Update
Arwenofbosham
Rob and Jacky Black
Tue 17 May 2011 08:53
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39 50.1N 26 04.5E
Bozcaada Island
This chapter of the blog will be long as we have
been so busy trying to get north towards Istanbul we haven't had time to write
anything!
Suffice to say we are now finally in the
Dardanelles motoring hard against a 3 knot current!
Last time wrote we were heading for Marmaris
and a lot has happened since then. We met up with Islay Mist (hanse 411 from
alanya) Alistair Linda and the girls, we had our new sun-awning fitted
onto the boom
and Robert had some dental work done to sort out
pain he has had for over a year so quite a lot packed into 5 days! We left
the area after a most enjoyable St. George's Night supper
at the Marina Restaurant in the company of several
Brits, Kwis and Oz sailors. We had spent a delightful pre-supper hour catching
up with several of our fellow EMYR
yachties who were in the bar for 'Happy Hour'. Our
next destination was Monastery Bay on the south tip of the Greek island of Simi
where we had a peaceful night at
anchor and I managed my first swim of the season.
We also met here some friends from our time in Leros last winter - Maggie and
Steve on board Rassy Lady, they came for drinks
and we were able to catch up on their news. The
next day we planned to sail to Palamut but changed to a delightful bay
nearer the corner called Buyuk Limani which is the site of
ancient Knidos a Greek trading town dating from the
4th century BC. It was quite amazing to sail into this harbour past the old
breakwater and to see the amphitheatre sprawling
across the hillside. This time of year everything
is so much greener and there are wild flowers out all across the hills and
around the ruined buildings. We were able to go alongside
a pontoon which even had power and water (owned and
maintained by the small taverna owners) and the charge was just 25ytl (about
£13). We had a wander round ate a meze lunch and then
got set to with the navigation for the next part of
our journey.
Our immediate aim (well mine really) was to get to
Yalikavac marina before the 29th of April so we could watch the Royal Wedding
with our friend Wendy (Future Options - EMYR last year) who owns
a villa there. We made it to Gumbet bay which is
just west of Bodrum but with a gale forecast we settled for a couple of days at
anchor and hoped that we would still make it to our destination in
time.
Apart from hooking a huge anchor chain and rope
which delayed our departure on the 28th by over an hour while we tried to
free ourselves we managed to get to Yali marina and were all tied up by
1100.
Wendy was soon onboard to welcome us as she had
been watching from a cafe on the quay!
We had a splendid day at her villa and all
thoroughly enjoyed the spectacle of the wedding. She was so kind and hospitable
we both even managed to have a bath (not having one at home makes this a
real
treat for us) and we did two loads of washing in
her machine too!
The following day having taken fuel at the marina
we left again heading north with little wind so had to motor all the way to
Kazikli Limani which gave us a safe anchorage overnight once passed all the fish
farms in the
entrance. From here the plan was to head for
Pythagoria (on the SE corner of Samos). This we duly did but were again denied
the destination as the wind increased to a near gale force 7 from the SE making
a stop in this
port untenable as it is open to the SE. We duly
altered course and passed through the channel between mainland Turkey and Samos
reaching speeds of 7 knots with the NE going current our new destination being
Kusidasi.
The wind did it's usual fickle thing and dropped
then went NW so we ended up motoring the last few miles into the marina (we were
last there in early May 2010 with the EMYR).
Unfortunately we had been experiencing some issues
with the engine (well actually the gears) since last year and these seemed to be
getting worse and occurring more frequently so we decided enough was enough and
it needed
sorting. Having done some research on the yachting
forum and spoken to our friend Steve on Piper and Graham our yanmar engineer in
the UK) we concluded that the clutch cones would need either
re-lapping or replacing.
A Yanmar engineer was available in the marina so we
had the job done - it took 4 days for the part to arrive the engine to be taken
apart(well partially moved) and the work to be completed and the engine
tested.
The engineer discovered the clutch cone had been
inserted upside down in our re-conditioned sail drive leg he was amazed that it
hadn't failed sooner. (The leg was supplied by Yanmar for free in 2006 as a
result of our having
further electrolysis on the previous new leg which
had replaced the original in 2004.) But that is another long story!
We were pleased to be in Kusidasi where at least
the technical support is of an excellent caliber and the engineers who worked on
the boat did a great job - just not pleased to have to spend £1000 on getting
the work done!
While there we met up with the early participants
of this year's EMYR and attended the cocktail party at the invitation of Carlar
the marina manager whom we had met last year. We finally left on the 9th of May
and had a good motor sail to
the Greek island of Chios. We moored here in an
unfinished marina for free for a couple of nights along with our friends Tony
and Lynne from Lord Anthony (last year's EMYR) who we had sailed past
earlier in the day!
As the forecast was not good we decided to hire a
car together and so on the following day we explored this rather lovely island.
We visited the south first (with a stop at the local Lidl and Euro-Spar for
essential supplies i.e. bacon, pork rum and Greek wine!)The island is famous for
it's Mastic a resin extracted from trees and used for making chewing gum among
other things. The 'mastic' villages were fortified hill towns and this is where
we headed for. We stopped at Pyrgi first to admire the unusual houses
elaborately decorated with patterns cut into the whitewashed walls to reveal a
layer of dark volcanic sand underneath. Thus creating a stunning geometric
series of patterns depicting all sorts of animals, vases, fish etc. Quite
amazing when seen in such quantity along all the tiny lanes and alleyways. Next
we went to Mesta which has a very large church in it's centre and consists of a
series of dark lanes with homes build facing inwards a real maze,
access in and out was only through the 6 'portals'
so it was a bit like being inside a castle. From here we drove up the western
coast and stopped for lunch in a bay with a tiny fishing harbour and several
tavernas (one had been recommended by a couple we had met in the marina - Dennis
and Gwen from Quintet - last seen in el Rompedo SW Spain in 2008!!). From
here we cut east through the hills and back to the marina - the roads were small
here with hairpin bends and I was glad to arrive back on the flat near to the
airport and Chios town. On passing the main harbour we spotted our Dutch friends
Rick and Cobi on their boat Chica (from Lagos in 2008 tho' we had seen them last
year for my 60th birthday in Marmaris too). We parked up and spent a hour
chatting on board before taking our leave as an early start was on the cards the
following morning.
The following day we left the marina at 0600 and
headed north with an increasing wind on the nose the journey was pretty grim and
we finally decided to give in and turned back to find shelter when we were
experiencing 30 knots of wind!
We chose a bay which provided reasonable shelter
and there we stayed for two days. The first night was pretty disturbed as we had
not proved the anchorage so we did watches all night and neither of us had much
sleep. The following day the wind continued to howl ad gust on and off so we
stayed put and set off again on the 13th of May for Ayvalik marina. The first
two hours were hard work beating into a disturbed sea but once round the main
headland we were able to tack and made a quick passage achieving speeds in
excess of 7 knots with a reefed main and 3/4 jib - glorious! and the sun was
shining too.
We only stayed one night in Ayvalik - the marina
was good but expensive - I explored the town which was fascinating -
definitely a proper town with no tourist tac! I even managed to arrange for a
Haman and massage at a nearby hotel while Rob took his afternoon sleep. My back really needed the massage after all
the winching done over the previous few days sailing.
During our journey north we have been in constant
touch with our friends June and Steve on board Piper who had left Fetheye the
day before we arrived and managed to keep ahead of us despite our best efforts
to catch them up!
However by the time we left Ayvalik we were really
close and it looks like we will finally be re-united tonight in Lapseki a small
harbour near the northern end of the Dardanelles. Supper on board their
boat was just the incentive we needed to push on against this very strong
current.
So we will finally get into the sea of Marmara
tomorrow we hope and then it's only 200 miles to
Istanbul!
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