Marmaris and the End of our Season

From Bozburun and beautiful Keci Buku with the remnants of a Byzantine fortress atop an island in the bay, we sailed to another village named Sogut before re-visiting the bay at Bozuk Buku. There we secured to the restaurant jetty below the ruins of another citidel in delighful surrounds and where the locals plied their wares from dinghies alongside the yacht. Then we returned to Yacht Marina at Marmaris, our base for the winter. The weather is cooling down now and we have had a little rain. Nevertheless, we are sad to finish sailing after such a wonderful season and having to ready the yacht for hauling from the water before returning to Australia. As for 2009, who knows?

Bodrum and Onward

With our new crew Jack Tar has sailed on the Turkish coast in the two gulfs south of Bodrum, visiting anchorages and securing to the jetties provided by seaside restaurants. First up, Cokertme and then on to Sogut at the head of Gokova gulf where the berth was in a beautful landlocked bay. Then on via islands where Cleopatra had sand shipped from North Africa so that Mark Anthony could swim over it, to English Harbour where the British SBS operated during WW2. Then on to ancient Knidos where we once again visited the amazing ruins before the wind blew up during the night causing chaos in the harbour. Fortunately Jack Tar was well secured and escaped unscathed. From Knidos the wind continued to blow unusually from the east and we abandoned plans to visit Datca and sought shelter in a lovely anchorage by a monastery at Panormitis on the west coast of the Greek island of Simi. Then Lovely Bozborun and keci Buku again on the Turkish coast.

Leros to Bodrum

Now in Bodrum in Turkey, Jacktar has sailed from Lakki on Leros via Emborios on the northern end of Kalymnos island and the beautiful village on Telendos island, just offshore from the western side of Kalymnos. Thence to Kalymnos town, also known as Pothia, where we secured alongside a charter yacht which had a small problem having lost its rudder, and on to the old port in Kos townon the island of Kos, a lovely place to berth our yacht. There we re-acquainted ourselves with the town and visited the ancient site of Asklepieion [try pronouncing that]. In Bodrum Lin & Tery departed and Al and Joanne have joined. We plan to slowly make our way to Marmaris wher we will end the season.

The Northern Dodecanese

Jack Tar is now once again in Lakki on the Greek island of Leros. We returned to kusadasi in Turkey and then sailed on to Sigacik, a small town with a walled village on the harbour front, before picking up Lin and Terry in Kusadasi and returning to Samos to re-enter Greece. From there we have sailed via Agathonisi, a delighful small island; Arki, another very small island which we last visited in 2006; Patmos; Lipso and Pandeli on Leros. The northern Dodecanese islands are a wonderful sailing ground and even though we are late in the season it is common to see as many as 20 yachts under sail within our range of visibility. In Patmos we encountered a flotilla of 16 charter yachts whose skippers entertained us with crossed anchor chains, chains wrapped around propellers and near collisions. Although the meltemi has returned we are bound downwind and so have had some beaut journeys with the wind. People smuggling is also popular here and we have seen illegal immigrants rounded up by both the Turkish and Greek Coast Guards, and also the cheap Chinese inflatable boats used to make the crossings between the coast and islands.

Chios, Ikaria and Samos

After Kardhamila we decided to travel down the west coast of Chios and called at Volisos, a small fishing harbour below the town set on a high hill adjacent to an ancient fortress. The town was small and sleepy and, as the pilot described, largely ruinous with many of the buildings in a derelict state. However, it seems to have been recently discovered by tourists, and there is much renovation taking place and some trendy bars and accommodation houses are now the go. Then a great downwind sail to an anchorage at Emborious on the southern tip of Chios before a crossing to Ikaria, the windy island. A long tall slab of rock, we found Ikaria to be a wonderful place. The scenery was magnificent; high almost alpine valleys, rocky moonscapes, golden sandy beaches and attractive towns seemingly undiscovered by mainstream tourism. It was a genuinely Greek island experience and great to find a place not catering to the “package tourists”. We did have to contend with the wind which accelerated over the mountain and blew “bullets” down into the tiny harbour at over 35 kts on occasions. So, despite long lines across the harbour, we had a few broken berthing lines and shock absorbers. When the wind relented we sailed on via Fournoi Is. to Pythagorion on Samos and an unexpected rendezvous with Marmaris yachting mates. Here we will spend a couple of days before returning to Kusadasi in Turkey for a crew change.