Passage Report No. 42
Sahula

Bodrum and Gokova


Sahula was quiet. Skipper reclaimed his space. Four days in Bodrum is enough. Clubs pulsate to the battered beat, tourists team the streets, traffic - the antithesis of the cruising life.

Dogan and son (Golkan) arrive for four days aboard. Different to their Izmir apartment. It is Dogan's first time alone with Golkan for 13 years. Golkan is eighteen, a student, caught between adolescence and adulthood. Dogan brings a pill tin- for stress, cholesterol etc.

Food loaded, Sahula slips to sea, before a freshening NW'ly. Sahula passes "Savorona," a 200 foot, raked funnels, schooner bow, private yacht built for Ataturk, President in the early 1900's. Power distorts, more power, more so.

Where to sleep? Dogan disavows the front cabin. "I like to see the stars." Star gazing requires he get little sleep in the cockpit. Golkan sleeps and sleeps etc- MP3 ear plug induced - in the saloon.

Golkan (a smoker) goes ashore to the resort. Management only allows Italian visitors. By day, spear fishing, sleeping and passing time.

Sahula needs to use a stern shore line. Golkan offers to swim the line ashore but is unsure how to attach it around a rock. Sahula swings to sea. A debacle.

The anchorage is deserted apart from a small fishing harbour, a kilometer distant. Water is clear. And silent.

Dogan and Golkan disembark to return to the apartment, to university, to a job and family.

Financial fate strikes. An ATM accepts but refuse to return Skippers Visa card. The second time this year. Bad enough in Australia but complex in Turkey. Skipper had another Card - lesson learned. A replacement card has to come from Australia, requiring a Turkish address. Finance availability is a crux issue.

"What are you doing in that place?" (friend Yilmaz), "Are you writing?" - there is no excuse - only to find a quiet yacht and gulet free anchorage in summer.

Crowded anchorage - anchor almost raised - Sahula drifting, cockpits are suddenly full of anxious heads - go below un-trip anchor circuit breaker- full ahead - yacht coming in dead ahead - hard a port - and free to sea. Sahula escapes into Gokova Korfesi (Gokova Gulf).

To Kerglicik Bogu or "Sea Garden" bay - after the large resort that generously provides unsecured wifi connection, at the anchorage (a km away). Clear water, calm and gulet free - a rare place so close to busy Bodrum.

A moderate NW'ly and Sahula enters Tuzli Koyu, a long fjord type inlet. Sahula is there alone except for a fishing boat. A serene anchorage surrounded by hills.

Creative juices flow - four art works: three coloured pencil (Red Cliffs, Dancing Trees, Roots) and a watercolour (Yagcilar village).

Skipper confidence in watercolour needs the ameliorative of practice. Jean Dobie's book "Making Colour Sing) is the reference. Di Boer offers to buy paints in China before arriving in August.

Sogut is a village with two wooden wharfs. The Gokova Sailing School operates here to introduce many young Turks to sailing. Skipper anchors stern to in calm conditions.

Sogut offers a winter retreat. A wharf offer a 1000 TL (500 Euro) for 6 months (marina: 1400- 1700 Euro). Skipper had noted the rival wharf was 1400 TL. Water and electricity extra. A friendly, uncrowded, place. Dolmas (bus) daily to Marmaris. Skipper is invited aboard, by a Turk couple, for chai and for drinks with liveaboard sailor, Teoman and friends.

Teoman is a cruising type. Refugee from relationships, 40's, friendly, intelligent, 27 years living aboard an own built steel boat to a plan that grew (by extending plan dimensions) to 53 feet for solo sailing - it is project with a never end - a male "workshop" - "million" still to do and obvious - no funds, no job and clearly content.

Skipper enjoyed the sail. Sahula was swept along. Until - 100 feet abeam is a yellow bouy, marking a breaking reef. Sahula passes between the bouy and the land. The gods are smiling.

Socuk Cati (Little Cati) is Ozkan's favourite place. Bocuk Cati (big) has gulets and many yachts. Sahula arrives after running before the NW Meltemi. It is calm, clear and picturesque. And there are no others other than a small fishing boat. In summer fisher families retreat to the many Gokova bays to enjoy a subsistence lifestyle.

"20 minutes - a walk to another bay" became three hours when Ozkan was welcomed by the retired fisherman and his wife to their small "farm" retreat. They grew greens, fruit, made honey and caught fish. Above, a km distant the four lane highway to Datca swept the busy, material, world, oblivious to the bliss below.

Skipper creates "Meltemi - Socuk Cati." A representative colourful abstract in pencil.

The Meltemi blows outside. Skipper stays three days. Walks, reading and art.

It is calm at midday. Sahula leaves to a rising wind and white topped waves. Skipper, to leeward, feels Sahula's exhiliation. Gunwales buried, 6-7 knots to windward. At 24 knots, Skipper reefs the main, part furls the yankee, flies the staysail. Sahula sweeps, spray flying, across the bay to Cokertme.

Passing charter yachts are agog at Sahula's baring her bottom blue. Skipper waves, they look in awe. Great sailing.

Sahula was ready to go. Fritz, owner of a 27 foot yacht, asks for help. German, he gesticulates that the googles and fins would be useful, his anchor is caught. Skipper offers them "No no no, I am an old man." Engine off, Skipper ponders the sailors lore and dives in. The anchor is wrapped around an old anchor in 6 m. It is the limit of Skipper's free diving. 6 dives later, by a rope around the anchor, Skipper lifting it (owner pushed the winch switch, wife looked on) and dropping the chain, it is unraveled. Fritz (in sixties) is grateful. Skipper ponder the differences, sixties ummmm mm.

Sea Garden anchorage in Kerlicik Boyu is nondescript. Off a rocky shore, a strong wifi connection to Sea Garden resort, encourages Sahula's third visit. A day of internet and post diving rest.

At 1600 Sahula is alone, at 1700, seven huge gulets moor close by. Where there were only a few Turks having a swim, there are now some 100 people, dinner parties, noise. Like a plague they descend bereft of "sea lore" or respect for a sailors space. Sahula has a stern line ashore, regardless the Gulet's 100 hp inflatable powers over it.

Sema and Serhat, Yagcilar village friends, can't join Sahula. Serhat's father is ill.

News of Skipper's alma mata, James Cook University and Australian politics fill time. Guest Neil is fresh from both. His yacht is in Townsville.

Internet is the lifeline for the cruising sailor. Cruising Association UK advises Turkish authorities, without notice, have changed the visa processes to mirror the EU rules ie 3 months in 6 months. It seems Skipper's visa renewel in September may be refused. The solution is a Resident's Permit - an expensive, bureaucratic application.

Reasons why range from payback for EU treatment of Turks to landlubber Ankara bureaucrat.

The sailing cruisers horizon shrinks yet again. Emails run hot. The British homeowners in Turkey secure a political ear. The British PM and ambassador succeed in having the new rules rescinded - for now!

Sahula's galley opening porthole has shown its age. The hinge breaks requiring the removal of the window. Neil suggests a metal clip as a temporary but safe, repair. The window now is permanently closed.

Sahula sails to Knidos enroute to Greek, Simi Island. Knidos, Sahula is anchored in Bay. Crew are illegal so the harbour is not an option. Bus to Patmos town (2000) offers air-conditioning and a 1 EU fare. Simi village, theatre like, surrounds the busy, small harbour It is unusual as the houses shine in blue, ochre, red, green, yellow and white.

Snorkelling finds few fish. There seems little algae, shell life or fish food. The coastal Aegean seems a deserted sea. Sea birds are few.

The Bodrum Marina fuel station wharf is squeezed in between mooring ropes off "white ships." A Russian yacht drives in ahead. Chaos.The harbour swarms with Gulets. Sahula retreats; her third party insurance is safe. In the early morning quiet next day she succeeds (3.10 TL for diesel).

Sahula is quiet. Neil departs. Ben and Di arrive in a week. Maintenance time. Knowing is gold. The sunayi (light industrial area) yields a metal shop to make clips for the porthole. A mirror maker up-sizes the bathroom mirror.

Unisuper fund fax changes investment to "balanced" from "cash." Skipper pledges to leave fate to the managers. The website is off limits.

Equally, ABC (Australia) website is off limits. Australian politics possible return to Howardism is too raw. Stress level returns to "balanced."

Sahula retreats to Sea Change bay. Wifi aerial extender provides internet access. Watercolours, swimming and skyping friends and family.

Next Report: Ben and Di to Aladaglar departure: Sogut

David
August 2010










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