36:39.96N  28:39.36E

Sailing from Skopea Limani towards Ekincik we heard a yacht responding to  Mayday call.  For the non-yachties a Mayday call is only sent when there is grave and imminent danger to a vessel or crew member so this got our attention.  The vessel making the call was out of our radio range so we could only hear one half of the story for much of the time but it was enough to work out what was going on.  The boat’s engine had failed and it was drifting towards rocks.  A chap called Richard on sailing yacht ‘Moonshadow’ had picked up their Mayday and relayed it.  We heard Turk Radio pick it up and pass it on to the Turkish Coastguard who sent a boat out.  Richard was fantastic, a textbook relay with all the necessary information while he sailed towards the stricken boat.  He was calm and incredibly reassuring to the lady on board and got there in time to tow them out of harms way while the Coastguard (complete with engineer on board to fix the engine) reached the area.

We saw Moonshadow a few days later at anchor in Gocek and Mike spent some time chatting to Richard while Carol was in UK.   Apparently the boat in question was a sailing yacht that the couple had just bought.  It wasn’t rigged so they couldn’t just put the sails up to get out of trouble.  The chap was extremely seasick, and not able to function so his wife/girlfriend was coping as best she could.  The engine had failed the previous night so they had been struggling for hours. Nightmare for them but very reassuring to see how quickly everyone reacted and a really good learning experience for us to witness it.  Spookily Carol had just been updating our emergency folder and going through the procedure for Mayday calls.

We were too far away to be of any assistance on that occasion but next day our turn came to stage a dramatic rescue of our own.  We were anchored in the very pretty bay of Ekincek a couple of hundred meters off the beach.  There was some wind and waves were gently lapping.  Carol noticed a small dingy with four people in rowing towards us.  This was odd given the distances involved meant that using the outboard was sensible so chances were theirs had failed to start.  There were no other boats close to us so they had to be rowing past us and on to the small marina at the other side of the bay which was many more hundreds of yards away over increasingly rough water.  We asked if they needed any help.  Indeed their engine had failed to start but they thought they would be alright rowing.  We were pretty sure they wouldn’t and eventually persuaded them that we (Mike!) could tow them behind our dingy – provided we could get our own very troublesome outboard to start.  And off they went…..  the sea got rougher and the wind stronger so it was a struggle even with the engine, but they made it.

Off they go into the wild blue yonder.

On return it was time for a swim.  Mike loves the bit when you first get into the water best.

And not long afterwards Steve and Julie arrive on their way back to Marmaris where they will leave Silver Bugle while they are home in Spain for a couple of months.