Monthly Archives: July 2010

Busta move – beeline toward marmaris

Up with the fishing boats in a windless cove. Pretty warm sleeping when the wind goes dormant. Engines it is, off the hook and underway Christine at the helm I crashed back out for a few hours. When I woke up we had already covered the previous days track.

Rounded the corner and flew the jib as long as we were right next to the shore.

Since we were making such good time we passed up our intended destination and went ashore in Turuck Bozu another cove outside of marmaris.

Dropped the hook and went swimming to cool off. Shifty winds but lots of swing room. Even when the gullet swung around.

Went a shore and that’s where the fun began. Exploring the town and checking out the tourist knickknacks. Time fer a beer after all that activity and Christine still keep looking for bargains.

On the must have list was some Turkish dance music and we were just passing a cd store with a bar next door, how convenient. There was a girl out in front of the bar (in a bikini and cover up) and there were so many choices in the cd shop how to pick a good one. Wayne and I suggested Christine ask her if the cd was a good choice since she was busting a move on the side walk. Then the hard sale from the bar announcer that we should have a beer there. Christine said sure while she was going to check out the other shops.

The girl out front was in a bikini with a mesh cover up. Easily mistaken for a pole dancer. So after the hard selling doorman convinced us to patronize his establishment asked if it was okay that they join us. At least the doorman spoke some English but even with that we knew something was up. Of course we rolled with it and tried to exchange names. Long story short they were trying to get me to say something in Turkish that would lead upstairs or something. Lots of laughter as I wasn’t playing along. And then another older gentleman came by and we were all introduced and the girl left with him. Very strange vibe for bar on the street corner or brothel – whatever you want to call it.

Christine returned form shopping and I had a short conversation with some English ladies that were vacationing on one of the gullets that was parked outside. And we headed back to the boat with the marmaris marina as the destination.

The plan was to make it that much easier to clean it up on Sunday. We called the marina on the VHF and asked the “marineros” for help coming in. As soon as they came up to us the said the marina was full. So a change in plans we’d anchor out in a cove by the marina. No big deal still a short ride in the morning.

Dropped the hook relaxed a bit nice breeze blowing. Needed to get some distilled water for the watermaker. Christine and I took the dingy into the store.

Wayne put away a few things and thought about dropping the jib while we were gone. Good thing he waited it took all of us to keep it from blowing over the side and then to flake it onto the sail bag.

Wayne and I put a REALLY big dent in the case of beer we had left (finished off a case and got “rat faced” as our British friends say. Christine was somehow putting up with us. We decided to clean up and head over to the marina for a bite to eat. Wayne showered off the back giving a fine show to the guests on the gullet that had anchored on our port-side. It was dusk but there were lots of hollering coming from the gullet with comments like “turn around shy boy” etc. Too much fun.

Loaded up the dingy and headed to grab a bite to eat. As we were walking across the marina I mentioned to Christine, “I shouldn’t be in public”. Then we all shared some dinner and the waiters even said we’d had been drinking the Efes.

Christine is convinced that something was slipped into our drinks at that brothel bar earlier. We made it back to the boat and hung out on the trampolines under the stars before retiring for the eve.

Sleepless in turkey

After a long evening of anchor watch Wayne came to releive me. 15 min checks and anchor alarm were all for not the nights big winds only lasted the early part of the knight.

It was another trawler day into the wind to check out bozdurn. A little place across the bay. Knowing that it was pretty much a motor sail we left the sails down and motored toward the wind. We had hoped that we could use the wind after crossing the point but once inside the big bay the wind was virtually non-existent. So the motoring continued.

Bozburn was a little town back in the far corner of the bay. Almost as soon as we entered the bay the wind picked up. It’s real strange out in the open there was little wind but as soon as you are in confined spaces the wind picks up. No problem here lots of room to anchor.

Picked a sweet spot,dropped the hook and it set on 3meters of water. Re-checking the charts and guide we were right between a couple of other boats. Oh and a small reef. So given the perpesities for shifts we moved to another spot in much deeper water 20m. Then we went exploring the waterfront.

Found 3 grocery stores,the trash and a bunch of nice restaurants. The catamaran from last night was also tied up in the marina, not gonna be on anchor tonight. Bought some groceries and more beers and headed back to the boat to take the trash ashore. A little jello and cold beverages on deck before showering up to go ashore for dinner.

A dingy came by and asked if everything was okay as they were the ones from the catamaran. Very nice to come by and ask.

We are perpetually early for dinner time but world cup was on so we watched a good game even if brazil did loose.

Stayed for a nice dinner. They even had lobster on the menu or was that on a leash. The kept them on a string hanging off the dock. Met some nice people form Manxheiter who full Tim cruisers and had stayed the prevois night in the first place we scoped put.
They had no winds to speak of while we had those bursts that caused their anchor to slip.

Made an early night of it because we needed to get an early start to get back closer to marmaris the following day. Bozburn was a very quiet bay, no clubs,no ferries just a few fisherman in unmuffled single cylinders just a puttin in

Trawler like

With yesterdays lack of forward progress (towards the wind) and the fact that our windward behave like GPSs and always are pointing where we want to go, we left the sails down and motored west into the wind.

Tried the first little cove, 100m deep,windhowlin @19 – was taking 50% throttle to just hold position without blowing about. Decided to try the other one round the corner.

Much better 30m deep, more boats but we got the anchor to hold right next to this other catamaran that passed us on the way here when we turned into the previous cove.

Anchor set means jello. And boat babes,here that means the ones that row out to your boat to sell you trinkets. It’s hardly fair the one with the outboard always gets there first. Definitely cuter than the west indies boat boys.

At some point I was going to have to check the zincs on the props. Put a couple of toes in the water and decided now was not the time. Cold beer or two later the water wasn’t so bad.

One quick look at the props and no wonder we weren’t motoring as fast as we could. The bottom of the boat was pretty clean but lots of growth was on the props.

The boat came with snuba so what better reason to try it out. Worked like a champ but sinking in salt water is not easy when one hand has to hold the boat and one the brush to clean the prop.

Boat chores completed time for cold drinks and a dingy cruise around the cove. Swung by the big boats scoped out the shops and restaurants from the water. There are no roads to here. No telephone lines No power lines but yet there are 4 restaurants.

We picked the one furthest from where we anchored only because there was a citadel at the top of the mountain behind it. We climbed up there and believe we saw the places the workers sleep in. Great views awesome location but rugged at best, would be considered camping.

After the hike cold beers are needed so we stopped in at the “open air cafe” for a beverage. Met some nice folks there from England and Sweeden whom we probably see in marmaris in a couple of days (Leif and Martin were on a triller and came from Montinego)

Back to the boat for dinner. Supposed to be grilled chicken, but couldn’t safely figure out how to light the grill. So with the garlic that we picked up from the night before – chicken pasta it was.

Relaxing after dinner, lounging about and the winds pick up. We anchored pretty close to shore in hopes that there would not be a wind shift. WELL it shifted but not enough to cause problems for us. Enough tho that we were keeping an eye out and trying to set alarms if we got to close to shore.

In a burst of energy Wayne goes running forward. We weren’t moving but the catamaran that used to beside us before the wind shift was now being blown down on us. They jumped up from their dinner when they saw our lights and grabbed fenders. Wayne had also got one of our big fenders out and saved the bow from contact. The other boat fired up the engines and tried to motor off to reset their anchor but got hooked on our anchor line. Luckily it was only for a couple seconds.

The winds died down but still were shifty, the other catamaran anchored across the bay. All is good but I’m on watch just to be sure for another couple hours.