August 2008 - Turkey and Greece
August 31, 2008
We had a great 45nm downwind sail with 20-25 kt winds on Friday to Yesilkoy Limani near Kalkan, Turkey. It continued to blow in the anchorage but we were close in and a good anchor bite. Yesterday we had another fantastic downwind 30 nm sail. It's so fun not burning diesal and lots quieter. We anchored in Ucagiz Limani at Kekova Roads. Again the wind howled so we didn't leave the boat until this morning. We Went into the village and got bread and fruit. We met a nice young Jadarm (State Police) doing his 3 years of military service. He's a college student in Toronto Canada. He'll finish his 3 year service soon and return to college. He had a friend who didn't do his service and wasn't allowed back into Turkey even for his father's funeral. He's said knowing English so well gave him this easy assignment in a tourist area. Some of his friends have to fight PKK.
We moved to another anchorage in the area, Karaloz. It was like a miniature fjord with steep rocky slopes, maquis, goats... The water was crystal clear easily seeing the bottom down 10 m (30ft) We had lunch and then had a great time snorkling. Lots of little fish and interesting underwater rock formations along the sides of the bay. It's a beautiful all around sheltered anchorage but unfortunately we were told the huge wasps invade in the evening and early morning. We had already experienced a few of this ugly pesky things through out the afternoon and couldn't imagine dealing with 1000's of them! So we left about 5:30 and came back to the anchorage we were in last night. Hope everyone is enjoying a wonderful Labor Day weekend. Just think two years ago I was sure I'd be back ready to start teaching again by September 2008:-)
Love Sally and Al
August 28, 2008
I can't believe it's been over ten days since I wrote a log. I've been busy returning emails and didn't realize I didn't send a group one. We spent five days on Simi Island between two anchorages Panormittis and Pethi. We enjoyed swimming and hiking around. We had a nice sail to Rhode, Greece but the wind really picked up by the time we arrived. No room at Mandraki Harbor in Old Town so we went to an unfinished harbor a couple of miles away Rhodes Marina. We dropped a stern anchor and tied our bow to the western quay. The wind blows over the island from the west so we were quiet except when ship traffic sent a swell into the harbor. It was about half hour walk into Old Town. We never walked the same way so we really got to know the area. Car rental was 60 Euro a day ($90) so we used taxi to do our shopping. We bought wine and beer as it is so expensive in Turkey. We celebrated our 33 anniversary at a nice cafe in Old Town and Al grilled me swordfish for my birthday.
Yesterday we sailed 45 nm to Fethiye, Turkey. Well we had a great sail for four hours and then motored the rest of the way. It was hard to believe 50 miles away it was gale force winds. Today we cleared back into Turkey. It's very hot and humid here even the water temperature is like bath water. We are heading back to Kemer to fly to Istanbul Sept. 10 to meet son Christopher and wife Mary. We plan to be back in Kemer by Sept. 5. Hope everyone is well. I'll try to remember to write my log and we'll have SKYPE in Kemer to call people again.
Love Sally and Al
August 17, 2008
We went up to the Monastary this morning on Tilos. Next we went to Simi Island in Greece. We love Simi but have never visited this bay. It's quite pretty and there is a monastary here also with a beautiful mock Baroque bell tower built in 1905 a copy of a famous bell tower of Agia Foteini in Ismir. The monastary is famous for it's icon of the Archangel Michael, Simi's patron saint and guardian of seafarers. We plan to spend a day or two and hike around the area. Happy Sunday.
Love Sally and Al
August 16, 2008
We had a great sail yesterday from Nisos Kos to Nisos Tilos in Greece. But first we dealt with a little excitement. A cruiser came in just before we left and Al told them not to drop their anchor as they would be over ours. But they dropped it anyway and insisted they weren't over our anchor. They were just taking on water but after an hour we decided we needed to get going. So of course they were over our anchor. It was quite a hair raising experience watching them maneuver at incredible speeds. At one point I covered my eyes knowing I was of no use if they hit us going that fast. Finally as they came inches off of our bow the crew on the cruiser jumped off the swim platform onto our anchor chain knocking their anchor loose as they passed by. Whrew! I think they've done this before.
We headed to the fuel dock to get fuel and our new anchor. Fuel was 1.40 Euro a liter (about $7.80 gallon compared to $11.20 in Turkey). We were pleasantly surprised that we only took 240 liters as we were expecting by engine hours to take close 400 liters. I guess when we motor sail and run the engine at low rpm's we save a lot in fuel consumption. We also picked up our new anchor a 25 kg (55 #) Lewmar Delta Fastset. Our CQR anchors have not been reliable in the Mediterranean. We've talked to many sailor who have sailed around the world with CQR's without a problem until they came into the Med. We anchored in weed, rock and sand last night and she set and held just fine.
We met a nice family from NY city in Kos. They were on a captained yacht a motor sailor "Cavurali" from Finike. When we arrived in Tilos they were at anchor there so we were invited aboard for dinner. This was a 70 ton yacht made of African teak. James (50th birthday gift), Anne, Tess and Adam are vacationing in Turkey and Greece. We had an enjoyable evening. The cook aboard made a wonderful Turkish dinner and we look forward to meeting her captain again Can Tosun Sezen this winter as he lives near Kemer.
Today we visited the little village of Livadhia and then took a bus trip around the island. We plan to sail to Panormittis a bay on the SW corner of Simi tomorrow. Happy weekend.
Love Sally and Al
August 12, 2008
Hi All We decide to come to Greece for a couple of weeks. We cleared into the country at old harbor in Kos. We are moored right below the castle wall. We rented a car here last year and traveled much of the island. Fuel is a lot cheaper here so we'll be filling up. ($8.50 a gallon-Turkey is $11.50) We plan on renting a car and stocking up on the things we miss most in Turkey. Different cheese, pork, non-runny jam, gin... We had great pork gyro lunch today. Can't get that in Turkey. We just came back to the boat after an evening stroll and ice cream! You can't get good ice cream in Turkey either. Lots of people watching from the boat. We'll be ready for a nice quiet anchorage again after a few days of this. Our Greek phone number is 0030 684 151 4909.
Love Sally and Al
August 9, 2008
Hi All We are enjoying an anchorage in an old port Iasos (Asin Limani). It's a quiet little fishing village and we are the only cruising boat here. The hill above the port is covered with ruins including a walled acropolis-fortress. We paid 2 TYL to visit the city's bouleuterion and agora, a gymnasium, a basilica, a Roman temple of Artemis Astias (AD190) We thought that was all there was to see so we walked out of the site and climbed the hill to the fortress. Then we walked out to the harbor entrance to the ruins of an old tower. We decided to continue to walk around the peninsula to circle the fort and look at the next bay over. We were glad we did. We found the most recent excavation the Italians are working on. It's a villa with beautiful intact mosaic floors. Most of the mosaics were geometric designs but one included two wine jugs depicted in the mosaic. We continued around the peninsula and discovered many more buildings, columns, Temple to Zeus. Most of the site is fenced to keep the cows out of the areas that have been excavated. But most of the time we were tromping down cow paths. We've gone as far north as we plan to go so tomorrow we start heading back south. Happy weekend.
Love Sally and Al
August 7, 2008
Hi All D-Marin Turgutreis Marina was a great place to leave the boat while touring. It's amazingly quiet when everywhere else the wind is howling! We had a fun but long day yesterday on our trip to Ephesus. We had to catch the bus at 6 AM and returned about 8 PM. Ephesus was a bit of a come down after having visited Baalbeck in Lebanon and Jerash in Jordan. Those two sites are by far the most spectacular we have visited. But Ephesus is also spectacular especially the library and the large theater. Our guide was good so that makes a big difference in tours. Our guide allowed a quick unscheduled stop at the Temple of Artemis for us on our way to lunch. Only one huge column of the 127 remain. It was once the Seventh Wonder of the World. We also visited Mary's House where she lived with St. John towards the end of her life. Pope Paul VI authenticated the site on a visit here in 1967. There's a book I want to read called Mary's House by Donald Carroll which traces the history of the site over 2000 years. Muslims also recognize Mary as the Mother of the Prophet Jesus and have several references in the Koran. Muslims and others tie pieces of paper or cloth with special wishes to a tree near by. We left D-Marin and are at an anchorage 15 nm further north.
Love Sally and Al
August 5, 2008
Hi All Can't believe 4 nm away there was no wind yesterday and there we sat at anchor with it howling! We moved this morning to D-Marin Turguteis a quick 40 min. run. We took a Dolmus (bus) into Bodrum (about 15 min ride)and visited St. Peter's Castle built by the Knights Hospitalier based on Rhodes. It now houses a wonderful Museum of Underwater Archaeology. The views from the battalions were spectacular and the museum is spread throughout the castle. We booked a day tour to Ephesus for tomorrow. The bus picks us up at 6 AM. Yuck!
Love Sally and Al
August 4, 2008
Hi All We spent one night in Palamut anchorage on Datca Promontory and then two nights at Knidos a few miles further. The winds change as you round the peninsula so even in ancient times this was a popular anchorage as boats wait for favorable winds to head north. The ship taking St. Paul to Rome for trial was holed up here. Knidos has quite extensive Dorian ruins. The ruins are scattered above the harbor along 3km of the Datca peninsula. The city of Knidos was a prosperous port city dating from about 400BC. We spent over 2 hours hiking the terraced hillside. Recently sign posts have been added so it helped us identify the ruins. We had a nice lunch at the harbor. No overnight stays except on boats so the anchorage is busy with gulets and other yachts. The weather has been beautiful. Hot but not so hot that we need to put on the sun cover. The water was crystal clear and refreshing. We saw some small fish and octopus swimming along the bottom. This morning we left early to sail NNW. We are anchored in Aryarlar about 5 nm west of Bodrum. Al's spent the day fixing the refrigeration. He tracked it down to another spliced wire gone bad. After 4 hours of testing, checking...finally ran a new wire. We couldn't do much else as the meltemi is blowing, gusting 30 down into the bay from the land. We're holding well but considerable chop and rattling of canvas. We plan to move to Turgutreis Marina tomorrow about 6 nm from here. From there we'll book a tour to Ephesus.
Love Sally and Al
