The Treadmaster (rubber deck material epoxied in place 19 years ago) removal project is going fine. I can say not that all of it has been removed, but there are remnants of the rubber backing still on the poop/aft deck. It has been challenging to remove this while still dockside. I have to say that the marina staff have been very tolerant of the noise and dust, and of course, I have done a lot to try and mitigate that (only work for a couple of hours a day, and using drop sheets to close off areas). The next step is to use epoxy fairing compound to fair all the nicks, scratches and gouges in the deck remaining after this removal. That will take a “few weeks” and will be completed “on the hard”.
The solution to best removing the Treadmaster, efficient and nearly dust-free, was to use a hammer-drill, with a chisel attachment.
This is a good, but very short Treadmaster removal video I made so that others that follow this path might jump directly to the best method. Nobody mentioned this on YouTube, and its really the best method.
We are very close to finding an affordable apartment that we will lease for “a few months” and hope to finally haul the boat in “a week or so”. It will be much more comfortable to be living in an apartment with the planned sandblasting and painting of the bottom – while I’m also painting the deck!
We took a day off today and rented a car to go sight-seeing with our friends Eric and Pam on Pied-a-Mer. Our plan was to see the amphitheatre in Aspendos as well as the ruins in the area of Side (pronounced See-Day) – both of which are about 1.5 hours drive to the West of Alanya.
Aspendos was an ancient Greco-Roman city in the Antalya province of Turkey. The wide range of coinage throughout the ancient world indicates that, in the 5th century BC, Aspendos had become the most important city in Pamphylia. At that time, the Eurymedon River was navigable as far as Aspendos, and the city derived great wealth from a trade in salt, oil and wool. In 546 BC it came under Persian domination. The fact that the city continued to mint coins in its own name, however, indicates that it had a great deal of freedom even under the Persians.
There are plenty of ruins in the area, and these photos are of the aqueduct ruins that remain. I have read that some Roman aqueducts date back as far as the 7th century BC.
I thought these ruins were particularly interesting because its just on the edge of town, and if you look closely, you can see local farmers even store their farm equipment in the alcoves of the aqueduct.
Aspendos is best known for its 12,000 seat amphitheatre, which is still in use today for ballet and concert performances. It was built in 155AD by the Greek architect Zenon, a native of the city. This is a photo from the top looking down (you have to walk from the bottom to the top, and its pretty steep).
This is a view of the bottom level, currently setup for a concert series.
Of course, there are plenty of other ruins in the surrounding area, and a short hike in the 38C sunny weather will yield all kinds of old buildings and rubble.
The next stop was to the resort town of Side on Turkey’s southern Mediterranean coast, commonly known as the Turkish Riviera. Side was an ancient port city, known for long beaches and its Greco-Roman ruins. In the centre are the remains of the 2nd-century Antique Theatre, which seated up to 15,000.
The white marble columns of the Hellenistic Temple of Athena stand near the harbour. Its a classic view, one that is found on most of the tourist pamphlets for the area.
Other sites of ancient interest are sprinkled throughout, with most interesting finds housed at the Side Museum, the site of a restored Roman bath complex. This is a sarcophagus that was inside the Museum. Not only was the museum an interesting and economical visit, but it was also air conditioned – providing much needed relief from the sweltering heat.
