After four years of living on board A B Sea I can definitively state that boats are always making a sound of some sort and those sounds become so ingrained that they almost fade into the background.
One of the sounds that can be heard are fish feeding on the sea fauna and flora that grows along the waterline of the boat. Occasionally there's the sound of the beak of a turtle biting stuff off the prop shaft and propeller.
These sounds are amplified when laying in bed and the world is quiet. One morning as I lay in bed dozing I heard a new sound which brought me instantly awake. I lay there with one ear muffled by the pillow trying to detect where and what the sound was with the other ear. Impossible to do. I shifted in bed to make use of both ears. The sound stopped. I waited. Nothing. I rolled back with one ear on the pillow. Minutes later the sound started again. This time I moved very slowly to make use of both ears. The sound continued.
At first I couldn't tell whether it was coming from outside or inside. After many minutes of listening I concluded that it was definitely inside and the logical conclusion was that it was either a rat or a mouse. Bugger.
Confirmation of the rodent's presence came in the form of droppings along the side deck. The port stern quarter seemed to be a favourite spot for our uninvited guest to sit and poop. How the heck do you get a rodent off a boat when there are so many places for it to hide? We needed a mouse trap.
As we were now anchored off in the bay next to Kaş marina we took our dinghy and tied up next to Kev on Barbara Ann. After letting him know of our rodent situation we walked into Kaş town and into the hardware store. After a quick exchange with Google translate the guy showed us the two types of traps he had. The first was a *cunning contraption that captured the rodent live and presumably you let it go free to live long and prosper. The second was an all *metal version of a standard mouse trap. We took the second option. After completing a few more things that we needed to get done in Kaş we headed back to A B Sea.
We'd tested the springiness of the trap at the hardware store and noted its tendency to jump up and flip over once sprung. We decided to secure it to the boat with a short piece of string so that we didn't lose it overboard when it sprung. Baited with sticky peanut butter the trap was set and we went to bed.
The following morning I went on deck to see if we'd caught the interloper. The trap was upside down but there was no dead rodent. That morning while laying in bed I hadn't heard any rodent sounds and putting 2 and 2 together I came to the conclusion that the rodent must have taken the bait and jumped back in fear when the trap turned over and inadvertently fallen over the side. We reset the trap for one more night. But it never went off and no more odd sounds were heard. Job done.
Kaş jazz festival
Kaş marina is the host and a sponsor of the annual Kaş jazz festival which is held over three nights in late August. I'm not a fan of jazz music but as the sound system was huge there would be no escaping the music anywhere in the marina. Our friends Mike and Elaine are berthed at the beginning of C pontoon and they invited us over for front row seats to the festival as the stage was set up right in front of C pontoon.
Bringing along drinks and snacks we listened to all of the acts over three nights and everyone seemed to have a good time. After 3 nights exposure to many forms of jazz music I can definitely say that I'm still not a fan of jazz music.
End of contract
Our 12 month contract at Kaş marina came to an end on August 31st. Our new contract at Finike marina didn't begin until October 1st. We had a month to live at anchor.
We decided to anchor in the bay just off the marina because we'd still have access to our friends, plus fuel and pump out services and the shops of Kaş. We were also waiting for our friends Michel and Canan to arrive on a charter boat out of Fethiye in the last week of September so we could buddy boat with them for a while.
But before we departed the marina we had a long distance dinner date to attend. Our long standing subscriber and patron Henrik Thystrup had sent us a gift and suggested we use it for a night out.
We chose Smiley's restaurant in Kaş as the venue where we enjoyed the always delicious food and a good bottle of wine and we raised our glasses in a toast to Henrik. Thank you Henrik.
We'd not been around Kaş for quite some time and were amazed that so many people remembered us and said hi and asked where we'd been. It was also nice to see some of the staff at Smiley's that we'd met in 2018 were still working there.
Kaş has been a good town for us and we've made so many friends, we hope to do the same when we make Finike our home at the beginning of October.
Until next week stay safe and healthy.
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