01/06/09 Well, I finally cast off the shore and pushed it away! I was aiming to be away around 2pm but the office in Marmaris Yacht Marine had different ideas. I've always known and said, that the administrative side of the operation was in dire need of overhaul, and today proved it. Over the last 18 months, the office have 'lost' my papers on three separate occasions. Today they demanded money for my haul out in March of last year....which of course I had already paid last March. There was no record of the transaction on their system and it was fortunate that I still had the receipt and credit card slip. Then came the argument about how much electricity I had used. All in all, a simple check out of the marina - which should have taken 10 minutes - took some two and a half hours. At 1710hrs, I at last managed to make my way out into the bay, assisted by Astrid, and we motored across the bay and around the nearby island before making for the anchorage off Magic Life holiday resort. Roger came over and we all had a celebratory bacardi and coke before heading back into the marina by RIB for a meal and pint.
02/06/09 Woke to the peace and tranquillity of the anchorage! Sat in the cockpit with my morning coffee - have to get used to using gas again instead of simply switching on the kettle. A relaxing 'do nothing' sort of day, just watching the world go by on water ski's!
03/06/09 Peace ruined this morning by the arrival of a Turkish gulet which, unbelievably, anchored so close to me that I could almost see the brush marks in it's varnish. Against my better judgement, I went over to Storm Dodger for coffee, only to have to rush back as the gulet swung on it's anchor into my boat. My angry comments to the crew only brought a response of "What's the problem?" What's the problem?.......are you totally stupid, why have you anchored so bloody close, you asshole.......a totally incompetent and selfish skipper was the problem!! The rest of the day spent on edge, just waiting for the next collision - and the skipper has buggered off to Istanbul for a couple of days! I would move - but fifty metres of chain is difficult to pull up by hand - and there are few places left to anchor which are clear of other boats now. With the amount of chain carried by gulets, he could easily have anchored much further out, away from the yachts already here. My thoughts about Turkish skippers and their seamanship skills are unprintable. T*ss**s!!
04/06/09
Another run in with the gulet this morning......his dinghy was alongside my boat and I could easily step onto his passerelle and board him. He then cottoned on that his skipper had anchored much too close, upped anchor and moved to another spot.
Commissioned my watermaker by running it for two hours, product water tastes fine and around 60 litres went into the tank, so a good result on that one.
Picked up Angie and Karen from the beach, Roger came over and we weighed anchor at 11am and motored out to sea before hoisting sail - a couple of hours in winds reaching F5 before coming back for a motor around Marmaris Bay and returning to the anchorage at 5pm. A very enjoyable day which also highlighted some minor problems that have now been added to my 'to do' list.
09/06/09 Another gloriously sunny day at anchor - getting on with some of the minor jobs onboard....fixing a broken air vent, sanding and varnishing, stowing things that flew around during the day sail, repairing broken drawer locks, solving a VHF problem etc. The Manson anchor is holding well (20+knts of wind yesterday), the water tank is full, my radar has been calibrated, chart plotter works fine, depth sounder is showing me in 16 mtrs of water, wi-fi signal is more than adequate with the new antenna and the solar panel is keeping my batteries full of wrigglies. Roger came over with his diving gear and scraped the propeller and some of the garden weeds from the bottom for me - the sides I can do myself.....either tomorrow or the next day.
12/06/09 Scraping barnacles from just below the waterline when Joyce phoned from the beach at Magic Life. Went ashore in the rub-a-dub to collect her, then joined onboard by Roger and Astrid for a morning of chatting and swimming. Evening spent in the bar at Yacht Marine with Pete and Dottie who have returned to Marmaris from the Greek Isles onboard Roseanne.
13/06/09 More scraping of barnacles.....diving with mask and snorkel. Winds around 13knts kept bumping me against the hull - and those barnacles are sharp!! Gave up and talked to my boy David online for a while - the first time we've managed it and it was great! Even managed a video link up!!
14/06/09 Two weeks out at anchor - still got water and electric!!
Another Trident Marine boat is anchored next to me, Andromeda - a French flagged Voyager which has travelled from the Pacific to here. I looked up his details on the Warrior Owner's site.
I was initially intrigued by his dinghy - a tiny but very efficient, wood and fibreglass self built one which needed a large anchor in the bow to counteract the weight of the outboard! I was later to learn, that it was in fact very heavy and the reason why it had to be raised and lowered by use of a spinnaker pole.
Back in the UK, the once mighty Avro Vulcan bomber will be taking to the skies once more, as part of an air display. XH558, pictured right, is the only remaining flyable Vulcan and I would love to have seen her fly today. I have great memories of the "Warbird" displays at West Malling airfield before 'they' turned this famous RAF airfield into a grotty housing estate.
15/06/09 An interesting chat with Yvan, the owner and skipper of Andromeda, invited aboard Storm Dodger for a sundowner. As I said yesterday, he has travelled here from the Pacific, what we didn't know was the speed in which he had done it - and the circumstances. A very modest young man, he had left Phuket in Thailand and sailed non-stop to Aden, taking 41 days. Though he had seen no sign of pirates, he did have a worrying collision with a fishing boat. During the 41 days, he had used his engine for a total of 2 hours, opting to drift when there was no wind to sail. His trip up the Red Sea had included tacking into head winds of 35 knots for a distance of 700 nautical miles. He carried 300 litres of diesel and 400 litres of water - losing 200 litres when his tank burst, and limiting himself to 5 litres per day......3 for washing, cooking etc., and 2 for drinking. Considering he only bought the boat in New Caledonia, and with little or no sailing experience, it's quite a remarkable achievement and I have nothing but admiration for him. He plans to leave here in three weeks time and head directly for France - again without stopping en route, before making his way to Paris via the canals. Good luck to you Yvan and fair winds be with you.
16/06/09 I went over to Storm Dodger around 8am to assist Roger and Astrid with moving the boat back into the marina. They were planning to stay in there for one day in order to top up water tanks and fully charge the batteries as an ongoing generator problem was continuing to plague them. However, the windlass packed up when we tried to raise the anchor and we then had to haul up some 60/70 metres of 12mm chain using a rope attached to the genoa winch. On tying up in the marina, Roger and I stripped the windlass to find huge amounts of corrosion but no immediately obvious reason why the gypsy had refused to haul up the chain. It was decided to hand the whole thing over to Mehmet of Çetin Marine to sort out, so we then disconnected all the power supplies and removed the windlass from the deck. On returning to my boat, I was dismayed to see another Turk, in an Oceanis 40CC, had anchored not ten metres off my starboard side - between myself and Andromeda. I fail to understand the mentality of skippers like this.....surely they know that boats swing in different arcs when at anchor, dependent on keel configuration, topside windage, length of scope deployed and many other considerations. Sure enough, when the wind died about mid-night, our sterns almost touched and only a shout from me alerted him to the fact. He didn't move though, just hauled up about 15 metres of chain which pulled him away a little. The mind boggles!
17/06/09 Rub-a-dubbed to the marina and tied up to Storm Dodger. Caught the dolmuş into town for some shopping and met up with Joyce for lunch. Plans are to sail within the next two days, Joyce coming for the ride, around to Orhaniye and surrounding area. Things took a little longer than anticipated and I hadn't turned on my anchor light before leaving - so it was dark when I phut-phutted out of the marina loaded with bags of goodies. I was immediately hailed by someone in the darkness, and I motored over to the dim shape of another dinghy. The German couple onboard had broken down and asked for a tow back to their boat which was in the anchorage. I happily obliged but hoped that my engine would hold out under the strain (I don't trust it!). They invited me onboard for a beer which I had to decline as my frozen stuff was in danger of becoming a soggy mess in the bottom of my rucksack. At least the Oceanis 40 had gone and I could relax without fear of a bump in the night!
19/06/09 Helped Roger out yesterday by splicing anchor rope for his secondary anchor. Shortly after returning to my boat, he radioed me and said the windlass had been returned. I jumped in the dinghy and motored back to the marina - remembering to switch on my anchor light even though it was still broad daylight, and helped him to refit it to the foredeck. Problems with both the generator and main engine still continue and it may be a few days before we can sail in company. A few drinks during the evening - and before we realised, it was 3am! Motored back to my boat without incident. Spent this morning pottering around with a few minor jobs onboard, mainly stowing small items that hadn't previously got a home, temperatures are high and the coolest place is the saloon at 37oC - other than having a swim of course!
20/06/09 Similar to yesterday, gave Roger a hand with several jobs that need to be completed before he can leave the marina, Çetin Marine sorting out the main engine and generator problems.
Leah had spent ages decorating a cake for me ('cos it's my birthday today!), so we sat in the cockpit and ate that with a cup of coffee.
21/06/09 The longest day. Collected Joy from the beach at Magic Life just after 8am, finished off some of my own jobs before weighing anchor at 10.15 and motoring slowly across the bay while waiting for Storm Dodger to leave the marina. Lo and behold.....the wretched depth sounder has died again and reads 0 metres - bloody useless Navico instruments! We then motored out of the bay in company and set a course SW along the coast, motoring into a moderate swell with winds increasing to just under 30 knts - on the nose of course. At 16.15 we entered the bay at Serçe and picked up one of the restaurant buoys, had a couple of drinks and ate ashore.
22/06/09 Slipped at 0715 and continued along the coast, rounding Karaburun at 0900 and heading north toward Hisaronu Korfezi. Hoisted all sail, but with very little wind and a flat calm sea, boat speed only increased by 1 knot. Dropped anchor off Orhaniye at 1615. Stripped out the depth sounder computer module and fitted my spare one - it now works again, but for how long this time?
23/06/09 My view from the cockpit this morning!
It's a terrible life......the things we have to put up with!
Ferried Joy into Marti Marina in the rub-a-dub so that she could catch the dolmuş home to Marmaris around 1pm, had a little kip in the cool (38oC) of the saloon, then helped Storm Dodger to moor against the wooden pontoon of Kadir Restaurant at the head of the bay before returning to Rhumb Do for dinner, shower and bed.
24/06/09 Astrid came out to Rhumb Do by RIB for a swim, then helped me to weigh anchor and move the boat a half mile or so to Kadir Restaurant, mooring alongside Storm Dodger - this is the first time the two boats have actually been moored together. Had a drink ashore with a few of the guys....it's like we've moved Yacht Marine to Orhaniye....there's Luturna, Odin, Roam II, Esper, Divanty, Storm Dodger and Rhumb Do!!
28/06/09 Slipped and motored out of the bay at mid-day - Navico doing the normal 'pack up' routine on the way out. On turning west, the wind was (as always in the Med), bang on the nose and the sea quickly turned from reasonable, to a very short, steep 'chop', the bow burying itself into each wave and sluicing along the side decks whilst spray came over the entire boat. Making headway was tedious and boring, and I contemplated turning back on several occasions. I finally dropped anchor in the south bay at Datca at quarter past six with Storm Dodger anchoring about a 300 metres away. Oddly, the depth sounder started working again when in water less than 10 metres deep but the speed log, which goes through the same module, has ceased to function!
30/06/09 Following a day of rest yesterday, weighed anchor at 0615 and made our way east along the coast, in flat calm conditions, to the headland at Knidos before turning due North and heading up between Kos and the Turkish mainland. The wind, as expected, turned westerly and both boats made a pleasant passage under genoa alone toward Bitez, anchoring there at 1630. It's two years ago that I was anchored in the same spot for several days. We all went ashore for our evening meal - but my usual restaurant had changed - and the normal bar had disappeared.
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