We’re back! April Fools pulled a fast one on us. That, or I jinxed us again by saying over and over how much we LOVE Cyprus. She called us back!

What actually happened is that we were headed to Turkey – we left at 12:40 a.m. on April Fools Day. After motoring for about 18 hours, the RPMs on our starboard engine dropped. When we went to check it out we smelled smoke coming from the engine. We turned off the engine and decided to go back to Cyprus. We would rather have professionals look at the engine than try to fix it ourselves. And we don’t want to head to Turkey, Greece, Albania, Montenegro, Italy, and Tunisia with only one working engine. We don’t have a great deal of trust in either engine at this point. 🙂

This seems to be our curse. I think we’ve had more engine problems in four months than we should (well, maybe “should” isn’t the right word) in four years. Although, we are wondering this time if dirty fuel tanks might be involved. . .

Rather than return to Ayia Napa, which is at the east end of Cyprus, we contacted Limassol Marina to see if we could stay there. It was closer to our (then) current location and also closer to Turkey (in the big scheme of things). We were happy when they said it was okay. We got to the marina at 5:00 a.m. yesterday, went to sleep again, then checked in with Customs and Immigration a few hours later.

I took a walk around the marina and nearby area yesterday morning while Captain Michael took a nap. This place is amazing! There are numerous restaurants and bars, and even a Cigar Lounge. (You might recall that Michael and I share a cigar or two every year.) There are showers for the yachters (we’ve already used them), and a gym and spa. I might – wait for it – get a pedicure!

In addition, no more than 10 minutes after we moved to our temporary berth yesterday, Kathy from the U.K. (I don’t think that is her official name) came by to welcome us. She introduced us to the owner of the boat she was a guest on, Brian from Britain (ditto, but how alliterative). Brian told us that he had a friend staying at the marina who could give us the name of a good diesel engine mechanic. A women who works at the marina also told us she would contact folks who could work on our engine problem.

So, that’s where we are now. We considered flying to Turkey in case we don’t have time to sail there, but the cost of the flight alone is pretty prohibitive given that we are now spending more money on a marina, mechanics, and coffee and pastries at the coffee shop (!).

p.s. I wrote most of this yesterday. As of this moment (12:06 p.m. on April 3), a mechanic is looking at the engine and the fuel. Michael also arranged to have someone look at one of our Raymarine instrument displays that just started acting up before we left Cyprus the first time, and he has already come and gone. He will have two new instruments (we are replacing two since one is simply old and will likely fail soon, given our luck <grin>) for us within three days.

Everything works out for the better in the end. Stay calm and carry on!

In the meantime, here are some pictures of the marina and surrounding area.