Pansie Potter

The next section of our trip turned out to be a series of short trips from nice bay to nice restaurant and a good time was had by all. I will not inflict an account of reprehensible carousing on the reader.

But it did occur.

International Maritime Border

From Kalkan we sailed further East to Gekova Roads. This route takes us past the Greek island of Castelloriso, which is currently the subject of controversy and tension. This relates to disputed territorial claims by Greece and Turkey which has been inflamed by Gas exploration by Turkey in disputed waters and the finding several years ago of massive gas fields in the Eastern Mediterranean north of Egypt.

 The international border is a complex line between the island and the mainland which is the subject of dispute and as Turkey has never signed up to the UN international maritime commission, the disagreement can be dusted off whenever anyone feels the need.

Castelloriso from the seaward side

The opposing national presidents are currently involved in a bit of brinkmanship and posterior waggling, with the Greek President due to visit this most remote part of Greek territory in the next few days to give his opposite number a bit of an eyeful.

As a consequence there is a fair amount of military activity in the area and the press are enjoying upping the tension, although the local people seem entirely relaxed. We did however seem to become a subject of interest with three military drones flying over us and we waved to the pilot in Langley Virginia, or wherever they were being controlled from. A bit spooky.

There are also quite a few military vessels about charging about at high speed on the horizon, the modern equivalent of sabre rattling.

It is interesting to relate these tensions over resources to the history of the area, which has been of almost continuous similar conflicts over five thousand years involving Lycians, Greeks, Persians, Lydians, Romans, Venetians, Ottomans, British, French etc. Plus ca change.

Kalekoy at night - nice.

We parked at the foot of the ancient fortifications at Kalekoy. There is a rather interesting approach to the village with lots of above and below water rocks. The charts on my Raymarine chart plotter are derived from ancient admiralty charts of the area, probably last surveyed in the 19^th century. This resulted in the rather unnerving experience of showing us driving through a shoal and a small island and then suddenly jumping to what visually was our real position. I would not do a night approach. Interestingly the Navionics chart on my tablet was spot on.

Approach to Kalekoy (Navionics)

We had planned to go for a walk around the castle but the truth is it was too hot to consider climbing the hill. It is in the mid thirties by late morning at the moment and the only relief is to be at sea, and I find I am longing for the afternoon breeze to appear.

Gekova Roads

We spent a couple of nights at anchor in bays around the area which are picturesque in the extreme. Our favourite spot from before turned out also to be very special to Linda. Indeed she was so impressed by the beauty of the bay that several years previously she had decided to was the perfect place to spread her Mum’s ashes. We had not known this but we had been similarly struck. There is also excellent holding for the anchor.

Resting place.

We visited a bay on the South side of the island which looked like a nice anchorage for a lunch stop. It was indeed idyllic until suddenly both boats became the subject of iinterest for a colony of giant Asian hornets. Within minutes dozens of hornets were swarming round both boats and we beat a hasty retreat. These guys are scary and can attack for no obvious reason. Apparently just getting in the way of their flight path can annoy them and batting them away can result in the whole colony being recruited for attack. Not to be messed with.

Cup of coffee, Sir.

We have also been inundated by plagues of bitey flies in this area. For animal lovers it goes against the grain somewhat to resort to open warfare. But these guys are vicious, tenacious little blighters who bite fiercely and painfully at your legs, especially as you’re doing some critical manoeuvre. Full swatting seems to be the only solution, but the boat does appear splattered and with dozens of corpses by the end of each journey.

Turkish Navy, about to reverse.

We then returned West to Kas and approached the marina. A scary looking warship was parked at the entrance and just as we passed its stern and stared at the guns pointing at us, it announced it’s intention of engaging reverse propulsion by three really loud toots of its horn. That was impressive.

This was one of our favourite Marinas on our previous visit and it has been further improved. Very reasonable costs and with all facilities, several restaurants and bars and some excellent live music in the evening. Although not generally a lov

A bit quiet in Kas

er of marinas we thoroughly recommend it.

M. I wandered into town along the hot dusty coastal road and had a familiar feeling of welcome. The warm wind whistles around the old narrow roads and the call to prayers always particularly atmospheric here. Covid has certainly had its effects here in the numbers of visitors, making it seem somewhat bereft but there are enough locals and business going on to keep it feeling vibrant. I love Kas.

C .While in the marina I took the opportunity to do a few boat jobs. Since fitting the solar panels I have wondered how their output relates to our energy usage and had thought about putting an ammeter in the circuit to measure this. However it seemed a bit counter intuitive to need to match the cable diameter to the possible output of the panels to prevent over-heating, and then divide the cable and stick an ammeter in the circuit, with unknown conductivity and resistance. Or maybe I am over thinking things.

Anyway I found some discussion about a Hall Effect ammeter. This devices measures the magnetic field around a wire and its voltage output is directly related to the current flow. They are used in mobile phones for a variety of purposes like position and proximity sensing. For my purpose the benefit is that the device encircles the cable and avoids you having to cut it. I got one of these for about £10 and it seems to work perfectly showing my panels feeding nice free juice into the battery at around 5amps per hour in the early morning and late evening and 9 amps during daytime. This, with a bit of motoring, should just about keep up with our usage if we are careful.

8.9 free amps!

I had nearly skinned my finger trying to start the outboard when we first arrived and I have to admit I was a bit in the huff with it and had let it just sit on the pushpit for the last 2 weeks without giving it any attention. However I had just about got over this and decided to have ago at getting it going.

In the naughty corner.

I realised that the fuel was at least 2 years old, having been bought in Greece in 2018. So I drained the tank and took it to the fuel berth. A nice chap there relieved me of the old fuel and provided some nice fresh stuff. This was decanted into the tank and I optimistically tried to start it. Nothing.

When draining the fuel there were clearly lots of bits of solid material in it, probably rust. I took out the spark plug and spun the engine several times with my thumb over the plug hole. There was plenty of compression, but I could not smell petrol on my thumb. Clearly there was a blockage somewhere.

So I set about removing and stripping the carburettor. It is a really stupid design. Honda are usually good at design but this is terrible. The fuel cock is part of the carb so you cant remove it without draining the tank. I ended up trying to do the whole thing with the carb still attached to the engine by the cables and fuel line. I removed the bowl to find it full of rusty gubbins. It also revealed that the main jet was blocked. This could not be removed but I managed to clear it with a combination of wd40, bits of wire, blowing and sucking. Tasty!

During all this, my activities had become the subject of attention of several guys sitting in the cockpits of neighbouring boats so there was a bit of pressure. I put it all back together again, including having to repair the gasket on the mating surface, placed the plug and cowling, opened the fuel, pulled out the choke, spun the engine and it fired first tug. There was a general hurrah from my neighbours.

M has been doing a bit of gym work at home during lock down. Now I am not saying her strength has exceeded her wisdom, but there do seem to be a few things getting broken.

Spinlock Clamp (post M.)

First was the Spinlock clam cleat that locks the Genoa furling line. Yes it was a bit stiff but it probably just needed some boiling water to wash out last year’s salt. But, a bit of a heave from M ... it broke.

Fibreglassed

At first I thought to leave it till the end of the season but soon realised that it is fairly critical in maintaining the Genoa in a reefed state during high winds, so needed to be fixed. Epoxy and fibreglass is wonderful stuff. I put it back together with some re-inforcement. It won’t last forever but if it can get us to the end of the trip, that is good enough.

Back in service

Second was the tap in the galley- -’it just came away in my hands’. Honestly she is breaking stuff faster than I can fix things.

I have a system when de-commissioning the boat of putting essential nuts and bolts and other small items in a little wicker box. This is done in the certain knowledge that they will then all be to hand when the time comes to put things back together. This year however things became complicated by the work done on the boat by the yard. I was left over with two 10mm substantial and important looking bolts, each with two washers and a locknut. I could not remember what they were for, but I was deeply troubled because they clearly were important.

Eventually I remembered. The were from the head board of the main sail. This is a metal board that is bolted to the top of the mainsail and the top slider, and is a solid re-enforcement for all the stresses and tensions put on the sail during hoisting and indeed while sailing. I had these bolts in order to get all of the mainsail tucked away inside the sail bag for its stowage during the winter ashore.

When the mast was replaced after the rigging work the yard guys had re-attached the halyard to the sail and obviously had not been able to find these crucial bolts and must have used new ones. So I went to take a look. No - they had not done this. They had attached the head board and the shackle to the sail and slider using a single bolt, without a locknut. So a fitting that is meant to have three points of fixation only had one incomplete one. I was not amused.

Headboard and top slider (fixed)

I then went to have a look at the wiring to see if I could work out why the wind instruments were non-operative. Marine wiring connections are meant to be either soldered and sealed or made with crimped connectors and protected by shrink wrap to reduce corrosion in a saline environment.

What I found was a pretty amateur job with a connector block for the majority, but some were just twisted together.

Electrician having a bad day

Much as I hate complaining, and rarely find it resolves anything, I am going to have to have a discussion with the Boss. The best form of advertising is a satisfied customer, and this one certainly isn’t.

Perfect spot.