On way back to Bodrum

After leaving Ekincek we went to a nice cove called Gerbeske.
On the beach there are ruins of a church and trading post from the Byzantine era which was about 6th-13th C AD. There we met a British couple who were on the boat in front of us – “Lancashire Lass” as we came through the Corinth Canal in June. Here also we got the txt reports from Amy & Frank re the All Blacks disastrous loss to France. Bugger !
Next day we spent a few hours in a superb bay called Arap Adasi.
There was a huge number of goats on the beach and the goatherd rowed out to us to try and sell us produce. In a lot of bays in Turkey there’s someone trying to sell things and we generally end up buying something, even if it’s just a small packet of dried fruit. This time we bought a nice hand woven blanket for $30. The goatherd was quite a young guy about mid 20s and every day walks 5 km over the hills each way to and from his village to tend his 300 goats and to try and sell stuff to visiting boats.
That night found us in Bozuk Buku where we have been previously of Ali Baba’s restaurant fame.
On Monday we explored the area close by and found a small and very secluded cove in which we anchored and spent a few hours cleaning the hull of the dinghy (which is not antifouled and has been towed since early July) and of Envoy. The clean and clear water was 26d so no problem to stay in for ages. Later that day we had a long walk up a valley and came across many ruins (although nothing standing very high at all) of people long gone - this was the site of ancient Loryma from around 400BC.
Prices in Turkey have gone a bit crazy since we visited Charles and Marie here 3 years ago, I guess they are catching up to the rest of the World and it’s no longer a very cheap place. We had drinks ashore after our walk in an extremely run down “taverna” (read “shed on the beach”) and for 1 beer, 1 sprite and 2 glasses of very average wine the bill was $25 which we considered a rip-off.
For example in Greece you get a litre of much better wine for the same price as we were charged for a glass. Many restaurant owners etc have told us the visiting boat and tourist numbers have reduced in Turkey this year and we think the rise in prices has had much to do with this. Also they are suffering because there’s just too many gullets, tavernas, restaurants and junk “souvenir” shops.
On Tuesday 9th we went back to nearby Bozburun, having really enjoyed our previous brief stay. Here we anchored in a perfect anchorage protected on all sides by small islands covered in ancient ruins and were hailed by a yacht called “Alcid” which turned out was owned by an American couple – Frank & Gale Adshead who had cruised with the previous owners of Envoy – Wayne & Pat. So we ended up having drinks on Envoy one night and dinner on Alcid the following night and parting as good mates.
During our stay we went ashore to do some shopping and went into a fishing tackle shop to buy some more lures (we’ve got the fishing bug !)
Shopping in these places is generally an event not just a transaction and the guys in the shop insisted we sit down for a cup of Turkish cay (tea) and a long chat. Even in the grocery stores the people are really friendly and often give you a small gift such as a free bottle of wine.
On Thursday 11th we arrived in Pedhi on the Greek Is of Simi.
This is the island we visited once before and stayed at Panormitis where there is a large Monastieri. Pedhi is a great anchorage and we ended up staying 3 nights. Here we met Mike & Betcheva Scouse from “Windsea 2” who we had previously met when Don & Peta were on board at Paxos in the Ionians. Windsea 2 is only about 2 years old, designed in England and built in Croatia. Anyhow Mike advised he had severe problems with hull flexing, deck not properly secured to hull and with the mast step so they had sailed to Croatia and spent 2 months in the boatyard having a major refit, including the deck being removed from the hull, the hull being strengthened etc. All this was done at no cost and they are now happy with the result but was no the best way to spend the summer. Mike has been a professional yachtsman and sailed in many races including the Whitbread on “Steinlager” with Peter Blake and the ill-fated 1998 Sydney to Hobart on the winning yacht - Larry Ellison’s “Sayonara”. This was the race where 5 yachts sank, 6 yachtsmen lost their lives (including friends of Diane’s brother Noel) and 55 yachtsmen were winched to safety by helo in the 80 knot winds and up to about 70 foot breaking waves.
Of 115 yachts which started only 44 reached Hobart. Larry Ellison said after the race: “Never again, not if I live to be 1,000 years old will I never do a Hobart race.” A great book to read about this is “Fatal Storm” by Rob Mundle.
Mike also had some interesting things to say about Russell Coutts who he knows very well. After NZ won the America’s Cup there were no jobs on offer by Team NZ – they procrastinated. On the other hand Alinghi offered Coutts $10m to race for them, a $10m bonus if he won the Cup and a guaranteed position in the ensuing challenge. Mike advises Coutts left Alinghi because he wanted 50% of the total revenues from TV rights and Alinghi was not prepared to grant this. Obviously they did OK without Coutts who has now joined Larry Ellison who would dearly love to win the Amcup.
In Pedhi we also met NZers Graham & Kathy and their daughter Jo on
“Red Herring 2” a Spencer designed approx 44 footer. They have been aboard for several years having sailed from Nelson. Like us they are wintering over in Marmaris so no doubt we’ll see more of them.
Twice we walked from Pedhi over to the stunning harbourside town of Simi for “essential” supplies like bacon and pork and we also found our favourite Lambs Navy Rum at Euro 11 per bottle. On Saturday we lunched in Simi and a thunderstorm suddenly hit. We later found out from Mike that at Pedhi where we were anchored winds reached 30 knots from all directions, but Envoy just swung into the wind and held fine.
Now we have come over to the Turkish town of Datca. Because our 90 day Turkish visas expire next week, we need to legally exit Turkey here, cruise to Greek waters and then re enter Turkey at Bodrum to get new Visas.

Technical. All going well and with the end of season now so close (we will go into Marmaris on about 9/11) we are leaving things that need doing until then if we can. I need to do an oil change on all three engines which I’ll do in Bodrum. It’s quite easy on Envoy as there is a central pump with a manifold through which you can drain and refill the oil from any engine and replace the spin-on oil filter at the same time.

Miles covered 2970 in 221 days on board with 622 engine hours.
Fuel purchased 5,093 litres.