope to be able to go visit them soon. On 20 Apr, we went into town for shopping wearing gloves and masks. I was able to recharge my SIM card, buy a new headset for my phone, and get some lamb at the butcher. Tsipy went to the green grocer and we both shopped at Tatli (the local supermarker). I was able to fix my dinghy problem, it turned out to be a corroded battery terminal not the battery. After replacing it, I was able to start and run the dinghy around the marina. We had David over for lamb on the barbie and then went to the clubhouse for game night.

23 Apr, we had a beautiful day with lots of sun and gentle breezes, so we celebrated by having a bonfire on the beach. Bob and Heather have been cleaning the beach from plastic and collected a large pile of driftwood and bamboo, so we had a nice fire and watched the sunset. On 24 Apr, we had pilates in the clubhouse and then coffee on board. Tsipy made Quinoa patties and Heather brought cheese and crackers for a nice brunch. Not a bad way to quarantine.

1 - 31 Mar 2020: We are still in Karpaz, the weather has turned milder and we are beginning to work outside on the boat. I modified the access panels on the radar arch by adding T-Nuts and Truss-head machine screws. This allows me to more easily remove and replace them to work on the wiring for the solar panels and navigation/anchoring lights. The previous self-tapping screws wouldn't work anymore.

Tsipy worked with me on the flybridge and also polished the rails on the flybridge and the main deck. We are both happy for the nice weather. I plan to put the dinghy in the water to finish washing the hull and getting rid of all the salt spray from the earlier storms.

On 1 Mar, Dave, Guy, Tsipy, and I took a walk to a restuarant about 1 hour away from the marina along the coast to the east. We had a great walk and a meal before returning. Photos from the walk are shown above.

The marina came on 9 Mar and removed several cracked planks in the teak deck. They plugged two spots and replaced about eight planks. They got the Sikaflex in on 11 Mar, just before a cold front brought wind and rain for a few days. They planned to finish the work on the 16th. Today, 14 Mar, the TRNC government closed down all non-essential facilities for two weeks due to the corona virus. The marina closed the restaurant, gym, and shipyard, so we are not sure when they will return to remove the excess Sika and sand the deck. Dave (my neighbor) and I took the shuttle into the village for food prior to lock down. There aren't many live-aboards here so we will band together and get through this.

We have now been isolated for a week. We have access to the shuttle twice a week to go into town for food and medicine. All other shops and restaurants are closed. The shops have disposable gloves to reduce contamination.

We welcomed a new American couple, Bob and Heather on Amorgos Blue. They arrived from Girne and will be staying here until the end of the quarantine. We are trying to arrange a second night of Mexican Train Dominos to help pass the time. Dov and Alona are quarantined at their home and are doing fine, we hope to see them again soon.

27 Mar, the TRNC imposed a full curfew, no travel except to medical facilities. The marina is organizing shopping and delivery from a local market. They have 13 cases in the towns near the marina, but so far none here. 29 Mar, it is really windy today, 20-30 knots and it is expected to continue until Monday morning (30 Mar). I added a long line from my bow across to B dock to keep my bow from being blown over. That seems to help stabilize my boat.

31 Mar, we played dominoes in the gallery club with Heather, Bob, and Kevin. Nice game and better company to pass the time.

1 - 29 Feb 2020: Yosi flew in on Monday 3 Feb, I returned my rental car to Larnaca airport, and rode back to Karpaz with him. We needed the car to get our 6 month visa.

On 4-5 Feb, I rebuilt the raw water pump for the watermaker, removed the stainless steel manifold, and plumbed the watermaker direct from the strainer. Once a new manifold is made in Gocek, I will reinstall it to allow me to easily flush and clean the system. I also rebuilt the fresh water pump, one or more of the check valves inside were leaking and that caused the unit to cycle.

On 11 Feb, I finally finished the installation of the water sep for my generator. I purchased the unit while I was in the US in Sep 2019 and the hose and clamps in Turkey in Oct 2019. The unit is installed after the water log or muffler and separates the exhaust from the cooling water. It makes the generator quieter by eliminating the splash of the cooling water. The photos above show the installation on the aft wall of the engine room. To complete the installation, I ordered a exhaust hose temp alarm, had it delivered to Mike, and will pick it up when I am in Israel for Passover. I will install it in May.

The weather here has been unusually cold and stormy. We have experienced 4 to 5 storms with winds up to 40 knots. We are averaging about 1 every two weeks since we returned from Israel in Jan. Luckily, we have been able to get off the boat and go to Dov and Alona's house to avoid the storms. The combination of wind and surge really rocks the boat. This last week has been cold, down to 35 F or 2 C at night, we are not used to nor equipped for that kind of cold.

On Friday, 14 Feb, Tsipy, and I went shopping in Girne with Dov and Alona. We hit a few stores and then stopped at Alestra for kleftico (a Cypriot specialty of slow roasted lamb).

The marina had a Valentine's Day dinner and dance on 15 Feb. Dov, Alona, Tsipy, and I attended, had a great dinner, listened and danced to live music, and really enjoyed the evening. Yosi captured a photo of us from the security camera and the others we took inside.

20 Feb, I began troubleshooting the hydraulic gangway, it started making a funny sound.
After checking the fluid level and electrical connections, I discovered that one of my engine start batteries is just about dead and that was causing the odd sound from the motor. I am now looking for two 8D batteries. Boat maintenance in cold places this time.