Turkish Waters & Cyprus Pilot 5th Edition by Rod Heikel, Imray Norie& Wilson
Imray-Tetra Charts for Med and south coast of Turkey
12.7.99
2230 – Boarded SeaGal 4 berthed at the marina at Marmaris after a one and a half our flight and a two hour taxi ride. Supper consisted of vegtables.
0915 - Last nite we walked around the marina, very international style. Great hot showers. Had a salad. The "neighborhood" grocery store was well stacked. Went to sleep around 0300, and got up at 0700. Had lotsa hot tea (ginger). Went to top off the fuel tank, but had to return to berth to await release from customs and the transit license for boat and crew (something about crew change without having the owner aboard).
1500 – We finally got permission to exit Turkey – meaning we will be leaving soon.
This morning I finally got the helm and am having a hard time keeping the wind where I want it! I’ve done some tacking and almost did some unwanted gybes. The skipper Asaf and his mate Naor are just great seamen.
We are waiting for Shmuel to come back from his shower. I have been sweating buckets. But I must drink more, (haven’t been to the toilet since this morning. ‘Til later.
I learnt that if the windward telltale is waving then we have to sail more to leeward or tighten up the headsail. Before doing a tack we have to check the area. And add or subtract 90-100 degrees to/from the compass course and find a spot on the shore of compass that we should “aim” for. Then we turn the wheel all the way over fast, and tell the crew to move the headsail from one side to the other. About 20-30 degrees before our target we should straighten the wheel onto our new course. Whatever we do we should not stop in the 30-30 degrees to headwind!
Left Marmaris around 1500 used sails most of the way, and had some help from the engine. I threw up three times and felt lousy. We anchored in a nice bay – Kizi Kuyuruk Koyu, it was quiet about 8 or 9 yachts. Slept well. The days are extremely hot. The nights aren’t bad, I sleep in cockpit because the cabin is very hot and cramped.
13.7.99
0520 - Got woken by a gulet trying to raise anchor and thought they caught our anchor. In the end we were fine. I went back to sleep until 0610. We moved to another quiet anchorage – Siralibuk, about 5NM south of Goeck.
After breakfast and a swim we left for Fetiyeh, just about 090 degrees from the anchorage. I was navigator and we got there after about 5NM right on the money!
We arrived around 1200 and cleaned up the ship. The skipper being ex-Navy so everything had to be shipshape (good idea!) I felt soso after the cruise and didn’t have the strength to do anything. From 1230 til 1730 we didn’t do anything. The guys stayed in the yacht and I was on shore in the open-air restaurant / marina office trying to feel better / catch a breze. Was it hot! In the evening we caught a “bus” to town and walked around, and had supper. I looked for something for the girls but couldn’t find anything worth buying. We walked back to the yacht (about a 40 minute slow walk). Pg. 200-203.
The marina (yes marina) has electricty & water, hot showers & toilets. Fuel can be found at the main marina.
14.7.99
0830 we left Fetiyah bound for a Greek island near here. We stopped off the beach in Olu Deniz before continuing towards the port of Megisti on the Isle of Kastellorizon, Greece. We arrived after 2100. It is a most beautiful area (just like in the movies and books.
15.7.99
0500 – we woke up
0530 – we left the dock for the Blue Cave, it is an unreal place. It is a cave where the water changes to a gorgeous blue just as the sunrises. It is about 1.5 NM south of the NE tip of the island. (East side of the island, second indentation ~)
Lat 36 08.2N Long 029 35.5E
We rendezvoused with a motoryacht (45’) being delivered to Israel by some friends of Asaf. (We would be having lunch with them later on in the day at the cave.)
At 0830 we departed for an inlet Bayindr Limoni about an hours sail north. Asaf and Naor went to buy fish which were kept in pens in the water, leaving me in charge of the boat which I had to keep moving cause they didn’t want to anchor.
After they cleaned the fish we left about 1030 for Kekore arriving there about 1200. We tried some maneuvering (while waiting for the motoryacht) but the wind was not strong enough for sailing. Besides I still can’t figure this sailing stuff...
It is now 1410 and I am writing this after tying up to the M/Y Irene and 45’ Sea Craft. We are in Limoni waiting Asaf to finish cooking the fish.
18.7.99
Stopped writing for days. You’ll see why.
The meal was great. We swam around a bit, then disconnected from M/Y Irene and Asaf told me to take the yacht out towards Finike. I wanted to see the Pilot book but was told we’d look at it after we got out into open sea.
Anyway I turned left into the channel and was following a gulet who was traveling in shallow water. The depth gauge showed 4.6 meters s I fugured we had 3 meters under the keel. I stopped twice and mentioned this to the skipper and was told we should have a depth of about 5 meters (4.6 was close enough). He also showed me a patch of green water and told me to go slowly, it made a semi-circle. I was advancing very slowly (just engaged) when we felt a boom and the boat jumped. I placed the boat in neutral then the mate came and took over and started reversing the way we had come, the skipper jumped into the yacht and was checking the bilges for leaks. Anyway we tied up to a dock in the local village and skip & mate dove under to check what damage there was. The long and short of it we headed for Kemer Marina (an 8 hour motoring, way past Finike, for haulout and repair if neccessary. Asaf decided it would be a good idea for me to be the “skipper” so I had to do the navigation, which included going thru a narrow strait, (I asked him if he thought maybe we should go around (an extra 24NM, he didn’t think so).
Using the GPS, I navigated thru the channel (in the dark) with no further damage. I learnt that the navigator must check the position every other minute, so it’s down to look athe GPS, put a fix on the map then tell the helmsman if there is a neccessary change to the CC. The channel’s lighthouse Taslik Burnu PG 216, depth 14 to 24 Mtr. After passing thru the straits we turned north for the run up to Kemer. (The map ended about 15NM south of Kemer, so Naor put the coordinates of the Kemer Lighthouse into the GPS and we sailed on that course (not knowing what depth we had under the keel)). We made Kemer Marina at about 0100 Friday 16.7.99 and waited outside for a “joker boat” to show us in, cause the electricity had just gone out as we arrived. We tied up at 0230 in the Tech area.
In the morning we were told that the travelift was out of commission for monthly maintenance. We were moved to a regular berth til Saturday, they thought it would be more comfortable for us. We were lifted out at 1000 in the morning and the techies looked at it. The keel, bottom left had a gouge out not to deep, and the aft of the keel, where it connects to to the hull was a bit bent. After 4 hours we were informed that a number of “spings” in the hull seem to have cracks in em, and needed fiberglass work. The Israeli claims adjuster was to arrive on Sunday to over see the work. Since Turkey doesn’t work on Sunday we’d have to wait til Monday for them to start work. The tourist area is nice, for one day, but not from Saturday thru Tuesday 4days! Skipper got the crew (Shmuel and me) an air-conditioned room with a pool. Phoned home. Shana is mad, cause we should have been home Saturday night (before the A/c guys were to come. I understand her, but I feel that I can not leave the guys on the yacht, espcially since it happened while I was at the helm. I feel now that I should have turned around when we saw the greenner water. BUT what is done is done and I can not turn back the hands of time or change the past. I must learm from the expensive mistake. I hope I can leave Wednesday AM so I have a chance of getting home by Shabat- at least into Yerushalayim by 1930, then I could walk home from the ent. It is now Sunday evening 1800 and the crew is getting ready to go to the marina and see what’s up. Til we meet again.
Marmaris p 182 map 186
Kastellorizon, Greece p187 map 206/209
Skopealimani
Kizilkuyruk p (192) 193-194 Deepbay
Fetiye p200
Olu Denize p205
Kekov Roads p 211 – 213 KaleKay
Finike -> atalya p216
Kemer Marina p 221
Cyprus p245
Paphos p251
20.7.99
1655 – Well gang, we’re still here! We are now legally back in the country for repairs. Asaf just came in and gave us our stamped passports. I wonder how much it cost and how he did it. (Imagine we could have gone to prison J . He also informed us that after supper we would be going to the yacht to clean and organize it, so I assumed (and he said) that the fiberglass work is done. It should have been done yesterday the guys at the tech office just couldn’t get the keel off. So they aren’t gonna fix it, (apparently there isn’t anything to fix anyway!). If we would have known that earlier then the fib guy could have started yesterday, besides the techies didn’t start to remove the keel til 1800 (what a wasted day!) Picked up the laundry today (should’ve been done yesterday) at a cost of 1,500,000TL for the load. I bought three wraps for the girls (I hope they like em). Each one was 5,000,000TL the rate is 4,280,000TL for 10 USD.
Anyway, then we went to see what’s with the boat. Shmuel and I toured the elevation behind the marina and beach, and wouldn’t you know it, a group of Israelis showed up.
After about an hour and a half I got tired of just sitting there so we went to see what’s up with the boat, then we went back to the room. I went to the other beach for a bit. It is rockier than the Moolight beach.
I went over the navigation II book for a bit. Went to sleep for two hours and am now writing this. I am gonna see if I can answer some tests before supper and work, Well, I’ll be back....
17:30
Naor just told us that he doesn’t think they’ll finish tonight – so we won’t be able to clean up til tomorrow, which means we will be leaving later than I thought...
21.7.99
Well we made the flight. 150USD including tax.
Last night we were informed that what was done yesterday had to taken apart and redone. We were told by Yuval (great guy, more about him later) that the guy didn’t do the work as told and would have to whole thing over. Hopefully they’d be able to leave by Friday morning. A quick calculation showed that at best we leave Friday at 0900 add 20 hours to Cyprus to the 36 hours from paphos to herzliya you get 56 hours on the water making 2 days of non stop sailing. We would arrive herzliya Sunday at best, and this trip is anything but best, and the A/C guys are coming on Sunday morning, I decided that I could not let Shana deal with it by herself, and I decided to go home (abandoning the boat, so to speak).
Yuval drove the 50KM to Anatalya airport (he was gonna go in afternoon but went this morning to take us). Our luck changed for the better, the guy in charge of the charter flight happened to be waiting around the check-in and he was able to arrange two tickets to TLV for shmuel and me. (we just flew over cyprus 25 minutes into the flight ( a 20 hours sail!).
I can’t thank Yuval enough. He is one year younger than I am but so much more experienced in the way of travel, etc., but then he isn’t religious.
He is an “acient mariner” with time in the Israeli Navy and has a degree in naval/marine architecture.
Yuval Harari
Design, Survey, and Consulting
41 Rupin St.
Tel-aviv
052-704173
He has invited me to sail with him and I am sure that I will.
20 minutes after Cyprus we begin our decent- the cloud base thickens, but there are no whitecaps so I assume the wind is not up. (Which means motoring anyway.)
We didn’t get to Finike becausewe bypassed it to get to Kemer. Question is do they have facilities and maybe we should have continued to Israel. The keel would not have fallen off.
I wonder who will ever read this. I feel the mistake in navigation was greatly mine. I should not have followed the gaulet into the left side, and when Asaf pointed out the greener water (altho I was not near it yet) I should have backed out or at least turned right toward another sailing yacht, away from shore.
I suppose I’ll chaulk up the whole episode as one for experience.
Well we landed at 1222 30°C.
This brings this part of my sailing to an end, I will call the SeaGal4 Friday or maybe tomorrow to see how things are. I hope they have a safe journey and am truely sorry that I am not completeing the leg and the delivery, but I am not a mariner yet and I have other greater responsibilities, to wife and family. But it was an experience and I do plan on sailing those same waters someday.
Bye,
Mogo.
10-Jan-2000
