Sailing & Flying, amazing fun … with Danie & Mark for company!

On the 2nd August we sailed from Kas to Kalkan to meet Danie and her newish chappie Mark who were joining us on board Seaclusion for 5 days.

They arrived mid afternoon which gave them the afternoon to wander around Kalkan, stop in our favorite coffee shop and book a table at the right restaurant this time. Danie even managed to acquire a “genuine fake” Gucci belt with the old buckle design, happy days!

We had planned to set sail the following day to Cold Water bay near Gocek, some 30 odd NM’s but with no wind on the forecast, it was decided we would just motor around the corner and drop anchor in the bay. As we approached, a family of 3 turtles swam towards us and Danie’s face lit up like she had just won the lottery! It was very deep here so a long line ashore to hold our stern in place was required, a little tricky as we had a nasty cross wind. Mark offered to swim ashore with the line, sadly we forgot to tell him that speed was of the essence and swimming like Michael Phelps rather than a crab was necessary. As I could not hold the stern in line, we were soon dragging him away from the shore quicker than he was swimming to it. After a further half an hour of faffing, we were tied up for the night, and Mark finally climbed back on board, a little worse for wear,  having clearly been attacked by a sea urchin, aka slipped on the rocks, scratching his leg in the process.

We had a wonderful afternoon, chilling out and nattering and despite his injury we even got to introduce Mark to the paddle board!

And he introduced us to his goggles and snorkel…..

So on the 4th we set sail to Cold Water Bay, in great winds, although as ever, not quite in the direction we wanted to go, we even had ourselves a little race with a new Moody 42, both boats were equally matched on speed so it was all down to the tactics as to when to tack! After one bad call on our part, we thought we had no chance and then much to our surprise we managed to pip them at the post so to speak, arriving at the headland (our imaginary finish line)  moments before them. Nothing quite like a bit of healthy competition to spice up a sail, much to Danie & Mark’s amusement.

Around 8 hours later we arrived at Cold Water Bay, aptly named as a natural spring serves to greatly reduce the water temperature there, as Danie and I found out when we jumped in, surfacing with a couple of expletives escaping our lips much to the chuckles of our neighbours! We also had a very welcome visit from the ice-cream boat!

Cold Water Bay is a wonderful spot except it is inundated with wasps, as the sun goes down and comes up, but thankfully not the major part of the day.  Ali, who managed the bay and runs the restaurant came to collect us, we had a wonderful meal, cooked in his fire-pit in a very tranquil setting, before making our way back to the boat for a reasonably early night!

So Day 4  saw us rise at 6.30, well David, Danie & I, as we had arranged to do a tandem paraglide off the mountains behind Olu Deniz. Ali dutifully picked us up at 7am in his boat and dropped us around the corner to a beach where we were due to be picked up in a van to take us to the jump off point some 4000ft high above Olu Deniz, yikes.

After a little wait, the van finally arrived, in a very sorry state, in fact it only just got us to the meeting point before breaking down. Thankfully our “pilots” were freelance so nothing to do with this company!

Our first site of the drop off point which is essentially a manmade very steep slope that makes you feel that you are dropping off the edge of the earth, was just a little manic. We had no idea it was such a big business but we soon learned that about 1500 jumps were made per day!

And the willing participants…..

Having taken in the mayhem, it was now our turn to get kitted up!

Luckily for David, we went first so we have no incriminating pictures of his bum being dramatically enlarged!!!

Wow. Having got over our initial fears, it was a fantastic experience, to quote David “that was one of the best things I have ever done, now I would like to jump out of a plane!” Anyway I will let the photos do the talking ….

The Views over Olu Deniz were amazing.

Now the tricky bit, coming into land……

The fantastic while sandy beach of Olu Deniz, from the ground!

On our way back, thankfully in a car this time, we got a chance to stop to take in the views across the bay, before we were deposited back with Ali, feeling elated and on top of the World!

Mark had been an angel during our absence, de-salting our decks and more importantly stocking up on ice creams for our return. Big Smiles all round! However Cold Water Bay was by now starting to fill up with day tripper boats, so it was really was time for us to leave.

With that, we headed over to the islands off Gocek and after a very genteel downwind sail, we arrived in Tersane Bay, hoping to drop anchor and tie off, but that seemed to be the more popular choice, so we opted for the restaurant jetty and dinner out.

Tersane Bay is in a beautiful setting, dinner was slow cooked lamb in the oven washed down with some vino, it was fabulous, the only exception was our neighbours who seemed determined to run the generator and air con all night. A few choice words soon changed that!

The next day, with little wind we opted to just move bays in the area, up to Wall Bay. Wanting to eat on board we selected to drop the anchor and take a long line ashore again.  Our first attempt was a fiasco. Mark did take the line ashore for us again, but as he fell on the rocks again, we decided not again, for his own safety. Shortly after the winds started to gust a little and push us uncomfortably close to the rocks, we decided to move. Mark & Danie had just swum ashore to go exploring so were on hand to untie the lines, well one, which we pulled aboard, the other we untied and they pulled to shore. We then left them both on the shore and took the yacht off to reset. Finding an entirely new and better spot, David had to then jump into the dinghy to pick up Mark,  Danie and the rope, leaving me to circle in front of it for about 20 minutes whilst they got themselves sorted, ensuring no one else could take it!

Well those of you who have followed our blog in the past, may have remembered our previous issues with the dinghy, so after David had untied  himself and it from the yacht, it stalled 4 times on the way over to them, there were some expletives heard as he restarted it again and again, but he did mange to get them into the dinghy to then set-off across the bay to where we had planned to moor again, twice more the dinghy stalled. All three then being somewhat distracted in trying to find the dinghy’s bow line, which was now under the 90 meters of other line, David almost drove into a Catamaran that was moored up!. Then, after avoiding that calamity, they then got to the shore , the intention being for Danie to go ashore and tie the line off so we could then bring it back to the yacht to tie off after we had anchored. Ha ha ha, not so easy,  in all the confusion the line had become incredibly knotted and wouldn’t run, so David had to spend another 10 minutes untangling it, whilst Mark held the dinghy in position to avoid it being bashed against some very sharp rocks.

Finally, once the line was set, David headed back to me, tied the dinghy off and raced up to the bow to drop the anchor. With Seaclusion in astern heading for Mark &  Danie, now in the water with the line,  I got ready to take the line on board and fix her off, so we could then set the second line and readjust everything. I do have to say it did work, but it took a bit longer than expected. When finally all done, we did get a round of applause from the other boats, doubtfully because they thought we had done it well, but rather that their entertainment was over and peace restored. Still we were safe and set for a great last night on board, wine flowing as there was no way we were going to have to move again until the morning!.

Danie and Mark then proceeded back to their original plan, to go and have a mooch around ashore. Taking one of our waterproof bags for their phones etc, (with us taking absolutely no responsibility if they leaked of course), they set off, while David and I just flopped! A couple of hours later, we spotted the guys sort of swimming back to us, Danie with a plastic bag in her mouth, Mark trying to hold the waterproof bag above his head. Much to our chuckles, the bag, when Danie had started to swim, had contained ice. funnily enough given the sea temp was around 30 degrees, it was nothing but water by the time she got to us. Still it is the thought that counts!

Despite the lamb roasting on the spit at the restaurant, we went for lamp chops & salad on board, we did have a fabulously fun evening, with a bit too much rose being consumed by all, the only thing that was missing was a bit of midnight swimming. Despite this the heat was still lingering enough to see me sleeping on deck waking up with the sun!

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Soon everyone was up and about so we went ashore for a proper Turkish breakfast before setting sail for Gocek.

We opted to go back into D-Marin Marina as we needed to get a couple of repairs done, again, and in doing so we did manage to impress the guys with our mooring skills as the slot they gave us was rather tight, in fact tight enough for me (Chantal) to exclaim …. “F..k, that’s tight”, with David & the guys fighting to keep the fenders in place as they were being squeezed out as we came in! Not one I wish to repeat in a hurry, even though no damage was inflicted to Seaclusion or our neighbours!

All in all, it was a great 5 days, we don’t think we put Mark off sailing, although we are not too sure he has the sailing bug!

Our next stop is Netsel, Marmaris, where we are leaving Seaclusion for 5 days to do some more exploring, inland, to Cappadocia!

11th August 2019