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Wednesday, April 30th, Kuşadasi, Turkey
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We found a beautiful
spot called Alaçati (pronounced Alachati) for our first
anchorage of the year. We arrived in the late
afternoon on Thursday and went ashore for a look around.
The hotel we were anchored off was buzzing with workers.
Emrah came out to greet us and told us that they were
scheduled to open on Monday. He was exceedingly
friendly and offered us any type of assistance we might
require.
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We swapped cell phone
numbers and promised to stay out of the way as they went
about finishing all the last minute details of getting
ready for the big day.
Around the corner,
tucked farther into the deep bay at whose entrance we
anchored, we discovered half a dozen windsurfing and
kite boarding operations. We had stumbled upon one
of the premier areas in Turkey for these sports.
The prevailing winds blow out of the north all summer
long. Alaçati Bay runs from north to south and is
wide enough for an awesome reach across to the other
side and back. It was still pretty early in the
season but there were a couple dozen locals out taking
advantage of the 20 to 30 knot winds. We were
hoping it would die down a little so we could give it a
go, but we were disappointed. Although we stayed
anchored there for four nights, it either blew like
stink, or pissed down rain the whole time. Summer
has not yet fully arrived along the western coast of
Turkey!
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We didn't let that stop
us from some of our favorite cruising activities,
however. The girls were perfectly happy spending
hours playing on the beach.
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Having read a few of
the historical fiction novels that I bought for them
which are set in the Middle East, their big project was
building Egypt out of sand, pyramids and all.
Luckily, they have learned not to be disappointed when
their creations disappear overnight, as did Egypt.
We ventured out for a
walk on Saturday, down along the beach to the port at
the end of the bay. Just a little further along a
slew of new houses were in the process of being built.
We bumped into Samuel, a Hoya from the class of '83!
He was there with his family, checking out the progress
on their condo that they had bought with his brother.
We were astonished to hear that these 200 square meter
waterfront townhouses sell for a million dollars.
It does include a boat slip, but still!
Defying a quizzical
look from his wife, Sam insisted on giving us a ride
into the town of Alaçati, another five miles down the
road. We weren't about to turn down his offer.
The town, which we knew nothing about, turned out to be
a small, picturesque and bustling urban center built
mostly out of stone. We were definitely the only
foreigners around, although I suspect most of the
pedestrians we meandered the streets with were tourists
as well, just Turkish ones.
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In the course of our
wanderings, we stumbled upon the outdoor marketplace.
It is always such a treat to buy farm fresh fruits and
vegetables directly from the producers. Our bout
with food poisoning all but forgotten, and knowing that
we were going to find a cab for the ride back to Zia, we
stocked up on a few provisions while we had the chance.
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Sunday we spent the
whole day indoors, hiding from the rain. Luckily,
we had picked up a couple of wifi signals and were able
to use the internet. We skyped with Cathy and Rob
on Twixter, who were north of us, hooking up with the
EMYR boats at the stop in front of us. The rally
had stayed an extra day in port rather than making a
scheduled passage in 35knots of wind. Disappointed
to be a day off schedule, but happy to hear that the
organizers make good weather decisions, we pondered our
options. In the end, we decided to head the 16
miles north to Çeşme (pronounced Cheshme) on Monday
anyway. The rally boats planned to arrive on
Tuesday night and turn around and leave first thing on
Wednesday morning. We took the day on Tuesday to
explore the area.
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The 16th Century
Ottoman castle is extremely well preserved and affords a
panoramic view over the city and harbor. Can you
see Zia tied up against the wall in the center of the
photo? The other attraction we heard about were
the thermal pools in Ilica. We hopped on a
dolmuş (dolmush - small
bus) and went in search of the warm sea water.
Without a lot of information, we managed to get off the
bus only one stop past where we wanted to be. A
local guy cleaning up the beach spoke English and
pointed out where the warm water could be found.
The girls didn't complain at all as we walked along the
beach, reaching our destination within a half hour.
The water wasn't quite as hot as we had hoped, but it
was warm enough to be quite enjoyable.
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The EMYR boats started
pulling into the Çeşme harbor around 6pm. There
were ten of us, I think, all decked out with flags
flying, rafted up together along the seawall. We
had a cocktail party hosted by the marina management and
we got our first exposure to a rally event. It was
first class, with great food, wine, beer and raki
(the Turkish version of ouzo) all served up to us by the
port and marina workers and their families. The
rally coordinator picked some of us at random to present
EMYR plaques of gratitude to several of the hosts.
We spent the next few hours milling around and getting
to know both our Turkish hosts and the other rally
participants.
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We made our first
passage with the rally today, back to Kuşadasi. We
motored into 18 knot headwinds for the first four hours
or so until the wind died down. When it came back
we were able to sail the last three hours on a nice
reach. All in all, it wasn't a bad day.
There is a pot luck dinner tonight and we are off on a
tour of Ephesus tomorrow. So far, so good!
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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