Juggling guests and People Smuggling

The sailing around here has been superb. We left our beautiful anchorage at Bademli after a swim and a full cooked breakfast at 11:30 on the 15th July. The sails went up an hour later and after an hour of great sailing, down they came as we turned for Alibey... still in Turkey. We were here because it was the most convenient place to collect Warren and Jenny Green. They flew into Istanbul but it still meant a flight to Izmir and a three hour bus ride to Alibey.

The Greens were to overlap with the Hayman's for one night but thanks to 5 bedrooms on the Cat, we looked forward to way too much fun.

So, on board we had the Wilkinson's, all legal in Turkey. The Hayman's illegal in Turkey and the Greens, legal in Turkey.

Alibey is a dusty little town on an island, linked by a causeway to Ayvalik, a much larger town with a new hospital where we hoped to have Summer's plaster cast removed.


Poor kid has not been able to take a full dunk in the water since the her very first voyage this year...Although she can keep it dry in this tube.




As you can see from the latest X-Ray the bone has not knitted properly so we were devastated to learn that it's another 3 weeks in the cast for Summer and that may not even do it. We think it may have slightly dislodged during one of her soccer or bike stacks...




The next voyage was to take the Hayman's back to Mitilini where they were to fly out and head home. So it was back to the very officious town where Al and I and the Hayman's would be legal, but Sal, the kids and the Greens wouldn't...

They were waiting on the dock as before, and asked if I would report to Port Police.... Paranoia tends to override common sense, but it was all routine stuff... other than the change of undies!

So, back in Mitilini for the third time. Always good to see it through new eyes. It is a nice town and harbour, but we lunched, bid a sad farewell to the Hayman's and set off early the following morning for Molivos. This was the town we'd earmarked with the really cute harbour that climbed through cobbled street to the castle at the peak.

Having set off early we got to the north of the island before lunch and decided to anchor off Skala Skimaneas for another seafood extravaganza before heading to Molivos for the night.

Octopus hung out to tenderize, the Summer Amy at anchor in the background, another sumptuous seafood meal, so the only real change was the resident prancing Trannie who graced us with a whole new outfit...

Does little for the digestion really but you can't help wondering what exactly is going on in that head??

















A great lunch, a swim and after slicing a few large pieces off an already useless refugee dinghy for use as puncture repair patches for our dinghy we motored around to Molivos, only to find it full.

That is the patrol boat to the right.
How much room do they need??

Well, full but for a spot not possible for yachts due to depth, wide enough for the Cat but quite close to the Coast Guard boat. All sorts of arm waving from the shore, Port Policeman included, we persevered and got in nicely.

Too long a walk for the Port Policeman to tell us to move, so all good.....Until the Coast Guard dude arrived and very nicely asked us to move. "It can get very surgy at night. We may have to go out in the night. It is dangerous..." and so on, so we moved out and anchored in the bay.







A leisurely swim and breakfast in the morning saw us weighing anchor at 11:15 on the 19th July headed for Kulukkuyu on the Turkish coast.


The plan needed to get us back to Alibey in two days so that The Greens could bus back to Istanbul on their way home and to pick up Jarrad, our son who was spending a week or so in Istanbul on his way to link up with us.


The trip to Kulukkuyu was directly into the wind and we were expecting a nasty, bumpy ride. It was a three and a half hour voyage and turned out to be as smooth as but for the last half hour or so. The harbour looked to be exposed to the rising wind, but as we entered the wind was cut off stone dead. The harbour designer needs a medal it was that effective.

Kulukkuyu is a neat little place, very rural and quite Muslim in feel..... cool name but.

The harbour is in two parts, one for boats,
the other for swimming. Another medal for the designer. It was sweltering and a swim was an absolute necessity.

Needing to catch up on some sleep both Al and I decided to take a nanna nap for the afternoon. The kids had so much to do, the place is geared toward them. Sal and the Greens sat themselves down on these here chairs and learned about a new refreshment... Vodka and Tonic with a splash of lemon juice. It seems it took quite a few of these to perfect the brew so by the time we joined them, it was a little too late! They did seem to be having a pretty good time though.

There was just no hurry to leave in the morning so a much required sleep in was possible and a tour of the town.

Cobbled streets, festooned in Turkish flags the blokes tried to find a barber that would cut our hair, give us a shave, but most importantly, wax our noses. We wanted Warren to experience this phenomenon before going home. Unfortunately, a shave and a haircut was all that was on the menu... no wax?

So at 3:05pm we mozied out into a perfect wind to sail south to Alibey. When I say perfect, a NE was predicted but instead we got a NW?? Still did the trick.

Back in dusty Alebey we Med Moored and dined. They attempted to rip us off on the wine and when Sally offered half they threatened to call the police. "Go right ahead" said Sal and that ended the argument.

We had a fairly early night. At 9:00am the Greens were to taxi to the bus station for an 11 hour trip to their hotel in Istanbul!

It was just so good that they could include us in their travel plans. There is something really special about sharing this experience with family.

Bye guys, hope you can make it over next year...