We stowed the remains of our purchases at Rhodos, and when we happy that we were ship shape, motored around to the bay off Datca in a strenthening north west wind. We went through all the invoices we had, trying to make up an inventory of removable equipment. We had heard that this was a new Turkish customs requirement. We put it into the computer, and printed out some copies to take ashore.
It was clear that the port authority offices were not open. I went to the coastguard office, and while pleasant enough, they could not help and did not think it was a good idea for us to move on down the coast either. We simply had to wait. We were now looking at a forecast south westerly gale and thunderstorms starting Tuesday night.
The following morning, I went early to the port authority. A pleasant young man was mysteriously summoned and it transpired he was from one of the two agents, Knidos Yachting. I resisted his services, but it soon became obvious there was no alternative, but managed to get 5 euros off the cost of checking in, down from 80 euros. He claimed that they have to pay the Chamber of Shipping 50 euros for each multipart transit log set, and have to fetch them in person from Marmaris! There was an additional 15 euros each for our personal visas (which given the exchange rate now is bad value for £10). When I returned later in the morning, everything had been done, and a blank signed customs form was provided for our convenience. We had a couple of excursions out into the town, which is quite pleasant, boasting a surprising number of banks! Mo was able to pick up some fresh supplies. It made a change from Nysyros and Alonissos, both of which had only one cashpoint!
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| The red spot marks our position! |
The wind had died down at last! We recovered the dinghy and the kedge, and put everything away, and set off for Dirsek, some 14 nm away. We had identified this as a safe anchorage in the predicted south westerly gale and (we supposed) thunderstorms due to come in during the evening. This system had featured on our Grib files for some days, with a vast swirling rain area, driven by pink F8 arrows, and with a bright red centre passing right over our location. We anchored in one of the bays, having decided against trying to anchor alongside a catamaran and lie against what appeared to be a low quay by the restaurant at the head of the bay. This was partially because we do not like to be obligated to a restaurant, and partly because we have a fear of dragging the bower out when moored stern to. We feel that a free swinging anchorage is preferable in such circumstances.
We prepared carefully, lashing the main and laying the kedge, and deploying the canvas cover over the saloon windows to prevent ingress of water. Unfortunately the light southerly blowing when we arrived swung around to a northerly, probably simply swirling around amongst the hills surrounding us. We foolishly ignored this until after it became dark, when we realised that we had been blown inshore, and were either aground or very close to it. Having prepared for a south westerly, we were now being blown with a long scope into the beach, and the kedge was twisted around the bower! The position was untenable, so we had to retrieve the anchors, and set off for somewhere else.
We thought we would try the other bay, near to the catamaran. This made him nervous, both for us and himself, and he alternately shone a torch on the rocks to show us where they were, then into our eyes. In the increasing wind, with no lights at all, we found it impossible to judge distances. We gave up, and tried to anchor in the middle of the bay, in about 12 metres. By the time the kedge went down, we seemed to be in 18 metres, so its scope would have been inadequate. We both remained awake, with Navmon running on the PC, as the wind began to build still more and howl around us. It gradually became obvious that despite 60 metres of chain we were slowly dragging into deeper water, so both kedge and bower had to be retrieved once more.
We tried again closer in, where the shelter was better under the high hill behind, but it soon became obvious that that position was untenable too. As the boat was caught by the gusts (F8) it would sheer from one side to the other, unfortunately far too close to the rocks for comfort. We were obliged to run the engine so that Mo could try to steer away from the rocks, as once again I tried to recover the anchors.
We finally anchored close to our original spot, but slightly further out. The yacht that had been there had left during the afternoon. I refused to deploy the kedge again, but the bower held. Mo stayed up and maintained anchor watch on Navmon. Unfortunately the computer had not been secured with its sticky mat, so on one of the gusts had flown out of its position onto the floor. It was not the first time, but the line output jack was in position, breaking the case at a vulnerable spot, the socket disappearing into the inner workings of the computer. The 'alarm' function of Navmon, indeed any sound output, was thus disabled. I got my head down for a couple of hours before relieving Mo.
The wind blew all day, into the early evening, but this time the anchor held. We tried to catch up on the rest that we had missed out on during the night.
It had been a peaceful night, with no wind, and it was almost a relief to only have to listen to those unidentified creatures who click and gnaw at whatever is growing on the hull. Having had a disrupted sleep pattern, I was awake at 0330 and finally got up at 0430 and involved myself in authoring an item on the CA website, mainly about wifi and mobile communications. This kept me busy until Mo came to with the statutory cups of tea and finally got up. There was a gentle northerly blowing up the bay and the sun was back in a blue sky. Having decided we would go into Marmaris marina, we treated ourselves to showers. There was some clearing up to do on deck, as the kedge was out on the foredeck, and we had lashed the mainsail with a spinnaker sheet. Unfortunnately I forgot the sail tie I had put between the slides to hold the 'maindrop' closer, so that when we raised the main we tore the luff: it is 9 years old, 5 seasons in the Med, and nearing the end of its life. We finally left the anchorage at around 1300 hours, to find a gentle SE F3/4 outside. We thought about the escapees who we suppose were leaving Marmaris bound for Port Said with this headwind. The wind died a bit under the headland, Kizil Br near Karaburun, and we motored for a while. We finally arrived in Serce Limani and picked up a buoy with help from Captain Nemo's restaurant. We gave him some money in lieu of patronage, as Mo already had food out, and we would be too tired to enjoy the experience.
We set off reasonably early. During the night a south easterly had blown up, and we emerged from Serce Limani into a choppy sea. We had to beat our way out of the bay, but once around Goekce Br we were able to free up and enjoy a fast sail at around 7 knots. We maintained this progress until at Kadirga Br we had to come off the wind as we headed north into Marmaris. We gybed down wind to maintain speed and avoid accidental gybes, and held our sail until we were close to Yat Marine. There was plenty of space, and we were shown onto a berth on India pontoon. We had arranged to go out with Brian and Debbie to the Orange restaurant, and they came on board for drinks on the way. Afterwards we all went back to the bar where there was a karaoke session going.
The following day we tried to get some jobs done. Mo set about the washing, and filled up the tanks with water. I had obtained some sail cloth from Paul and Gabby and spent most of the day repairing the main sail where my forgotten tie and electric winch had torn the cringle and bolt rope out of the luff. It was extremely difficut to do, and bad light stopped play. That evening we went on board Chinook. Brian had cooked what he called Moroccan Lamb: it was all delicious and the company, John and Vanessa from Meander, David (an ex-pat Kiwis) were good fun.
We were expecting some rain the next day, but were surprised when we had F7 gusting F8 from the SE most of the day, followed by rain. It only quietened down in the evening. We did not leave the boat. We had planned to leave the marina and anchor in the bay, but we considered the extra 22€ spent on an additional night was really very good value. I spent most of the day nerding.
We checked out of the marina, and left around midday to motor over to Marmaris to do some shopping. We had lunch, and were not in that much of a hurry, so in the end became short on time. I failed to locate Sykaflex primer at any of the many chandlers, but did find myself a wet suit that would fit! We visited Tansas to pick up fresh supplies, then set off for the south of the harbour in the fading light. It was not a success, depths came up quickly, and then quite suddenly, so the rudder grounded as I tried to go astern towards a tree on the shore for a long line. We abandoned the attempt, and went back to the bay off Yat Marine/Magic where we knew we could anchor securely and swing in reasonable depths.
We got up smartly in the morning, and set off. We were outside the bay before the silence period to commemorate the death of Attaturk just after 9 am. The wind was SE F4 initially, and we hoped that it would veer to the south. We made fairly slow progress towards Disibillmez Br, not helped by the 1 knot current against us. We had set ourselves a deadline of 1600 hrs to be at Ince Burun, the headland at the southern end of Fethiye bay, so started to motor around 1300 hrs. The wind dropped off even more, and the promised shift never really occurred.
We arrived at Kucuk Kuyruk, which we had selected as it is ENE facing, and we felt would provide shelter from our ESE forecast wind. As Rod had promised us, it was a beautiful anchorage, wooded, and overlooked by red cliffs above. We anchored, and took a line ashore. As we sat in the cockpit enjoying the last of the daylight, we listened to the birds singing.
We expected some F5 ESE winds, and a shift to the west before a lot of rain the next morning. We turned in early and hoped for a good night, but it was not to be..