We joined the boat much later than planned. By the time we had closed up the Abu Dhabi house, packed our remaining 5m3 of personal effects into storage and completed our work commitments we were into October 2015.  

Viviane had gone ahead to the UK to help out family and get her Day Skipper training, First Aid and VHF certs. I flew to Istanbul on the day Erdogan got re-elected to live on the boat and complete the refit we would need to make our boat Making Time ready.  

Our original plan envisaged we would have spent this summer cruising in the Black Sea. The weather had already closed in and we were no on a race to get the boat ready to sail south. To find our home for the winter.  

The work on the boat was a massive change from my previous work life. Repair, maintenance, cleaning and painting jobs set the daily rhythm. Working alongside the professionals I was learning how to do mechanical, electrical, and plumbing from little or no previous experience. Sleeping on the boat in the yard was cold as there was no water to maintain the boat temperature and winter was setting in.  

I was invited join in with the marina workers routine which included impromptu parties to celebrate the week end and sometimes mid week and on special occasion the other days too. They like their Raki (an aniseed drink) and beer and wine were hardly tolerated. This drink has apparently many great properties the most worrying of which we later discovered was that it destroyed polycarbonate cups. Not sure what it does to the insides. Viviane's note: I joined the boat mid November, a mere 10 days after Paul and he had already transformed himself into a local yard worker, lumberjack shirt, black nails and all! Nice to see him after 1 1/2 month apart though.