Spending some time at anchor in Gumusluk is no bad thing since it’s a wonderful place. Being forced to spend nine days there because of mechanical problems is another thing altogether. It was now the middle of August and Liz and I had still not ventured further than Marmaris in all the time we have been in Turkey. We were getting itchy feet. And itchy bums.
So, as soon as Yat Lift had wrapped a bit of wire round our problematic gear cable, we were off. We were aiming to get to Marmaris as quickly as possible. We did the 80-odd mile trip in two days.
The first day saw us playing with the mizzen and main running goosewing and, apart from the lee of Kos, we had a fair bit of decent sailing. We arrived in Palamut at 1830 and decided to anchor off the beach rather than venture into the town quay. Unfortunately this bay suffers from rolling seas and it made for a very uncomfortable night’s sleep. Well, it did for me. I hate sideways rolling seas in a double bed. Give me the bucking broncho forwards backwards motion any day. Liz, on the other hand, slept like a baby. Bless.
The next day’s 10 hour trip was divided into two halves. The first was spent motoring, the second was spent sailing. More importantly, however, we both got our kit off. Well, I got my kit off and Liz got the fishing kit out. Yes, we were both playing with tackle but I wouldn’t say either were particularly impressive. Liz didn’t catch anything and I just got a sun-burnt arse.
Still, we spotted a turtle whilst running goosewing (Esper was running goosewing, not the turtle), this time with the main, jib and mizzen, hitting up to 8kn speed over ground. By the time we’d reached Kadirga Br., the last corner before Marmaris, we were a sweating, sunburnt and tired mess. We’d travelled over 50 miles today and still managed to get to Marmaris in time to drop anchor, have a refreshing swim, shower, get ashore and have a silly evening with our friends Benn and Becks.
And here begins the next part of our adventure for summer 2007. We are aiming to get as far east as possible before the winter sets in, possibly with the aim of getting back to Marmaris for November. Who knows? That’s the fun of what we’re doing. Mind you, at the rate we’re going we might just leave Marmaris by the end of September. No, that cannot happen.
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