Making small steps towards Finike

Making small steps towards Finike

Monday 6th June...

Linda - A 9am departure from Bahce Koyu, but not before Dean rowed ashore and offloaded our rubbish in one of the local bins. 

Morning exercise

Not a long journey today, as we headed south to D-Marin Turgutreis marina to get our holding tanks pumped out. You have to do it about every two weeks, and the coastguard will check your receipts if they decide to stop you. Apparantly a big fine if you don't have proof. 

There was a queue of boats at the pump out station, we were 3rd in line. We waited for an hour to get in and then it took over another half an hour to get sorted and paid. Dean said the staff were nice in reception, and they registered us on the system and now we have a barcode. Yippee. He even got a ride in the harbour dinghy there and back. 

Approaching the marina pump out

Quite a posh marina

We are here

Views whilst I await Dean's return

Up on the hill

Pumping out the starboard holding tank

Now the port side

Tonight we are in an anchorage on the south of the headland called Akcabuek Koyu. I found out that Koyu means 'Bay'. It's pleasant surroundings but the wind is blowing....surprise surprise. Gusting about 30 knots. I'm afraid we are not 'feeling the love' for Turkey yet.

Tuesday 7th June...

Linda - Only one photo today for our wonderful Thesee followers. It's not the most exciting photo in the world....well not if you are a lady anyway. It's our water pump. You've seen it before! Once again it's been removed for further investigative work by Mr C. It's still leaking and it seems to be the seal. Yet another smart fix by the skipper, fingers crossed. 

The water pump, and white seal

Of course we had to amuse ourselves on board all day long, having got up at 5am hoping for a lull in the wind so we could go somewhere else before it picked up again. No chance! There's been no let up now for 30 hours and the afternoons from about 1pm are the worst. It's been a LONG DAY.

Wednesday 8th June...

Linda - Still here, still windy. However, we did manage to get the dinghy off this morning and went ashore before 9am, where we could stretch our legs, walk along the beachfront, and buy some crusty bread and wine, and a few other less meaningful bits and bobs. 

Now you will look at these photos and think 'what a beautiful anchorage, what's the big problem?' Don't forget, we are in an enclosed bay, we still get the wind in here, and the sea is rough outside the bay. Hence, we are still here, and still moaning. 

Looking at Thesee from the seashore

An idyllic resort, and not NOISY

Looks like the oldest building in town

being propped up with bars

The water is so clear

Thesee with the posh Xanadu resort in the near background.

The far background on the left is Kos, Greece

Our handsome Thesee

This afternoon Dean has been teak sealing, well we have to do something to keep busy.

Is that my toothbrush he's using again?

Now for the handrails

Thursday 9th June...

Linda – After three nights in the anchorage we were able to leave for a new destination, 18 miles south to the north side of the Datca peninsular. As the crow flies it’s a few miles shorter than that. Trouble is there is an imaginary sea border between Turkey and Greece, and we had to make sure we followed the border and didn’t cross into Greek waters. This meant our track was in kind of an arc shape. On the photos the border is the red line, our track is the black line. Don’t you think I followed it to perfection?

Following the sea border

Staying in Turkish waters...close up view

Somewhere along the route Dean went downstairs to check all was ok, as normal. Oops, he noticed the bilge pump was on. He lifted the floorboards to find lots of water slopping around, the bilge pump doing its job pumping out water. He said even his stash of beers were floating. Immediately he turned the water supply off, and then found the cause. The casing on the water strainer had split and it was spurting out at a quick rate. Could this be the mystery root cause of our recent water leak issues?

Wet beer cans...oh no!

Plus the gas alarm kept going off once the water was removed because Dean cleaned up the keel bolts and sprayed them with WD40.

Also the alternator didn’t seem to be charging, so another problem to monitor. It’s been a bit temperamental this season.

So it was all go and before we knew it we had arrived at our new anchorage called Mersincik. It’s very beautiful. The mountains are huge and it’s all tree covered so very green. The most stunning place we have seen so far in Turkey. Throughout the day many gullets came in to anchor and also sail boats. I would say there are about 12 boats here tonight, a lovely calm evening and peaceful.

On approach to Mersincik anchorage

Tonight's view...spectacular

The sky

Quick water pump fix (the white tubing)

to bypass the cracked filter casing

Unfortutely, the downside of all this scenic beauty is NO INTERNET, so no blog and no weather checking!

Friday 10th June...

Linda - Is Turkey for real? Is the weather for real? After a peaceful night and a gorgeous early start to the day, the swell started coming in from the north (forecast said it was from the south, which is why we are here!), and the wind was from the north too so blowing us onshore. Everything was a complete 180 degrees difference to the forecast.

The beautiful morning

Some boats left, some stayed. Boats came in to anchor, and of course all trying to get the best spots (by us in the sandy patch). At around 3pm we were still getting weather from the north, and the afternoon gusts were picking up as usual. Suddenly a violent gust swung all the boats around 180 degrees and the strong winds came from the south and off the mountains. 

It wasn't long before many boats came into the bay trying to escape the wind, and anchoring close to us (in the sandy patch). Some were successful, most who couldn't get their anchor to grip left and I presume went to the marina about 10 miles away. 

One single handed sailor tried to anchor about 5 times, but he kept going right in front of us and getting too close. We were worried that he would drag across our chain and pull our anchor up. We had to keep telling him he was too close. Eventually, he moved further away. Unfortunately for a lady in a small red boat he anchored near her, then dragged his anchor, and yes you guessed it..... he got tangled in her anchor chain and pulled it up! We witnessed the whole episode. Their boats clashed and it was the lady who actually humped her chain off of his anchor by hand, after he had gone to find a boat hook. We felt so sorry for her. 

The white boat pulled up the red boats chain

and was being dragged along!

Coming together

In a tangle

The lady saves the day, and her anchor chain

Honestly, I've seen more anchoring antics in the last 4 weeks than in the last 4 years since Thesee left the UK. What is it with this place? Don't forget we had someone pick up our chain when we were in Astypalea. 

Oh and before all that happened there was a sail boat that had been tied to shore stern to. When we had the first violent gust their shore line broke. It was chaotic as two BIG boats were leaving at the time. A lady from the small boat swam ashore to rescue the broken shore line, but the sea had got rough and she couldn't get back in the water from the rocks, and was stranded. We don't know who called who, but the next thing we know, one of the BIG boats re-dropped his anchor, offloaded his tender (big dinghy) and had to go to rescue her from the shore. She couldn't get from the rocks and into the tender, and we watched as he dragged her along in the water and back to her sail boat. Yikes. 

We couldn't be of any help to all these goings on as our dinghy was onboard and impossible to get off in the bad sea conditions. 

The sky, not so good tonight

Saturday 11th June...

Linda - The day started bad at 1am. We had gone to bed and the boat had been rolling in the swell. You might ask, why did we not move somewhere else today? The thing was, we were in the supposedly best protected bay on this coastline and were there because we were only one step away from going around the Datca headland. The only other thing we could have done was gone back up to Bodrum, and there are really no protected anchorages (from the southerly weather, or is that northerly? Anybody's guess) anywhere within at least 20 miles.

Anyway, 1am this morning and I had slept for about an hour, but now we were both up with the rolling swell coming in. The lady with the red boat had disappeared and so had her anchor troublemaker in the white boat. I have no idea where or when they went as they were there at bedtime. 

We were both awake all night, me staring constantly at our anchor watch app to make sure we weren't dragging, and Dean in bed awake with a million things going through his head, as always. Along with the rolling and bashing of the swell on the boat. A horrible long night it was. 

At 6am daylight arrived, the two super yachts were still in the anchorage along with us and one other small sailboat. We didn't want to leave until around 11am when the weather !! direction was due to change and we could get around the headland. But by 8.30am we had had enough and raised the anchor to motor slowly the 10 miles towards the headland. It was blowing hard but we had managed to get out of the worst of the bad swell. 

We had decide that if the sea at the headland was too rough we would turn back and wait. By the time we got there it was around 11am. The sea wasn't too bad, and we carried on although it did get rather lumpy as we got further round. Dean helmed perfectly and steered us into our new anchorage at Knidos. 

Lighthouse on the headland

New anchorage

So it was fantastic to arrive and drop anchor. Only a few boats here, plenty of room. Although we had tried to go alongside the pontoon, only to been shooed away by someone telling us it was too shallow, or we were too big, or maybe some other reason.

Knidos is a historical site. Copy and paste this link for more info....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knidos

We've been ashore and had a brief look through the fence. Tomorrow, hopefully moving on again.

Knidos pontoon and anchorage

Ampitheatre

Our boy Thesee

The bar

Peaceful sunset

Sunday 12th June...

Linda - Early rise and shine. Checked the weather. Good to go. As we raised the anchor at 8am three large gullet boats came into the small anchorage. I can't believe our timing. As we got out of the anchorage we found ourselves in a procession of gullets all going the same way as us. Must have all been early starters coming from Bodrum. One by one they passed us until we were at the end of the line and all alone. 

Two more go past us

It was a good journey of around 4 hours to Datca, and we sailed for more than half of that. The sea was going with us and it was a comfy ride. As we rounded the last headland and turned north towards Datca the wind disappeared and we motored the last two miles. About a mile out of Datca the wind returned at about 18 knots, we couldn't believe it, although it wasn't surprising seeing the number of wind turbines up on the hills. 

Once inside the harbour it was much better but still gusty. Again, hassled by a boat trying to leave but trying to raise his sail right behind us. Dean berthed Thesee stern to the quay which happened to be a dogleg shape and everybody's anchors in all directions. Ridiculous. But we were here and happy. 

Time for a walkabout after lunch. It's a bustling place, we like it a lot and are going to stay for two nights. Sent the laundry to the nearby shop for a service wash. And off to the supermarkets to stock up. Busy busy. Dare I mention that it's VERY windy here, all day long it's been blowing. We know of two boats that came in out of the anchorage as it was so uncomfy out there. Even now at 10pm I can feel the boat moving. 

They have an ampitheatre here too

Checking it out

Stage view, Thesee on the quay in the background

Clear water outside the harbour

The Greek island of Symi in the far background

Me at the ampitheatre

Lots of statues around town

Double pink flowers

The beach packed with dining tables

Eating out tonight

Monday 13th June...

Linda - We had to manoeuvre Thesee off and back onto the quay this morning because our anchor chain was across our neighbours chain and he wanted to leave. All went to plan and it was an easy manoeuvre, successfully executed. 

About 11am we went for another walkabout and more shopping which took a couple of hours. Our neighbour left at lunchtime and he dragged up the chain and anchor of another boat (who was out shopping). The 'victims' boat was pushed back towards the quay, because his anchor was up in the air!. Dean and another neighbour rushed to aid the boat from hitting the quay by attaching a spring line. You never know what's going to happen next. This afternoon a number of boats came into the quay with various anchoring problems. The quay is a dogleg and everyone's anchor seems to be dropped in virtually the same spot. At one point there were about 6 boats on the quay with their skippers on their bows (including us) all watching where anchors were being dropped!

This is our new cute and cuddly neighbour

Tonight we went out for dinner again, but first a walk around the south bay where we found a wonderful promenade, a lake, a waterfall, a park, and some nice bars. 

The south bay

The lake at the top and the waterfall

Me

The park

Dean

Sign

Crochet around the trees at the restaurant

Ready for dinner

The north bay

Tuesday 14th June...

Linda - There's a statue by our boat....a seal and a photo opportunity seat. It has the words 'Badem' written on it. We've been pondering over the meaning and eventually looked it up. It means 'Almonds'. Huh? Weird I know and nothing to do with seals. BUT.... we've found out the Datca peninsula is famous for its almonds and it seems they are very proud of it too.

Seal seat

Front view

Dean reads about Goddess Demeter of Knidos

The real one is in the British Museum!  Surprise surprise

There were a number of boats leaving this morning. Dean decided to snorkel our anchor chain to see if anyone had laid theirs across ours. No sooner he was in the water when most of the other skippers came out to see what was going on, then waiting eagerly for Dean's findings. He snorkelled nearly every chain and came back with bad news for everyone. He said all five or six boats had chains crossed in various places. The best thing to do was for everyone to go out in reverse order to what they came in. For us, we only had one person's chain over ours, it was the poor guy whose anchor was pulled up by someone yesterday. Dean told him the situation and he was careful, but unfortunately he still picked up our chain and anchor. It took a short while to release it, we kind of felt sorry for him really. All was ok, and once he unhooked our chain all was well and we all carried on our way. 

Had to get a photo of this

We've moved about15 miles east to Dirsek anchorage. It's a large inlet on the north of the Bozburun peninsular, but deep so we are tied stern to shore with our brand spanking new yellow shore lines that Dean bought back in Messolonghi. Loads of boats here all anchored around the edges of the bay. There's nothing on shore except what looks like a bar at the far end, but we haven't ventured there. 

Wednesday 15th June...

Linda - Flat as a pancake in the anchorage at 7am. There's a lot of fish around and the water being mirror-like it felt like we were sitting in an aquarium. You could see everything even though it was about 12 metres deep. 

A blissful morning. All boats 

tied to shore.

Big boat on our port hand side

It was so peaceful we offloaded the dinghy and had a row about. There's a restaurant at the head of the inlet and they look well equipped with showers and loos too for the cruisers. We didn't go ashore though, and on the way back I rowed all the way.... to Dean's dismay. But I feel that I am improving even though sometimes we almost go round in circles. 

We had a successful departure from the anchorage, untying the shorelines, getting Dean back on board, raising the anchor and then neatly folding the long shore lines into their bags (which Dean made last year, you remember of course). Next stop Bozburun. 

 Black and red isolated danger marker as we move

on to our new destination this morning.

Super mountain views, even though misty

Bozburun, that's where we are tonight in the anchorage just outside the harbour. It's quite a nice little place, we found out as we had a little walk ashore this afternoon. Would you believe it, we bumped into the young couple who picked up our anchor yesterday morning. So we sat and had a drink and a chat with them. They were having an eventful week it seems, as their outboard engine had packed up and they were waiting for it to be fixed. 

Bozburun, loads of gullet boats here

Looking to the harbour

Well done, caring Bozburun people

In the harbour

So when we finally returned in the dinghy we found our new anchor neighbour was a nice couple that we met in Datca the other day! Plus there are two Brit boats here near us too. Makes a change as nearly all the boats we see are Turkish. 

The next blog post will be called 'Closing in towards Marmaris. Man Overboard!'