We're off!
Scott-Free’s blog
Steve & Chris
Sat 8 May 2010 15:12
36:27N
28:14.12E
After a long and
dusty winter in the marina, Scott-Free was finally ready to say
her final farewell to Marmaris. Pete and Mary, who are joining us for the
EMYR, arrived safely late on Wednesday and we all spent Thursday making final
preparations before leaving.
We bade farewell to
the few friends who had not yet left for the summer and slipped the lines
mid-morning on Friday. Ali did a brilliant job as usual of manoevring
Scott-Free out of her corner berth with a line tied from his rib to her
stern, and we were off!
With very little
wind blowing from dead ahead (no changes there then!) we motored gently across
to Rhodes,picking up a passenger on the way in the form of a Bee Eater who
stopped for a rest on the radar cage. With highly colourful plumage and a
long,sharp beak,it was easy to identify him using Mary's Mediterranean bird
book.
Visibility was not
good and we couldn't pick out the shape of Rhodes until 10 miles out.
Mandraki harbour eventually came into view and we worked our way along the coast
until we found "Lidl Bay" - so named by the local yachties who come
over to stock up on provisions unavailable in Turkey! This was not quite
what Mary had been imagining when thinking of her visit to Rhodes,as
the bay is
home to a gyspy encampment and breakers yard! Rhodes is unfortunately not set up
for yachts,with its main harbour overcrowded and virtually impossible to
get into,and we decided to stay only long enough to provision
up.
We had been advised
to always have somebody on board as the local youths could be a little
light-fingered, so Steve & Mary set off for Lidl and Pete and I stayed on
board to watch the boat and deal with the diesel when the truck arrived.
As it happened it never did, because the petrol station was too far away to be
found, but the shopping trip was successful and Steve and Mary arrived back in a
taxi packed with provisions. The taxi had been a stroke of luck as it
would not have been an easy trip back to the boat with two shopping
trolleys and they would have had to run the gamut of the gypsy youths on the
way, and this taxi had just been passing as these thoughts passed through
Steve's mind. These same youths were calling out at the taxi driver
as he zoomed past them- we don't know what they were saying to him because
he politely declined to say!
With provisions
stowed we all settled back with a drink and considered whether we needed to keep
a deck watch overnight. Pete's suggestion was that if so,we might as well
be sailing, so we decided to have dinner and then sail overnight to the
Gulf of Fethiye. The decision made, we settled down for dinner of bangers and
mash (no,not very Mediterranean but we needed to use up the sausages we brought
back from the UK to make space for the provisions!) Then we all managed to
catch a bit of sleep before slipping quietly out of the bay at
midnight.