Summertime Voyage

Medusa, a girl of Didim. Got a bad press.  After a peaceful night we contemplated a journey further North to Kusadasi from where we could visit Ephesus. However the promised south west wind did not materialise and we didn’t fancy beating against the northwester that transpired, So Genoa up and we run with it to Paradise Bay , proper name Kaziki Limani. Past fish farms and huge unfinished holiday resorts we were not hopeful that the unspoiled bay described by Rod Heikel in our ancient pilot book, would have been spared. Didim to Paradise bay Thankfully it has, bar a bit of aberrant plastic on the beach, and we spent the day reading, enjoying swimming in the emerald water and watching the occasional kingfisher whistling about. Paradise indeed. There was one other boat anchored nearby, an American flagged new Island Packet 460 called Flying Fish. Out of interest I Googled it and found that the owner had a blog. He had bought the boat from new in Florida 2 years ago. The blog included...

We spent two nights in Datca. We’re worth it, apparently. The reality was that we needed a bit of down time and R&R after the Livianda crew left, well our livers did really. We had a couple of peaceful days wandering around the town and doing some boat stuff. Datca really is a nice town, and the people are nice. A friend in deed We were about to leave for our next trip and I woke early and emerged into the cockpit. One of our near neighbours was setting off as well. However as can happen his anchor chain was fouled by an anchor chain from a crossing Gullet. Next thing he was in the water with his speedos and mask and snorkel. I watched with huge anticipation. Was he going to free dive down 20 metres and manually uncross 50kgs of anchor and chain? After ten minutes he was becoming dispirited and his poor wife (I assume) on the wheel was getting a little fraught, if not distressed. My next door neighbour had emerged from below before I did and had been watching. He was a mature chap ...

  Back up the Burunlar Lindsay and Linda were coming towards the end of their five week tour of sailing duty, so we started trickling back towards their home base in Fethiye. The prevailing wind direction is W and NW so we were waiting for a bit of S or even E in the breeze to facilitate the 40 mile run past the Yedi Burunlar. The wind Gods did their business and a nice day for a Westerly passage occurred and we set off. Pirate hideout at Karakoren. The wind piped up a bit more than we expected and a close hauled sail nearly all the way was achieved. We had a few days at various spots around Karakoren, Skopia Limani and Cold water bay, where Ali’s wife turned out her Thai curry. We parted company with Livianda but will plan to see them back in blighty in due course, virus permitting. Big Bug We fuelled up and had the compulsory black water suck-out at Gocek. The fuel berth here is very efficient although the coming alongside is a bit of a tr...