This is a busy month for us with all arrangements centering around B's father Alf coming to Europe with Dot to celebrate his 80th birthday with us aboard Musketelle in Marmaris. Is that not a great attitude !!! It puts the pressure on us to make it memorable. As they are doing a 12 day cruise around the Med, Aegean and Adriatic from Barcelona to Venice we decide to meet them for the day their cruise is at the Greek island of Thira otherwise known as Santorini the supposed lost Atlantis. We leave Turkey with the plan of spending a month cruising in Greece visiting 12 islands in the Dodecanese and Cyclades group of islands in an anti-clockwise circuit from Marmaris back to Marmaris.
Gidday Greece - After a daysail from Marmaris we reach the picture perfect Greek island of Nisios Symi in the Dodecanese Group, country number 18 in our nautical meandering. Symi is just 4 miles off the Turkish coast. In Symi they have retained the traditional low stone and plaster buildings hugging the waters edge and up the hillsides, painted pastel peach and beige painted with Med blue highlights. The motor vehicle rules in coastal Turkey but is a hinderance to life on the Dodecanese. As usual on arrival in a new country we shouted ourselves a night out dining at a local restaurant sampling the local fare and beverage even if in this case it was an Italian restaurant. Next morning we did a heart thumping climb to the monastary atop a hill overlooking Symi. (see pic)
A Meaty Story - On the walk back down to Symi town we found a hillside village butcher selling pork. Travelling in muslim countries we have not had pork since Singapore. This is a real treat so we buy a few kilos and are now porked out. The butcher asks where we are from and proudly shows us some Southland frozen lamb in his freezer which really impresses us. Then even more proudly goes to his walk-in chiller and emerges with his own local kill lamb with testicles still in tact. But at least they don't eat dog in Greece !!
Real Sailing Weather - The further north we sailed we experienced some great sailing in gutsy 20/40 knot winds fed by the local wind named 'the Meltemi' that funnels from north to south like a conveyor down the middle of the Aegean Sea. The other island on the must visit list is a request by P that we call at Mykonos for a trip down memory lane, given he was there as a 19 year old 39 years before. What a disappointment..in 1970 it was full of pretty topless lassies whereas today its been taken over by the gay male community who roam the beaches naked. After walking around the picture postcard but 100% tourist white-washed town we planned to stay one night, but as bad luck would have it a gale arrived and had us pinned in the town marina with a swag of other yachts for 5 days as battered yachts limped in and one even came ashore off the marina. This was our first grubby weather for months.
Santorini Anchorage Blues - 7 island stops since arriving in Greece we reach Santorini a day before Alf and Dot and do a recci of the island on a scooter with its major attraction being the villages built atop what is effectively the rim of the crater looking down into the caldera where the cruise ships anchor. The next day we meet them and give them a whistle stop tour of the island in a rental car showing them Musketelle at anchor before returning them to their luxury 2000 passenger ship 'Celebrity Summit'. For us anchoring at Santorini was a real problem because the caldera is so deep, with only limited opportunities to anchor and limited mooring buoys which were occupied. Thus the only suitable anchorage was on the open south side of the island in a shallow strip. You can guess what happened, the prevailing northerly that blows for 28 out of 30 days a month at this time of year decides to come in from the south at dusk and we are pinned on a lee shore with just 1 metre under the keel. It's sea state rather than wind that has us concerned but we think it will abate. At 10pm a local fisherman comes over to say he is moving his boats to the marina (which is too shallow for us) and we should move too. We had already been doing anchor watch and keeping a close eye on the anchor alarm and we knew we were not moving. Our only other option was to sail through the night to our next island but because we are both very tired, we elect to stand watches through the night, rely on the anchor alarm and take bearings off landmarks to ensure we don't move futher ashore. Come daylight we were totally pooped as we up anchor and sail away. We are generally risk averse and over breakfast agree we should have sailed at dusk. P recalled that surprisingly B was not worried so neither was he.
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Return to Marmaris - We sail east toward Turkey making overnight stops at 4 islands and then a final stop at Symi to formally clear out of Greece. We take on 300L of cheap diesel (if NZ$2 per litre is cheap) and sail into Marmaris on 21 Sept, the same evening Alf and Dot fly in and B collects them in a cab from Dalaman Airport 90 minutes from Marmaris and they return to stay aboard Musketelle at Yacht Marin.
Family Party Time - We spend 3 days aboard including a night anchored off Marmaris town and celebrate Alfs 80th aboard with Lanson Champagne and also have a great night in the classy Yacht Marine Restaurant. On such occasions a few stanza's of lite poetry never goes amiss....
ODE TO ALF 23 Sep 2009
King Alfred George he was born
Eighty years ago this DAY
Comes all the WAY From Lowry BAY
To imbibe and say CHEERS
with the MUSKETEERS
Right here on Marmaris BAY
Its a right pleasure for B and I
To be looking you, Alf, in the EYE
Having you here for this special DATE
As if we were all at 238
On sombre note we have thoughts
For those no longer HERE
And also for Irene and Phil
Unable to take to the AIR
For tonights special toast
Celebrating the Alf for whom we CARE
We care for this olde FELLOW
Because he's a positive HAPPY
Cheerful and jolly CHAPPY
Never one for the STOUSCH
Prefers the Famous GROUSE
And loves the Limon CELLO
We recall the year O7
The widower comes to FIJI
A first to tropical heaven says HE
Meeting Chief Ronnie was GREAT
Catching fish from dawn to LATE
As we cruised the Blue LAGOON
It was over oh so SOON
Come the hilarious last NIGHT
Getting a bit tipsy and TIGHT
Half slaughtering a bottle of SCOTCH
He declares senior life is only 1st RATE
If you have a good MATE
And in a tear of joy
Announces Dot is that NOTCH
Life is now a piece of CAKE
Backward and FORD
From the Bay to the LAKE
And all above BOARD
If thats not enough
Full of ZEST
No time for REST
With Dot in TOW
They're in Turkey to SHOW
What it takes to celebrate The BIG 80 !!
Istanbul Visit - We left Musketelle at Yacht Marin and all flew up to Istanbul for a 3 day stay in the old town known as the Sultanahmet, close by the Blue Mosque and other major attractions. We were in Istanbul to view the sights before Alf and Dot commenced their return flight to NZ. Whilst we were there the city came to a standstill as the last Ottoman noble had died the day before at 97yrs old and as is Muslim practice was being buried in a mosque within 24hrs. There were police everywhere holding back the crowds as a sea of Muslim mufti and clerics surrounded the hearse as it pulled up outside the mosque and the crowd burst into song and some kind of Ottoman salute.
Highlights were visits to the Grand Bazaar, Blue Mosque, Aya Sofya and the home of the Sultans, the Topkapi Palace. The palace was the highlight and we spent a morning there on the huge grounds which overlook the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn. That afternoon Alf and Dot went on a cruise up the Bosphorus while B&P headed for the Turkish Naval Museum on the other side of Istanbul.
Old Charts Challenge History - We were heading for the Turkish Naval Museum to view an ancient map of the world including the East Coast of North America and the southern extremities of South America drawn by the Turkish Admiral Piri Reis pre-dating Columbus and Magellan. The clear message is these discoverers had this and possibly other charts to aid them. Would you believe the map is no longer housed at the naval museum but in the cartography section at the Topkapi Palace where we had been all morning. But we then learned that you have to be a Prime Minister, a President or an Admiral to view this highly prized piece of chartwork. Oh well so be it...at least we were able to purchase a copy which we will frame for the study. The history behind this chart is absolutely fascinating and full of intrigue with copies getting to the Spanish and Portuguese via Papal involvement in mysterious deals all those years ago. This is a part of history Anglo, French and American historians do not wish to acknowledge because it rewites history and, to put the boot in, the Chinese are there in the background. Since reading '1421' P is on the lookout for literature on ancient cartography to learn more.
Back on the Water - After seeing Alf and Dot off we flew back to Marmaris and are now back at sea cruising north up the Aegean Coast of Turkey discovering new anchorages in the last of the Autumn weather for the month of October and maybe into November before finalising on a marina for winter. We are anchored under the fort at Bodrum as we write this blog.
Luxury Gulet up in Smoke - Before we left Marmaris an ultra modern 120ft long private Gulet caught on fire at 10am in the morning at its private dock 500m from Yacht Marine. The pall of toxic smoke quickly brought a large coastguard vessel to fight the fire and then a chopper with a fire bucket dropping seawater over it. Alas to no avail, by 2pm the huge masts were both toppled and by dusk the hull sank beneath the surface. Reputedly US$20M down the gurgler. P recalled how lucky he was with the big blue boat fire back in 98. Fire at sea is a most feared thing by mariners and never far from our minds on Muskie.
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