Turkey

Bozburun, there are many places with this name but the one that we went to in the Yesilova Korfezi, east of Datca, is a quiet village where you can check into Turkey with relative ease. You use an agent who does all the work for you, stamps from immigration, customs, health authority and the harbourmaster all for a sum of 85€ plus £10 each for the visa. This enabled us or rather P to go and find the telly in the local working mens club which was tuned to the BBC for the Royal Wedding. Had to go and see the dress, the kiss and the fly by!
The village was a little touristy but kept its charm of Turkey. It is a large boat yard for gulets with hundreds ashore there for the winter, they still build them there with plans to build the largest gulet over 120m long, starting later this year. Gulets were coming into the tiny harbour to get maintanence work done before they're season started. It can be quite nerve racking when a large gulet, they're passerelle is as long as Crazydream, is mooring the side of you into a space that just doesn't look big enough. They certainly know how to handle their boats. We were pleased we choose to check in here and not Marmaris. A slow intro to Turkey.

We headed off round the coast with Rassy Lady stopping in anchorages before entering Marmaris Bay. Rassy Lady were again glad to have G close by as this year was their year of failures - alternator, halyard snapping, broken batterns in the sail...... G was happy to help and rewarded well for it.
Marmaris town is a haven for yachties, chandleries galore, workshops that will make anything but the downside is its full of tacky tourist places, and late night loud music clubs. If it was this loud in May we can only imagine what August will be like!
We were glad to leave the noise of the town but we were also moving on from Rassy Lady, they were heading back to the UK for the hot months.
We managed some sailing on our journey east along the coast but the weather was still unsettled and the thunderstorms when we were in Tomb Bay cleaned the boat nicely! The bays in Fethiye Korfezi have original names, Ruin Bay because there's a ruin, Tomb Bay because there's tombs, Wall Bay because there's a wall - you get the idea. All idyllic but dropping your anchor in 15-20m of water and tying back to the shore, fine if the water is warm enough to swim ashore!

We continued onto Kekova Roads our goal for the season before it got too busy in the height of the season. Sadly we were a little dissappointed with Kekova, its very pretty but very similar to the rest of the coast. It does however have lots of ruins and remains of Lycian settlements, some sunken and submerged, some dating back to beyond fouth century BC. The whole area is now commercialised with tripper boats and gulets taking over the popular sites and anchorages, some do dissappear in the evening but not all and those that stay leave their generators on and turn up the music. Still we did find some lovely places and managed to walk some of the Lycian Way, a long distance trail which runs along the Turquoise coast taking in places of interest from Roman and Byzantine times. The whole trail in theory takes up to month to complete, with an asortment of surfaces to walk on. Needless to say we only completed a short part taking in the sites of Teimiussa and Aperlae, swimming over the now submerged ruins, enchanting.
We felt we had seen enough and were not going to go any further east and decided to head back west. We had been told of a new marina that was open but not charging yet as they had not got their licence from the government and therefore couldn't take any money. We arrived in Kas marina where they even gave us 5€ of electric to use and we could stay as long as we liked, seemed rude not to. We stayed a week taking in the delights of Kas and the surrounding area. Taking the advantage of a free spot and eating out in the town.

We were very close to the furthest point of Europe, the Greek island of Kastellorizion, 70 miles east of Rhodes. It seemed silly not to go especially as there may be the chance of some cheep beer and pork - there wasn't. The island was enchanting with much history from shipbuilders in the 19th century stuggling on with sail boats and not converting to steam, WWI saw its relations with Turkey (a mile away) dry up when the Turks joined the Allies. Kastellorision then joined the Dodecanese group of islands at the time being run by the Italians. In WWII when the Italians surrendered to the Allies it was occupied by the British for a year, just before they left a fuel dump caught fire and exploded distroying half the town. Many of the islanders emigrated after this to Australia or America and alot of the houses remain abandoned today but many have been beautifully restored by returning emigres.

A long motor, the wind that was forecast didn't happen, and a change of flag saw us in the beautiful anchorage off the island of Gemiler. With the improved weather the water was now warm enough to swim and take lines ashore although this is where we first met the "ice cream man", he kindly helps you with your shore lines and then gets you to buy one of his ice creams at highly inflated prices - bartering is a must or you just say no but they became tiresome bothering you most of the day. A walk ashore before he tripper boats was interesting, a ruined Byzantine settlement with many buildings intact enough to appriciate them. Four churches on a island less than a half a mile long and quarter of a mile wide and a superberb covered walkway to the highest point, sadly mostly collapsed but we were early enough to still have shade!
A late sail thus more wind saw us back in Fethiye to stock up and do a little sight seeing. Amphitheatre, Sarcophagi and Rock Tombs dating back to 4th century BC. There were thoughts of a walk (7km or so through pine forest) to KoyaKal, the abandoned Greek village of 1922 which is the setting of the Louis de Berniers's novel Birds without Wings which describes events leading up to the Greek/Turkish population exchange and the birth pangs of modern Turkey under Ataturk. A painful knee and the heat put a stop to the thought and sadly since then we heard it would have been very worthwhile, something to go back for! We needed to be somewhere we could swim, not advisable off Fethiye town and so we headed off just after midday to suffer out first engine failure of the year. Overheating caused by a broken impeller. Engine off, P maintained a course under sail, whilst G replaced the impeller for a new one and cooled the engine down. It only took 20 minutes then original course was resumed to an idyllic anchorage with more ruins, tripper boats were there during the day but left late afternoon leaving a peaceful anchorage. We visited other bays in the Gocek area before a dash to the town to stock up and sit out yet another thunderstorm and torrential rain. Apart from the rain its an area that we'd recommend to cruise especially if chartering for a week or 2, sailing across the bay to a different anchorage each day all in green surroundings because of the rain!

We headed back west to have a new sprayhood made for the boat, the old one was only just holding together. We avoided Marmaris, too touristy and noisy in favour of some new anchorages where we could swim. We were also planning to meet up with some "ex-cruisers", Ian and Yvonne from the boat Nichola Jane, who we'd met in our first year out, who were chartering in the area.

Starting Cruising 2011

With a deadline to meet Restless Lady in Symi in 10 days time we needed to start moving even if the weather wasn't as good as we wish for. Rassy Lady (with a hijacked Frank from Marinerme - his boast was unsailable at the time) and Crazydream set off on the 30 miles south to Kos. In hindsight, too long for the first sail but good to get to the marina and meet up with Cloud 9. They had the use of a car and repaid a favour from 5 years back in Kalamata and took us to the shops to stock up on the essentials - beer and wine, notoriously expensive in Turkey our planned destination for this years cruising. We think Cloud 9 were suitably impressed by the amount we fitted in the car.
After one thoroughly enjoyable night socialising and more planned, the weather turned in our favour and thus we made the decision to go, even giving up the offer of another beer run. Lines undone and we were heading for Nisiros. Winds were fluky and we saw gusts up to 26kts and then down to 3kts - definitely a Gordon sailing day! Good to arrive in the harbour and our first anchor back to the quay went like the book says and our lines were taken by Sven, from C'est La Vie, we hadn't seen him since a drunken post wall painting in Portugal 2004.

A car hire with Rassy Lady (price bartered for by P) took us to the Volcano of Nisiros, the newest large active volcano of the Aegean Sea, having only starting to appear 160,000 years ago! We were able to walk in the crater named Stefanos, smelling the sulphur from the numerous vents some of which were bubbling away. Made more awesome as we were the only ones there. The wild flowers on the rest of the island were beautiful, certainly a good time to visit.
Sailing on to Tilos we opted to walk rather than hire a car (couldn't get the price down!). A 2 hour up hill walk to Mikro Horio, a ghost village whose 1200 inhabitants left for the port town of Livadhia in the 50's. The only intact structures are a church and a house that is now a music pub in the summer months. The church was locked when we got there, sod's law as we walked down, two locals drove up and opened the church and rung the bell!! It was Easter whilst we were in Tilos and the procession with the shrine had the whole village (all 50 of them) doing a circuit of the village before the church service, ringing bells and lots of bangers at midnight. The bangers had been going off since we had arrived back in Greece, don't really think they needed to practice them as much as they did!
We were paying in Tilos and thus we moved on even though it was still windy and wavy and thus a wet and rolly sail to the island of Symi.

Our First anchorage of the year saw us in Panormitis a large key hole bay with a large picturesque monastery in it. Symi's biggest rural attraction. Worth a look round and a loaf of bread from the bakers a must. Our first BBQ of the year but coats, long trousers and blankets were required - still we did BBQ. The anchorage was a place you could stay for a while, supplies ashore and a bus to Symi Town but we think it would get very busy in the summer.
With a poor weather forecast, thunderstorms and rain, we moved onto Symi Town. An eventful quay with crossed anchor chains, trapped anchors on underwater obstructions, we even saw a yacht dump its stainless anchor and chain as it had got into so much difficulty one day and then watch the local diver recover it all the following day. We were thankfully OK and even with a strong wind coming into the harbour held OK but saw alot of people leave, some with more difficulty than others!

Restless Lady appeared with Colin, Jill and Emile and tied up perfectly in 30kts, Pimms already in hand. A lot of catching up and drinking was done before a very enjoyable meal ashore in the "best restaurant" in town. Lets just say there were some shabby heads the next day but Restless Lady carried on with their intinery of getting the boat back to Spain in 5 weeks and moved on - even in the rain!!
A day recovering, sightseeing and shopping before we headed off to Turkish waters in a nice gentle breeze.

Winter 2010-11

The winter in the UK seemed to fly by even though we both didn't get full time work. P eventually began working full time for NHS Professionals in Portsmouth Hospitals but G was less successful with only "odd job man" maintenance work coming in, but this gave us pocket money to keep us going through the winter. We could write all about our working lives but it really is monotonous and would have you changing pages quicker than ever! We really do understand why people don't send many emails in the summer months when all they have to talk about is their working life.
We returned to Crazydream late March to get her ready for the summer, bottom needed painting and a polish of the hull was required. These completed she was able to leave her winter berth ashore in Leros.

The weather threw us a bit in that it was cold - the sun would shine but the wind was strong and from the north thus dropping the temperature considerably. We soldiered on - with coats on, and got all the jobs done and Crazydream floating again. We now just wait for the right weather window to get started on our summer cruise 2011.

End of Season

We felt it was time that Crazydream had some routine maintenance and TLC after a full summer of visiting friends.
We started at the pointy end, checking the anchor retaining pin that had been slightly bent when we T-boned the gullet back in August. The fixing was removed, straightened and stuck to the deck before we moved inside to deal with some of the salt damage. A definite reason not to sail to windward when the water is coming through the deck fittings or was it picking up heavy ground tackle in Kos harbour! Bulkhead, shelves and floor were sanded and varnished, cushions recovered and windows removed, resealed and replaced and all checked for leaks. The forepeak looked great to us but not obvious to others.
The chart table and surrounding area was looking tired so that got sanded and 5 coats of varnish with a great result. Trouble is now the rest of the boat needs re varnishing and its a time consuming job and messy with all the sanding - maybe next year.

Rewiring, sticking of headlining and many other jobs were done before it was time to get Crazydream lifted for the winter and our return to the UK. The picture shows that the weather was changing and we lifted out in strong winds and rain!
Of course once you're out of the water more jobs are necessary on top of cleaning and washing everything. But if you get most of it done before you go home there's less to do when you go back to the boat, in theory!
So we are now back in the UK and getting ready to start working to earn the money to do it all again next year.

More Dodecanese Sailing

We've covered about 280 nm since the last entry but still staying within the Dodecanese.

Friends Sally and Jonathan joined us in Kalimnos bringing an inflatable kayak with them which obviously had to be tried and tested on arrival. All was well for a while but Jonathan did take an early dip in the harbour!

The most dramatic and scariest thing to happen to us on board Crazydream since leaving the UK (well apart form 50kts when leaving Gibraltar!) happened during Sally and Jonathan's stay. We were woken to a large bang at 3am one morning after securing to a restaurant buoy the previous evening. We had T-boned a Turkish Gulet after the line of the buoy chaffed through its mooring block. We had drifted right across the bay and if we hadn't hit the gulet the rocks and shore were next, which it doesn't bear thinking about. Thankfully they were a solid boat and there was no apparent damage, we didn't even manage to wake any of the crew up! We don't appear to have any damage although the anchor pin is harder to put in nowadays!! So word of warning, check out the ground tackle of buoys in Xerokambos anchorage, south of Leros.

We were all very pleased to be heading off to Cyprus, where Sally and Jonathan had kindly invited us to stay at their villa with them for a week. We took Crazydream to Kos Marina where Jane and Mark were taking her over for a week - it saved having to leave her somewhere or get her lifted.

Cyprus was much warmer than Greece around the 40-45'C range. Thankfully the villa is in the Tsada hills north of Paphos, this meant there was a breeze most days but the swimming pool helped to keep us cool if the air conditioning didn't. We took our washing to do in the machine and P offered to wash up every day using the dishwasher! The one thing P has also missed on Crazydream is a sofa, well there were two leather ones to choose from in the villa, what a big difference to a 36ft sailing boat.We ate out numerous times enjoying the scenery and cuisine of Cyprus, trying many different fish dishes, a new thing for P&G. We had an absolutely wonderful time and can't thank Jonathan and Sally enough.


Returning to Crazydream found Jane and Mark having had a good week apart from Mark losing his glasses when diving in the water to take a line ashore but forgetting to take his glasses off first! They did look for them but couldn't find them. Thankfully, due to big seas and strong winds, when we were back on board, we ended up in the same anchorage and G, after checking the anchor, went snorkeling to look for them and surprisingly found them in one piece with no damage. No need to visit Spec Savers on their return!!
We visited numerous islands, Leros, Lipsi, Arki, Patmos and Kalimnos but the wind prevented us getting up to Samos this time. We know the area quite well now and were able to visit some beautiful bays to enjoy swims and bbq's.

Dodecanese Sailing

This year we have decided not to travel too far and with an annual berth in Leros, it seemed a good time to stay around the Dodecanese (12 Greek islands on the east of the Aegean near the coast of Turkey). We aimed to go between Samos in the north and Kos in the south but it all depends on the wind.
It took us the 3 weeks to actually start the cruise this year but have enjoyed many islands so far. Lipso, Arki, Fournoi (actually part of the Eastern Sporades chain of islands and notorious for being windy), Samos and then south to include Patmos, Kalimnos and Kos.
We've been back to anchorages that we had visited before and to new ones too. Always a little interesting when you go to a new place and you never know what to expect. The pilot book says buoys and there aren't any, it says poor holding and the anchor goes straight in or the other way round, good holding and you can't get the anchor to hold at all. Taking a line ashore is aways interesting in that you drop the anchor and then reverse to the shore or rocks, when close enough one of you jumps in (usually P) with a line and swims to the shore to tie you off securely. We use a grapnel to help temporarily secure us as it gives P more time to get ashore. We usually feel a lot happier moored this way as long as the wind doesn't shift!!

We've met up with friends this year and at one point even had a race with 2 other English yachts involved. Obviously it wasn't a real race as none of us are insured to race and we didn't sign on to start! But the theory is if there is more than one boat going the same way, its a race. Marinerme was the overall winner on handicap, Rassy Lady got a first for sailing into the anchorage and Crazydream came first for having the most crew (Sandi & Colin were on visiting at the time).


Some of the new places we visited had spectacular scenery and the pictures show some on Kalimnos, a beautiful if barren island famous for its sponge divers who sadly in recent years have declined due to the sponges dying off and the sponges are now imported from America.



The towns museum shows the antiquated diving equipment used up until the 70's which left many of the divers with side effects of the "bends" who are still seen "walking" around the water front.

Start of 2010 Cruising

We thought only a week to get Crazydream ready but in reality it took near on 3 weeks and then a further week socialising with friends who happened to be in the same area at the same time. Rassy Lady, Restless Lady, Vonasi and Marinerme were all happy to exchange sailing stories, technical problems with boats and generally put the world to rights, obviously over a few beers!
Now Beer was a problem, or rather lack of the right sort and size tins. Leros simply didn't have any we even had supplies brought in from Kos by Vonasi who had to make a visit there. So the need to move to an island that had the right stuff was needed.
Finally we managed to untie the lines and head north from Leros, we even persevered with the light wind and sailed the 17 miles to Lipso where funny enough Vonasi took our lines, oh dear, more drinking to be had! Its always difficult to tear yourselves away when you are with good friends but we did (after a few days) and sailed to Arki to celebrate our wedding anniversary in a taverna with great food and music. We had our first swim of the year here but really the water was not warm enough yet.
More sailing to the island of Fournoi, just outside the Dodecanese, a remote island where the wind notoriously howls. We choose light winds though getting there but when we left it was blowing 20 knots, we covered 30 miles in less than 6 hours which is good when you're sailing.
Finally we were able to replenish our beer supply on the island of Samos, 2 trolleys were loaded and the "beer cellar" on Crazydream filled. Samos is a good island to stock up from. We had toured the island last year with Matapan's crew, Geoff & Anne-Marie so we didn't explore again just dropped the hook in one of our favourite anchorages, Posidonion and stayed there 3 days.
With friends arriving in Kos in a few weeks we began to head south, sod's law the wind started to blow from the south, so a couple of sails to windward getting salt all over the foredeck had to be incurred, dropping in to the islands of Arki, Lipso and Leros, where we happened to have the first breakage of the year. The windlass (lets out and pulls in the anchor) jammed and thus broke the only non metal bit in it and Gordon had to then pull up 40 meters of chain with 20 knots of wind blowing - not easy! So we returned to Lakki Marina to carry out repairs to the windlass and complete a list of jobs that we had managed to come up with.

Still someone once said that "cruising is boat maintenance in beautiful places" - how true