The shipyard

We have a small shipyard in the city, mainly dedicated to fishermen boats maintenance and repairs. Fishermen boats are carvel build wooden caiques. These double ended small boats are equipped with a mono cylinder often air-cooled and noisy motor. Here you can see some “usta” maintaining boats, the last pictures show a brand new one recently delivered and waiting the last equipments before to leave for fishing. The crowd of curious “usta” and friends look appreciative at the shiny wood while the owner shows proudly the yet immaculate mechanics.

Such small boats (often only 5 to 8 meters long and without any cabin) can cruise for hours with their 8 HP propeller to bring us fresh mullet, seabass or leerfish.

A sunny weekend after a "Highland" week

We rarely have a full day of rain in Izmir. When a morning is rainy the afternoon is usually sunny. But last week we had a full cloudy/rainy week, we barely saw the direct sunlight. The gulf waters went darkened by low flying grey clouds . Thanks all is back to normal: a windy sunny Saturday. Early in the morning (or not so early it's around 9 o'clock) the promenade is almost empty. Colourful balloon of the fire range survived the lack of challengers and wait for a better hand. Two hours later on my way back the chapmen start to fill the place and meet the first walkers. The soaked land is still no good to lazily lay down in the grass or for the kids to play but the seaside looks great.

Fishermen back from fishing clean the nets or have some rest. Someone shoes are drying under the sun. After the windy days workers have to clean up the shore of tossed wastes. A food&drink seller heat himself at the sun while a dozen of water-bottles and a bag of sunflower seeds await the client, not a big enterprise. Another prepare kites, sure to make good business in such days with a strong wind. The inflatable toys seller keep his breath and prepare his bike to expose his merchandises.