Wind and more wind

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Mon 15 Jun 2009 11:49
Sunday 14th June

Wind howled all night and the forecast shows no let up for several days and
then only a brief lull for around 24 hours. The strange thing is that
looking at the weather maps for the Med as a whole shows that only this
quite small area is getting any wind at all!

The water supply was restored this morning and this at least meant that we
could use the washing machine, but the catch was how to dry the stuff
without losing it all in the high winds! In the end Sarah adopted a
solution, best described as the human tumble drier whereby she simply stood
on deck hanging onto the items such as sheets for 10 minutes at a time which
was quite enough for them to spin and twist and dry in the hot wind. The
slightly odd Austrian next door has taken a slightly creepy delight in
watching this display, but it might have been the bikini....

Yacht came in today with the crew all wearing oilskins which is a first.
Actually things are not too bad, but we have a 60+ mile trip to do and it
will be directly into the teeth of this wind and the seas that have been
building, so we are keen to stay for a while and wait for a suitable break.
Would be nice to be tied to something rather more solid than the pontoon we
are on as it dips and weaves in the waves making getting on and off quite
exciting!

Cesme is very much a resort for Turks and the weekends see a large influx of
people living in Izmir coming for a break. The gullets (trip boats) were
very busy yesterday and today, but almost exclusively they were full of
Turkish holidaymakers. Had to admire the skills of the gullet captains as
they have to moor almost broadside to the wind and waves on the main town
quay, which was a real spectacle as some of them roll dreadfully and the
gaps they have to get into are very small. This whole exercise was made even
more dramatic today as a very large British registered Gin Palace chose to
ride out the bad weather by anchoring parallel to the town quay, just about
in the spot the gullets wanted to drop their anchors. Quite a lot of words
were exchanged and from where I was watching there were some very near
misses, but the crew of the gin palace never wavered from their duties
polishing and cleaning the deck/hull/windows etc. whilst all the chaos raged
around them.

Photos http://www.rhbell.com