Six in a boat, Egypt to Greece and Reunions in Turkey

36. 9th - 24th Jun e

Six in a Boat
We were very pleased to see Deep Blue after our two week absence. She was as we had left her except for her bottom and the lines that had touched the water. A major forest of brown slimy weed had grown on every submerged surface and when we started to prepare her for our departure it took us several hours of scrubing and scraping to clean the lines sufficiently to coil them for storage. It was a seriously dirty job and an American couple who were in a Bavaria on their way to Greece said that they had just discarded a similar rope. But this was several hundred pounds worth and we were not prepared to “just chuck it over the side”.

It was fantastic to welcome Lynn, G, Judy and Sam on board. We had managed to provision the boat and were ready to (literally) cast off as soon as they were on board. We had enjoyed our stay in Egypt but were relieved to be leaving. I was a little nervous that I hadn’t sufficient fresh food but all possible storage was full. Also gas was a little worry as we only had one and a bit bottles but we were unable to fill our gas bottles in Egypt. We were only carrying 225 litres of fresh water and 165 litres of diesel. We were planning to sail 389 nm as the crow flies - a five day minimum trip sailing against the wind. But we were as prepared as Egypt allowed us to be.
We left Port Said Tuesday afternoon at 16.45 and as we were told we didn’t need a pilot to leave the Suez we decided to go it alone. There were very few moving ships and motoring out was uneventful if not slow. We just could not seem to go over 4 knots with the engine. We hoisted the sails to make the most of the sea breeze but the worry about our slow progress was forgotten when a pod of small dolphins came to play in our bow wake. They were very playful and we watched them leap out of the water, criss-cross each other and dive under the keel with squeals of delight (that’s the dolphins and G). We felt it was a good omen and settled down to our watch routine.

By the next morning, after having to motor through a fabulous star-lit night but at only 4 knots, we decided someone had to dive under the boat to see what the problem was. Donning his snorkel it did not take Andy long to see what the problem was - DB‘s keel, rudder and everything under the waterline was covered in barnacles buried in 2 inches of weed. On top of this the propeller had two plastic bags wrapped round it. Andy had only cleaned DBs bottom three weeks previously as we left Turkey. For the next 2 hours G and Andy ducked and dived, scrubbed and scrapped as we lay hove to 45 nm north west of Port Side. What a miracle - we set sail with the morning g breeze and DB slipped through the water at a good pace. She felt so much better - like normal despite the extra weight.

During the night we paired up for three hour watches between 8pm and 9am. The rest of the time we talked, read, cooked and kept a constant watch. Amazingly we saw very little shipping and most of the time we could have been the only people in the world - in fact the only life on earth as we saw very little wild life. On the second night, just as the sun slipped below the horizon an oyster catcher flew up to us, swooped around DB and landed on top of the radar just above the cockpit. It watched us eat our dinner - refusing our offerings - and once it had found the least slippery place rested all night until sunrise when off it flew toward Egypt.

Our progress was slow. We were making good progress North but our westward progress was slow. Water and fuel were holding out well and we were all happy aboard but after three days at sea we still had 120nm to go predominantly west, and the wind was dropping . We had to make a new plan. Rhodes was almost directly ahead a similar distance but much easier to make if we were to continue using the wind as much as possible. We did not have enough fuel to motor all the way to Crete though we did have almost enough. Our biggest deciding factor was time - Judy had a plane to catch so she could be home before Emily took her IB exams. Theoretically we could have continued to sail to Crete, doing a big tack but we would have been at sea for perhaps three more days by which time water, food and gas would have been in short supply and diesel may well have run out. Also, actually, Crete was too far South for our next leg. We decided to change our plan and sail to Rhodes.

We arrived in Rhodes Old Town harbour exactly four days after leaving Port Side. We motor-sailed 40 hours of the 96 hours we were at sea and covered a total of 408 nm over the ground. As the crow flies the distance from Port Said to Rhodes town is 380 nm so our route was surprisingly direct.

The six of us made good sailing companions - it was really lovely having everyone on board. We had brilliant fun swimming off Deep Blue while in water over 4 kms deep - we towed a long rope with a fender at the end, dived off the side of DB and grabbed the fender as she sailed past.
As soon as we were tied up we got the gin out, spruced ourselves up and went for a slap up meal at a lovely old fashioned Greek restaurant off the beaten track in old Rhodes. Judy, Lynn, G and Sam really enjoyed exploring the Old Town the next day while Andy and I did boat jobs. The place seems so different now it is full of people (we were storm bound here at the start of April) and all the shops are open.

Monday we left Rhodes to sail just 7 nm round the headland to a small bay full of fish and day trippers. We anchored, swam and snorkelled before enjoying a final bar-b-q before Judy and Sam leave for Athens.

The day Judy and Sam left Rhodes by ferry we also sailed away. By the time their Ferry caught us up we were half way to the tiny island of Simi, sailing along nicely upwind at speeds up to 7 knots. We were madly texting each other to say that we were waving! It is strange how excited you can get about a virtual wave!!

Simi is very popular with the Turks as it is so close to the Turkish mainland. It is, however, Greek now along with all the islands within spitting distance of the Turkish coast - the result I think of Turkey aliening itself with Germany in the first world war and the redrawing of the map after. It is a very pretty little place and we anchored in a bay off the small village of Pethi, one bay on from Simi town. The next morning, after our usual breakfast of fresh fruit salad, yogurt and homemade muslie the four of us rowed ashore and walked over the hill to Simi town for a coffee and to watch the tourist boats arrive. We had been talking to Richard and Pippa from Matelot, hoping to catch up with them on Kos but it seemed we were going to miss them unless we made a side trip to Turkey, so we decided to slip into Palamut on the Datca peninsula where the four of us had been befriended by Alton on our previous visit.

The day was really heating up and by the time we returned to Deep Blue the temperature was well into the 30’s in the shade. It was actually unbearably hot and we are still only June, July and August are going to be another 10C hotter in these parts. Because of this we are making our way North now - we also hope to avoid the worst of the Meltemi - the high NW winds which the Romans avoided by banning sailings in the Aegean for the months of July and August. We are already experiencing Meltemi winds but at the moment they are not too strong but by the time we arrived in Palamut the wind had already strengthened to over 30 knots.

Palamut has transformed itself since our last visit. The road we watched them start out of bricks was complete and they had also made pavements and planted trees and flowering plants. All the cafes and restaurants were open with seating outside and on the beach. It all looked so different from the sleepy, dusty village we visited in March. As we finished making DB fast Pippa and Richard arrived for a joyful reunion - it was lovely to see them and we felt very touched that they would drive all the way from Marmaris to see us. Alton and his wife were also pleased to see us and we had one of the best Turkish meals ever in their restaurant. We will definitely make another trip to Palamut on our way back to Marmaris later this year. It was a lovely evening surrounded by friends - my sister Lynn, G who we get more fond of every day (such a funny guy), the Matelot crew and Alton dropping in when he could.

Pippa and Richard had left Matelot at anchor in Marmaris so slept on our cockpit cushions until worry about the high winds drove them to leave at 6 in the morning. Matelot of course was fine - they are so much more sheltered in Marmaris bay. We had a great evening and I hope we will catch up again later in the season.

The next morning we left for Kos, again in high winds. After our previous sail down the strait between Turkey and Kos we were ready with our reefs and hatches down but as we rounded the end of the Datca peninsula the wind died and we had to shake out the reefs and start motoring. In typical fashion, just as we sat down for lunch around the cockpit table the wind started to build again. Conveniently the wind allowed us to finish before reaching full strength - by which time we were back down to two reefs in over 33 knots of a NW meltemi. We had to tack all the way but made fantastic speed - since G and Lynn scrubbed her bottom DB has been gong REALLY well.

It was pure luxury to be in a real marina, albeit for one night before moving to the old town harbour. We had our first proper shower since our hotel in Egypt, charged our batteries and topped up our water. This is our third visit to Kos and it now seems very familiar. We were there for Friday night and as the town is in full tourist mode we decided to sample the delights of its night life. We started our evening with a real fun hour on Segways. For those that do not know the Segway - they are a two wheeled electric pogo-stick like vehicle. When you stand on it and lean slightly forward it moves forward at speeds up to 20km / hour. Lean sideways and you turn in that direction, lean back and it stops. They are such good fun. We were taken on a “tour” of Kos, terrorising the tourists. The company we hired them from is a new one and we felt that once the novelty has worn off the other businesses might get annoyed and get them banned from the pedestrian ways or worse someone will run over a child. But at the moment everyone stops to watch and we had such fun.

The evening degenerated after we won the pub quiz at an English bar we visited last time we were in Kos and our first ouzo’s in Bar street. We danced and talked until the early hours of the morning and woke very late the next day with horrid hangovers. We should have known not to try to leave the crowded harbour with sore heads. Of course everything went wrong. By the time we left the meltemi was blowing, unfortunately beam on, so as we slipped out of the stern-to berth, lifting our anchor as we went, the stern of DB swung too soon over the small yacht on our port sides anchor chain. I had been trying to motor forward but had not used enough throttle - everyone around was German and they were all bellowing instructions which probably did not help the situation. I could see we were about to go over the chain so thought I had put the throttle into neutral but unfortunately had put it slightly into reverse - the propeller was still turning slowly and the engine shuddered to an abrupt stop. Lynn and I leapt onto the chain to try to lower it out of the way. It did not budge. Someone needed to dive and look so I started to strip off and was down to bra and pants when Andy (who had been pulling up our anchor) came back and stopped me - he would go down. Possibly to the relief of our growing audience I put my clothes back on!

Amazingly the anchor chain was twisted TWICE around the propeller shaft. The yacht owner let out some chain and Andy was able to untangle it. We had already taken a line to the boat on our starboard side so DB would not swing onto the next chain along (the yachts got bigger and so there were three more chains in our projected swing path) and he held the line until Andy had taken enough of our chain up for me to safely motor forward and then let us swing down-wind into clear water. We learnt some lessons. Because we have a manual windlass Andy deals with the anchor and I control DB. I already can deal with crosswinds going into a berth by using speed to maintain steerage. I need to start using more speed to get out of a berth - in light winds or winds parallel to the boat we can use the weight of the anchor chain to move us forward (the anchor is dropped three boat lengths in front of the berth and once the stern lines are secure, you tighten the chain to hold the boat straight) but when there is a strong crosswind we need to motor forward fast enough to maintain steerage until our anchor stops us and then swing while the anchor is lifted.

After entertaining the crowds we sailed to Vathy Bay on Pserimos Island - a small island between Kos and Kalymnos where we anchored, swam and bar-b-qed, before having an early night in noticeably cooler weather.

We have an infestation of cockroaches. They are native here and fly so to begin with I was not too concerned but we now see the odd one or two everyday and they are all sizes so they must be breeding. While in Kos I was able to buy Cockroach bait and poison which I put where I always see them. Last night I turned on the light and there were several roaches all around the area where the bait was. We all killed a few but after the initial horror of seeing so many had abated I realised that the bait must be working - I just hope the poison does too.

We started to fish again after buying some local lures. We have had several bites of big fish but sadly they took the lures with them. So now there are three fish with new lip decorations and we are back to the drawing board on the fishing front. New lures and stronger line to fix them we thinks. In the meantime we have to buy our fish. While in Vathy Bay we were approached by a couple of young dark skinned guys in a beaten up motor boat. They were not Greek or Turkish and we were not sure what they wanted but were slightly suspicious of them but all they wanted was to give us a huge sea bass as a gift. We accepted as we originally thought we were buying it and the fish was already on board. We then realised that they worked in the fish farm near by and started to puzzle about why they were giving the fish to us. Later just as we were putting the huge fish onto our Bar-b-q the beaten-up motor boat approached us again - “come with me, I have a surprise for you“. We looked at each other - so there was a catch to the free fish. We declined but said we could meet them the next morning at 8. Over dinner we discussed whether we should leave at 7 the next morning. Did they want us to take them to England on DB? They were surely illegal immigrants.

Dead on 8 Fani (or was he called Funni) arrived. We were intrigued enough to want to go with him but decided only the boys should go while Lynn and I would stay on DB to call the alarm if necessary! It turned out that Fani was just lonely and wanted to give us coffee and cake and talk. He was from Pakistan, said he had all his papers, had a German girlfriend and was an engineer. He spoke French, Greek and English so was quite valuable to his Greek employer for whom he had worked for 9 month. Later he joined us on DB and we promised to look him up on our way back down later in the year.

It was drawing close to the time when Lynn and G were due to leave us. We have really enjoyed their company and we only had one more evening with them. We spent it in Kalymnos - we were here at the end of November on our way to Turkey and it is the sponge diving centre of Greece - a now more or less dead industry. In November we arrived in the dark, searching for evidence of the European funded marina which was no where to be found. This time in the light we confirmed that there is no trace and found a berth stern to within metres of our last stay but this time there were several other visitor yachts instead of local boats. We berthed two boats down from …… which belongs to Charles who, along with Richard had been unceremoniously thrown out of Turkey two months ago after living there 18 years. We had first met them in Rhodes just after the event and now Andy wanted to talk to them about a business proposition they had. It turns out that they are in the middle of getting the marina here up and running and we found them preparing chain and rope tackle to attach to the mooring blocks that are hidden but set under water.

On Lynns last morning we decided to climb to the monastery above the town before the heat of the day set in. So leaving the boys in bed we left just after 7 am to find our way up. In typical Aegean Island style houses cling to the hillside interspersed with flights of steps and a winding road. We zigzagged up steps and road until we came to a church about half way up and above the house line. There was an elderly lady just coming out of the church and we asked her how we got up to the monastery as the road we had just joined appeared to go down and there was a rock cliff above us. She talked away to us in Greek and walked some way to direct us. We said thank you and goodbye and left her as we walked ahead. It was a decent walk to the monastery which turned out to be newly built and actually pretty impressive - very clean and run by women monks. After admiring the view we started the descent - taking any short cut we could find. One took us through a gate and down a long flight of steps to another gate onto a patio. We could see more steps and another gate below us so we went for it. Through the gate - which we struggled to open - we turned a corner and saw another large gate with a lock on it and spikes at the top. We had to walk over another patio in front of the windows of the property to get to this gate just keeping our fingers crossed that we would be able to open the lock. As we did so we looked through the gate and there was our old lady sitting in her back yard enjoying a cup of coffee! We all laughed and greeted each other before descending to DB.

Alongside us is a lovely 55 foot wooden sailing boat owned by the most talkative and friendly Frenchman we have ever met - Norburt. He is a handsome 65 year old - very dapper - and interesting. His boat is the same vintage as DB, very loved and well looked after. He has one story after another to tell us and obviously travelled a lot for work as well as spending many years sailing around this region. He told us that the EU president has told Greece that from 2011 Greece will get no more money from the EC as half is spent on fast cars and the rest lines pockets. Norburt agrees with us that Greeks have fallen out of love with themselves and their country - they just do not care anymore. What will happen to poor Greece?

Yesterday we waved Lynn and G goodbye - they were off to spend a day in Athens before flying home. Next week Tom joins us for two weeks so we will not be alone for long!