Aura is off the dock…the learning curve begins
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than the ones you did do….
So throw away the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour.
Explore, Dream, Discover.
Mark Twain
It all seems so easy when you are sitting in a lovely bay with turquoise water lapping against the boat, shadowed by a 100BC castle. The cows are resting on the rock faced shore and there is a gentle breeze rippling across the water (fortunately from the opposite direction of the cows). Times like this it makes it all worth. Other times, you think …..!!
We finally set off on Tuesday morning in cold, rainy weather. Simon had spent two hours the previous day cleaning the decks. It rained overnight and we woke up to all the decks covered in a reddy brown dirt. So the first lesson for the day, in this part of Turkey, when it rains everything gets dirty rather than clean, “rain dust”. So before we could go anywhere, OCD Simon had to clean them all again.
We departed the marina without incident and headed for the fuel dock across the Marmaris Bay. It was there that we realised that the bow thrusters were not working. After several attempts to get onto the dock in a very confined spaced, we proceeded to fill our fuel tanks. So bring in Marine Engineering Team One, who arrived to give Si a lesson on how the “Dock & Go” works. Si took one of the team out to demonstrate that the “joy stick” spins us in circles instead of moving AURA sideways (yes, AURA has a few special tricks). So bring in Marine Engineering Team Two, new battery bank, fuse and check the recently replaced 12v to 24v converter. Everything is working, I love the efficiency of getting stuff done here (big thanks to Jes Holman). Delayed by only an hour, we finally got off our second dock for the day leaving Marmaris behind.
The first bay we planned to visit was approx. 12nm south of Marmaris called Gerbekse. Lovely secluded narrow bay with ruins on the beach. The plan was to anchor and take a line to shore. After a lot of discussion as to where to put the anchor and which side we should take the line, the anchor was nice and snug (after two attempts). Si put on his wet suit and swam to shore with a line. When we were told that in many anchorages you have to take a line to shore, we expected that there would be trees strategically located to put your line around. Well the reality was that Simon had to climb up rocks and find a nicely shaped rock to wrap the line around. Si adjusted the line several times but it the line was chafing on the rock and as we all know (or so I do now) chafing is bad. So we pulled up the anchor and went to the next bay, Ciftlik Buku.
As it was getting late and the wind was blowing, we decided to practice our Mediterranean Mooring. This involves going to dock stern to (reversing in) and fishing a line out of the water to hold the bow (front instead of an anchor). Fortunately they were not busy so we picked a dock that was empty, less chance of doing any damage. All went well as we had two locals that were very helpful in securing our stern lines. That night we treated ourselves to some takeaway lamb kebabs that we ate on the boat due to the swell being so bad only one of us could get off at a time.
The next morning, Simon’s sore throat had developed into full blown man flu which might have something to do with him swimming in freezing water...doh!! A day of rest was in order for both of us. That was until we were told that they were expecting a lot of boats on the dock so rather than move we decided to anchor in the bay. Once again, no one else was around so after a couple of anchor drops, we had secured the perfect spot, or so we thought. As the afternoon progressed more boats started coming into the bay and anchoring near us, probably because the wind had picked up with 40knt gusts into the bay. A couple of the yachts dragged their anchor. As the afternoon wore on, I was on diligent anchor watch whilst Simon rested. When he got up, he took one look at our position and told me that we had to move. I had spent the past several hours trying to convince myself that we were fine but the boat behind us was getting closer. It was getting late so we had to move before dark. After two drops with much discussion around our position, we anchored in 5m of water and dug in nice and snug. The wind kept blowing so it was still a very tense night. I looked up through the hatch during the night and yelled, “Wake up Simon, I can see the top of a mast”. Simon jumps out of bed and checks the stern of the boat. He comes back wanting to know what I am on about. So it was the moon…hardly my fault for causing mass panic.
The following day, the wind had dropped slightly and we prepared to head to Serce Limani. What I mean by preparing, was sending me up the mast to retrieve the flag line that had come free over the past 24 hrs. That went relatively well, just some more entertainment for the surrounding yachts.
Serce Limani was a lovely bay with a very narrow entrance. Just to mix things up, we picked up a mooring buoy. Old Mate from the local restaurant Kaptan Nimo’s was there to assist, he then ferried us to shore and we enjoyed a lovely Meze selection for lunch under the gum trees (with imported Australian flies) before chilling on the boat. So nice not be on anchor watch (trusting Kaptan’s mooring quality & strength). It was another very windy night so still lots of banging noises to jolt you awake. The following morning we decided to check out Bozuk Bay. Only 3nm around the corner. The bay is only accessible by boat and has a 3000 year old Dorian settlement and castle on the top of the hill. The day has gone relatively smoothly. Just a minor issue with releasing a mooring line, we cut the end of it as it wouldn’t run free…..
We arrived at this bay at 10am. Went for a lovely walk exploring the castle ruins, we had homemade burgers for lunch and we are still the only visiting yacht in the bay. It is so incredibly peaceful here. I think it must be time for a tequila.
