The Big Rip!
13 May 2007 | Somewhere south of Gocek, Turkey
Robin
We had grand plans this morning to sneak over to the small Greek island of Kastellorizon. It is officially forbidden to go between Turkey and Greece without formalities but since the Greek island lies only 5 miles off the Turkish coast and thrives on tourism, official check-ins don't happen often. We left Kale Koy (Kekova Roads) at 9am and started to unfurl our mainsail in the hope of a short sail to our destination 15 miles away. A few seconds of inattention and a long ripping sound later we were changing our destination - Marmaris, the home of the best sailmaker on the Turkish coast. The tear is only 1.5 feet square, too big for us to patch but fixable. We're now contemplating a new mainsail this fall and wondering how to get it back across the Atlantic in our luggage for the crossing early next year. Aside from the "big rip" we had a nice passage of 63 miles with a little sailing at the end (jib only of course). We're now anchored in a lovely bay south of Gocek called "Kucuk Kuyruk". We have no idea what that means in Turkish but "pretty" must come into the definition somewhere. Tomorrow we're off for a 35 mile trip to Marmaris to fix the mainsail.