Greetings all!
Most of the smaller towns we have visited do not have marinas. Instead, they each have a U-shaped central port. Boats drop anchor in the center, and Med Moor (back to the quay). Generally, the boats are a combination of gulets (for taking tourists sightseeing) and local fishing boats. I’m not sure what would happen if we tried to enter one of the these ports with Sans Souci, or who we would ask for moorage. My sense is that we would be welcomed, and it is just a matter of finding the right person to talk to, but I haven’t tried.
We generally like to anchor out, and visit town using the tender. This is partially because we prefer it, and partially because it is easier. Bringing Sans Souci into a strange port, with just Roberta and I, can be difficult. Med mooring is easiest with three people: one to work the bow lines, one to work the stern lines, and one to drive the boat. We can do it with two people, but when given the choice of anchoring out
versus figuring out how to Med moor with two people in small, busy harbors, it becomes an easy decision. And, besides, anchoring out is easy and free. No paperwork, no hassle, no money, just drop the hook.
These guys provided tender service to us several times while we were at anchor at
Kas
Our last few anchorages have been a fairly long tender ride into town; over a mile. During the day, this isn’t a problem, but going into town for dinner
at night, or over choppy water, can be a challenge. We are cruising late in the season, and the weather is a bit unpredictable. The seas can turn nasty quickly,
even in relatively sheltered bays. In Kekova Roads we got caught away from Sans
Souci when, while lunching in Kalekoy -- the tender safely tied at a nearby dock
-- strong winds suddenly appeared. There was no way to get back to Sans Souci
safely with the huge chop that quickly built up. We called 'our guy' Turgay, who
came riding to the rescue in his gulet and towed us back. So, lately, we’ve taken to venturing into town
on the tender during the day, when the weather is calm, and working out a deal with a local gulet driver to provide transport
if such would be needed. This has worked out amazingly well, and allows us to
safely have dinner and wine and then return to the boat in the dark. However,
getting on or off the transport gulet, via our tender tied to the swimstep of
Sans Souci, has been a bit ‘wild and crazy.’ We’ve worked out a system where I,
Roberta and the dogs get into our tender (which is tied behind Sans Souci), the 45’ gulet
then backs to our tender, and then we climb onto the gulet. Once we figured out
this procedure, it wasn't so bad!
There is one interesting thing in Kas, of which perhaps one of the readers of my blog can enlighten me. At dinner one night,
an adjacent table of three couples was clearly deaf. The couples were signing to
communicate with each other, and they wanted to ask what we were having for dinner, so that they could order it. I don’t know sign language, so pointing
at the menu was the best I could do. When the waiter came to their table, and realized they were deaf, he got the bartender, who was not deaf, but knew sign language, and took their order. We didn’t think anything of it, until the next morning, when at a completely different restaurant, I tried to ask the waiter for the internet password, and realized he was deaf. I showed him the password page on my iphone, and he signed to a waitress, who brought me the password. She was also deaf
and they began signing to each other. Maybe there is a school for the deaf in
Kas? Or just a coincidence? It doesn’t matter, though -- we were just wondering.
One more thing to mention about Kas. It’s a dive-centric town. The port wasn’t very large, yet I counted over 20 LARGE diving boats. While we were at anchor there were always dive boats around us. I’m not sure what there was to see, but it must have been good.
(Roberta thinks that she heard about some old shipwreck under the water...)
One funny story about anchoring at Kas....
One of the reasons we upgraded to a larger Nordhavn, in 2007, was that we wanted
space for a hot tub. Most people
thought we were crazy, and it would never get used. They couldn't have been more
wrong. I'm not sure which has more hours, Sans Souci's main engines, or
the hot tub. We've taken to using the hot tub just about every night we're
at anchor. However, on
our last night in Kas, we noticed a coast guard vessel drop anchor beside us.
Were we in trouble? Would we be boarded? We wanted to go out to the hot tub, but
figured someone would be knocking on the door any minute. After 30 minutes of
nothing happening, and us sitting in the dark, waiting to be asked for our
papers, we saw the lights go out on the coast guard vessel. I said, "Let's go to
bed," and Roberta said, "No way. It's hot tub time!" How many people
can say they've
been hot tubbing alongside a coast guard vessel at anchor in Turkey?
We would liked to have stayed longer at Kas, but could see another storm
coming, and wanted to move to a location better protected from the northwest and
north. So, we moved the boat to Kalkan, about a two-hour run northwest of Kas.
Our anchorage at Kalkan was amongst the prettiest I’ve seen, but with mediocre holding. Roberta and I have done a lot of anchoring, and are accustomed to dropping the anchor one time and having it hold. However, the anchorage at Kalkan is mostly mud and seaweed with occasional sand. We dropped the anchor, and when we tested, the anchor was not set. When I retrieved the anchor, it was packed in a huge ball of mud and seaweed. I couldn’t even see the anchor! We dropped again, in deeper water, and had better luck on the second try.
The correct thing to do apparently, here in Turkey, is to run a stern line to shore. With professional crew it's
easy (or with a couple in a small sailboat) but with just Roberta and I, on Sans
Souci, it's a little trickier. Plus, with a storm
coming, we felt safer out in the middle, able to swing with the wind. Roberta
and I debated whether we would be safer in the middle, or against shore.
These gulets appeared out of nowhere
This gulet dropped his anchor right at my stern
The bay at Kalkan (Yesilkoy Koyu) was small; perhaps a couple hundred yards across. When we dropped our anchor, around noon, the entire bay
consisted of ourselves and one other sailboat. Suddenly, at 2:30pm, we saw what appeared to be a flotilla of gulets coming our way. Within about 20 minutes at least 20 other boats, loaded with swim-suited tourists, dropped anchor
all around us. The tourists jumped in the water for a swim, and our idyllic
anchorage turned into the hub of a massive beach party. As suddenly as they had
arrived, two hours later, everyone disappeared, and we were alone again for the
night, except for two other sailboats and one small gulet that stayed.
Taking the tender into Kalkan, Turkey. Coco doesn't have her seatbelt fastened,
but Roberta is sitting on her leash.
The U-shaped port of Kalkan
A mosque on the hill overlooking Kalkan. There is a "call to prayers" five times
a day, but at least in the tourist areas of town, I've never seen anyone pay attention
to it.
At first, I thought this was a hang-glider, but it's a parachute. It flew overhead, and
is apparently something brave tourists can sign up for. I will not be signing
up.
Street scene in Kalkan
Lots to do do in Kalkan!
Wandering the streets in Kalkan
Restaurants as far as the eye can see
Street in Kalkan
Kalkan is unbelievably dog friendly. This restaurant set up a special seat for
our puppies
This is just one page of many on the menu. Prices are good by European standards.
To convert to US dollars, you approximately divide the price by two
Captain Ken driving the tender back to Sans Souci. We had an early dinner, so we could tender back before dark
Kalkan is a large town compared to the others we have visited, and one resident told me that
the inhabitants are about 95% British expats.
Kalkan prides itself on its great restaurants. When Roberta and I asked some locals which were the good restaurants, we were told, “All of them are excellent.” We only had time to eat at a couple, but so far, we agree. It’s a
'foodie' town.
I had an interesting chat with a restaurant owner in Kalkan about taxes. He mentioned that gas was over $12 a gallon! I asked if this meant there was no income tax, and he
shook his head, "No, there is also an income tax." Turkey has a 30% income tax
and can be aggressive at collecting it. For instance, he said, the tax
collectors would randomly visit his restaurant, and even if he had every table
filled, they would immediately ask to see the tickets for every each and every
table. They would check to verify that all revenues
were being recorded correctly, and that the books were right. If there are any errors, he can immediately be subject to a large fine.
This boating season is short for us, and we’re just trying to get the 'lay of the land'
here in Turkey; we don't have a lot of time to spare before heading home to
Seattle. So after a couple of days in Kalkan, we could see that another storm was coming and decided to move the boat
back toward Gocek (our home port) while we had a good weather window for travel.
Yesterday, Roberta and I moved the boat about 50 miles northwest to a pretty
little bay near Gocek, called 'Tomb Bay.'
After anchoring we looked up and noticed Lycian tombs embedded in the hillside.
Hence, the name 'Tomb Bay.'
We weren’t sure why it was called Tomb Bay, and were genuinely caught by surprise
after we dropped anchor, and looked at the hillside, to see the tombs above us.
Cool!
We selected an anchorage where the boat could swing. The chart says 65 feet,
but it was wrong; I had to drop in 120 feet of water
We've hit restaurants in anchorages everywhere, but this was the first one
that also offered a "Leg Shave"
How many places can you drop anchor and have tombs, swimming, hiking, a restaurant, and your legs shaved?
Unfortunately, on our second night at Tomb Bay we received some wind. Standard practice on Sans Souci is that if the wind will be above 10 knots, and we aren't 100% certain that we
are set correctly, we stand anchor watch. At 4:30am this morning, the wind climbed to 15 knots, and it meant I had to get up and stand
watch in the cockpit.
If you do not see a video above this comment,
CLICK HERE to see it. It's not a very exciting video, and too dark to really see, but I thought people might enjoy seeing
how I set things up for my anchor watch. The highest wind we saw was 23 knots, and Sans Souci's chain never dragged
an inch (as far as I know).
And, on a completely different topic...
Normally, when approaching a marina or port, there is a nautical standard that
says 'red-right-returning,' which means, as you approach (or 'return to') port, the entrance will usually be marked by a red and green light, and that the red light should be kept on your starboard (or, right) side.
Imagine arriving at this marina at night, and seeing these lights. If you
tried to go between them, you'd have a bad day
I took the picture above as I approached the Kalkan port. Here, because it is daylight, you can see that the lights could easily mislead you
if you were accustomed to 'red-right-returning.'
In turkey it's 'green-right-returning.'
Here you can see that the red light is on the left. This is backwards, but how they do it here in Turkey.
In May, when Sans Souci first arrived here by freighter from Hong Kong, my first approach to Gocek was at night, and the lights to the marina are reversed, as these are. It made arrival at Gocek,
'interesting.'
When first approaching, I couldn't believe the lights were really reversed, and
insisted that a tender come out to guide me in.
Many restaurants in bays have docks for moorage.
Just about every anchorage we visited had one or more waterfront restaurants, and many have
temporary moorage. The docks are often
rickety, and I haven't seen one yet that I'd tie Sans Souci to, but for smaller
boats, and sailboats, they are perfect.
And speaking of which, I'd encourage anyone interested in cruising Turkey to
consider chartering a sailboat and cruising here. Most of the sailboats we see
are chartered by the week. Double-check me on this, but most sailboat charter
companies do not require any form of license, whereas it is virtually
impossible to charter a powerboat in Europe without a license. I spoke to one
charter company who
said that most renters never put the sails up, and just treat the sailboat like
a powerboat. For instance, a few years ago I chartered a sailboat in Mexico
and know nothing about sailing, yet had a great time.
And, a technical tidbit...
One of my projects the past week has been to get my
SKYMATE
working. Skymate is a low-cost, low-bandwidth, satellite communications system,
that is always available virtually everywhere in the world. I use it to
automatically send a daily email to myself, when not on the boat, with information about what is happening on the boat.
For instance, here
is the report from yesterday.
Received Tuesday October 18 2011 at 12:17 PM GMT.
Battery voltage = 26.302 volts.
Shore power is connected.
Bilge level is OK.
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I have several forms of internet on the boat, but internet is not reliable for
this purpose, for
a variety of reasons. For instance, the 3G card seems to randomly ask for
someone to insert a PIN code. With no one around to enter the code, the internet
stops working. I also have VSAT satellite internet. This has shown to be
reliable, although it would mean leaving the positioning unit active for the
next six months. The antenna positioning unit has a lot of moving parts (motors and belts) that
can wear out. I really don't want to leave it active for the next six months if
I don't have to. The nice thing about Skymate is that it seems to chug along, no
matter what happens.
Far more interesting than the daily stats update is its ability to immediately
alert me when the power goes out. Interestingly, I'm not as concerned
about when the power goes out, as when it comes back on. No shore power is ever
perfect. There will always be power failures. But, if the power goes out, and
doesn't come back within a few hours, then it can be a problem. If I receive
notification that the power is out, and I don't get another notification that it
is back on within 12 hours, I will know to call the marina and have them get the
power going. Over the next six months, while we're away from the boat, it will
be winter, and the air conditioning won't be running, so losing electricity really isn't a big issue.
The boat won't be using much power. We have a few items left in the
refrigerator/freezer, and that's about it. If the electricity goes away though, and
doesn't come back, the batteries will ultimately die, which would be expensive.
Many of you may have already seen
THIS as it was linked on
Nordhavn Dreamers
but it is an accident report about a sailing ship that sank in Brazil. It's fascinating reading, and has a great discussion
on stability.
My last blog entry generated a lot of email, particularly the article about the octopus...
Everyone agrees that the octopus was being tenderized, but I like this idea for octopus hunting (you didn't hear it here):
From Pete, in Florida...
"...Having born and spent the first 18 years of my life in Greece, near the water, I found your blog memos very interesting. However, I couldn't stop laughing about the guy who was slamming the octopus. I'm sure you know by now all about the "Greek" tenderizing method for octopus, but I still had to explain to my friends - who read your blog - that the fisherman on your picture was not exposed to the hot Greek sun for too long, but instead he was working fast and hard.
Actually, I've done this myself hundreds of times as a young boy. You see, my favored fishing activity in the 60's was snorkeling and hunting for octopus using a very unique method. In about 10-15 ft of water, I would spot an octopus residence which had the uncollected garbage (sea shells, crab leftovers etc.) in the front porch. I would dive and place a small piece of acetylene rock in front of the opening and then wait on the surface for the octopus to come out. They must come out because acetylene takes the oxygen out of the water. My spear would finish the hunting and the octopus "slamming" on the near by rock would finish the job.
I wish you, Roberta and the 2 "little" ones a safe return home...."
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Here's an email that succinctly summarizes why Turkey is a great place to cruise:
Donald H wrote to say...
"...Hi Ken --
My wife and I spent a month in Turkey recently (including Gocek, Kekova and Kas). We also found the Turkish people extraordinarily warm and helpful. We have since learned that there is a Turkish saying that "Guests are a gift from God." Guess that explains it!
...."
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And lastly…
Roberta and I are at our last anchorage before returning to port at Gocek and ending this cruising season. I’ll probably do at least one more blog entry, but essentially, it’s over for this year.
Most of the next week will be spent cleaning the boat, interior and exterior,
and making lists of things to repair and items to bring back with us for next
season's cruising.
If it seems like it was a short cruising season this year -- only 5 weeks -- that’s
because it was. We had some personal/family issues that kept us off the boat
this year, but we hope to be back next year with a full three or four month
cruising season as normal!
Also, as some of you may recall, Roberta and I split off from the other two
boats in our GSSR fleet. Seabird and Grey Pearl are currently en route to
Thailand.
We have been nervous that our friends would ‘fall in love’ with Thailand, and not join us here in Turkey. And, although that is still possible, we have had several communications lately which are sounding more and more like the team will reunite for next season’s cruising.
For the first time, Roberta and I have allowed ourselves to think seriously about where we’ll cruise next year. It will be a group decision, and we have many options.
Roberta just sent to the group a five-year plan with ideas for where we might
go. Working with them to work out a plan will be fun! Although, as they say,
cruising plans are best written in the sand, at low tide. It's best to keep
these things loose. We do know that over the next few years we will want to visit
Turkey, Greece, Croatia, Corsica, Sicily, Italy, France, Spain, and more – but, there’s no hurry. We’ll get there.
That’s it for today!
Ken Williams