Şile
Scott-Free’s blog
Steve & Chris
Tue 9 Jun 2009 15:22
41:10.84N
29:36.39E
Tuesday 9th June
2009
After a peaceful
night at anchor in Poyraz, we set off for the short 20-mile trip to our first
real Black Sea port - Şile. We were surprised at the height of the
seas,given that there had been no strong winds overnight, and we made quite slow
progress because of the big swell that constantly pushed us back. We have
since discovered that it doesn't take much wind to set up a swell in the Black
Sea, as it is constantly being fed by rivers from the North, including the
Danube. Also,if there are strong winds further offshore, the big swell
finds its way to the southern coastline.
So after a lumpy
ride we arrived at Şile to find a large,well-sheltered harbour and made our way
over to a corner where we could see two other yachts moored. By now we are
quite adept at laying out the kedge anchor over the stern and tying up the bows
to the quay. However,on this occasion we misjudged the length of the kedge
line and it ran out with still a good 10 metres to go. Hoping that it
would pull itself up taught but have enough give to allow us to reach the quay,
we continued forward, only to be stopped 5 metres short of the quay by a kedge
anchor that had well and truly dug in! This had the effect of pullinjg the
bows round to starboard, and the guy from the boat on that side, who had gone
onto the quay to take our lines, could only stand and watch as our bow anchor
put a rather jaunty bend in one of his stanchions! We managed to extricate
ourselves without further damage, and then had the enjoyable task of pulling up
the kedge and starting all over again - this time waiting a little longer before
putting the anchor out!
All went well second
time around and the guy with the bent stanchion was unperturbed. He
suggested we hand over some euros to cover the cost of repair, which we did, and
everyone was happy. It wasn't until a chance comment from another
boat about the range of their insurance cover, that we suddenly realised we
hadn't checked with the insurance company whether we were covered in the Black
Sea. We contacted them and discovered that we were NOT covered, so just as
well we only damaged a stanchion on the other boat! Neither had we been
covered in the Bosphorous! We immediately put that right and were pleased
to find it only cost £70 to extend the cover, but were not pleased to find that
the excess went up to £1000 for any claims made in the Bosphorous or the Black
Sea!
Şile turned out to
be a pleasant little town, mainly a fishing town with a beach that catered for
Turkish holidaymakers. We decided we liked it here and would stay a day to
enjoy it. The next day saw the arrival of Meand'er, who we had
left in Bostanci, and we enjoyed an evening meal together in one of the local
restaurants.