Quiet after the storm

  Not only am I writing to all of you, I’m writing to Randal whose off to China!

Ru

February 8, 2013 2:55 pm   3:01 pm power off and lightning. 

It looks like the end of the world!  Except for the blinking red light indicating the entrance to the marina the only colors visible from the pilot house window are greys .  The wind has been whipping all day and now the thunder is starting.  And the rain.  The winds started last night; the rains this morning.  I walked Randal to the marina taxi stand so he could use an umbrella and not get too wet leaving this morning for China.    He didn’t want to take the umbrella with him because he’d had one confiscated at an airport.  He was planning to take the 9 am bus to Izmir which would get him to the airport in time for his flight.   Around mid-day we’d had a weather reprieve so Mary, Rick and I took a “get off the boat and stretch our legs” walk.  Good weather is predicted for Tuesday!   Now it’s mid-afternoon and the power is off so no heat.  Luckily it’s not really cold.  Hopefully it won’t be off for too long and when it comes on it will come on in the boat by itself.  I called our friends Rick and Mary to check that their power was off too and to call me when they get it back in case I don’t get it back and then….I’ll worry about that later Scarlett.  3:21 pm power back on and storm seems to be letting up a bit for now.  Time for heat!  3:25 power off again.  3:30 pm power on again.   Here’s hoping!

Ps: it was on until 4:30 and now it’s off…but everyone is talking about it over the VHF so that’s reassuring.  And the fact that our batteries will last till the power is running for real.

Here are some photos I took this morning during our “airing out.”

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Pretty deserted which, even in the off season, is pretty rare. 

 

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Mary blowing in the wind!

 

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The water came over the wall to the restaurants.

 

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One of the few gullets still tied to the public wharf in town.

 

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The wind really was quite fierce.  One of the cruisers recorded 49.8 knots of wind last night.  We could hear it but DoraMac was quite secure at the dock with very little rolling.

 

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Ataturk’s statue stands guard even in the storms.

 

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We walked to the Arts and Culture Center for coffee and saw there was to be a new exhibit.

National Forces Interview Exhibition  and signing by Nuri Kurtcebe a caricaturist who did images of the leaders for independence. (I’m guessing at all but the artist’s name.)  The red one says something about paintings of songs….but I think it’s somehow connected to environment groups concerned with sea turtles…or I could be waaaayyyyy off.

 

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How to survive a storm.

As long as we were out, Mary reminded Rick they needed some gin…I saw these colorfully flavored bottles of Vodka.  But I’m sticking to wine.

 

It’s 4:24 pm and the boat is pretty toasty and I can see out the windows now.  The sky is a bit clearer, people are walking past the boat, and the weather is quiet.

 

I miss you Randal!