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| Kurukulla stern to in Skala, Astypalaia |
George and Nigel, the friends joining,
duly arrived on the mid-day flight and were onboard by 1330. By 1600
we were re-victualled from the local “supermarket” (in UK it
would qualify for the title “village store”) and only lacking
bread; the bakery did not reopen until 1700 and so we made all the
preparations to leave and did so after a last minute dash, by George,
to the bakery as it reopened.
With strong northerly winds forecast
for the next few days we were destined to spend some time on the
south coast of Astipalaia and so headed off to spend another night in
Ormos Maltezana. Next day we moved, all of one mile, into Ormos
Vrissi where we sunned and swam the day away and then the next
morning moved into Ormos Agrilithi for another visit. The holding
proved equally unreliable but on the third attempt the anchor held
well. (I really must get a more efficient type of anchor!)
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| Morning coffee in Kamares |
By 1400,
just as we finished lunch, the winds seemed to abate and, although
not forecast for another 24 hours, we decided to make a dash for it
and headed off to Kos.
The crossing was swift, a beam reach
for most of the way, with some larger seas but nothing excessive. By
1830 we were rounding the southern tip of Kos and after a beat in
brisk gusty conditions we finally anchored in Ormos Kamares at 1910.
Supper onboard and a relatively early night were the order of the
day.
Next morning we took the dinghy ashore
for a morning coffee in one of the tavernas; our plan was also to get
some fresh meat and victuals from the local shops. With the nearest
butcher over a mile away we despatched George inland with the local
“supermarket” owner, who had kindly offered a lift there in his
car, whilst Nigel and I took the dry goods back to the boat. 50
minutes later George arrived on the beach clutching a large bag of
meat, we retrieved him in the dinghy, hoisted it onboard and then
sailed off the anchor at 1400 heading for the island of Tilos some 30
miles away.
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| Anchored off the beach, Ormos Eristou, Tilos |
The sail was mostly a good reach but with some
frustrating periods of light wind as we passed through the gap
between Nisos Nisiros and Nisos Pakhia, around the half way point.
Eventually we entered the bay at Ormos Eristou at 1945, just as the
sun dropped behind the hills, motored the last 400m for lack of wind
and set about preparing supper which was to be followed by a film;
with a heavy dew already accumulating both supper and the film were
below decks.
The following day dawned misty and
damp, not something we had seen for many weeks;
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| The narrow passageways of the Chora, Tilos |
however, it soon
cleared and we decided to make the mile and a half trek (300m rise)
to the chora to get some fresh vegetables and to see the “town”.
En route we stopped at a small “supermarket”/taverna, 100m on the
left as you leave the beach-front, for refreshments and ordered our
vegetables from them rather than cart them down from the chora. A
decision we were later to regret!
The chora was quiet, almost deserted.
We visited the church, worth it for the view, and then, following an
ice cream, started the descent back to the boat.
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| View of the bay from the church above the Chora |
On arriving at the
“taverna” we decided to enjoy lunch there rather than prepare
something onboard.
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| The lunch! |
In the event it was a rather disappointing pasta
al forno, “dish of the day”, which combined with starters we did
not order and three cold drinks came to €50, a ridiculous price for
such a venue, first and last visit, never again! Beware!
An hour later, at 1530, we sailed off
the anchor heading for Symi. Initially the wind promised a reasonable
sail but before we had even left the bay it dropped away to nothing
and there it stayed until we motored into Panormittis Bay, Symi at
2030. There had hardly been a breath of wind all afternoon; even so I
still cannot understand the attraction of motorboats!
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| The monastery at Panormittis |
With wind still absent we motored out
of Panormitis at 1000 the next day and headed to Nisos Seskli, a
small island south of Symi,
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| Panormittis entrance at sunset |
where there is an anchorage on the SE
corner called Ormos Skomisa. It proved to be a delightful anchorage,
not quite deserted but this was July, but with very variable holding.
Snorkelling around the boat it was obvious that there were few
patches of decent sand on which to anchor and the added “anchor
snagging” risk presented by two large anchors abandoned on the
bottom, remains of a wrecked ship perhaps? Fortunately we found sand
and missed the anchors, just!
Later that afternoon we motored out of
the anchorage and headed towards Symi town where we needed to be the
following day. For that night we turned into Ormos Nanou and anchored
parallel to the cliffs on the northern side. Unless you want to be
near the beach it is too deep to anchor any distance out, that is
unless you drop on the shelf near the cliffs and tie back at an
angle; which is what we did.
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| Anchored on the north side of Ormos Nanou |
With no moon the darkness in the bay at
midnight was impenetrable but the attraction of a midnight swim
irresistible! The phosphorescence was astounding, swimming in a pool
of bright blue light!
Next morning we had a lazy start; well
I did, George and Nigel seem to require less sleep than me and are
usually up at 0700! By 1000 we had had breakfast and a swim and set
off for Symi town with the intention of anchoring for lunch and a
swim along the way. Our first attempt at a place to stop was in the
anchorage inside the island of Ay Marina, just north of Pethi, but
this was over-run with tourists and other anchored boats and so we
continued to Ormos Symi, inside the bay in which Symi sits, and found
ourselves a small cove in which to spend the afternoon before beating
the rush into Symi at 1600 in order to get a berth.
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| Our quiet anchorage in Ormos Symi |
Whilst we were
anchored in the cove I also went for a trek up the hillside to get
some good photographs of the boat at anchor; always good to get some
exercise ashore when possible!
By 1630 we were stern to in the port of
Symi and whilst I got on with some administration George and Nigel
set out to find us a suitable venue for dinner than night. In the
event they offered a choice of one of two, one of which I had been to
before and could recommend and hence we went back there. It is the
furthest from the port on the northern arm of the bay, looking back
into the port; beautiful waterfront views.
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| Symi port from above |
Next morning it was the normal routine
of exiting Greece, Port Police, Immigration Police (conveniently
situated as far from the port police as you can get in Symi harbour)
followed by Duty Free shop and Customs, followed by Port Police again
and then you are free to go! By 1245 we were under-way, cheating
slightly by using “Solent rig” i.e. genoa only, as we reached
downwind to Bozburun in Turkey. By 1445 we were entering the passage
at Kizil Adasi and decided to anchor for the night in the small bay
at the entrance to the passage where there are the remains of
someone’s folly, a house/taverna mostly complete but now going to
ruin! Such a shame as it is a well designed building. The anchorage
was well sheltered from the westerly winds and ideal for the night.
We tied back to the shore and, after two attempts to get the anchor
to hold properly (never again a Bruce anchor!), settled down to a
relaxed evening.
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| The folly at Kizil Adasi anchorage |
Next morning it was time to do battle
with the Turkish authorities. We motored into Bozburun harbour and
tied back to the jetty in almost the same berth as last year. Many of
the locals recognised us or at least convinced us they did! Try as I
might I could not persuade the authorities that I did not need to
employ an agent. “The rules have changed.... etc etc....”. At
under 10 net tons I should be allowed to do the formalities myself
but the transit log, a government issued document, is only available
from an agent and they will not provide it if you do not employ
them.... Catch 22! Suffice to say €130 and an hour later we were
legally in Turkey! The other catch was the “Blue Card”; an
electronic record of where and when you pump out your sewage holding
tank, without it you cannot get a transit log. There are no
facilities for pumping out in Bozburun and so you have to visit the
Port Police, pay your 10YTL (£3.50), and have a “virtual” pump
out put on your card. One would hope the money taken would go towards
building the necessary facility but I doubt it somehow! I can't help
feeling that they would be better employed trying to eradicate the
enormous amounts of plastic floating in the seas rather than worrying
about a bit of “fish food”. Plastic is much the greater threat to
the environment. The other joy of Bozburun was a Turkish haircut, by
far the best barbers I have ever found; I had the full works, haircut
beard trim etc and the other two settled for a wet shave. All well
worth it.
By 1430 we had completed our business
in Bozburun and so set sail for one of the anchorages en route
Marmaris. We set off with a reef in the main and numerous rolls in
the No 1 genoa.
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| Bozburun waterfront |
Our intention had been to anchor in one of the bays
around Serce or Bozuk Buku but after rounding Karaburun the SW tip of
this part of Turkey we were making good progress and decided to carry
on. Little did we know, twenty minute after passing Serce we were hit
by a series of vicious squalls coming from the NW, down the steep
hills of the peninsular; strong gusts are not uncommon round here but
these were 40+ knots, almost no warning of their arrival, and almost
continuous. I leapt for the helm of Kurukulla, turned her downwind in
the worst of the gusts and sought a lee somewhere to get some reefs
back in; we had shaken them all out some hours before due to lack of
wind! Fortunately, despite a few periods where we were way
overpowered and verging on out of control, we came through it
unscathed and eventually managed to get reefs in both main and genoa
to reduce the sail area by half or more. Thirty minutes later we
anchored in the cove at Gerbekse (the anchor holding at the second
attempt) and tied back to the rocks. Even that was not to be the end
of the story; at 0400 I felt the wind getting up and went on deck to
check all was well, which it was, and stayed on deck until 0600 when
the wind died down; at 0700 I noticed the wind had changed direction
180 deg. And surprise surprise the anchor was dragging, despite the
fact that we had swum over it and checked it was well dug in the
night before, (a replacement for the Bruce anchor can't come soon
enough!). A hasty departure ensued and we motored up to the entrance
to Marmaris Limani and anchored at 0745 at the north end of the bay
Turunk Buku where we spent the next day relaxing, swimming but
frequently surrounded by tourist gullets (tourist boats). Just as the
sun was setting, after all the gullets had departed and we had the
bay to ourselves, we were settling down for dinner when a large
plastic motor cruiser, with a birthday party group onboard and
imitating a mobile discotheque, came and anchored 30m away, Oh joy!
Suffice to say we weighed anchor and motored southwards along the bay
until we could no longer hear it, about three quarters of a mile
away; there we re-anchored and spent the night!
Saturday 13 July was George and Nigel's
day of departure hence we weighed anchor mid morning and headed for
the marina at Yacht Marine, Yalanci Bogazi, inside Marmaris bay. I
had already contacted the marina to try to book a berth but without
success, “full, no spaces available before the end of August” was
the cry so I decided to try the direct approach. It worked; we were
offered a berth on arrival and I was then able to go into the office
and negotiate for the rest of the stay I required to allow me to
leave the boat there and head back to UK for a couple of weeks at the
end of July, to see the folks. The crew departed at 1800 for Dalaman
airport and I settled down to a quiet evening....... Tomorrow is a
maintenance day........
More when I get under-way again in
August.
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