So the first two weeks back have been a mix of cultural activities, getting over the plague, and boat work. There has also been a little bit of reading and relaxing in there too.
We were fortunate enough to see a Turkish stage production of “West Side Story”. Now we originally thought they may be using creative licensing and were going to change the feud between the Italian-Americans and Puerto Ricans to perhaps the Turks and the Greeks, but no such change was made. It was the exact same play and story, but the dialog was in Turkish and the songs were in forced English. There was an orchestra which was cool and the sets were really well done. The casting was… interesting. The leads all had very strong voices and even in the different language, I could follow the story which was good. I sort of lost the whole teenage love affair when Tony came out with a slicked back receding hair line and when Bernardo was old enough to be Doc’s father. Quite a few of the supporting Jets were gray haired and sported protruding bellies under their t-shirts which, again, made it a little harder to focus, but wasn’t too terrible that the story was completely lost. Costuming was another place the show fell short, but I’m not sure if that was just a loss in translation. There wasn’t a whole lot of distinction between the Sharks and the Jets as far as costume cues. It almost looked like the actors were required to provide their own costumes and they were given a pair of black and white Converse as a jumping off point. Maria and Anita’s costumes was the Turkish take on Latin I suppose… the cuts were what we’ve seen in Turkey, but with a flowy skirt that could be danced with. Overall I would say it was a great show and for 10TL you really can’t get any better.
The ride to and from the show was a bit uncomfortable, but not terrible. The marina had reserved an entire row of great seats for us. This is 19 seats, the bus seats 17 so Dad and I volunteered to sit on the floor or open space on the bus. At first we said we would sit and then give up the seats to anyone who really needed it or as I said anyone who was older… then as we were waiting for the bus I realized I am the youngest person here by 20 years at least so it was a sure thing I was going to be on the floor and just waited to board the bus until everyone had been seated. Dad got up so a lady who was nicely dressed could have a seat. We did our good deed for the night. At first the driver had small stools for us to balance on so we wouldn’t be on the floor, but after the hour long ride through the mountains into Antalya we decided it was harder to balance on the stools than it would’ve been to just sit on the floor. So the way back was spend Indian style on the floor and was a lot more comfortable.
The other unfortunate thing about the evening was that I was good and sick. I caught a cold somewhere between home and here I’m guessing. Bryan had one before I left, my brother had a bit of one, everyone around me was sick. The man on the airplane to Istanbul was coughing up something nasty on the trip over and who knows what else was circulating in the air. It was a simple cold, nothing fancying; just a lot of sneezing, coughing, and sniffling. But it was enough to be distracting during the show. I had been coughing all day so I bought some mints to take with me to avoid coughing during the show… and they worked. Then the sneezing started though and it wasn’t just a sneeze here or there it was – my right eye is going to water for 10 minutes and then I’m going to have 4 obnoxious sneezes in a row that are going to drain my nose and make Jenny sitting next to me think I’ve got the plague. I spent the entire next day in bed just watching movies and sleeping and eventually with the help of Nyquil was able to shake the cold. Dad started to feel a little bit of sinus pressure but has taken all of the precautions to avoid getting sick and so far, knock on wood, is avoiding it.
The past couple of days have been spent doing boat work. Dad made the list when we got here and we’ve been crossing things off left and right. For example, we took the jib down and Dad was able to fix the roller furler which is what makes the sail go in and out smoothly and then the next day we put it back up. I’m proud of this accomplishment because the sail itself weights about 150lbs and there was a slight breeze putting it back up so it took a lot of effort to get it up. What happens is Dad ties the rope to the top of the sail and then uses his strength to pull it up while I was guiding it into the slot that keeps it intact. Well this is a difficult task without a breeze because of the size and weight of the sail, add a breeze that fills the sail and makes it heavier and almost uncontrollable and it turns into a true task. Dad was using his entire weight to pull the sail up an inch at a time. It was quite a task.
Another accomplishment was painting. All of those places we blasted rust away before we left were painted white. It looks ridiculous along the side where there was once a red stripe and in the gray cockpit where we sit whenever we are out on the water. So it was my job to go around and carefully paint these spots. The paint is expensive and we only have a very small amount of it to use on board. So neatness and conservation were key.
I used the dingy to get around the side of the boat to clean and tape the sections that needed to be red. This is a tedious task that required me to channel my inner balancing skills, but not as much as when I actually painted which required me to be on deck and not fall overboard while painting. The quick drying agent in the paint didn’t give me much time to get to all of the spots via dingy so I walked around on deck and leaned over the side painting between the blue lines I had taped on.Dad climbed the mask again to put the wind gauge back on top. This was a smooth operation but as always a bit nerve wracking. I know it’s never easy for him to climb up there and it’s definitely not comfortable, but I almost think it’s worse for the person on the deck. It’s my responsibility to catch him with the line if he slips and it could be the difference between a living captain and a dead one. That’s a lot of pressure (especially when the captain is your Dad).
We spent an evening planning our trip up the Turkish coast and I’m pretty excited about the things we are going to see. The trip into Istanbul and on to the Black Sea looks a bit daunting, but I think it’ll be fun and by then we’ll be used to being on the water and be ready for anything.
As of right now we are leaving Kemer on Tuesday April 5. The next adventure is a trip to Cappadocia to visit my Aunt Karen and possibly go on a hot air balloon ride. Lots of photos and posts to follow!
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