After my week down by Gölcük, I had a day and a half to wander around Istanbul. It is a huge city, so I couldn’t visit all the places on the “must-see” list. However I hit a couple:
I walked through the Ayasofia (Hagia Sofia), a large cathedral built-in the 6th century that was converted to a mosque in the 15th century and a museum last century. It was the largest cathedral in the world for a thousand years. It was a pretty impressive structure.
I also visited the Basilica Cistern, which also dates from the 6th century. I did quick walks through the spice market and the grand bazaar.
Here are some pictures from the trip:
A view of my hotel, Art City Hotel, located in Old Town IstanbulThe Basilica CisternA view of the Blue Mosque in the distance from the Ayasofia
Last Saturday afternoon I flew from Boston to Istanbul, Turkey, with a stop in Frankfurt. I arrived in Turkey Sunday afternoon and had to wait. And wait. And wait. I am travelling with a coworker who flew out of Providence and had a 6 hour delay on a flight from Dulles to Munich, and had to catch a later flight down to Istanbul.
I had luggage and no grasp on the Turkish language. So I was stuck in the airport waiting for him. Seven hours later he emerged from the arrivals section without his luggage. Apparently his luggage hadn’t made it across the pond and went back to Providence from DC. It would show up several days later and require that we make the 7 hour round trip (with traffic and long delay dealing with Turkish Airlines luggage) back to the airport to pick it up. We departed that night for Izmit, on the eastern side of the Marmara Sea – a 90+ minute drive out of Istanbul. It is also on the Asian side, so this weekend I spanned three continents (the Istanbul Airport is in Europe).
A view of the area around Istanbul. We stayed at a hotel on the eastern side of the Sea of Marmara
This was a work trip, so we were stuck staying near Izmit, which is nice, but not the most exciting of places to viist. We stayed at the Emex Hotel in Izmit and drove the 15 minutes to Gölcük where the Turkish Navy has its main base. The evenings weren’t too exciting. Dinner most nights in the hotel, and to bed early. Except Wednesday night. We had to do a drive back to Istanbul to pick up missing luggage – we departed shortly after work, and got back to the hotel after midnight. But heck, it was better than wasting an evening playing on the spotty Internet in the hotel and watching whatever wedding/dance/event was going on at the hotel that night.
The Emex Hotel in Izmit. It rained all week so we didn’t get to use the pool.
Lunches were much more exciting. Our hosts took us out to lunch each day. Monday we ate on the base at the officer’s club, but the rest of the week was off the base in town. Out of all the places I have been, I think the food here is the best. Tuesday’s lunch saw us on the coast west of the base in a part of Turkey that had been destroyed in a large earthquake in 1999. Wendesday we went back towards Izmit, and Thursday a group went with us to a small village south of the base to a hole-in-the-wall resteraunt. The place was crowded, but the food was outstanding.
Thursday afternoon’s lunch was in the buildings on the left of the picture. The center of the village had construction going on, building a car park and playground.
We finished up work early enough that we could head to Istanbul earlier than planned today. I’m staying in old town Istanbul, and am taking a day of vacation to tour the city (tomorrow). All I can say is Istanbul is huge. And crowded. It makes New York City seem small and open. I’ll post about my trip to Istanbul when I return.
The new mainsail for the O’day arrived by FedEx today. It has been nearly 9 weeks since I ordered the sail from Peak Sails North America.
The sails look nice, but of course I’m not an expert on sails – I used the rags that came with the boat for the past two seasons.
How do I rate the purchase experience?
1. Price: Peak Sails couldn’t be beat for price – which was the primary reason for choosing them.
2. Quality: The sails seem pretty nice – I’d rate them a 4 out of 5 on quality. The insignia isn’t perfect, but it is a drastic improvement from the existing mainsail. I’ll have to see how well it holds up and how well it sails.
3. Processing Time: Not the best, but it is what I expected. I would rate it a 2 out of 5. If I needed the sails in a hurry I wouldn’t use them. But I didn’t need them in a hurry. I think the best bet is to order new sails at the end of the season to have them ready for the next season.
4. Customer Service: No problems with customer service. I would rate it a 4 out of 5. The time frame I was initially given was under 4 weeks to deliver, but I also understand I had a small order and picked a discount sailmaker. However, whenever I called and to get an update on the sail, Chris Stevens (Peak Sails customer service) was always pleasant to talk to and helpful on the status of my order. He didn’t always answer the phone, and I didn’t try leaving a message – however it wasn’t hard to get in touch with him. I only had to call two or three times each time to get him to pick up.
Now to get the boat cleaned up this weekend, and put it in the water Father’s Day weekend.
A three-day weekend! Every weekend should be a three-day weekend!
We had time to enjoy a date night on Friday (Comix Comedy Club at Foxwoods), get lots of house projects done, and even relax a little bit in the evenings.
Instead of starting a big project this weekend, we decided to focus on getting smaller projects finished.
I added a better bird waterer to the coop. The ducks had made a mess of the chicken waterers, so I took a piece of PVC gutter and a cheap float valve and made a new water trough for the birds. I plan on improving it in the future to make it easier to clean out, but for now it is an improvement over the old one.
The new duck/chicken water trough. The trough is fed from a 5-gal bucket in the garage, so I don’t have to go in the cage to refill the water (though I do to clean it out for now).
We also decided to add a shelf and laundry sink to the mud room. Susanna and I worked on the shelf together on Saturday, and I installed the sink today.
Susanna working on the finishing touches of the upper shelf. We plan on adding a lower shelf above the sink later this week.Laundry sink installed. We picked up a kit from Home Depot. It took about an hour to assemble and install.
I even got time to work on the third toy box for Susanna’s school. The box construction is complete, leaving only a couple of coats of varnish to put on the doors. Hopefully the weather will support delivering it on Thursday evening.
Third toy box nearly complete.
The entire household enjoyed the beautiful spring weather. Perfect for finishing projects, hanging out, or foraging for food (if you are a chicken or duck).
The chickens and ducks enjoying their time out of the coop on a beautiful spring day.
I’ve lived with the pre-existing chicken run for two years. I liked the ability to let the chickens pick through the compost, but other than that I didn’t really like the run. The door was a little too low and would hit the ground whenever I tried to open it. The run was too low to easily get inside and clean it out – which meant it didn’t get cleaned as often as it should have been. It also got filled with snow this winter, and the chickens were stuck under the coop for at least a month.
I decided that, with the additional mess of ducks, I should upgrade the run this year. To make the project easier, I purchased some lumber and corrugated roofing from Home Depot and started the process of rebuilding the run. I was able to reuse some of the lumber and all of the fencing – which kept costs down.
I got the run mostly finished today. This week I’ll have to clean up the remnants of the old run (perfect for a bonfire) and clean up the fencing. I’ll also have to extend the run to cover a small section of the stream behind the house to keep the ducks entertained. Also on this summer’s project list is to redirect the gutter to dump downhill of the coop and run – hopefully also helping keep the place clean.
I left the compost bin mostly untouched – in two years or so, it will probably need to be rebuilt.
A nearly completed upgraded chicken run. The interior has 6 feet of headroom, so it will be easy for me to get in the run and clean.
Last Sunday I delivered the second toy box to Susanna’s preschool. The third box is in the shop mostly completed – hopefully I’ll get it out the door in a week or two.
Second outdoor toybox delivered.
The roof on the first box is in pretty rough shape after being exposed to the weather for the winter (as I had expected). I finally got the preschool to agree that a better roof is needed (than just cheap plywood). I’m going to put a corrugated PVC roof on the third box, and will retrofit the PVC roof to the first two boxes.
It is nice to start reclaiming my workshop from the piles of plywood that have been taking up space for the past 6+ months.
It has been a busy couple of weeks. The weather is finally warm and we can spend the weekend outside getting ready for summer.
The chickens and ducks are growing.
The chickens and ducks hiding in the corner of the coop. The ducks are only a week older than the chicks and much bigger already.
I learned that the ducks aren’t so good at doing ramps. I had opened up the bottom of the coop for the birds a couple of nights ago – they love exploring. However, the ducks love sleeping under the coop, and the chicks seem to think the ducks are their parents, so they try to sleep under the coop with the ducks. And the ducks don’t seem smart enough to figure out how to get back into the coop. It still gets cool at night and I worry that without proper feathers the chicks and ducks will get too cold away from the heat lamp. So, of course, I spent three nights climbing under the coop to collect the birds and return them to the coop.
Today I decided to close up the bottom until they are a week or two older. I was tired of crawling though the mud every night, no matter how amusing Susanna thought it was to watch me chase birds around a small cage. When they all have feathers I figure they can sleep wherever they want.
The garden is mostly planted. We have three raised beds. A couple of weeks ago, I put onions and leeks in the first bed. I’ve never tried onions or leeks, so it will be interesting to see how that turns out. The second bed is filled with strawberries, but I think I’ll be able to squeeze a couple of tomato plants into the end where the strawberries have yet to claim. I planted summer squash, winter squash, and pole beans in the middle of the third bed. Today I planted 13 of the tomato plants on the ends of that bed. If the weather supports tomorrow, I’ll plant 5 of the remaining 9 plants in the garden and Susanna will take the final 4 for her pots.
More pictures from our family vacation to Cancun, Mexico last week. Just in because maybe someone isn’t sick of vacation pictures. Anyway, I’m almost done. Probably one more dump of pictures tomorrow night.
Will playing at the beach by our hotel and completely ignoring Susanna’s requests to look up for the picture.Enjoying the beach by the hotel (picture by Benjamin).Benjamin enjoying his drink by the beach (and not too happy to be the subject of the photograph).On Tuesday, Will and I borrowed one of the resort’s catamarans for a short sail. Despite many hours sailing our own sailboat, a water depth of maybe 20 feet, and life jackets, Will clung to the middle of the boat for most of the trip. He said it wasn’t the same without a cockpit to sit in.Benjamin enjoying the swimming pool at the resort.Susanna: “Just one more picture, please.”On Wednesday, Ben and I went on a snorkeling adventure for the morning. Here we are waiting to get underway out to the reef.Benjamin enjoying the water at the reef on our snorkeling adventure on Wednesday.One of the may underwater sights that Ben and I saw on our snorkeling adventure.Benjamin swimming ahead of me at the reef.Benjamin enjoying a break after snorkeling, before our van ride back to the hotel. “Dad, can you get me another drink, please?”
We spent the past week in Cancun, Mexico for the boys’ spring break. We took tons of pictures, and I’m sure it will take days to sort through them all. But here is the first bunch.
Susanna enjoying the view from our room at the Hotel Riu Caribe in Cancun Mexico on our first night.Heading to dinner the first night. Of course Ben didn’t want to wait for the pictureEnjoying the shade next to the pool.Picture of our hotel (Riu Caribe) by Benjamin CurtisWill hanging out by the pool.Making sand castles in the white sand on the beach in Cancun.Ben taking a break from snorkeling.
Okay, I’m done complaining about the snow. At least until the next time it snows this spring.
I have had the O’day 22 in the water for the past two summers. The mainsail is (I believe) the original. Which makes it older than me. But not by much. And in worse shape than me (I hope).
The luff (front edge that goes along the mast) is fraying and needs a new boltrope. I think I could probably replace the boltrope – a replacement is only $2.50/foot at Sailrite. It shouldn’t be too difficult to sew the rope in a straight line. But the last time I tried to sew something in a straight line it didn’t work as well as I though. And maybe the mainsail isn’t the best thing to learn on.
Even if I fixed the boltrope, the rest of the sail is a mess. One of the seams on the luff (trailing edge) is coming apart. One or two of the battens are missing. And overall the sail is tired and stretched out and my windward performance is terrible – though, honestly, that may be due to my lack of sailing ability.
It was time to replace the mainsail. It was time to replace it two years ago. But I finally placed an order this spring. I decided to go with Peak Sails North America. I placed an order with them because they were inexpensive and allow me to spread the costs of the sail over 4 months (the sails are made after the first payment). They also had mixed reviews about how long it took for them to make the sails and for their customer service. However, I figured that the price was right and that I would have some leverage with their sail payment plan, so I placed an order on Monday.
They were pretty quick to send me an email back and send me the first bill. I hadn’t heard from them by Friday to confirm the sail size and number, so I gave them a call. Chris Stevens (Peak Sails Customer Service) picked up on the 2nd or 3rd ring, and quickly looked up my order and took the information down (sail number). He said the sail would probably go to production this week and be delivered in 3-4 weeks. It was a much better response than I had expected.
Chris explained that the production line gets backed up in May and June and could take a lot longer – people get their boats in the water in May and June and when their sails fail it is a crisis to get new sails.
So far I’m happy with the customer service at Peak Sails. They may not be the most responsive by email – but they did answer the phone and answered my questions. Hopefully the sails show up promptly and this summer I will only be able to blame my lack of sailing skill (and the boats shallow keel) when I have poor windward performance.
