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.

Deep blue

Beautiful day. Still no Internet access but we carry on. There were places to connect but that would have cost money and there was really no pressing need to get online.

Lovely night in a small cove, two other boats on anchor. We took the dingy ashore seemed like a nice place to walk the beach and there was a interesting fort looking thing that was a hike up a hill. Dingy a shore no problem everyone smiled we walked on their rocky stretch of beach. Found the trail to the lookout, hiked past an ampitheater and on to the top. As soon as we got there the smiley security guard said, “No no is forbidden”. We said sorry and followed him down the mountain and were then “escorted” off their property.

On the way down we noticed all the other people had orange wrist bands on – guess it was a private club – err well yes that’s what the name on the big resort looking building said.

After getting eclipsed from the club there were other places on our side of the fence to visit so we started that direction. Just to be sure I went back to ask our escort out if the rest was ok to visit. A smile and a “yes yes no problem” we checked out the rest of the cove.

Shops and markets and of course lots of places to eat. Every where we go they are surprised that we are Americans. The Turks speak great English for the UK visitors. Found a nice place with a bay view for a couple cold beers and appetizers with thoughts of dinner on the boat. Appetizers ended up being enough.

Back to the boat for a beer or two. Slept in, sometime overnight a 3rd boat anchored in the bay

Yahooooo is yaHoooooo in any language

Well after a very long day of sailing you can tell by our track that we didn’t make it very far!

Early start was not meant to be. The marina got backed up trying to get folks out of the marina. You do have to get their help as they need the paperwork to let you out. So out by noon then tacked across the bay as a sailboat. In the channel the winds freaked and stopped so we ghosted along and had lunch breakfast tacos. Then fired up the engines to clear the lee of the island.

After cleaning up lunch, the wind had come up, time to sail. It’s a sail boat after all. The main was still up at 1 reef so we were good till 25 kn of wind it was gusting till 23 so life was good. The further offshore/course we got the faster it blew. Eventually hitting the dreaded 30kn mark that means another reef. So we are double reefed main and jib and still doing 10kn but not toward the destination. Lots of fun but no forward progress, sailors call it VMG.

Tacking practice will make perfect, here the Jib Sheet gets hung so the jib gets a little back winded for a couple of seconds.

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After a couple more practice tacks

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