36 42.1N 027 41.1E Datca - Detour
Pipedream
Wed 20 Apr 2011 18:16
the process of rounding the Greek Island of Symi when the Pipedream decided we needed a little more excitement in our adventure. The bilge pump kicked on... more than usual. The raw water
pump that pumps water in from outside to cool the engine was leaking slightly (fixed it in Rome last year) - no parts
until we get to Bodrum... about 10 minutes later the bilge pump goes
on and stays on... I go below to the sound of running water and find a
broken pipe in the cooling water system. I shut down engine - the leak stops and we are not sinking any more.
There is not even a town in Knindos our destination, much less a place to make repairs. Katie awakes from her morning nap and figures we are going to get to do some real sailing since I shut down the engine. When
I explained that it would be a good time to find a place where we could
anchor the boat without using the engine during the blow that was forecast
over the next two days the mood quickly changed.
Katie checked our pilots and we decided Datca, about 12 miles away was our
best bet. The wind started to pick up and we covered a little over half the
distance in an hour but then the wind started to drop. By about 4 PM we were
doing about 1.5 knots tacking back and forth trying to reach what we thought
was the harbor entrance. We were about two miles out when the wind just stopped. We 'sailed' into the anchorage at about 6 pm with the dingy strapped to the side of Pipedream and
the outboard kicking (just in case) rounded up and dropped the anchor in about 15 feet of water.
We went ashore to celebrate with a hot meal and I just happened to ask
about a mechanic. One phone call and he was scheduled for the next morning.
There are not too many places in Turkey where you can buy steel pipe with American pipe threads. The guy made me one on his lathe for only 80 TL... I could have bought one at ACE hardware for about $.50 and $1000 for the plane ride. We got the engine going again and moved the boat to the town quay which was free since the season had not started. The only catch was that we had to drop the anchor and back into the key. With all the junk on the bottom it took 4 tries to get the anchor to set. The next day I also replace the leaking water pump.
A quick engineering aside... my patron saint of Engineering, Uncle Ed Kedzie, designed and installed most of the support piping in the Pipedream. The pipe that had broken suffered a fatigue fracture at the pipe threads from the engine vibration. Thirty years later I was able to unscrew and make repairs to the fittings in the exhaust system that had been in constant contact with hot sea water because Ed had taken the time to put 'anti-seize on every joint he made. "Find the best people, give them what they need, and get out of their way."
Datch is a like the capital of the region and a pretty neat town once you get away from the water front. All in all it turned into one of those pleasant surprise places even though it rained and blew hard for two days..