Sunday 9 September 2012
Athi, Brian, Graham (scribe), Nai and Walter travelled to
Istanbul SAW airport (memories of traipsing endlessly in the heat across
derelict but strangely new terminal buildings for a free CIP coffee) to catch
the early evening flight to Dalaman. Earlier discussions had established that
we were all new to yachting and sailing. There was a certain amount of
apprehension expressed at being trapped on a small ship for five days under
unknown conditions with Captain Queeg. More anon. Once safely arrived at
Dalaman in the gathering darkness, we took Captain Queeg’s, sorry, John's
recommended Merc 8-seater and driver for a very good transfer to Fetheyie. This
was certainly worth the extra over the bus. We arrived safely and joined the
good ship Awatea at the Classic Yacht Hotel marina, arriving at about 9pm.
After greetings and refreshings, an excellent late dinner was enjoyed in the hotel
restaurant with a toast to "absent friends" as we keenly missed our
other host, Woei Haw (Desmond), who was still stuck variously in Cyprus,
Malaysia and Singapore with Turkish visa issues and so couldn’t be with us ....
damn it.
(Late post script … finally his visa was all sorted out OK and he and
John returned to Turkey together on 29 September after a few days in
Singapore.)
Monday 10 September 2012
Capt J and Graham joined Sarah, John’s good acquaintance
from the East Med Rally earlier in the year who was moored nearby at 7am and
went for a 90min brisk walk round the bay.
This was followed by breakfast on
board as the rest of the laggards had surfaced by then.
After clearing away, the
whole ship's party walked into town for some shopping and sight-seeing, eventually
being dragged away to get back on board ready for departure, which was achieved
about 2pm.
Once we had motored out of the bay, we had an exhilarating sail in
perfect conditions for the late afternoon, finally arriving at a bay close to
St. Nicholas' Island, where we dropped anchor for the night.
An excellent Thai
dinner from our two chefs Athi and Nai - chicken green curry, omelet, steamed
rice and salad - was enjoyed with
suitable libations (grog for the Captain, of course and G&T for the more
discerning passengers.) Walter introduced us to his collection of Schnapps,
purely for medicinal purposes so as to settle the stomach.
The stay was mildly
marred by a plague of wasps, which brought out the more blood thirsty and cruel
elements of our more usually mild captain and crew. The swell rocked us to
sleep in berths and on deck, although sound sleep was marred by the crying of
the boom as it also rocked from side to side.
Tuesday 11 September 2012
At 7am, Graham bought the wrong bread and received much
abuse. Later on, Thai cooks provided a full and excellent breakfast followed by
a set of highly civilized cappuccinos for all, constructed (it's the only word)
by John. The facilities on board lack nothing! We then motored south to look
closely at the archeological ruins on the island without paying landing fees, then
we headed on to view the Blue Lagoon beaches, bodies and busyness and the
foolhardy hang gliders descending from the impossibly high peak above us. A
tout in a dinghy provided useful data on the sport ... forty minutes flights
after a forty minute truck trip to the mountain top for about TL100, flying in
tandem with an experiences pilot, very very safe and fully insured.
We love
that contradiction, but it must be good to know that you're fully insured when
falling from 6,000 feet or so with no parachute. We then partly retraced our
steps to Cold Water Bay where we anchored with the help of the smiling and
handsome single-handed assistance of Agung inhis dinghy. Once all secure we had
a huge mixed salad lunch, once more courtesy of our Thai chefs. The afternoon
was spent digesting, swimming and watching the cliff divers from the various
noisy tourist boats that backed into the bay close to us for about 30 minutes
at a time.
Nai represented Awatea magnificently by diving twice from
ever-higher points on the cliff, much to Walter and Brian's concern, alloyed
with justifiable pride. [photos] The upper fresh layer of water from a spring
was surprisingly chilly compared to the underlying salt water, making for an
interesting swim. In the evening our single-handed ferryman took us ashore,
landing by his tented home on the small beach under an olive tree. We puffed
our way up the path to a magnificent hidden restaurant, Ali's Place, doing a
roaring trade from the 14 or so yachts anchored below. The roaring fire alongside
the barbecue took the cooking fumes and smoke skyward very neatly rather than
having them drift across the diners. A clever concept. We all enjoyed some very
good Turkish tucker (see, I can speak Oz - just a little) that was complemented
by a very good red wine.
The lamb meatballs were great, as was the skewered
mixed grilled meats. Our Thais talked with the Thai waitress, who was the
sister of the owner's wife. Confusingly were told about food being available for
breakfast once the kitchen opened next morning, rather than the hoped-for
invitation for a complimentary meal. But
that was tomorrow’s problem. Tonight, the ferry trip courtesy of Agung back to Awatea
went without incident and the usual nightcaps were taken once on board. This
proved to be a brief interlude for your sleepy scribe who left the others
imbibing and retired to an excellent night very shortly after taking his first
sip of single malt while the others forced down their purely medicinal schnapps
of a various flavours.
Wednesday 12 September 2012
Awatea is two years old today ... Happy Birthday.
Ever optimistic where food is concerned, we summoned Agung
once more for a lift ashore to once again ascend the path to Ali's restaurant under
brilliant blue skies with a lovely cooling breeze and increasingly wonderful
views of the bay and the moored yachts through the trees.
Our hopes were
realized and the breakfast was both adequate and complimentary and was enjoyed
in the most magnificent of settings despite a recalcitrant toaster. On the walk
back the donkey posed for its photo very nicely.
Back on board, we had coffee then prepared to cast off with
a bit of a wait for Agung, who, after releasing our ropes, beamed to receive
his reward of a couple of beers. We motored away from Cold Water Bay then
raised the sails and tacked out in a freshening breeze and another stunningly
gorgeous day. Once round the point on a long close-hauled tack across Fetheyie
Bay the breeze increased to let Awatea show her paces for a couple of hours of
exhilarating sailing in fabulous conditions. Our Thai chefs Athi and Nai
managed to whip up a great lunch of steamed rice, fried minced beef with basil
leaf and salad despite the problems in the galley due to tacking and a
reasonable swell. Walter was torn between his new love of continuing to steer
Awatea or handing over to John so he could follow his other love ... eating
lunch.
Sailing got a good bit more exciting when we passed through
the narrow channel between the mainland and Domuz Island, tacking furiously
into the headwind. Most of the passengers had never come about so often in
years. The other yachts making the passage all dropped their sails and motored
but through but the skill and bravery of our Captain prevailed and we burst
through under full sail.
Once in the enclosed waterways the wind was very
variable, first screened and then funneled by the hills and valleys. At one
point we sailed into a squall that hit the sails before the ship had a chance
to heel over and we got a shock as there was a big "bang" from the
fore deck area. On investigation we found that the genoa car holding the
foresail had partly failed. (That’s the bit at the back bottom of the sail
where it fastens to a track in the deck, allowing the foresail to flip from
side to side for ach tack.) We continued on mainsail only to Ortisim Bay where after a false start with a
dragging anchor we finally moored up stern to shore, with thanks to Nai for his
efforts to swim the line ashore each time. We moored a few tens of meters from
a gullets (local chartered holiday boat), from which a Turkish crew member
shouted a confused message having seen us showering on deck that we shouldn't
pee in the water. Hah! As if we would. We suspect that the deck hose water had
confused the poor man.
The damaged genoa car was found to result from a stress
corrosion cracked stainless steel alloy shackle that had cracked almost 80%
across before the added stress of the blast of wind on the vertical sail
snapped the remaining metal. We reflected soberly that it was a bloody good
thing that it hadn't failed while tacking up the narrow Domuz channel or things
could have been disastrous. That called for a drink; sober reflections are not
good.
Dinner was a magnificent Thai meal once more – this time of
Penang Curry chicken, Tom Yam seafood soup, omelet, steamed rice followed by
fresh fruits and another set of Walter's schnapps to settle our stomachs.
Thursday 13 September 2012
A convivial full breakfast was enjoyed early and then all
cleared up as we prepared to release the stern line, courtesy of the great
white whale (your scribe took to the waters early today) and then weigh the
anchor (about 12 kilos without chain) ready to head back to Fethyie for our
last night together. The damaged genoa car prevented sailing, so it was steady
motoring under great conditions. We admired several of the other craft on the
waters close to us, particularly one good-sized magnificent two-masted yacht
that performed some odd manoeuvres around us. We responded by giving them a turn
ourselves, but without any apparent effect. We were surprised by how small
Awatea’s turning circle was. She seemed to do 360 degrees in little more than
her own length. Leaving a crop circle on the surface of the sea behind us, all
too soon we were entering Fetheyie Bay. John became increasingly apprehensive
as mooring time approached. The Classic Yacht Hotel jetty was pretty busy, so
we had to reverse into a narrow single gap with the stiffening wind on the beam
and lots of onlookers. His apprehensions proved ill-founded as he skillfully
handled his craft and commanded the crew. Oooh … so masterful! And there we
were, safely back where we started. While the crew washed down the topsides and
tidied up, your scribe took a walk to Swirling Eddie’s ships chandlers to get
spare shackles modified to repair the genoa car. These were delivered within 3
hours and Walter and Graham effected the repair in the early evening. We’ve
heard since then that it all seems to work ok, which makes it all rather
satisfying.
Once the ship was ship-shape, it was showers and change into
shore rig and off into town for a shave and haircut (for some) and shopping for
others before returning to pack and freshen up before our pre-prandial drinks
followed by another excellent dinner at the hotel and a relatively early night
for most of us. Our two younger Thais headed back into town to explore the
nightlife and only returned in the early hours.
Friday 14 September 2012
We were all up early this final morning for showers onshore
and coffee and tea on board before having to gather our bags on the jetty and
finally set off to the front of the hotel and the waiting transport to the
airport that duly turned up on schedule at 7.20am. All the five newbies to
yachting were really sad to be leaving and universally declared that five days
just wasn’t enough and that we all want to come back to do lots more for at
least 3 or 4 weeks next time. Our sincere thanks to Captain Johnnie for looking
after us so well and for allowing us to sail on his wonderful ship and home,
the Awatea!
