Hi Again Everyone, we thought it was about time we got around to another blog update so here goes.
After another hectic winter in Finike Marina we set off for our summer sailing season on April 18th heading West and North up the Turkish Coast and then across to the Greek mainland and the Northern Aegean Islands.
Winter in Finike was good fun yet again but with quite a few less people then the previous winter, the Turkish Government have changed the rules and requirements for Residency Permits and this seems to have put quite a few people off wintering in Turkey. We were lucky because we got our Permit last winter and it is valid until June 2015 so we do not have to worry about the new rules. Turkey is a great place to spend the winter and it will be a great shame if these rules mean it becomes too much hassle, another factor we have noticed is that the marina prices seem to go up by about 15% every year at the moment, all in all Turkey seem to be pricing themselves out of the winter cruisers budgets.
The winter weather was not quite as pleasant as last year with more rain and wind, and even snow in Finike for the first time in over 25 years. However temperatures were only rarely below 10 deg C for more than an odd day or two and shorts and tee shirts were the order of the day most of the time, definitely much better than winter in the UK.
The local people and businesses in Finike were as friendly as ever with the weekly market meaning fruit and veg supplies were super fresh and cheap. The only things that are relatively expensive in Turkey seem to be beef and alcohol although probably still cheaper than the UK. We solved the alcohol problem by stocking up the boat in Symi before we headed to Turkey for the winter, miraculously we even had some left when we headed out in April.
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| Another Winter Party | 5 Star Luxury for Lis’ Birthday |
Winter social life was pretty hectic with weekly Sunday BBQ, Friday Happy Hour and many other reasons for parties such as Birthdays, Burns Night, Chinese New Year, French Soiree and Indian Nights to name a few.
We escaped for a few days to an all inclusive 5 star Hotel near Antalya to celebrate Lis’s Birthday (Summertime) and enjoyed plenty of food and drink with the sun also shining the whole time we were there.
The rest of the winter was taken up with the usual list of boat jobs and repairs that seemed to take much more time than last year but there were quite a few extras on the list. The dinghy engine needed a thorough service and overhaul with new bearings and seals needed, engine water pumps got refurbished together with the extra alternator drive system. The watermaker was cleaned and checked and the sails were all given a good going over with stitching and repairs completed. We also changed our mainsail lazy bag / cover for a spare that we have had since we bought Nimrod – this was not nearly as simple as it sounds because it was much too big and so needed about 4 days of alterations and sewing to get it to the right size and fit.
Finally there was the usual two weeks of cleaning and polishing the whole boat to get her looking spic and span for leaving, a 42 foot catamaran is an awful lot of boat to polish and sometimes you think it would be nice to have a smaller boat, but she looked really great after all the hard work. Unfortunately any rain we seem to get always seems to be brown with loads of mud and sand so the poor boat ends up filthy again.
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| Nimrod’s Personal Guide | Samos Scenery |
We visited the same places as before on our way North with stops in Kekova, Kastellorizon, Kalkan, Gocek, Symi, Gulluk and Samos as we made the best of any favourable Southerly winds to make some progress. We sailed with Summertime, Nostromo and Rio Luna so we had various excuses for partying and sundowners including a BBQ on the beach for Sue’s Birthday.
The weather decided that we should spend nearly two weeks in Samos so we hired a car for a few days to explore the Island and to visit Lidl for supplies. Samos is a lovely Island with plenty to see and it is also much greener than the smaller Greek Islands since it has plenty of fresh water. As usual for Greece there are monasteries and churches scattered everywhere from inaccessible hill tops to underground caves.
Samos was where we had to say goodbye to Lis and Flemming on Summertime since they are heading back to Denmark and back to work so they have lots of miles to cover this summer so they were heading West from Samos while we continued North with Nostromo. We have spent 3 winters and 2 summers with Summertime so it was really sad to wave them off one last time.
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| Church in Pythagorio | Samos Monastery |
The main anchorage at Pythagorio was a great place to sit out the weather apart from one day when we had 35-40knts from the SE which is the only direction the anchorage is open to, we had a tense few hours before it all calmed down and we got tied up alongside the harbour wall. Further East is Posedonio, another lovely anchorage for a couple of days before heading around to the N of the Island ready to sail North with some favourable winds.
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| Unfinished Project | Bademli Anchorage |
We had a great day’s sailing with only the gennaker up from Samos up to Yeniliman, covering 76nm in the day and only needing to use the engines for a couple of hours, after an overnight in Yeniliman we sailed to Bademli. This is a lovely spot, sheltered from all directions and with some hot springs to explore. Also on shore are a couple of big hotel developments that never got finished and have been abandoned for 10 to 15 years, not sure why but it is likely that planning permission was dubious or the right bribes were not paid or simply a change of local government, whatever the reasons some people must have lost an awful lot of money. It was interesting to wander around and imagine what they could have been like if they were finished, one place had some Turks who seemed to using some of the rooms as a weekend hideout and we had to join them for the obligatory cai (Turkish tea).
From Bademli we headed further N to Ayvalik, a lovely archipelago of Islands where there are many places to anchor and hide from any unpleasant weather. Most of the area is quite shallow and it was quite strange to be 250 metres from the shore in only 4 metres of water, previously most of the Turkish coast would mean anchoring in 10 to 20 metres of water only a few boat lengths from the shore.
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| Troy Horse, Canakkale | Canakkle Naval Museum |
We had planned to sail up the Dardanelles to Canakkle to visit the Gallipoli War Cemeteries but we decided that it made much more sense to hire a car with Nostromo and visit Gallipoli and Pergammon with the boats safely anchored in Ayvalik.
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| Galipoli Landing Site | Memorial to the Fallen |
Hi all Sue here
We travelled to Cannakle and then arranged for a trip across to Gallipoli with a tour company. It is the only way to do it as there are so many different sites to visit and all with a different story and part to play. It was a very long day out and we were glad we were doing it in May as it gets very hot later in the summer months. With this being the centenary year there have been many thousands of visitors already. I never realised how may thousands of soldiers lost there lives here, around 50,000, such a tragedy and so many mistakes were made. Maybe if Churchill hadn’t reneged on Turkeys order with us to provide them with 2 war ships things might have been very different. But I suppose that is how a lot of History goes. It was a very moving day and if you get the chance it is well worth going to.
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| Lone Pine Cemetry | Turkish Memorial |
Pergammon was an amazing site, very big and spread out. Must admit Vanessa and I did get a bit distracted and had to have a little gallop around the amphitheatre!! Well there is only so many rocks a girl can do before getting bored.
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| Pergamon Ruins | Pergamon |
All very impressive.
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| Ampitheatre | Pergamon |
We have had many sightseeing days around Ayvalik and I think we have been in most of the anchorages now as well. It’s been fun sailing in company with John and Vanessa off Nostromo. John did manage to hit a sandbank one day and we ended up on the mud when we swung around at anchor another day but all good fun. trying to play Jenga at anchor is the most amusing with the boat moving all the time!!
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| Ayvalik Lake | Another Hard Day |
Our visit to the Alibey Museum was very interesting. Especially the children’s section where the had 2 big displays of Barbie memorabilia, Vanessa and I were in our element reminiscing over various item we used to own. Shame it was all behind a glass case as we were dying to have a play!! Of course the men preferred the grown up section best, lots of engines etc, yawn yawn!!!
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| Alibey Museum | Restored Greek Church |
A lot of my winter in Finike was spent walking and looking after the various Marina Dogs. I must admit that I did get very attached to them all and shed a few tears when we had to leave. I have put together a collage of my pictures taken of the Marina dogs and various other places we have visited since leaving Finike.
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| Finike’s Dogs | Gallipoli |
We will be checking out of Turkey on Monday and will then cross to Lesvos and check into Greece where we will be spending the rest of the Summer months.
