Marmaris to Bozburum

Posted at 8:05 PM, Jun. 13, 2009

It is now Friday 12 June and we are anchored off the small town of Bozburum with quite a number of other yachts – after again just another cloudless day, light winds and around 30 degrees. It is now Friday 12 June and we are anchored off the small town of Bozburum with quite a number of other yachts – after again just another cloudless day, light winds and around 30 degrees.

Got a most interesting haircut in Marmaris for very little money with the interesting part being the blowtorch to the ears to presumably burn out those hairs that seem to arrive in odd places as one gets older. This treatment was followed immediately by the application of a soothing salve to both ears and it was needed.

Nevertheless there always seems to be more jobs to do, provisioning takes the best part of a day and cycling around Marmaris on our bikes is always a pleasure.  So by Tuesday and as our marina contract had expired and we were onto a daily rate, which in our case was EUR63 a day, so we left wnad went across to Yacht Marine 2.5 miles away on the other side of the bay. We met up there with Ted and Jenny from Mt Maunganui, on their yacht Elixir, who we have been corresponding with for a year or more. Ted is a fellow yot blogger. Unfortunately they had fallen victims to a stomach bug so other than a few brief chats we deferred the drinks until we expect to meet up again when our paths should cross somewhere in the Greek islands.

The set up at Yacht Marine is good with a huge haulout yard and all the marine services around the perimeter. The upshot being that I was able to get a boat builder for an hour or so to cut through some timber work in a cupboard under the sink and also drill a hole in the corian benchtop so I could install a foot pump to feed a salt water tap at the sink. Unfortunately once that was done the chandlery did not have the correct size of reinforced hosing so the pump remains disconnected at this stage. The good news is that friends from Auckland are joining us in Bodrum next Tuesday and a quick text got the hosing order in train – so hopefully the installation is now only a few days away. This should reduce our fresh water usage considerably.

After a couple of nights at EUR30 at Yacht Marine we headed off into a 10 knot NW - thinking this was a nice gentle breeze to get all the sails up and ensure that everything in the horsepower department was in order. By the time we had got into open waters off Marmaris the wind went to the SW and was up around 16 knots making for a good sail, albeit on the wind. By the time we were a few miles offshore with the wind gusting to the low 20’s I figured there must be a lift off the peninsular inshore so we tacked back and crossed paths, about 30 metres apart, with a 120 ft Australian superyacht trucking along in great style. As we continued on for several miles, by which time we had tacked back onto starboard and hooked into a 40-degree lift I could see the Australian yacht headed into oblivion on a huge knock and commented to Pam that if they tacked back now we would be in front of them. Anyway the wind strength climbed into the late 20’s with the occasional 30 knots and with one reef in and half the jib rolled away, and with the wind still on the nose, we finally ended up at our destination – namely a bay called Serce that was not unlike entering Fitzroy harbour at Great Barrier island and picked up a mooring for the night. The big news was though that shortly after we arrived the Australian yacht arrived and after they had anchored I noticed they cruised past our stern in their dinghy and I was sure they were checking to see whether it was the same boat they had crossed tacks with a few hours earlier. The broken gear count was not too bad with one batten broken and one batten pocket split apart. Fortunately I carry spares and a repair job was completed this morning and the remaining batten cars checked over so I do not expect a recurrence. The result of a pretty solid first day under way, 35 miles covered, and a great way to check all sail handling systems – bit tough on the body given the fact of a surgeons scalpel in my stomach 3 weeks back

At each end of the bay there is a restaurant and one restaurateur came out to see us and commented that business was very slow this year so it will be interesting to see the extent to which the lure of great weather has been impacted by the R word. One if the locals came by and persuaded Pam to buy a nice piece of something that could be a sarong or a tablecloth of maybe it is both?? She also bought a nice piece of local ceramic that we will be able to store in a locker somewhere and throw away in a year or two!

                        Bozburum waterfront scene dominated by the mosque