Our last days in Kemer were spent greasing, shopping, doing laundry, and cleaning. Dad kept finding little things that hadn’t been attended to, like greasing the winches with a giant tub of “Super Lube”. I did a big provision shop, despite the fact that it had been raining for 3 days, and was in charge of cleaning up down below. We both made sure everything had a home and turned the boat from what we being used as a stationary house, to a sea worthy boat again.
When a boater signs up for laundry there is the option of signing up for use of both washer/dryer combos or for just one. We generally sign up for the use of one and have more than enough time to complete a couple of loads when run on the short cycles. Well this time I underestimated how much laundry we had and ran out of time to dry everything. It had been raining on and off all day so everything was wet and the clothes would have never dried so I rigged some clothes lines down below and hung everything to dry down there.
Generally people don’t mind if you go over with the use of the dryer, but due to a huge mix up in the morning, the boaters after me really wanted use of all the machines so I removed everything and just saw it as a new project. It was cold out so we had the heat on anyway and we just cycled things through in front of the heater as needed. Everything was dry by morning and it was sort of fun figuring out how to hang it all.
The last night we were in Kemer there was a special party going on during Happy Hour at the Navigator. I wasn’t sure what was going on so I didn’t bring my camera, but I now regret that decision. Ron and Sue on Gemini got married over the winter holiday and were having a Kemer friend’s reception. They bought plates full of strawberries and had dipping chocolate to go with them. There were bottles of champagne for an official toast and even a chocolate and hazelnut cake that was brought out with sparklers. Everyone I knew at the marina showed up and it was a great way to socialize with people and to say good bye to those I wasn’t sure I’d see in the morning. It was a really great party to end the season with.
We wanted to leave at around 9:00am so got up at 6:30am to finish up little things and get ready to shove off. Ben and Eliza on Three Rivers were the first to go by a matter of minutes and were happy to be the first. Our engine started up without a hitch and one of the coolest things happened, all of the people on our pontoon came out to send us off. They had horns and noise makers, Jaap was singing the Fiddler’s Green song and it was one of those really cool moments that I will always remember. As we pulled away from the dock I got teary eyed as everyone was standing where our slip used to be and then I saw Stuart the elder wave from his boat, people from the pontoon across the water out and waving from theirs, the Navigator was ringing their bell and Ellen and Haakon from Kou-Kou were at the end of the break water with a camera yelling their good byes. It was a really cool experience and made me feel incredibly bitter sweet.
What’s wrong with this picture? Oh right! I’m not on the boat. We were lining up to say good bye to Three Rivers. Stuart and Jenny from Annanita and Jaap and Maria from Gandalf waving with me. If you look to the mountain in the far left corner, you'll see snow!
I had to wait until we were clear from the other boats and dock before I could take this photo… work getting in the way of art. But you can see the space where our boat was and see where there are people standing at the dock. I’m not sure if this is customary everywhere else, but it was something that made the cruisers at Kemer that much cooler.
One final look at Kemer and the mountains before we made the turn.
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