Logbooks 2008
1. 13 May: Marmaris Yat Marina to Gocek
We escaped the very enticing
clutches of Marmaris Yat Marina where we had
spent
a very enjoyable winter at around 10am bound for Gocek on our way to Kalkan
for our first appointment of the year - The FA cup weekend meet up for the
boys. This year it continued at a new venue - this time Pat's villa in the
small resort of Kalkan, which also has a small harbour for us to moor Roam
II.
As we motored out of the large bay at Marmaris, we saw other boats goose-winged as the wind was dead aft. since this was our first sail, we were slightly nervous of getting the sails up and goose-winging as it is not an easy point of sail, so we just got the genoa out and continued with the engine on. Later the wind backed more southerly and we thought that we really should get the main sail up - which we did and we managed a very pleasant sail for a couple of hours at between 5 and 6 knots - very nice!
We arrived in Gocek in failing light and ready to face our first go at anchoring with the electric windlass. Its quite a beast and you have to watch that your fingers don't get caught up as the chain flies out of the locker, over the winch and out of the hole at the front. It's VERY different from Roam I, I can tell you! We let about 60m out and then tried to set the anchor by reversing - you pull the chain tight and make sure you aren't moving by taking transits on fixed objects ashore. When we tried this, the chain just slipped over the gypsy. When i tried to fix the chain hook, i found i could not reach the chain to deploy it (strange design), so we had to try and take the strain off the windlass by wrapping the chain round the cleat on top of the windlass. At about 3am, the thunder and lightning started, and afraid of squalls and unsure of how well the anchor was holding we went up on anchor watch. Fortunately the storm passed west of us and we had no significant wind. so, about 7am we went back to bed for a couple of hours kip. The next day, top of the shopping list was a chain hook so we could take the pressure off the windlass. None of the chandlers had one, but one had one for us the next day. which was fortunate as that night we had more thunder and lightning.
That day we were below on the boat when we were rocked off our feet by a great big THWUMP to the boat. We rushed on deck to find a bloke on a 45' boat had backed into us - hitting us with his rubber dinghy which was suspended on davits over his stern (hence the thwump and not a huge CRAAACK sound). When we asked what was going on, he said 'Oh, I didn't see you' !!!!. So i said, 'sorry would be nice' - he said ' my dinghy is ruined'. Not an ounce of remorse or feeling that he had done anything wrong. Let's hope thats not the standard for the rest of the year.
2. 16 May. Gocek - Kalkan. 48nm
On
the Friday we weighed anchor for the first time, but the windlass kept
tripping out - we found out why when we found the anchor had picked up a big
reel of wire cable! - Welcome back to cruising!
Having dumped the cable, we headed off towards Kalkan. Unfortunately we motored the whole way. The seas around the headland were very rolly but we managed to ease the motion by raising the mainsail with a reef in.
We arrived in Kalkan to be
greeted by Pat and Steve who were already in the
villa.
Later in the night we were joined by John, Mark and Gary having had a
barbeque and swim at the villa. The next day the lads went in search of
football and betting opportunities. The place Pat had eyed up as a possible
venue was having trouble with their satellite dish and the one guy who could
make it work was off sick. As it happened there were several other places
showing the match for the english tourists, it seemed a shame that the
Turks, despite their love of football, did not seem interested. We all
enjoyed the game - mostly for the number of times the keepers punched the
ball and trying to count the number of times someone was caught spitting on
camera (nice! - it was all to do with their spread-betting and actually does
make any game interesting). Portsmouth beat Cardiff 1-0. That night the boys
went out on the town, I've no idea what time Terry came back to the boat but
at 5am we were woken by Gary and John climbing on board - they had given up
trying to find Pat's villa and being chased by dogs and they were badly in
need of somewhere to sleep and at least knew where we were! The next day Pat
turned up with his arms and knees badly grazed, minus flip flops, sun
glasses and a broken Blackberry phone - oops! Still everyone was still
smiling - just!
3. 21 May. Kalkan to Fethiye. 41nm
We went back the way we had come to make a long awaited rendezvous with Wayne and Angie on 'Hitrapia' whom we had first met in northern Spain in 2005 and again in Cadiz in 2006. They had wintered along the coast in Kemer and despite our promises to meet up over the winter period, it never quite materialised what with them crewing for a friend across the Atlantic and us going back to the UK for 3 weeks for a second time. We were keen to meet up as they are headed back west, eventually to the USA and we are staying east and it would probably be a long time before we got to see each other again. They came aboard for the long-promised curry to return their hospitality in Cadiz. A couple of days later they were involved in a nasty incident with a charter boat that was having anchoring problems. Unfortunately they motored so close to Hitrapia's bow that they managed to catch Hitrapia's anchor chain either with their anchor or on their keel. As they snatched Hitrapia in tow, Wayne went forward to fend off as their bow was heading straight for the charter boats' stern quarter. I was watching through the binoculars as Wayne stuck his bare foot out to fend off and I was thinking -'No, don't do that, we know a guy who lost his big toe by doing something like that' - but it wasn't his foot that got caught, it was his hand that took a nasty blow as the boats collided. Terry went over to help out and ended up on anchor duty as Wayne was now incapacitated and in some pain with Angie on the helm. They went into the marina and Wayne went off to hospital - nothing broken but very badly bruised. As I write this, he is still having to go back to the hospital for further treatment as they are not happy with his progress. Angie took statements form the charterers who admitted liability, but Sunsail have been trying to wriggle out of it, so they are going through their insurance company.
4. 31 May - 30 June - Fethiye Bay/ Gocek/ Skopia Limani/ Rhodes
We spent the next month
flitting around the Fethiye Bay - a perfect cruising
ground - learning more about Roam II and the way she sails. We made a trip
over to Rhodes on my birthday for those essential supplies of cheap wine,
bacon, pork and diesel (although the price of diesel has gone up
significantly over winter in Greece). We were surprised to find 'Eve'
from Yat Marina there with a crew of Eve (Israeli skipper) Karen and Kev of
Nisroc and Paul and Gabby of Balena and Ganova. They were all
on a run
to
re-new visas as well as a bit of shopping. We had an impromptu Cockpit party
to celebrate my birthday and then went into Rhodes town for Gyros and to
find our little bar run by a very kindly man with twinkly eyes - Manolos.
Having stocked up and sunk lower in the water, we left Rhodes and had a brilliant sail back. The forecast was for westerly 5-6 which soon materialised. We ended up poled out wing and wing downwind edging 8 knots. True to Aegean sailing you can be bowling along one minute and then find yourself in a wind hole but surrounded by white water. We were pelted into Fethiye bay as the winds curled round the western headland and then found ourselves becalmed for 20 minutes, only for the wind to pick up again from the south (pole down ).
We got back to Fethiye to get updates from Hitrapia on the state of Waynes hand and the damage to the pulpit following the collision. The hospital was advising Wayne to rest his hand completely for 6 weeks doing only a bit of physio. the insurance company though, had passed their case on to the appropriate people who were pursuing both Sunsail and the yacht owners to ensure settlement of their claim.
It
was also time for Euro 2008 and as you may realise Terry does not miss a
football tournament for anyone. We found a great cafe in Fethiye with beers
at 2.50 ytl each - they even got a bigger tv for us! As England had not
qualified, it was easy for us to adopt Turkey - and what a good choice! they
pulled all the rabbits out of all of the hats to fin themselves in the
semi-final against Germany. They played well above themselves but were
beaten by some clinical German finishing.
Terry's friend Mark who had
been with us in Kalkan for the cup final visited
Turkey again, this time with his beautiful Russian girlfriend Elina who is
from YeKaterinburg in central Russia, 1000km east of Moscow in the Urals and
nearly in Siberia. She is a very smart Opthalmologist as well as a great
sport. We took them sailing for a day and had another great sail - beating
out of Fethiye to a swim stop at Red Island. She didn't bat an eye lid, even
though she had never been on a sailing boat before! we also took Wayne and
Angie who seemed grateful of the chance to get out of the stuffy marina and
give Waynes had a work out.
Off to Boynuz Buku now to meet up with our temporary crew, Jeff and Lesley for a couple of weeks.
