Plomarion, Greece to Izmir, Turkey and a nice little lesson in Captaincy...Know your boat!

Time to rendezvous with the Duncan's in Izmir, all really excited about hosting them on the boat. The wind was to be perfect for a good sail all the way, a distance of 50.58 NM (about 96 Ks). At 9:00am it was a fairly technical departure. Al dived on the anchor to check if our chain had been crossed by our neighbour when they came in, the angle looked dodgy when they dropped theirs. Then there was the cross wind to deal with, but by 9:15 we were out of the harbour and the mainsail went up.

Nothing to do with the story but a great shot
Mum poured a bottle of ice cold water
over Will for being a little cheeky...

We'd been working on a way to untwist the main halyard (the line that pulls the mainsail to the top of the mast) because the power winch tends to wind it up. Untwisting it would allow the main to go all the way up and having succeeded more by luck than judgement untwisted and up she went. As it got to the top of the mast.... BANG!

The strap holding the clew (bottom back of the sail) snapped and in the big following wind the huge mainsail once again took out the jack lines and flapped dangerously high into the air. Nothing for us but to turn back into the wind, drop the sail and lash it to the boom. Once that was achieved, we turned and with only the headsail up, motored for seven hours in conditions absolutely perfect for sailing.... bum!

This kind of explained what the first BANG on the last sail was about. We think there must have been two straps but I simply did not know.... On reaching Izmir I was able to purchase the strongest line known to man and we should not have that little problem again.



Izmir sits at the end of a very long, large gulf and smells like a sewer the further into the gulf you go. It is however a clean, modern city by any standards. Levent Marina is well into the gulf but still a ways from where the action is. It is a small marina, the tender drivers are woefully inexperienced and we moored in a driving cross wind... not a great recipe.

Levent Marina without the wind

The first attempt failed. The tender was supposed to be on my lee side pushing the bow against the wind. He wasn't. There were supposed to be somebody waiting to take our lines on shore, There wasn't. We had to take her out of the slot and ignore the fact that the tender boat was even there. Just as we were getting into the right spot, there finally was a person waiting to take our lines but instead he pulled the slime line straight into our starboard prop cutting the engine!

"We really needed that one, thanks..."




Finally we were moored, only to be faced with the most disgusting harbour water we had yet witnessed and somebody had to go in there and untangle the prop... Before I'd even finished at the helm Al was in his togs, diving mask on, knife in hand and over the side.... I promise I was not procrastinating at the helm :-)..

This mall, recently renovated was designed
by the the same guy who designed the Eiffel Tower the in Paris

The marina is in the 'up-market' part of town, or at least that is the demographic attracted by the restaurants at the marina.

There were a few essential items to sort before the Duncan's arrived.... Clean the boat, do all the big laundry like sheets and towels, re-provision and get a new cast for Summer's arm... For some reason they had provided a soft cast in Kusadasi not knowing that Summer would be riding bikes, playing soccer with the boys, running around a moving boat...and injuring herself doing all three activities.






After a bit of research, some help from Mine (pronounced Minae) the Marina Manager and a word with our insurer, Sal took Summer to the EMOT Private Hospital and was treated, once again to first class medical care in a pristine facility, no English spoken. Summer came away with a brand new waterproof cast which she mistakenly thought she could swim in and was devastated to learn she could not. Poor kid.

That evening, Sal went to the airport to surprise the Duncan's, little did she know they were missing 1 bag and were whisked away to International to make arrangement's for delivery the next morning to the boat so Sal missed greeting them with Aussie flag in hand.. They arrived at the marina at the same time in separate taxi's... Great to see them again after quite a journey. Italy, via Istanbul to Izmir.

We had a late dinner at Potiri's on the balcony at the marina. A restaurant I would strongly recommend. We warned the Duncan's that the breeze they were experiencing was in fact a howling Meltimi out in the gulf which should be calmer in the morning but that if we wanted to avoid an uncomfortable sail, we should leave early in the morning.

The night had quelled the wind and we had planned a 47.5 NM sail back to Candarli. The bag was delivered by taxi at 11am. So much for an early start..We cast off at 11:10 on Sunday the 5th July. The wind was a more favorable angle than anticipated but strengthening and by 12:15 we had the main up on the second reef plus the headsail and were making 8-10 knots.

Sea sickness threatened and the thought of putting our newly arrived guests through 6 hours of this would have been a bad decision so we changed course for an anchorage just an hour away called Chesmealta.