Cool Dude

I was sitting in the saloon this morning looking at the wall and thinking just how well Jenny and Emma's birthday card to Gill reflects my attitude to things in general. As soon as it arrived I commandeered it and stuck on the wall.

For Gill the destination and the people are all important. For me it's the journey itself.

Blog Updates by Email

As we are hoping to cross the Atlantic this time next year we have been experimenting with posting to our blog via emails. This is the first attempt.

We are currently in Kas, southern Turkey for our third winter. Why has our blog been neglected for a couple of years? Well, we don't think we have really been doing anything special. But preparing for our Atlantic crossing is more special so we have decided to reinstate it. Watch this space for future updates.

Turkey Evacuates Citizens from Libya

We were kept awake last night by police sirens, blue lights, red lights and a great commotion as two large commercial catamarans pulled in alongside the marina in the berth usually reserved for cruise liners.

This morning it turns out that Marmaris was the location used to repatriate the first 3,000 Turkish refugees from Libya.

This was the scene last night right next to our berth here at Netsel Marina.

The whole N. Africa, Middle East scene seems to be kicking off.  At present though, whilst everyone is keeping a close watch on how things develop, Turkey seems quite content to sit on the side-lines.

Back to the UK

We're really enjoying life in a marina.  Netsel is pretty modern and well run with a mix of live-aboards, charter boats and stored boats on the the water.  We're pleased we spent a bit extra on being close by the town of Marmaris rather than further out though there seem to be more people overwintering out at Yat Marine half an hour away by dolmus (minibus).

Last few jobs to finalise and then tonight it's off to Dalaman Airport and home for three weeks for yes, you guessed it, yet another wedding.

We're settling into marina life here at Netsel.  We've been for a walk along the front here, explored Bar Street (now thankful pretty much closed down for the winter) and Chandlers Row (with its new West Marine store) where you can buy just about anything.

Yesterday, after organising a taxi share to the airport tonight we were visited by Graham from Scudder who told us that Blue Horizon were unable to get the taxi to pick us up from Netsel but that he is going to the airport tonight and we can share his car. Success!  We called Blue Horizon up on the radio and it's all sorted.

We've had loads of rain since we got here and it's raining again now - quite hard.  I got soaked going to the supermarket for bread and humus.

Most days now we wake up to find a new cruise ship berthed a hundred metres from us on the big pontoon adjoining the marina.

Each morning execept Sunday at 9am there is a 'net' where long stayers discuss what's going on, the weather, help required, taxi shares, things to give away or sell etc.  All quite new for us but they seem to be a good bunch.  One of them (Dave) is coming round in a while to discuss keeping an eye on Petronella while we are away.  It will cost us a few Turkish Lira but will give us peace of mind while we are away.

We're looking forward to going home for a while but will be glad to be back here for an extended period too.

The 3 days in Netsel Marina just flew by in a whirl of boat cleaning, storing stuff away, arranging for someone to look after Petronella whilst we were in the UK, taking anything that might be damaged in winds off the boat etc etc. But we found time to go to our first Happy Hour and visit Lydia and Neil from Silver Lady in Yat Marine. And time to explore a few of the watering and eating holes in Marmaris. At night it is still warm – the only drawback of living here is that at 10pm the discos start up and they finish at 4am. So the night sky is strobed by spot lights and the air pulsates to the noise of the clubs. But we hardly noticed it we were so knackered! And it rained – most days. That’s why Turkey is so green.

Our flight left at 0.20am on 19th October. We were offered a lift to Dalaman airport with Graham (who has a boat called Scudder) who was picking his wife up from the incoming flight we were taking back to the UK. Had a good cheap Turkish meal with him first then he negotiated the road works on the way to the airport in the pouring rain. Arrived back in Gleaston at 8am the next day.

Marmaris Town Quay

Cruise ship blocking our sun!

Arrival at Netsel Marina - 282 miles from Aegina

We’ve done it.  Greece to Turkey passage complete.  Richard kindly offered to drive us into Marmaris to look at Netsel Marina before we sailed there but we decided this would just prolong the agony so we set off in a strong southerly wind and rocketed across the bay to Marmaris.  There we filled up with fuel on the town quay – 150 litres – not bad for 5 months  though we had spent some of this time on the hard, then we radioed the marina to tell them we were ready to come in and set off round the corner.  Hell it was tight!  We had heard people asking for help with getting in and out of berths and we could see why – very little room to manoeuvre and a really strong wind blowing across the pontoons.  We were almost at our berth when the marineroes noticed that there was a diver working off one of the boats so we had to reverse out and hang around for 10 minutes which we could have done without.  But we made it into the allotted space without a problem.  We tied up and, despite the fact that it was only 11 am we celebrated with a beer each, then went to book in. Nice friendly spotlessly clean place, super organised, in the centre of Marmaris.  What a good choice for the winter. Supermarket on the front about 5 mins walk, cafes and shops the same distance away, buzzing with life.  Great.  We found an agent in the shopping precinct and he did the official booking in paperwork for us whilst we had a coffee. Once we had our transit log and had taken it to the marina office for them to process Richard took us for a tour of Marmaris in his car – we are unlikely to remember everything he said but at least we have seen most of the useful places.  Glad to be here.  Seems like we made the right decision.


Safe and sound for the winter at Netsel Marina





Simi to anchorage outside Yat Marine, Marmaris

Up early for our last day of passage making after a bad night’s sleep. Strong gusts of wind kept funnelling into the bay and we knew from the pilot that the holding was poor. We were OK but 3 of the anchored boats in the bay had to re-anchor in the night. The sky was overcast and it was gusty as we motored out and turned south east towards Turkey. We had hoped that we would have a final glorious sail into Turkey but as we moved along the coast the wind followed us round and was on the nose all the time so we put the motor on and resigned ourselves to bashing into the waves. At 8.50am we lowered the Greek flag for the last time and raised the red Turkish flag – we were in Turkey!

Once we turned east we were able to put 3 of the sails up and beat along the coast, motoring occasionally when the wind dropped. John saw 2 flying fish – why do I never seem to see them? Then we were becalmed, put the engine on and motored round the corner into Marmaris Bay. Wow – spectacular or what. Numerous gullets – large wooden Turkish tourist boats, hundreds of yachts, the odd small cruise ship, big power boats – it was like a different world. We carefully motored through the small gap at the mouth of the bay, praying we wouldn’t meet a cruise ship coming the other way and scuttled round the corner, east towards Yat Marine, the other big Marmaris marina, looking for a place to anchor for the night. Finally arrived at the anchorage outside the marina and made hard work of anchoring in 12 metres. Had to pull up the anchor and move because we were indecisive and parked too close to another boat – we were tired and it’s hard to make the right decision when the anchorage is not clear in the pilot book so you are not sure of the depths. We were just making tea when the bloke from the next boat arrived for a chat and a G & T – a marine surveyor called Richard who turned out to be a mine of useful information. Then early bed – our last night at anchor – not peaceful as gusts of wind kept howling down from the bay and rocking us around, and the nightclubs from Marmaris and the nearby shore seemed to be vying with each other to make the most noise. Great!



Leaving Pethi with Turkey in the distance




Yellow Q Flag to show entry into Turkey

Kos to Simi (via Turkey!)

Up at 7.15am to flat calm and a beautiful sunrise over Turkey – hey, nearly there now. As we left the bay the wind blew up from the north – perfect direction, so we put 3 sails up and George the autopilot on and really enjoyed bowling along at 5.5 knots. At the Turkish border – a line on the chart – we lowered our Greek flag and raised the Turkish one for the first time, and put the staysail up. Our course took us parallel to the Datca peninsular and suddenly there were boats everywhere – having hardly seen anyone for the past week it seemed odd to be sailing with more than 20 in sight. The sailing was perfect – lovely flat blue seas. After lunch the wind died and we put the motor on just before we re-entered Greece – more flag lowering and raising but worth doing because we kept seeing Turkish patrol boats. Then a hairy passage between Simi and the small island to the north – narrow, only 4 metres deep and the sea so clear you can see every detail of the bottom. And of course we met a motorboat half way through!

Finally motored into Pethi bay and dropped anchor just outside the beach bar, then watched as the other boats arrived and had some difficulties getting their anchors to hold. Launched the dinghy and went for a not brilliant meal in a taverna. Can’t wait to get to Turkey – really had enough of Greek food.

On Monday we took the bus over the hill and into Simi. Beautiful old town built round the port with steep hills all around. We did the rounds of the harbourmasters offices, getting our exit permit from one, the stamp on our passports from another and the stamp on our transit log from a third. But all done with great jollity – a nice friendly place. We met a couple – Tony and Gill - on Nimbus – one of the boats that had left Pethi that morning and had a coffee with them and they told us where to find things in Simi. Then we went to the duty free shop and showing our exit permit bought a couple of bottles of gin and some brandy at duty free prices. We had 45 minutes to wait before we caught the bus back to Pethi so we had a coffee in a harbourside bar and watched the comings and goings in the bay – and were we glad we had not tried to enter Simi. It is the port of crossed anchors - as people tried to leave they took the next boat’s anchor with them and long and heated discussions were taking place as they tried to get their anchors free of their neighbours. In the afternoon we rowed to the beach bar and had a drink and read our books in the warm sun and really enjoyed not doing jobs for once! A nice bay for our last night in Greece.

Sponges still for sale in Simi

Beautiful Simi Town (and Greek exit papers)

Your anchor or mine?



Lower the Greek Flag...

 

...and Raise the Turkish Flag