Greece to Sicily

Wednesday 14^th September.

Well we are now on our way to the first of the Greek Islands – Limnos – in the Eastern Sporades.  Limnos is quite beautiful.  We stop off in the port of Myrina and climb the hill to the Genoan castle with its marvellous view of the town.  The weather is perfect.   Here we see the local deer roaming among the old ruins of the castle and even coming into the outskirts of the town.  Then a couple of days later with the wind on our stern we set sail again, having  good runs, stopping in the Northern Sporades at Kira Panyia, Alonnisos, and Skiathos.  It was at Skiathos that we pick up our Dubai friends Rob and Suzy, and after spending a day with a hire car exploring the Island, it was time to up anchor and continue south.  It is now getting cooler and we had heavy rain, thunder and lightning the day before we left.  The morning we decided to up anchor and go – NO - we are stuck fast to the bottom.  Alec had to go over the side and see what our problem was. He found our anchor chain around a huge old anchor that had been abandon, so, with a little manoeuvring and a couple more dives we were free, only to get caught up again.  Down he goes again, and this time the chain is caught around two more unused anchors.  It takes just under two hours for us to get clear of all the rubbish on the bottom before we are on our way.  BUT, we now have another problem. We have a broken anchor chain guide.  This is the second time it has broken on us.  The first was on the Australian Coast.  This will mean we will have to pull the anchor up by hand till we can get a new one.  Thank goodness we have a strong man Rob on board. 

Istanbul - Gallipoli

Hello Again,

 A lot of water has passed under the hulls since I last sat down at the computer to send out my screed.  Actually I am very lucky to have a computer to write to you on, and it is only thanks to Alec’s brother Rich, that I do – will fill you in on that shortly!!

 Our first night just outside Istanbul was spent anchored outside the fishing harbour of Yesilkoy.  The following morning Alec decided to take the tender in and see if there was space for us to tie up inside. Most fishing harbours the berthing fees are quite reasonable but finding a vacant berth can be a problem. He found only one, a corner berth, so we upped anchored and motored on in.  WRONG MOVE – the wind got up just as we went in and we were blown sideways getting the starboard keel caught on someone’s mooring chain. For the next twenty minutes we were held fast, fending ourselves off the bows of a couple of other boats.  No one came to help, they all just stood and watched.  The wind kept pushing us sideways onto the chain, and being a corner berth we had no room to manoeuvre.  I climbed on board the offending boat and loosened off their mooring line, then suddenly we came free, so we motored on out deciding to give that place a miss, to find a small swimming bay next door which was surrounded by a break-water, so we dropped anchor right in the middle of the bay and there we stayed for the next couple of nights. No problem!  Better than paying 100 Euros per night in a Marina/Resort.

Marmaris To Istanbul

Hello From The Sea Gypsies Again

 We are really feeling like Gypsies at the moment as we have spent the last ten days crossing back and forth across Marmaris Bay from the town side where we anchored just off the main beach, to the other side where we sat outside the Marmaris Yacht Marine – a big Marina – where we could pick up the internet, dispose of our rubbish and spend quieter days and evenings swimming and relaxing.  On the town side we got our maintenance done.  Alec did a complete oil change on both engines and sail drives, the watermaker got a haul over, we had a broken hinge on one of our big front windows, which was successfully welded.  We found the correct shaped batten for our main sail as we had to replace one after breaking it coming up the Red Sea, we had fender covers made for the fenders to help protect them from the sun, plus we visited nearly every boat shop in town, and I can tell you there are HUNDREDS of them.  Alex now has ‘spares’ for everything.

Turkey Alanya to Marmaris

Turkey

 Alanya to Marmaris

 Hello Again

 Well, eventually we were checked into Turkey after 48 hours sitting around the Alanya Marina waiting, and waiting and waiting!!!!  A long story, but it turns out there is a bit of a political battle going on between the new marina with the officials.  Something they really need to get sorted.  We did manage a couple of trips into town, one on the second day, before we were checked in as there was no one around.  Alanya is a modern tourist resort around a high peninsula which was known as Calonoros, and in the 2^nd century B.C. was a very big pirate stronghold. (Thought we were well clear or that area!!) The restored castle and walls were worth the visit, along with the stunning views up and down the Mediterranean coastline.

Cyprus And Lebanon

Hello Again

We left Ashkelon Israel on Tuesday 31^st May, and the run to Famagusta in Turkish Cyprus took us 32 hours covering 230mn.  We managed to sail most of the way which was great.

The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus – the fact that the only country in the world that recognises this state is mainland Turkey does not faze the locals at all.  They still regard themselves as Cypriots, but realise that they can’t return to the old days when it was one country, as the Greeks want to run the whole show. Back in 1983 we visited the Greek side of the Island, so this time decided we would visit the Turkish side.