July 2005

Dirsek

What a lovely spot. It's a small bay at the western end of Hisaronu Gulf that we thought would be a good stop on the way to Marmaris (to get our GPS working again!) The bay is very deep, so boats must anchor close to shore with a line tied back, tied back to the small restaurant quay, or anchored "free" on the 3-4 metre shelf. We chose the last one, as we much prefer to sit to the wind on our primary anchor. Another boat was on the shelf, but we tucked in behind him. There was little wind, and even less was forecast. It was a peaceful evening, with clear skies, clearer water, and the promise of a good night's sleep.

As the sun set, the other boat left, and looking back, we should have re-anchored as we were sitting quite close to shore, on short scope. But, alas, we didn't.

So, of course, the wind came up. First at midnight or so, and we held tight to our anchor. Then it quieted down again, and we got a bit of sleep. But then at about 4:30am, it came up again, stronger this time, and after about 15 minutes we pulled off the shelf. The bottom line is, 3:1 scope, all chain, in good holding is fine up to about 12 knots for us. After than, we need much more, as the bow swings around a lot, and that tends to pull out the anchor.

Whenever we're in an anchorage, we work out the exit route before bedding down. We had this one planned, and the bay, as mentioned, was mostly very deep. So though it was not what we wanted to be doing, we hauled anchor and got out smartly. Once outside the bay, the wind died off, and we drifted around until there was some daylight so we could head around the tricky corner and reef into Bozborun Gulf. As the sun rose, the wind came up again, this time on the nose, but we plowed onwards, and got into Marmaris bay at about noon.

Marmaris, again

We expected to see lots of room at MYM, but the Eastern Med Yacht Rally had just completed, and the marina was chock-a-block. We eventually took a spot on the outer pontoon, but it turned out to be VERY wet as the meltemi winds blew every afternoon. Finally the marina found a spot on our old stomping grounds, Hotel Pontoon and so we moved over. Notwithstanding the intense heat (high 30's C, nearly 100 F) we decided to stay a while as we completed more boat jobs in preparation for our fall adventure.