Last night in Istanbul

My name is Temel Belek and I am a Professor at ITU Faculty of Mechanical Engineering.
Today is 24th of June 2013.
Olive's adventure starts.
It was a life long dream I had, its my retirement plan.
To have a sailing boat and to travel distant seas and places.
I have been studying all kinds of sailboats for the last 10 years and eventually I made up my mind.
My choice was a Swedish Hallberg Rassy 40 built in 2009 and mainly used as a demo boat.
Its a center cockpit sailing boat with two large cabins plus a comfortable living quarter in the middle section.
We decided to buy it last year and named it Olive after days of long discussions. Olive reminds us Mediterranean where she belongs.
Olive is also  "Pop Eye the Sailor"s girl friend's name by funny coincidence.
 "Pop Eye the Sailor" is known as Temel Reis in Turkish. So she is named after my girlfriend !!
Tomorrow I'll  fly to Gothenburg, rent a car and drive to north to an island called Orust. Hallberg Raasy shipyard is located at a little village called Ellös.
I'll be staying in a small hotel overlooking the bay where the boats are prepared for delivery.

Hallberg Rassy is famous for their punctuality, they always deliver their boats on time. I've been informed that my boat will be delivered on the 2nd of July 10:00 am. I'll be spending some time with shopping for necessary spares and missing items for the boat until the delivery. Buying a boat is similar to starting a new house.

My wife Saadet will join me on 28th of June together with the crew of the first stage. Tomorrow at Ellös I will continue giving you more information about our adventure.