Tomb bay is our intended destination for the evening, it is supposed to be very pretty so we pack up ready to go! First however, we need fuel for 'Kejstral' and our black water ( toilet tank) needs emptying, lovely. We must take 'Kejstral' alongside at the fuel / emptying station, that in itself is always a little tricky as fenders and ropes need putting in just the right places avoiding scratches and damage to our lovely boat. We pull up anchor from our nice settled spot in the bay and yet again negotiate the speeding posh tenders whizzing by from all directions. I stand like a muppet and point out each while Kevin steers as if playing dodgem. Just as we leave the chaos and head to the fuel station we notice a rather large super deluxe cruiser has decided to do the same, only he gets there first! Any idea how much fuel these beasts can hold, more to the point how long it takes to fill their guzzling tanks? To add to our dilemma another yacht pulls ahead of us and jumps into our path. He is also planning a fuel stop. We wait, not as easy as you might imagine in a floaty boat on a breezy day with waves and wake from numerous other boats! Eventually we tie up ready to be emptied and filled. The guy at the pumping station for toilets looks happy, considering his job........ We are meant to empty grey water also in this part of Turkey, one of the recent new rules. This means that all boats in this area should have extra tanks fitted for shower and dish water waste, or, it should be collected into bottles. We do not ( like most other yacht's, have grey water tanks) therefore we collect our grey water in old water bottles. ( Have I put you off sailing yet?) Back at the lovely pumping station we are supposed to deposit these grey water bottles. No one has informed the pumpy man, he looks somewhat distraught at the sight of our soupy solution. He didn't even look that worried when he emptied the toilet! However he takes away our soup and we never see it again. Funnily enough our friends Lee & Larry had to do exactly the same a few days beforehand. They handed over their grey water to a stunned looking attendant, only for the entire contents to be thrown onto the grass verge behind the building, bottles hosed clean then handed back to Lee 😁 As ever, some fabulous planning has clearly been involved when these new regulations are put in place. Now we are empty of everything dirty, we fill with fuel 200 tl is £50 not too much really when you think that since collecting 'Kejstral' with a full fuel tank in March this year, we have only had to put a total ( including this top up) 500 tl worth equalling £125 !! We will have travelled over 1000 n.ms and we still have a container full of fuel on board. Our plan is to head to Tomb bay, only 4 n.ms away but we have been told it is perfect. So we sail for the few miles which is so busy with boats of all types, we are on constant watch. Yacht's with and yacht's without sails up. Huge cruisers and of course Gulets, hundreds of them. There are also fleets of utility boats which are so helpful to the sailing community. Gocek bay and it's surrounding area on the map form a great big kind of 'G' shape, made up of the mainland and a few islands. Gocek town is in the northern curve of that 'G', we are heading to the centre west coast of said 'G'. All around this area are hundreds of boats, most are on anchor with their stern tied to rocks. I don't think I have ever seen so many in such a small area! For this reason the local council and of course many young Turkish entrepreneurs provide services rubbish collection, laundry collection and delivery, gozleme (pancakes) cooked on a little motor boat that ties up alongside yours. The ice cream man and then the supermarket boats, yes I really said supermarket boats. The major problem with sailing around bays and more remote areas is provisioning, we all must eat and drink. ( Especially Kevin) When in a bay, clearly shopping is impossible if there are no buildings, what you don't want to do is only stop in harbours and ports, that would cost lots. Remember we as lots of other sailors are on a budget, therefore we try to optimise our travelling experience. We stock up on drinks and store them everywhere we can, we have loads of storage in compartments in the floor, under beds and behind sofas, ( we have cupboard's too) Tins and packets of food are great as they can do the same. However we all like fresh things too, and these are what we all struggle with. Bread, fruit, veg and other bits are probably the first things we need, obviously we start to dwindle the other supplies over time too. Which is why these amazing supermarkets on water are like gold dust. We could of course go to the lovely little taverna's and bars that we see so often on small Islands and hidden in coves within beautiful bays, but that bloomin budget does not allow for extravagance. We only have perhaps one drink if we do succumb and a meal really is a special treat. As we approach Tomb bay, there is always that anticipation of where we can go, how much room will there be and should we anchor, pick up an anchor buoy or just tie up on a pontoon, only a little stress involved. Most sailors try to read up as much as possible helping their orientation when going somewhere for the first time, however books become out of date, maps may not have been updated either and places change there setup and mooring facilities, so it can still be quite daunting especially for us newbies! We decided to anchor then take a rope to the rocks as a stern line, this additional rope assists with the swinging and movement from any swell or wind. Anchor dropped almost 60 feet of chain deployed into about 12 meters of water ( ideally around four times the depth of water, equates to the length of chain required, with a little extra ....... in case ! Once reasonably happy Kevin takes a heavy rope with a huge loop of heavy duty material towards the rocks and flings it over one sturdy immobile one. I then pull us back as much as my pathetic strength will allow, which tightens both from the anchor and the stern rope and we should be nicely secure.........that is until we start worrying, what if the anchor didn't actually set, we will be pulled back, anchor just dragging into the rocks! Kevin dived in to see the anchor, luckily he did as it hadn't set well enough to give us confidence and a stress free sleep tonight. The reason..... our chain is just not long enough for us to to risk being in more than 10 meters of water on a windy night with a rope tied to the rocks. If the anchor is loose we would just drift and our additional rope would cause us to hit the rocks, not worth the worry. (something else to redress next season) So back in the water, Kevin unhooks our stern rope from the rock, the once on board, I take in the anchor. We decide that we will go onto the pontoon, feel disappointed that we have to as that means an obligation to have either food or drinks in the restaurant adjoining. However the water and electricity which we can plumb into are free so it isn't all bad. The guys from the pontoons are always very helpful mainly as you are a source of income to them but genuinely they do their upmost to assist with the boats. They direct us to a chosen space and hand us the lazy line (rope set into the water very deeply, allowing us to tie on rather than putting an anchor out, hence the name, lazy) They grab our stern lines wrap them around cleats on the pontoon then throw them back, for us to secure. It is a very slick and stressfree way of tying up. Drink and swim, it is so hot. The water is beautiful crystal clear aqua green in colour and a perfect temperature. We take the snorkeling gear ( yes I am now more confident 😁) and have a swim around the rocks, lots of little fish swim alongside us dipping down one by one to pick up debris from the rocky bottom. Feeling refreshed we relax and say hello to our incoming neighbours a Turkish group of 4 on a fifty foot fabulous yacht on our left and an Austrian couple living aboard quite an old style yacht. You can always tell the live aboard boats, they are pretty messy, I don't mean dirty, just full of ......stuff! Things tied everywhere bits of this and bits of that secured to every possible piece of chrome and attached to every surface. Cushions rarely match and covers are thrown over everything giving a homely come rustic look. There are of course some very tidy live aboard boats too 😁 just less of them! I am a tidy freak, things must be in place, look neat and match! (Did you ever see the film sleeping with the enemy!!! ) We have our meal on board as do our Austrian neighbours then decide to have a drink in the restaurant as we intend to use the water supply and electricity provided here. The pontoon is a T shaped well built structure with wooden planks forming the walkway, around twelve boats are secured here. On the shoreline as we step onto land are steps of crazy paving, well finished and leading onto a further, wooden decked area where the restaurant takes its fabulous spot, facing the entrance to this lovely bay. Drinks are as pricey as each of our previous destinations, 15 tl almost £4, we only pay 8 tl or £2 in our home town in Turkey, however we recognise that this part of Turkey is most expensive in every way. We watch the sunset as boats drift from place to place past the bay entrance, feeling safe and secure on the pontoon we head to 'Kejstral' for a good night's sleep.
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Sailing Kejstral AdventuresRetired and following our dream of sailing around the world Archives
April 2019
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