Simi
Scott-Free’s blog
Steve & Chris
Sat 10 Oct 2009 11:18
36:35.91N
27:52.34E
Saturday 10th
October 2009
The pre-leaving
engine check gave us cause for worry - lots of anti-freeze-coloured water in the
engine bilge! It took a while to find the leak, but eventually we found it
by the fresh water pump. It didn't seem a good idea to leave at this
point, with very light winds forecast and the possibility of motoring for 7-8
hours to get to our next stop, the island of Simi.
So Steve went in
search of a mechanic, first stopping at Eagle's Nest car hire to ask Mike if he
could point him in the right direction. It turned out that Mike had
been a car mechanic in the US, and he kindly came back to the boat with
Steve to take a look. He confirmed that it was the fresh water pump, but
didn't think it would be a problem to run the engine as they are apparently
designed to start leaking when they are beginning to fail to give a warning that
they are about to do so. He advised that we should top up the fresh water
and then monitor the engine temperature and top up if necessary, saying that the
leak only happens when the engine is idling, not when it is
working.
We had to make a
judgement, then, whether to leave or wait for a day with more wind so that we
could sail most of the way and only use the engine at start and finish.
Knowing we needed to be back in Marmaris for Andy's visit and that the winds
were forecast to be light for the next few days, we decided in the end to go for
it.
So we motored all of
the 40nmiles to Simi, constantly monitoring the temperature gauge and checking
the engine bilge for water. Fortunately, the temperature gauge went up
only slightly and there was only a small puddle in the bilge that didn't get any
bigger as time went on.
We arrived in Simi
harbour around 4 p.m. and there was a space on the quay which we were called
into. Having tied up, however, it appeared that the anchor was not
holding, and we went back out to re-set it. At this point the guys on the
quay decided to ignore us completely and called another boat in. We hung
around for a while, but they were clearly not going to call us back in (we
wondered if it was because we had earlier refused to move our anchor line to the
other side of the stern), and in the end we decided to go to a bay that had been
recommended to us just around the coast.
It was a "wow"
moment as we rounded the headland into the bay, as the cliffs are sheer down to
the sea on three sides. It was reputedly used for the filming of
scenes in the film "The Guns of Navarone", and is locally known by cruisers as
Navarone Bay. We thanked the miserable harbour guys in Simi town for
ignoring us - this was much better!
Scott-Free at
anchor in "Navarone Bay" in
Simi Looking
back as we left
The water here was
deep and very clear, and we rewarded ourselves with a swim. We had the bay
all to ourselves, apart from some people camping in a couple of little tents on
the beach, near the only building in the bay which was a little
church.
Steve
giving the fishes a fright by forgetting to put his swimming trunks
on Yes,
that IS our anchor lying upside down on the bottom,doing absolutely
nothing!
We had a
calm and peaceful evening and night, and next morning found that we had moved
around our anchor a bit and there it was just off the side of the boat - upside
down and doing absollutely nothing! So much for making sure it's well
dug in! We hadn't worried too much about checking it because the forecast
was for light winds anyway, but just as well they hadn't blown up in the
night!!