Friday 8^th July – Erdek

40:23.753N 27:47.421E

It was a scorcher all day, sun and clear skies, with temperatures in the mid 30s until early evening.  We went for a walk along the front to the beach on the north side of town before lunch (mad dogs and Englishmen?); whilst busy, it still seems quite a peaceful spot.

After lunch we hid down below, out of the sun, for a while.  Late afternoon, Richard went on deck to read and get some sun.  After a while he noticed that the yacht that still had its anchor stuck was having another go at freeing itself and said I should come and have a look.  It had a rather unusual helper this time – a JCB.  It’s the first time we’ve seen a JCB used as a tripping line. 

The guys tied the rope that the divers had attached to whatever was on the bottom to the front shovel of the JCB.  The yacht went out and waited and the JCB then tugged up and back on the rope, driving up the grass verge to the çay house behind.  They did this several times and gradually pulled a huge fisherman’s anchor and a long length of heavy chain onto the quay which had the yacht’s anchor chain wound around it – quite a mess.  As they pulled the big anchor out, they pulled the yacht back in and it ended up rafted alongside a motorboat, nose in.

Once everything was tidied up and the anchor of the yacht stowed, the yacht left, pleased to finally be able to get on its way.  Hopefully other visiting yachts will be OK now that there is one less hazard on the bottom to foul a hook on.

This evening we bought pides to try for dinner, the Turkish version of pizza (but no tomato), and brought them back to Pyxis to eat.

Erdek:  Çay houses behind, harbour front & northern beach

Erdek: Sorting out crossed anchor chains – industrial style

© Pyxis 2011