Team GB sails Turkey

The last post was rather waterry themed and boatlike and this one follows on from that. The last proper sailing adventure I had was Panama to Colombia which was amazing. This time the location was the Bodrum Peninsula of Turkey and only involved one (attempted) border crossing.

Things didn't exactly start well, Sunsail never received our flight information and so we had to wait a whole ten minutes before the minibus arrived; where my parents assured us it was "a 15 minute transfer"... an hour later we arrived, dumped our gear on our new home 'Adelaide' found food before going to sleep.

View of the Marina

After a Turkish breakfast and briefing where we met our fellow flotii's and the lead boat crew consisting of Tom, Rachel & Erol (we had met them the night before but everyone was tired). I have at this point, just now realised that we represented GB entirely, our English Boat, the Welsh boat and our lead boats 66% Scottishness (The welsh boat was actually also 66% Welsh but they did fly a Welsh flag for the duration so they are officially Welsh for all purposes and shall henceforth be known as The Welsh Boat so as to avoid any confusion). As a group we will be known as Team GB, it is Olympics year after all.
We learn't we were the first flotilla of the season and as such were basically the guinea pigs, no problems here. While I spent the morning collecting essential supplies -Beer, Limes and Coke for the rum; the others went and bought non essentials - food and water (this is a lie, I actually only bought limes). At this point it'd be nice to point out some Turkish cultural differences... but the supermarket was very similar to a UK one.

Fully stocked we FINALLY left port and headed out to sea. Think ride of Valkyries style epicness... or not. A seemless exit and we headed into the fine breeze and hoisted the sails... 

Under Sail Day One

Enjoying the Sail

I believe it was the first day where we saw some Dolphins, I failed to picture them because everyone was more worried I might accidently catch a dolphin with the fishing line I had out the back of the boat... so yeah not my fault. I mean really, catch a Dolphin?
First stop was a bit of a change as the original plan of Rafting (see me if you are unsure as to what this entails) was a no go so we dropped anchor and free swinged (again, see me if unsure). The town was called Gumusluk or something to that and was quite small. We went ashore for a rum punch party which was actually pretty good. We had a nice meal of Turkish things... I can't quite remember. It being the first week me and my sister decided to recon the area and bars. I think we can safely say this was achieved as somehow in a tiny town I managed to return at 7am and my sister [like the idiot she is] swam back to the boat.

Attempting to Row with broken paddles in the bay

Sailing day two was upon us after I emerged from slumber and we had already left and were ready to bring up the sails. I had arrived at the right time. Now this part of the story for us is rather uneventful but for Tom & Rachel I am understood they were a bit worried. We turned to wind an tried to bring the main up, but it would not go all the way. Whilst we attempted to fix this we carried on our course to wind... straight towards Greek waters. Now this is a problem because as you may know, Turkey and Greece are not the best of friends despite being neighbours, and secondly without the correct papers/transits/etc you can face some serious problems. Y'know just like walking from Panama to Colombia or Mexico to America.

We did not really become aware of this until much later when we received a text 6 hours later "Um probably not a good idea to sail to Greece guys" and a few missed calls from unknown numbers. The radio should have worked too, but it did not.

Anyway illegal border crossings averted, I plotted us an excellent course to the next Marina. My excellently laid plans were almost instantaneously ruined by the lookout spotting some things, lots of things floating in the water blocking the course. On closer inspection they turned out to be.. MILLIONS of fish farms. Navigating this mess, we arrived at Maya Marina where I perfectly reverse parked (disclaimer: I'm shit at reverse parking in a car). Dinner this time was in a nice restaurant on the hillside, where my sister failed to leave the boat. Turkey 1 - Abigail 0.

Sunset over fish farms

Team GB

Abigail re-emerged from the depths of Valhalla or wherever it was and we re-embarked on the next leg of the sail. Largely uneventful we toured an island, and enjoyed some calm sailing downwind under the Genoa. Not on parking duties I cracked on with the beer and rum, finishing my books.

Enjoying a post Hangover Swim

Hilarious...

Next day was 'Free Sailing' where we got to choose where to go, given all the options it was quite clear there was only one real option, Torbay, Devon. Not quite, Torba was the actual destination and it was quite pleasant, we had a good meal and I enjoyed a 'Cornetto Disc'. Amusingly on 'free sail' day we all ended up in the same place, ultimately forcing Tom & Rachel(pictured above) to work on what is sort of a day off for them... sorry guys!

You may have noticed the French flags in a lot of the pictures... well the boats are registered in France and so fly French flags... It should be noted that this is not the standard French flag, there are two extra unnecessary colours on the one shown here, specifically the blue and red. (see me, if you don't get it once again)

Second to last stop was Gundogan. We got a little damp here on the journey in, Me and Abigail played cards in the sun while we waited for dinnertime after a very tasty lunchtime Mezze. Dinner was another good affair of Turkish dishes, fish and meatball type things. At one of the meals I had Buttered Octopus and it was fantastic. Once again time to head back to the boat and read before a sleep and the final leg of the tour.

Team GB set sail as per usual with us being the last to follow. We attempted to get the sails up and just gave up after the wind decided to be about as useful as a chocolate teapot (stolen from somewhere/one). Then came the rain... it was heavy. Fully soaked we blitzed on through into the Sun and enjoyed the last of the journey back.

A writers table?

Responsible Helming

Sunset in Turgutreis

Back at base camp we headed out for one last group meal, which was again very good, especially the onion rings. A surprise birthday cake was delivered for Andy and then came out the prizes: The Welsh: 'Best Exit' (crashed) and another I have forgotten, The English: 'Escape Artists'(Sailing to Greece) & 'Last Ones Standing' (First night escapades). We then headed out with the group to spend the last of our remaining Lira in the local marina bars and altogether drinking too much. Final full day was spent sat in the sun waiting for the bus to the airport.

Birthday Cake... it was huge

Due to 1st Night Antics

That was another week of Sailing, more wind and sails than Panama to Colombia. Oh a while back I figured out another reason why I like to sail and drink rum (sometimes at the same time), back in Primary school we use to sing this song:

When I was one I'd just begun

The day I went to sea,

I jumped aboard a pirate ship

And the captain said to me -

"We're going this way, that way,

Forwards and backwards,

Over the irish sea.

A bottle of rum to fill my tum

And that's the life for me."

When I was two I lost my shoe

The day I went to sea.

I jumped aboard a pirate ship

And the captain said to me -

"We're going this way, that way,

Forwards and backwards,

Over the irish sea.

A bottle of rum to fill my tum

And that's the life for me."

When I was three I hurt my knee

The day I went to sea.

I jumped aboard a pirate ship

And the captain said to me -

"We're going this way, that way,

Forwards and backwards,

Over the irish sea.

A bottle of rum to fill my tum

And that's the life for me."

When I was  four , knocked at the door

The day I went to sea.

I jumped aboard a pirate ship

And the captain said to me -

"We're going this way, that way,

Forwards and backwards,

Over the irish sea.

A bottle of rum to fill my tum

And that's the life for me."

When I was  five I learnt to drive

The day I went to sea.

I jumped aboard a pirate ship

And the captain said to me -

"We're going this way, that way,

Forwards and backwards,

Over the irish sea.

A bottle of rum to fill my tum

And that's the life for me."

When I was  six I played some tricks

The day I went to sea.

I jumped aboard a pirate ship

And the captain said to me -

"We're going this way, that way,

Forwards and backwards,

Over the irish sea.

A bottle of rum to fill my tum

And that's the life for me."

When I was  seven I went to Devon

The day I went to sea.

I jumped aboard a pirate ship

And the captain said to me -

"We're going this way, that way,

Forwards and backwards,

Over the irish sea.

A bottle of rum to fill my tum

And that's the life for me."

When I was  eight I found a mate

The day I went to sea.

I jumped aboard a pirate ship

And the captain said to me -

"We're going this way, that way,

Forwards and backwards,

Over the irish sea.

A bottle of rum to fill my tum

And that's the life for me."

When I was  nine I had some wine

The day I went to sea.

I jumped aboard a pirate ship

And the captain said to me -

"We're going this way, that way,

Forwards and backwards,

Over the irish sea.

A bottle of rum to fill my tum

And that's the life for me."

When I was  ten I bought a hen

The day I went to sea.

I jumped aboard a pirate ship

And the captain said to me -

"We're going this way, that way,

Forwards and backwards,

Over the irish sea.

A bottle of rum to fill my tum

And that's the life for me."

We also sang another song entitled "What do we do with a drunken Sailor" so y'know go figure....

Ps. Kudos for reading this far, a reward awaits you... not really. Also I brought the weather back with me, so you can pay me in beer/cider.