Origins of Santa Claus

With Peter Jennings in Finike - see text

Kale Koy and the 15th C Crusader's Castle - see text

Just as Spring started on 21/9 in NZ (not 1/9 as retailers would have you believe), Autumn has started here on that date – the “Autumn Vernal”.

It is still warm eg mid to high 20s with cloudless days & sea temp of 26d, but the days are shortening and the evenings are cooler. We still have not seen one drop of rain since 24/5. Numbers of tourists are thinning out rapidly and there are many stock clearance sales in the shops as a result
On Saturday 22nd we arrived in Finike marina. Finike has special significance for us because its here that my brother Charles & Marie kept their yacht “Acrobat” for two years and when we visited them there in 2004 this ultimately led to our plan to do this cruise. Secondly Charles & Marie’s friend Peter Jennings lives there and we wanted to meet him. Finike is a non touristy small town which in ancient times was Phoenicus but nothing remains to tell that tale. Saturday is market day in Finike so Di, Brian & Carol went to see that while I found Peter, working on his yacht in the marina. That evening we had drinks with Peter who is an ex RAF electronics engineer who has served extensively in the Middle East but after retirement bought an apartment in Finike overlooking the marina where he keeps his yacht “Friba”. We also met another yachtsman, Anton who told us that now is the time to troll for small tuna and we “should catch a bucketful“. This certainly got Di’s & Carol’s interest especially when Peter donated several lures to Envoy which we supplemented with a few from the chandlery. Since then we have towed lures for about 40 miles with no strikes and this is the first time we’ve had lines in the water (probably the last too !). The next day Peter spent a few hours with us fixing our Watermaker which was highly appreciated (see under Technical for details). Peter (see photo) is a mine of knowledge about the area as well as having a great sense of humour and we all had a great time meeting up with him.
We arrived at the Kekova Roads on Monday and anchored in a beautiful bay close to a rustic, atmospheric bar called “The Smugglers Inn”. This bar doesn’t open until 10pm and we went there after dinner for what turned out to be a very late night. When we climbed aboard the dinghy to go back to Envoy, Brian slipped into the water at the jetty – fortunately without any injury and the evening ended with four young Turkish guys coming on board for a drink. Tuesday was a slow start but Brian discovered he couldn’t find his wallet with about $1,000 in cash, credit cards and driving license in it. We thought that most likely it had slipped out of Brian’s pocket when he fell in the water and was hauled into the dinghy. We went back to the jetty and I snorkelled around in about 1 metre of reasonably clear water but couldn’t see anything (but the swim was great to clear my head !). So we theorized that it had been washed into deeper water. We moved to anchor a couple of miles away off the village of Ucagiz and arranged for a local scuba diver to do a search the next morning, then we took the dinghy to KaleKoy (ancient Simena) from where you climb precarious steps to the summit of the Castle (see photo). This castle is 15th C and built by the Crusaders on the foundations of an already existing ancient fort. The site was first occupied in 400 BC and there are many ruins and tombs dating from Lycian times in the surrounding area, including some which are submerged due to earthquakes. All of the tombs were long ago ransacked by grave robbers looting the valuables which were buried in the tombs.
That night as we all went to bed Brian told us he’d just found his wallet – under his pillow. So that was a worry behind us and we cancelled the diver.
Nearby is the village of Demre where St Paul stopped over on his voyage to Rome and where in the 4th C the Bishop of the Church was St Nicholas with his alter ego “Santa Claus”. His remains were there until 1043 when some Italian adventurers stole them and removed them to Italy where they still lie.

Legend has it that St Nicholas threw bags of gold down a chimney to save 3 sisters from a life of prostitution and this is where the whole Santa thing started. Turks are of course Muslim but they too have Santa complete with red costume and white beard as part of their New Year celebrations.
Thurs 26th found us in Kas, anchored in Bayindr Limani to the South.

Kas was Antiphellos in ancient times and founded about 6th C BC.

Unlike Finike there are ancient ruins here including a Theatre and many rock-hewn Lycian tombs. Also quite interesting shops and bars set into colourful lanes. During our time in this area we also crossed over to the Greek Island of Kastellorizon which is only 1.5 miles off the Turkish coast. Here again there is the remains of a Crusader Castle and a town which once had a population of 20,000 but now has only about 200 with most of the residents having emigrated to Australia. There was a local wedding the next day and the town was full of Ozzy accents as loads of them had come to the island to attend it, we asked how many people were going; ‘everyone!’ was the answer ‘you too if you’re here!’ Unfortunately we had to pass as we had to move on.
Sat 28th we arrived in Kalkan and spent the afternoon ashore. Kalkan would be the prettiest Turkish village we’ve seen so far with narrow lanes and rustic old buildings with extensive plants growing over them adding to the colour.

It was originally a Greek village until 1922 when it was resettled with Turks.

At that time many Turks in Greece were relocated to Turkey and vice versa in a huge population exchange.
As we type this we are cruising NW up towards Fethiye.

Miles covered 2870 in 207 days on board with 591 engine hours. Fuel purchased 5,093 litres.

Technical: mostly going well. On our way to Finike we found the Watermaker was not working. It seemed like an electrical fault in that the main electric motor was not running. So we arrived in Finike and my brother Charles’s friend Peter Jennings said the electricians at the marina are pretty hopeless and that he would come and check out the wiring for us. Peter was an electronics engineer in the RAF so well qualified to do this. So on Sunday Peter arrived and we went through the system. The unit has a High Pressure Pump and a Booster Pump and it was the HP pump not activating. Peter looked at the circuits and then looked into the high voltage (110v) control cabinet.

I said “wouldn’t it be great if we could see a loose wire”. Peter said “here’s our loose wire” and found that a return to earth wire was very loose and had arced causing high temperature, melting of the insulation and a short.

So Peter replaced that short section of wiring and we were operational again. Obviously we could manage without a watermaker but its definitely nice to have, especially here because there is little potable water available.

What most people seem to do is use bottled water for drinking and marina water for showers, dishes etc. But we like not having to go into marinas and having the watermaker does give you that extra independence. Also Envoy uses a little more water as the toilets are fresh water flushed (which makes them more maintenance free and better smelling).
The pump which provides cooling water for the Naiad stabilizer hydraulic oil has a leak which is worsening (leaking sea water into the bilges). I have a spare and when Brian & Carol leave us I’ll replace this and get the present pump serviced.
We are very disappointed with our antifouling job done in Rome as after only 7 months we are getting considerable growth and its getting worse.

What we’ll do now is haul Envoy out in Marmaris during the Winter for a clean up and re-antifoul.