Stormy Weather

Stormy Weather

Andy declared himself officially mad - and I had to concur. We had just arrived in Turgutreis Marina, North Bodrum when we had planned to sail to Simi which had been in completely the opposite direction and he had just been told the extortionate cost of the marina. But we now had no choice - it was blowing dogs of chains and getting dark.

The day seemed to start of as normal. We had been staying for a couple of days in one of our very favourite places on the Datca Peninsula, Palamut, where they still grow almonds and olives and where two summers previously we had watched them build the villages’ first road out of bricks. Our very friendly German neighbour warned us that there was a storm forecast but after checking three different sources where only lots of rain but little wind was predicted we decided we would stick to the plan. We left just before lunch to raucous laughter as my German lady friends understood my comment about Andy lifting the anchor by hand just for me (it builds his muscles and flattens his stomach) while Andy complained that he had 50 metres of chain to lift because I had told him to drop the anchor too soon . We made an impressive exit - fenders were tidied, warps coiled and sails were already up as we left the harbour.

Once clear of the harbour we realised very quickly that the wind was beaufort 3-4, blowing on our nose plus, and this was much more serious, the swell was building from the East. Nothing like any forecast. The wind was not an issue but the swell was. Our plan was to sneak into Simi town, stay until the storm passed over the next two days while buying gifts of Greek Rose wine and eating pork before sailing to Knidos to meet Cenk and his friends who were sailing from Bodrum, and for whom the gift was intended. However, Simi town faces East and we realised that the swell inside the harbour there would be untenable. Andy made a decision “you know what we have always said B, never sail into the wind. Lets put the spinnaker up and sail to Bodrum - Cenk is there and it is the same distance as Simi.”

We turned round, put up the spinnaker and were soon sailing at over 7 knots with the wind directly behind us, surfing occasionally down the waves at over 8 knots. I then went below to measure the distance. It was not 15nm but well over 25nm. Well if we could keep our speed up we would still arrive before dusk.

It was a fun sail and we made good time. As we sailed past Kos Andy was texting Cenk. We had 12 miles to go when Cenk sent a message asking to which marina we were going “there are four in Bodrum, I am in Turgutreis”. We checked the chart. This was much further West than we were heading. A quick phone call to the Marina to check there was room and we changed course for the second time that day.

By now we had the spinnaker down and as we rounded the headland for our last 2nm to the entrance to the marina, wham… the wind hit Deep Blue. Unfortunately our wind speed is under reading (I need to make a trip up the mast to service it) so we do not know the wind speed but it was over 30 knots. We had to put the engine on full throttle so we could turn the boat through 90 degrees to get the sails down and in. We were very relieved to get inside the marina around half an hour before dark.

Cenk came to see us bearing gifts of music, perfume and sweets and we shared Santorini white wine with him and gave him our last bottle of Santorini rose to take away. He is such an interesting man and we had a wide ranging discussion. He is with a friend ”a very famous Turkish writer” - who writes sailing books and articles. They are making an amateur documentary about Halikarnas Balikç isi who was a Cretan fisherman, poet and philosopher who moved to Turkey in the 50’s and was banished to Bodrum after becoming a political activist. He loved Bodrum and was very happy to be banished here! He died in 1973. Cenk loves to read and discuss philosophy so I understand why he is enjoying this project so much.

Talk turned to the ARC party, as it always does. As I have already said - the more educated Turks are very afraid that if the ARC party get elected again (and they have already been in power 8 years so far) that democracy will be eroded. He says they have been very clever in the way they are subtly changing the country, starting in the East where people are much more religious and generally uneducated and slowly slowly exerting their Islamic rules as they move West, putting detractors and political opponents in prison on trumped up charges which they hold up and say “look what you get if you vote for these guys”. Cenk feels also that the problem is that there is no visionary leader or party as an alternative which means the opposition vote is split, allowing ARC to win even if the majority do not want them. We compared Old Labour with the Ataturk Party and the need for a Tony Blair figure to turn it into a New Ataturk Party!