Our sail to Datcha was uneventful and we arrived to find a lovely small town with a small bay immediately in front. We tried anchoring but found the anchor struggling to hold, when we pulled it up we found out why. A large bag had found its way over the tip preventing it digging in. Sadly that area of the bay proved to be full of them, and other rubbish that doesn't belong in the sea.. A further attempt to anchor failed again and we moved a small way along the bay and anchored in 5m of beautiful sand. Nigel was pleased he swam to check the anchor though as we were lying just too close to a power cable! Diving down he managed to lift the anchor and move it away where it dug itself in nicely. We later saw a review noting that the power cable position on the charts wasn't correct......
A night sampling beer in a local bar set us up for a good sleep and next day we moved around the headland to Kargi Koyu where we found shelter for 3 days and 2 nights while strong winds blew through. Although we were well dug in, gusty winds at night do affect ones sleeping! Although it was windy it didn't prevent some snorkling and Nigel had the privilege of watching a turtle eating the sea grass 7m below him in crystal clear water. As the wind eased we were able to leave the boat and enjoy dinner with Barry and Lynn Shotton on Waltz.
After the gales wind was scarce and we motored round to Palamut, a small harbour with med mooring berths. We found a nice restaurant on the beach front for dinner and another for breakfast the next day. The owner of the latter restarant grows all his own ingredients in the garden behind and gifted us with some Pomegranates from there. The honey served with a variety of other foods for breakfast was delicious too.
We then motored, still no wind, up to Knidos. A lovely bay with one restaurant bar in the heart of an old trading city. You can read the history of it in the link below.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knidos?wprov=sfla1
Sadly, although the Ruins are spectacular and you can imagine the size of the city by looking at all the terraces on the hills around the bay, some of the restoration work wasn't high quality. That's not to detract from such an interesting and beautiful place. We had a walk up to a nearby lighthouse with views of the Greek islands.
Kerensa at dawn in Knidos
Carol and Charlie Baker rejoined the fleet after a week away, it was good to see them again.
Whilst we were in the bay, we saw a tiny sailboat enter and anchor nearby. The sailor could hardly fit in it, it was 17ft long we later found, and once he had settled we stopped by to have a chat. Kadir had never sailed before. He had bought this tiny boat and sailed it from Istabul during the summer. His ambition was to sail to Knidos so we had the pleasure of celebrating his achievement with him and invited him to dinner at the restaurant. Over a large plate of Mahi Mahi fish he told us his story, including not sailing in more than 10-12 knots of wind as his tiny boat gets swamped by waves in anything stronger! He has plans for a bigger boat. We may see him again as he is heading to the same marina we intend to spend the winter in.
After 3 days we left Knidos for Ciflik bay, a stop we had been in before, and then a short hop across to Dirsek where we are now. This bay was the first where we have had to use stern lines to the shore so it was an apprehensive approach! All went well with our anchor in 20m of water, Amanda did a great job swimming the lines to shore and securing them to rocks. We still wouldn't like to try it in strong crosswinds though. On the way in Amanda saw a huge turtle, but a later search by Kayak wasn't succesful.
Ciflik bay
We are starting head head further south this coming week, perhaps to meet up with even more Whitstable YC members!
