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Wednesday, April 23rd, Kuşadasi, Turkey
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Now it really feels
like we are back cruising. We managed to slip away
from the clutches of Yacht Marine, Marmaris on Monday
for our first cruise of the year on Zia. We raised
a few eyebrows taking off for our virgin sail at 6:30 at
night and planning a 145 mile trip right off the dock.
Perhaps we are a bit rash or maybe it is over confident,
but Joe, with just a little help from me, had spent lots
of time making sure everything was in working order and
both our ship and we were ready to go. The
forecast was calling for 25 knot southerlies and we were
heading north, so the conditions were perfect for the
trip. Remember before we were cruisers and we
yearned for 25 knots of breeze to go sailing in?
Most cruisers stay put in 25 knots. A 25 knot
headwind will keep us in port, but behind us? That
is the kind of sailing we can handle.
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We spent the week in
Marmaris finding nooks and crannies for all the stuff we
brought back from the States with us. We
reconnected with old friends and made some new ones.
Dave and his family, Desiree and twin 12 year old boys
Wesley and Ryan, will be joining us on the EMYR rally on
their Norseman 43 catamaran
Gone
Native.
Cenou, our long time sailing companions, will also
be participating in the EMYR, as will friends we meet in
Badalona last winter, Cathy and Rob on
Twixter. In
between social functions, we made multiple trips to the
grocery store to stock up Zia's larder. I found
myself torn between fascination at all the strange
labels and frustration at my inability to understand
them and find the staples that we use regularly.
Luckily, we had plenty of time and with a little
patience and a few questions, I figured out which bottle
was fresh milk as opposed to yogurt and learned the
difference between lamb (kuzu)
and beef (dana).
Every Thursday there is
a produce market in town. I made a date with Lani,
who is crew on a Privelege 58 catamaran called
Sagaponack with her husband Pat. We climbed on
the 9am dolmuş
or small bus for the 20 minute ride into town and hiked
a dozen blocks to the covered marketplace. It was
teeming with vendors and customers selling and buying a
dizzying array of fresh produce. I had last been
in Turkey in November and the choices were rather
limited during that season. Springtime provides a
much wider variety. We even found cilantro, basil,
artichokes, and arugula. Prices were cheap and the
people smiling and friendly. We sampled an array
of cheeses before making our selections which was hugely
helpful since they mostly all look the same. Now
if only I can remember the names of the ones we bought.
We did learn a painful
lesson about produce in this part of the world. I
served up a dinner of homemade falafel with all sorts of
fixings to go on top, including lettuce, cabbage,
cucumbers, red peppers, radishes, hummus and yogurt
sauce. In the middle of the night, first Joe, then
Cassie and then I fell victim to a violent bout of
vomiting. Joe was by far the worst case. (more
on this....) Our dinner guests from Cenou
escaped all together. We traced it back to
radishes which hadn't been thoroughly washed before
being consumed. Both Joe and Cassie ate them whole
as I was preparing the meal. The
incident was over within a few hours so I look upon it
as a relatively cheap lesson that will hopefully save us
more grief as we continue to travel in a region
susceptible to these sorts of problems.
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Getting back into the
habit of checking the weather, we noticed a nice pattern
that fit in perfectly with our plans to head north to
Ceşme, where we are scheduled to meet the EMYR on April
28th. Although the forecast showed patches of
yellow and orange, indicating winds up to 25 knots, it
was all coming from a southerly direction. After a
couple of days, the winds are expected to die and then
shift around to the north and then build back up into
the 20s and 30s. You learn quickly on a sailboat
just how much more comfortable it is to travel in the
same direction as the wind is blowing than to struggle
against it. If we were going to make our deadline,
we needed to leave before the wind turned against us.
We had a bit of a false
start on Sunday night, when we were reminded that we
needed to "bond in" after "bonding out" for our five
month stay away from the boat. This required
passports, paperwork and money. Dropping it all
off on Monday morning, we got it all back, except the
cash of course, at 5:30 Monday afternoon and by 6:20 we
were casting off the dock lines and heading out to sea!
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The trip was largely
uneventful, although we did find ourselves thinking a
little harder than we normally have to when sailing.
The wind provided its own challenges as well, dying down
to nothing as we wove our way between and around
islands, then gusting up to 25 and 30 knots as we
emerged from behind the shadow of land. Throw in a
few freighters racing along our same course, and we had
no trouble staying awake during our long night watches.
My hands throb after so many sail changes. But
everything worked as it should. We even had a hit
on the fishing line, although our prey escaped just as
quickly as he had us up and running around.
With a gale predicted
and cloudy skies, we opted to pull into the marina here
at Kuşadasi and hook up with our friends David and
Tamsin on Twice Eleven rather than find an anchorage in
the area. After wintering in Badalona together, we
cruised together off and on through last season, both
winding up in Turkey for the winter. They will
also be joining us on the EMYR. We met for beers
and pizzas last night, swapping stories from our diverse
winter experiences. It is so good to have friends
out here!
Along the way, Joe did
discover one boat issue. The starboard regulator,
which charges our batteries while the engines are
running, wasn't working. It is bad enough to
have to motor, but to have to motor without the benefit
of charging the batteries just adds insult to injury.
Zia actually consumes quite a bit of electricity during
our night passages so it becomes important to have that
particular system fully functional. Today he is
nailing down a solution to the problem. Tomorrow
we head out to anchor. That is when we break out
the champagne!
Next Entry >>>>>>>>>>
Many thanks to our friend Craig Homenko for his assistance in setting up the website.
We also would like
to thank our buddy Scott Brunner who has been kind
enough to host the website on his server.
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