Meltemi mayhem, crossed anchors and rally friends

Posted at 10:57 AM, Sep. 27, 2010

At the last posting we were at Ekincik an uninspiring holiday community at the head of the bay east of the Dalyan area. I think the only reason for stopping here is to enable a visit to what is one of the best areas for visiting tombs that we have seen in Turkey carved right out of the hillside. Having inched in under radar late the previous night we were surprised how many yachts appeared on anchor as dawn broke. Still we were on a mission to get up to Leros for our booked haulout so onwards and northwards was the order of the day. Our next planned stop was a sheltered bay called Serce Limani which is about 20 miles or so along the peninsular from Marmaris and about 35 miles from Ekincik. Wind from the NW was not co-operative in achieving a fast or direct passage and it was again going to be  a longish day in the office working upwind. After days of headwinds the meltemi broke out an unwanted welcome, so late afternoon we abandoned the Serce Limani idea still a few miles short, and as we were just off Ciftlik (with its big resort hotels) and with the pilot showing another meltemi sheltered anchorage virtually the nect bay at Gerbekse we opted to drop sails and motor in for a look. Gerbekse is a long narrow inlet with ruins and a church at its head and quite an attractive spot. Several other yachts were there and in typical Turkish style were anchored (on each side of the very attractive and deep water bay) with sterns tied off ashore.                                                                                                                                                                       One advantage of having Volker on board is that he gets plenty of chances to swim a line ashore and tie us off and again that was the case here. As the evening unfolded and we barbequed on deck the wind was building and building and we were only a few metres off the rocks on the leeward side. So we are sitting in the cockpit in the dark having finished dinner and I was expressing the view that we should either relocate to the other side of the bay or maintain anchor watch all night as I was not happy with our position or more so with the lack of any margin if we dragged. As a big gust hit (I think this bay is very prone to katabatic wind effects) everything broke loose – the 51 yacht immediately on starboard dragged, they had two lines astern and nine on board so all hell broke out there, the yacht two along on our port side broke free and was swept sideways onto the rocks. While observing the carnage a few minutes later I could see that our anchor was slowly dragging so it was a very quick drop of the stern line and motor out retrieiving our anchor and keeping clear of other boats. Volker and Alice dinghied in to retrieve the stern line while I avoided other yachts that were variously gunning motors and not fully in control. We finally got Volker and Alice on board, the dinghy in tow and in my view when shxt happens the best place to be is at sea. And so it was that at 2330 hrs we dropped anchor in the first bay after the lighthouse as one enters the Marmaris area got a good hold and slept. We do not know what happened to the yacht swept against the rocks but the water was deep so I do not think there would have been any issues with the hull working on the keel and there was a 13 metre power boat right next to them that had their floodlightds on and were assisting. For us to assist in a narrow bay and being a big boat we had very little manoeuvring room and with other boats also on the move it was dangerous for us to stay in my opinion, although in the light of day I did reflect on this the next morning.

                   Coming through the entrance into Serce Limani

The next day (with the meltemi in good form we headed off upwind again to Serce Limani – finally nosed into there mid-afternoon and picked up a restaurant mooring buoy for the night. There were a line of buoys and we were hanging free but when the next yacht arrived and picked up the buoy next to us we were compelled to run a stern line ashore as the buoys are close together. So blowing like hell and sitting on an unknown restaurant buoy again only a few metres from the lee shore. Not comfortable but the locals assured us the concrete holding the chain to the buoy was up to the job and so it proved to be the case. Volker and Alice went ashore for dinner at the “restaurant” (and this is a generous description) were the only guests and were charged an extraordinary 140 lire (about NZD130). That is the restaurant at the western end of the bay and we did note that more boats were at the eastern end – where there is also a restaurant.

     Alice & Volker taken ashore for dinner by restaurant boss

                       And so to the restaurant - Serce LImani

A few days later we got an email from John and Jan Wood on their Hanse 531 to say they were in Serce Limani and where we? They were there on the Sunday while we had been there the previous Friday so missed them by a couple of days.

From Serce Limani we motored around to the next bay Bozuk Buku to check it out. This is wider and larger bay, a citadel at its entrance, several restaurants and with space to free anchor at its head – much preferred in my view particularly when the meltemi is blowing hard. This would be my preference to Serce Limani in meltemi conditions.  It was here that we unexpectedly spotted the Austrian rally yacht Gorodish with our friends Helmut and Christiane on board as they had being since the start of the rally. Had a chat with them and agreed to meet up with them at Panormitis (Monastery) Bay a most beautiful bay, and a favourite spot for us, at the bottom SW corner of the Greek island of Symi. Had a good sail for the 15 miles across to Symi and spent a few hours at Panormitis Nay swimming and buying bread from the monks before  then sailing around to the town on Symi about 12 miles up the eastern side of the island. On arrival at Symi discovered bedlam again as two yachts had got their anchors fouled with that of a 90 ft British motor yacht and they were all hovering and yelling in the middle of the harbour. Nothing for us to do but drift around for an hour or so until eventually the port police called us into an anchorage – given that we had not legally departed Turkey and thus not entered Greece we were aiming for a low key and relatively anonymous arrival but that was not to be. Got shown into a position well onto the quay and directly in front (like maybe 10 metres) of what appeared to be a delightful bar and café. This turned out to the “hot” place in town so when the music finally stopped at 0430 hrs we managed a few hours sleep – and fortunately no further interaction with the port police.

                        Gulets on Symi town waterfront

Over the last few days we had been in touch with David Maithlin off Timeout and Goran and Birgitta off Kenavo both rally yachts that we were keen to meet up with. David was suggesting that we meet them at Palamut – when I txted him back and said the pilot only shows 2.5 metres at the entrance his response was that he spoken with the harbour master and that there was 3 metres at the entrance but keep to the middle. So from Symi we   motored the 10 miles across to Datca in Turkey which is a port of entry, anchored and used Ahmed (lived four years at Byron Bay) of Knidos Yachting to handle our clearances out of Turkey which he did most efficiently and cheaply at 70 lire (compared with EUR190 we were charged by the marina at Bodrum). He was recommended to us by David who in turn had been given his name by Semyra who turned out to be the delightful owner of a restaurant in Palamut. After the clearance out of Turkey we sailed and then motored westwards to Palamut to meet up with Timeout. Arriving there late afternoon we were greeted by David and the harbour master at the entrance and slowly motored in with 200 under the keel (and fortunately no offending rocks) and then into the one remaining (and deepest) space that had been reserved for us on the quay. It transpired that David and Timeout have had several visits here this season and I suspect if he is there much longer he will be encouraged to stand for mayor – he seemed to have the locals and place pretty well soused out. So it was a memorable night at the old stone building that houses Semyra’s restaurant and an excellent meal had by the Savarna and Timeout teams. Highly recommended.

The little harbour was fill that night with yachts even anchored out into the entrance so David did a very good job with the harbour master for us. The following day I had booked an engine service with Babis Markou (our engineer at Kos) for 0930 hrs so we needed a 0700 start and no meltemi to get us into Kos somewhere near that time. The entertainment we provided seemed to wake up the whole bay as the bows of most boats had people standing watching our departure. This was somewhat delayed as we had a very nice stainless anchor jammed into our anchor and some relatively grumpy owners of said anchor (they were even grumpy when we arrived the previous evening). Anyway after what seemed like hours with helpful advice from onshore Volker managed to finally lever the offending anchor off ours and then grumpy and company got quite demanding as to where we should drop it again. All this in a very small harbour with basically no depth under us but fortunately not blowing. The first fouled anchor we have had in six years but it had to happen one day.

                Windmills above Symi town - a favourite spot

Arriving back into Kos where we had left from 5 months earlier was like coming home in a way as we know the town and marina well, know people there, Babis was waiting for us and we know the ropes for clearing into Greece (despite that still took most of the afternoon). We had plenty of warnings about diesel quality on the rally and where to buy and where not to and we followed the advice. Despite that after about 170 hrs under motor over the 5 months the fuel filters were heavily clogged. The motor has been smoking a bit of light grey smoke so hopefully the service will tidy that up – post service I can still get full revs so I conclude that the supply side is ok and the injectors are ok. As Kos is our penultimate stop we took the opportunity to get the laundry lady (the marina one not Pam) onto the job and start thinking about decommissioning the boat for the winter.

Plenty of txts from Goran and Birgitta as their refrigeration system packed up while they were still in Marmaris so they are in catch up mode and hoping to get to us at Leros. Also picked up some rally gossip – Hasan has apparently resigned his position at Alanya marina and now is going to work at Kas to complete the marina development there.

That’s it for now – plenty of windward sailing, plenty of reefs in and reefs out but weather still warm at 30 degrees, cloudless days and water dropping off from the warm 29 degrees south to around 25 degrees here. As I have said before this has to be the best area of the Med for late season cruising.

One major achievement was to finally (after five years) commission the Italian diving machine we have on board. This sits in the garage and basically pumps air down a 10 metre tube so permits you to spend extended time under water if need be. It works really well and as we do not scuba dive it has proved quite an experience getting to grips with this piece of kit and using it. But real cool! I lay under the boat and cleaned the prop the other day with no problems. If we had got into gear with this earlier it would have made the net clearing exercise off Cyprus a whole lot quicker and easier. So thanks Steve for that motivation and input.

Cheers

Keith