Finishing Off

Well I'm sorry folks - this is a bit of a limp ending for our third year. Here's a quick summary of what happened next...
We hung around in Datcha until our Turkish Visa ran out and then went to Symi in Greece.

We enjoyed Turkey - it is a wonderful country with friendly, hard-working people, a glorious coastline and mostly crystal clear water. If we had got there first, we would have been singing its praises to the rooftops. Unfortunately, we got to Greece first and fell in love - and we are still head-over-heels. So Turkey was slightly disappointing for us...

• There are too many intrusive tourist developments - big concrete hotels, huge holiday camps, heavily developed beaches many with offensive disco music playing long into the night.
• In many bays where there is less development, there are restaurants with good prices, excellent food and free moorings. These are great for the large number of charter boats but can be a problem for us live-aboards as if you use the moorings you are expected to eat at the restaurant - which we can't afford to do each night. The presence of the moorings and their associated ground tackle makes it impossible for us to just anchor as we risk getting it tangled with a chain or stuck under a lump of concrete.
• And then there are the Gulets. These are lovely wooden sailing boats and it seems very churlish to moan about them - but there are just too damn many. When you do find a quiet bay where you can anchor, you can be sure that if it is not already full of them, they will soon arrive. They anchor with a heavy chain about 100m long and then tie ropes ashore. This makes it difficult to swing at anchor (by far our easiest and most comfortable option) as they will simply lay their chain over ours. Our only option is to tie ourselves to shore too - an operation usually requiring an hour of sweating and swearing at each other!
• From the government down to the lowliest official, there seems to be a tendency to revel in power and authority and to throw weight around. This doesn't affect us much in practice but leaves a nasty taste and a worry that something arbitrary and nasty may happen at any time.
• Being mainland, there is plenty of ground water so the country is much greener than the neighboring Greek islands. This is great but has the one disadvantage that everywhere you moor, there are loads of wasps!

We almost kissed the ground when we got to Symi. It is bright, beautiful, chaotic,  dry, and very Greek. We had intended to settle for a few days and then go off to the closer islands including Rhodes. Unfortunately, I got a kidney stone and we ended up staying for 5 weeks which, lovely and varied as it is, was too long. Since we have already relayed the stories to everyone we met at Christmas, I won't repeat them here.

After Symi, we went with the CA Rally via Tylos, Nissiros, Astipalia and ending in Crete where we have spent the winter.












We are still here in Aghios Nikolaos and will remain until 19th April when we set sail (weather Permitting) for Syria - but that's a story for another blog...

Ekencik & Dalyan

After Gocek bay, we decided to go to Ekincek - a small hamlet by a pretty bay with good holding and plenty of shelter. Rosa was safe enough that we could take a trip up the Dalyan River. Other than some low-key Turkish tourism, the only business in the bay seems to be running boat trips up the River.

We found that it was impossible to get a firm idea of a good price as the boatman come round as soon as you are anchored to try to organise a full trip and quote whatever price they think you'll bear. Different prices to different people in the same trip-boat. Instead we went to the tiny office and did our own deal of 110Euros for an all day trip for ourselves and two Americans (Kent, Carol & their dog Jolie) who we roped in.

We were picked up promptly at 0900 by a nice young man called Mehmet. It took about 1/2 hour of open sea to the river mouth and then over a very shallow sand bar 1M). The delta is a salt marsh with a maze of reed islands interwoven by channels - some deep, some shallow and many dead-ends. Heikel suggests that it is possible to take a shallow draft boat up the river. I wouldn't advise it. Apart from the rumoured hostility of the local boat skippers, we would have been hopelessly lost in no time. Coming out, the afternoon swell sets up breakers on the bar with the troughs almost drying. The hire boat was a good choice!

We stopped for 10 minutes to watch the locals feeding the turtles. They do this to earn a few Lira from the tourists when they're not fishing for blue crab which are abundant in the river.

After an hour of maze of reed islands, the main channel came together. First we went through the fish trap (the gate was opened for us) and then we steamed up to our first stop - ancient Caunos.

This turned out to be a very impressive set of ruins with a first class amphitheatre, several well-preserved buildings and a stunning setting above the ancient harbour (now silted).










Shortly above Caunos are the famous rock tombs of the kings. What a sight! They're huge and very impressive. Unfortunately, you can't get close to them.

We had an excellent lunch in Dalyan with river traffic flying up and down all the time. Mehmet disappeared but then magically popped up again the moment we got on the boat.








He took us up to the hot springs and mud baths. We expected to be taken to the large commercial springs and mud baths. It turned out that before you come to them, there is a smaller, but completely natural and un-comercialised spring which Mehmet took us to instead. It's not at all obvious that it's there - local knowledge is a wonderful thing. Swimming in the hot water was lovely and it was an interesting experience getting covered in mud. Lindsay was chicken though. I wish I had dared really to throw it!

That was the end of the trip and we motored gently back down the river taking about 2 hours to get back to Rosa. The final leg over the bar and then across open sea was distinctly hairy.

Altogether an excellent and memorable day made even better by good company.

A very memorable day made all the better by good company.

Fethiye & Gocek

We needed supplies so after a calm safe night under Fethiye Adasi, we decided to bite the bullet and go into a marina. After consulting Heikell and the CA cruising updates, Yacht Plaza seemed like a good bet and the much bigger Ece Marine definitely didn't. As we came around the headland, we expected to see an isolated danger mark between two wrecks. Instead there was a large crane on a barge. It looks as if they are finally clearing the wreckage.

Yacht Classic Pontoon

Yacht Plaza was not that easy to spot. Firstly it has now changed its name to "Yacht Classic" and secondly it is so close to the entrance to Ece Marina that it looks as if it is part of it.

What a place! We went in for a night, and liked it so much that we ended up staying three.
We suddenly found ourselves on holiday, living in the lap of luxury and without spending a furtune. The new pontoon is of excellent quality with tailed moorings, free water and electricity at all berths and a friendly, helpful marinero called Mehmet. The deal is that you pay 35 euro (70YTL) if you don't eat dinner in the restaurant and only 20YTL if you do - a discount of 50YTL. It's a no-brainer to eat in the Restaurant. The food and service is excellent and very reasonable so two can easily eat for 50YTL and thoroughly enjoy it.
Showers, toilet and pool are all free and of a very high standard. If you are into Turkish baths or Saunas, they have those at a price. The only negative was the seawater which during the morning was choked with blue-green algae on the West side of the pontoon. It cleared later each day and was always clear on the East side.

Fethiye has a huge Market on Tuesdays which we thoroughly enjoyed. There are several chandlers and the supermarket about 200M East of the hotel speaks excellent English, has a good stock and delivers free to yachts.

We finally set off on Thursday to sail across the bay to the Gocek side. We had a cracking sail, flying along with up to 20Knots of wind on the beam. We initially intended to anchor in Kapi Creek. When we got there however, we found that the restaurant quay now covers pretty much everywhere you can anchor and take a line ashore. It has laid lines which are attached to a mooring chain right in the middle of the creek making it very dodgy to anchor on the opposite side. There is room for two or three boats to go line ashore at the head of the bay on the right but that was already well choked with boats.

We gave up and went round to Seagull bay. Very odd name - no idea why they call it that. First impression is that it is sand and weed so we expected to get the anchor to hold in a patch. After trying twice we realised that it isn't sand, it's soft, toothpaste-like mud with small stones in it, so the anchor just plows along and never sets. Eventually on our third try, we managed to catch the side of an underwater trench in 18M water. With 60M of chain, we got a couple of lines ashore and settled down. An hour later, there was lots of whistling and shouting. I popped up and found that one of our lines had jumped off its rock and we were drifting perilously close to a fisherman moored on the beach. The Swedish boat next to us (who we had earlier made friends with in Kas) came to our aid and put the line back more securely this time and all was well.

Next day we pottered gently towards Gocek under sail, looking for nice places to stop. There were plenty of spectacular places but nowhere to moor for free. Everything was either too steep, too weedy, covered in Restaurant quays, or chocka with Gulets and Tripper boats. Not a sign of the promised mooring buoys anywhere.Eventually we rocked up in Yassica Adalari, a small group of Island which Heikell says is a day anchorage. We found to our delight that there are now a large number of free mooring buoys.

We tried to pick one up and found it very difficult as the yellow floating mooring loop was three feet below the surface and we couldn't reach it even from the dinghy! After a lot of head scratching and stress, We ended up lassoing the buoy and then I dived down at put a rope through the loop properly. Later, watching others tie up, we realised that our one is faulty as on all the others, the yellow loop is on the surface!

It is a splendid spot - the water is crystal clear and exactly the right temperature - neither too hot or too cold. Magic!

Finike to Fethiye

Gokkaya Limani

Northwest Creek

After leaving Finike, we had a nice gentle voyage to Gokkaya Limani. The wind was even kind enough to allow some sailing. Gokkaya turned out to be a lovely isolated spot with lots of small islands, clear water, no development and a nice little cave to visit. NW creek was such a pleasant anchorage that we stayed for two nights. Even the gulets and tripper boats mostly don't come in so for once were in the company of yachts of our own size. A lot of fresh water flows into the creek so there is 10cm of icy cold fresh water on top of the toasty warm salt water. Maybe that's what keeps the tripper boats and their tourists away - but we found it wonderfully refreshing! There is a small river to explore by dinghy and some ruins to explore on foot.

Cave on SE shore of main island

The only slight brush with tourism was that each night, a tripper boat turned up at dusk to have a fairly low key disco until between 11.00 & 12.00. The first night wasn't too bad - with a big bonfire, mainly Turkish music and dancing round the fire. The second night though was some kind of Karaoke. I ended up shining our 1,000,000 Candle spotlight on them for 3 minutes until, to my relief, they got the message and shut up.

Ucagiz

Necropolis

Next stop was Kekova Roads. This is a large area of sea, completely sheltered by islands. Although there are over 50 tripper boats based on the new pontoon at Ucagiz, there was enough space for all of us. We anchored in the lagoon for a couple of days. Ucagiz is a pretty little village, still relatively unspoiled. There are several mini-markets and a fruit stall. The large numbers of tourists arrive on coaches, are herded onto their allotted boat, whisked round the sights then herded back onto their coach. They make relatively little impact on the village in the process. There is a fascinating necropolis just to the east of the village with huge sarcophagi to pore over. It is completely free and unregulated and very few people seem to go there. We wandered and scrambled around for an hour or so, speculating wildly on what it all meant. Well worth a visit.

While we were in the lagoon, we got an urgent message, via the CA, from Rod and Lu Heikel who needed a check done on the position of the cardinal buoy just off Kale Koy. We were only three miles away so we went round in the morning with a GPS and hand-bearing compass. I checked it out using the dinghy while L kept Rosa safe. It's nice to be able to give a little back after all the excellent information and fun we've had from their Pilot Books.

The man of Iron

At the Western end of the lagoon, the water forks in two. If you follow a bearing of 30 degrees from the tip of the peninsula that divides the two arms, on the north shore, is a spring. It is ice cold and apparently only a man of iron can stay in it for 5 minutes. Well, your friend and humble narrator made it.

We went on to the bay east of Woodhouse bay to see another spring which is said to be delicious. We stopped in amazing surroundings with huge grey cliffs either side of us and took the dinghy, loaded up with water bottles, up the small shallow river at the head. We found the spring but it was guarded by a large number of huge yellow wasps which were obviously gathering scarce fresh water to keep their nest cool. Sadly, your Iron man turned out to be made of putty - and we decided to beat a strategic retreat. Woodhouse bay being too crowded with Gulets and Tripper boats, we anchored in Polemos Buku and had a quiet couple of days before moving on West.

Paraglider landing on Kas Quay. Rosa to the left

Next stop was Kas. We intended to use this as a safe haven for Rosa while we visited Kastellorizon by ferry. This is the most eastern point of Greece, being 72 miles East of Rhodes. We could see the place, get some duty-free Gin, and renew our Turkish Visas. Unfortunately, it turns out to be anything-but a safe harbour. Huge Gulets are inter-mingled with yachts and the two sides of the harbour are so close that it is almost certain that anchors will be tangled and dredged up. Our chain was lifted on the first morning by a huge steel diving boat. If the boat was unattended, there is no telling what damage would be done. Shopping was good so we re-provisioned and the town itself is charming - well worth a visit. The quay area has been cleared and is used as a landing place for tandem para-sailers - very spectacular!

While in Kas, we heard about new Turkish Visa rules which seem very restrictive. This final straw and We've decided to leave Turkey permanently on August 9th when our visas run out and will kiss the ground in Greece when we arrive.

On the day we left Kas, we had to wait until 12.00 when the Gulet that had laid its chain over our anchor left. This wasn't really problem as we had planned just a short hop to Kemmer. The cove in the North West was very pleasant and we had a good peaceful night, enlivened by drinks with Peter and Aggie, an Australian couple who we met in Kas.

Next day, we did the 6 hour hop to the fringes of the Fethiye/Gocek area and moored in Gemiler Adasi. The main anchoring place behind the islet was completely choked with gulets and tripper boats so we anchored in the Western Cove. Rod Heikel says that this is a calm-weather haven only. We couldn't see why from the chart - but as we had calm weather, we gave it a try. For some reason the swell manages to turn around 180 degrees and get into the bay. It must be reflecting off the Islet or the other side. So yet again - Rod is right. With a big swell it would have been very unpleasant! At dusk, a cloud of wasps surrounded the boat. Lindsay got stung and we retreated down below to be rocked and rolled all night. Not our best anchorage ever!

Today we motored and sailed around into Fethiye. At first, it seems to be packed and/or expensive. Our first choice, Pacariz Buku, now has a large no-anchoring sign at the mouth. We eventually found a nice empty anchorage off Fethiye Adasi - a small island with lots of huge villas on it. Hopefully nobody will turn up to make us go away! Tomorrow we explore the market and town.

Fast to Finike

Poor Rosa!

Exploded Fender

Good as new

It's taken 7 days but Rosa's transom is now as good as new! Offshore Sailing at Albatross Marina, Marmaris have done a superb job. I would recommend them to anyone

OIt's a hard life - living on the hard

Living on the hard in the first of the summer heat has been stressful but it's now over and we should be back in the water tomorrow and off to Finike. There are many far worse places to be fixed though. Albatross Marina is friendly, they have excellent showers - proper ones like in your bathroom at home. No nasty knobs that you have to keep pressing. Electricity and water are free and freely available. The restaurant is good and the small shop has a reasonable selection and sells ice by the block.
A cheap Dolmus ride into Marmaris leaves at 15 and 45 minutes past the hour. and leaves Marmaris on the hour and half hour
Our insurance company, Pantaenius lived up to their excellent reputation. They were helpful, speedy, flexible and everything you would want. They were happy to pay the repair fees directly to the marina which saved us considerable expense and hassle transferring money from savings accounts
Once we got back in the water, we decided to bite the bullet and go straight to Finike to see Mike and Raija. It was a 22 hours with a force 6 predicted behind us. We flew along under spinnaker with the wind gradually increasing from 13kNOTS TO 16. As it was getting towards darkness, I thought about taking the Spinnaker down but Lindsay was down below preparing dinner so I gave it another 10 minutes. Suddenly the wind went up to 14 Knots out of nowhere. Rosa broached and heeled violently and the Spinnaker sheet broke before I could release it
After few minutes fighting with it, we managed to get it down but not before a small rip had appeared near the clew
Well things seem to go in threes, so hopefully that is our lot for a bit. We certainly deserve a break I feel
Finike was lovely. A nice, thoroughly Turkish town with little tourist infrastructure and an independent reason to exist - Oranges. Millions of them. The marina was friendly and very reasonable with good facilities. It even has a path over the breakwater to a swimming area in the open sea. Who needs a swimming pool. We had our sail fixed by a young sail maker who did an excellent job for 100YTL. The sail is as good as new and he patched up a couple of small holes along the foot of the sail too without charging
We spent a very pleasant 3 days with Mike and Raija but then it was time to head out again. We're now going to go very slowly along the coast back to the West, stopping at all those places we missed on the way down.

Interesting Times

I wasn't intending to blog this last couple of weeks while our daughter and her family were with us. We were expecting a nice gentle potter with lots of playing in the water and frolicking on the beach - hardly the subjects of riveting reading. In the event, it has been rather more "interesting" (in the sense of the old Chinese curse - "may you live in interesting times") than expected.

We picked up everyone easily from Bodrum airport. Bus fare up there was a very reasonable 17YTL per person and taxi back for 6 was only 85YTL. We left the marina next morning intending to stop at the hot springs on Black Island but got there too late. It was swarming with tripper boats and the competition was too great. A decision was made to try again at the end of the holiday. We went off and anchored in "end bay" and did lots of swimming in turquoise water. We started the next leg at 0200 and motored to Castle Island (Cleopatra beach) arriving at 0800 and had a nice quiet explore of the ruins and swam before the hordes started arriving at 1100. Then off to English Harbour with a sheltered free mooring and a nice meal in the evening.
Next morning, we set off for 7 Islands. The wind was stronger than expected and we soon had a force 6 on the nose. After a couple of long tacks across the gulf, it was getting lumpy and the kids were getting fractious so we turned the motor on and motor sailed to cape Koyun Burun. By then we had a nasty 1 meter swell which would now be beam-on for a couple of hours. I decided to go for a bolt-hole at the South West end of Tuzla Kayu instead. We sailed the last bit into the sheltered bay with the engine on idle then dropped the sails in preparation for anchoring. I put the motor in gear but nothing happened. It was turning but producing no drive. Panic! we were about 50 Meters upwind of a reef and drifting onto it fast. Luckily with a crew of 4 we got the sails back up in double-quick time and sailed off it with only a couple of minutes to spare. We then beat up to the head of the bay and dropped the anchor close to a Gulet - praying that it would hold. Thankfully it did. When I dived to see what was happening I found that we had picked up a large agricultural sack on the prop so it was just a big lump of amorphous plastic rotating in the water rather than the finely shaped lump of bronze that should have been there. It was easy enough to clear with a knife but it left me shaking with what could have happened.

Next day we spent at Cokertme lazing around. Lindsay did some rowing, Merv did some sailing and we all swam a lot. In the evening, we ate out in the Mary Rose restaurant. The pirate with a tame parrot on his shoulder sold it to the kids. The food was good and the service friendly.

With only two days to go, we headed back up the gulf in the morning, starting at 0400 to get to the hot springs at 0900. We got there easily and for once there was very little wind or swell. For the first time in 4 visits, I felt it was OK to go stern to the concrete quay with 50M of chain out to keep us off it. All seemed OK, The anchor was well set so we paid our 4YTL and went for a swim in the cave. It was magic - gently lighted, warm fresh water and the adventure for the kids of swimming into a cave. Then L heard waves slapping outside and swam out to see what was happening.
She was confronted by Rosa being tossed around on a huge wake with the attendant having jumped aboard and trying to start the engine to get her away from the quay. Lindsay took a flying leap but by then the damage was done. Two of the three fenders we had put over the transom had exploded and we had a large area of damage where she had hit the concrete hard. We grabbed everyone from the springs and got away as fast as possible - much to the annoyance of our 2 year old granddaughter.
We are not sure how the anchor managed to go slack, we tested it under full reverse before tying up, it was good and tight when we left the boat and it was well dug in when we pulled it up. Our best explanation is that the chain got caught around a rock and that the wake dislodged it before slamming Rosa backwards into the quay.
We anchored in the bay called "The Aquarium" and called Pantaenius - our insurance company. They were great - they had an excellent surveyor called Yusuf on-board within a couple of hours who confirmed that it was safe to go to Marmaris where the facilities are much better for repair. Within a couple of days we were there and up on the hard at Albatross with work commencing. It looks like it will be a few days and over 3000 euros to fix.
Still, it could have been much worse. Without the fenders that exploded we would most likely have been holed below the waterline and had a real emergency on our hands.

Back to Bodrum

Having sussed out the places we want to take our daughter & her family to next week, we've just been dossing around the area. So very little to report. It looks like we may have difficulty getting into Bodrum marina - but we have nabbed a buoy just outside which seems to be safe enough and free too!
We took a look at Mud Bay on Black Island as we think the idea of getting thoroughly caked in mud will appeal to our grandson mightily. There is a nice little restaurant there which seems to administer the cave with the hot springs being 4TL per person. It has a quay we can go stern to and doesn't seem to be crowded - especially before 11.00. The 'abandoned' hydropathic institute referred to be Heikel is no longer abandoned but is being thoroughly updated with an opening date of 2011. Very friendly workmen - one of whom speaks excellent English. Things will probably then get a lot more formal and expensive.
I'm going to take a weeks holiday from blogging next week will the family is here and we just retrace our steps. So more as we start to explore further south after 27 June.