It is actually June 12 as I write this, but let’s talk about what we did last week.
I was a little tired after the previous week so I was ready for a bit of down time. The wind decided to provide us with some down time whether we wanted it or not! 🙂 We had planned to go to Milos, spend a day there, then come back “north” to visit a few islands before we went to Athens. That plan fell apart because it looked like we wouldn’t get back “up north” in time due to the N/NW winds. (When I say “in time,” I am referring to our deadline for getting to Lefkas to catch a flight to the US later this month.)
So, we skipped Milos. I regret that, but it is what it is. We’ve skipped other islands we’d hoped to visit due to the broken leg and the weather, and we’ve learned to accept the changes.
We went to Sifnos instead. Sifnos is one of the less touristy islands (you might have noticed that we tend to pick those types of islands) and it feels quite laid back. We rented a car and drove around a bit, had a nice meal with four cats, bought some honey, and enjoyed the slow pace.
Great restaurant location!Cat #1Cat #2Cat #3Cat #4
I should mention that all four cats were ideal lunch guests and didn’t really beg. That could be because we pretty much ignored them . . .
This is good stuff!View from SeahikeView from Seahike at night
Our next stop on the revised (Plan H?) itinerary was Serifos. We anchored out for the first time in a long time because Michael’s leg had healed enough to allow him to enter and exit the dinghy with little pain.
This big guy screamed past us on the way to Serifos. Look at how churned up the water behind the boat is!
We left Rhodes after staying there for a week. We completed two necessary tasks: purchased two propane tanks (turned out they couldn’t fill the ones we had) and a passerelle. For those who don’t know, a passerelle is a gangway used to board or leave a yacht. We knew we would need one in the Med as soon as we started Med mooring again.
Our next stop was Tilos. We took a day to get there and spent the next day (May 27) touring the island via rental car. We chose Tilos because it isn’t populated with tourists and has some interesting sites. In antiquity, Tilos was popular for its herbs, and it prospered during the Classical period, which was also the time when Irinna, a famous ancient Greek female poet lived. Now it is a quiet island, said to be more true to its traditions than the more developed neighboring islands.
Our first visit was to Mikro Chorio. It isn’t wheelchair accessible so Michael waited in the car. Mikro Chorio is a deserted village standing between Livadia and Megalo Chorio, the capital of Tilos. After the year 1940, the village was gradually abandoned and most of the inhabitants moved to Livadia. Today, only ruins of impressive buildings and stone built houses can be seen. It is an amazing experience to walk through the abandoned village. One can imagine how active it once was. Some pics of and from the village:
I believe this is showing how they made the roofs.Looking out from the village.
Our next stop was at the Charkadio Cave. Well, we didn’t actually go to the cave, but to the museum that displays the findings. The cave has become an important sight after a phenomenal discovery of 1971 by the geologist and speleologist Nikolaos Simeonides. His team brought into light Neolithic artifacts, including hunting tools and pottery. But the most important discoveries were of the fossilized bones of elephants, turtles and deer within the cave. According to scientists, dwarf elephants lived on Tilos 45,000 years ago and disappeared about 4,000 years ago. The museum contains actual fossilized bones as well as reproductions. This first picture shows the bones of a baby elephant. The human skulls give you an idea of just how small the elephant was.
This is Michael sitting next to a skeleton of a dwarf elephant (full grown – see how small it is!!), made of both real and manufactured bones (the elephant, not Michael). 😉
We are learning about traveling via wheelchair. We are also learning how inhospitable some places are to people with mobility issues. I never knew how much we would appreciate smooth surfaces and curb cuts!! We are also noticing things that could be done to make places more wheelchair accessible without a whole lot of effort. And, we continue to encounter generous souls to offer to help us. It is all a learning experience and we continue to appreciate the good things.
Let’s recap. We stayed in Bedri Rahmi Bay until May 15th. We needed to give Michael’s leg time enough to heal until he was in a more manageable amount of pain. Luckily, we were “stuck” in about the best possible location! We ordered food from the restaurant every other day to show our appreciation to them for allowing us to stay beyond the typical two-day maximum. They brought the food to our boat, which was ideal since Michael has to crawl off and on the boat.
Michael kept his leg elevated.
We moved from Bedri Rahmi to Göcek because we had to check out of Türkiye in Göcek. Here are a few more pictures of the bay and surrounding sea and on our way to Göcek.
View from the road leading away from the bayDittoAlso ditto, but lower downScenery as we head to Göcek.Ditto
I am sharing the following because it again shows how the broken leg added complexity to an otherwise non complex process.
We contacted our agent early on Monday (May 15th) morning and asked if we could check out of Türkiye that night at about 10:00 or 11:00 p.m. He said that was fine. He asked if Michael could leave the boat by dinghy to go to the port police. I told him it wasn’t possible. He arranged to have the port police come to our boat provided I pick them up in the dinghy and return them to shore. So that was the plan.
We elected to get a berth in D-Marin marina because it would be easier for me to run the errands I needed to run. Also, we mistakenly thought that the port police could come to Seahike more easily if we were in a berth (and I wouldn’t have to pick them up at night – assuming we would have to anchor out quite far – and I wasn’t looking forward to a long dinghy ride in the dark). But when we told the agent that we were in a berth, he told me that I still needed to pick them up by dinghy because the boat had to be at anchor when we checked out. The good news was that he told us we could anchor temporarily right near the shore.
So, we had a plan. I needed to give our agent the boat documents, then get them back and take the documents to the marina office, then provision and find navigation lights for the dinghy. No problem! I had several hours.
I actually enjoyed my time ashore. Here are just a few pictures of the beautiful sights.
We left the marina at 8:00 p.m. and anchored near the shore. I need to tell you how we left the berth because it was new to us. First, you need to know that we were sandwiched between two other cats:
Since we got into that position by backing in the starboard side first then bringing the bow in, we assumed we would do the reverse to leave. But no! A dockhand in a dinghy (a.k.a. tender) tied a line from our port mid-ship cleat to his dinghy and threw his engine in reverse. He pulled us out of the berth like you’d pull a block from the tower in Jenga. It was pretty cool!
At promptly 9:50 p.m., I took the dinghy to shore. Turns out the port policeman did not need to come to the boat. Rather, the agent came with me to the boat and called the port police on videophone and pointed his phone at Michael. I guess that was all the police needed! Anywho, I took the agent back and we pulled up the anchor.
We were able to anchor very near the shore
We had decided to leave as soon as we checked out then motor to Rhodes overnight. The winds were pretty much nonexistent so it would be a smooth ride, even though it meant motoring. The sunrise shows how calm the waters were.
We arrived at about 7:30 a.m. This is Mandraki Harbor:
We stayed in the New Rhodes Marina. They follow the same protocol many marinas do: they sent a dockhand out in a dinghy to lead us in. But this time, the dockhand saw that Michael had a broken leg and told us to sit tight while he picked up another dockhand. The second guy came on the boat when we got near the dock and worked with the guys on the dock to get us tied up nice and good. And they allowed us to dock side-to rather than Med moor because it would be easier for Michael to get on and off the boat. They also placed a set of stairs by our boat (which Michael doesn’t use, but I do). So nice!!!!
If you want to find our boat at the New Rhodes marina, just look for the cat with a wheelchair next to it:
In case you need to catch up, Michael broke his left fibula on a hike on April 26th. After getting a ride to a nearby hospital, getting an x-ray and a cast, we came back to the boat, where we have been ever since.
The doc didn’t prescribe painkillers for Michael because he said it would slow down the healing. Instead, Michael was instructed to complain and whine to his wife. 🙂 🙂 🙂 (Hence, the title of this post.)
How many pillows does it take to elevate a leg? Four.
Actually, we took a second trip to the hospital with the same driver two days ago to get another x-ray. The bone is still in place, so no surgery will be needed. Whew! The doc asked us to come back again in two weeks for a third (and final) x-ray if we are still in the area. We spoke to the folks here at Bedri Rahmi Bay (a beautiful bay you must visit if you vacation in Türkiye!) and asked if we could stay two more weeks. They said that they have a couple of flotillas coming into the bay over the next two weeks but they could help us anchor out for a day or two each time and then come back to the dock. (The maximum stay here is typically two days, so they are being very kind and generous to us.)
Enjoying some fresh air before we left for our second trip to the hospital.
Fingers crossed, we will leave here in about two weeks. It all depends on how Michael is feeling. He is still in quite a bit of pain, but, oddly enough, he keeps forgetting to whine. Maybe I am just such a gosh darn good nurse/wife that I anticipate his every need to keep him from whining. Ha ha ha!!! Oh, and we bought a wheelchair. We think/hope it will make our sightseeing easier. The crutches are good for a very short distance, but not much beyond that.
We eat at the restaurant here every other day to show our appreciation. The food is good but pricey. The staff (both the dock staff and the restaurant staff) are all simply wonderful. We couldn’t have had this happen in a better place, really (well, unless the hospital was right at the shore). More of the bad luck/good luck thing going on in our lives these days.
Speaking of the restaurant, that sneaky husband of mine wanted to “get some air” sitting at the stern of the boat the day after we returned from the hospital (April 27th). I paid no attention to him since: 1) he wasn’t whining, and 2) I was working on a crossword at the time. The next day, April 28th (my 65th birthday – where does the time go?!), the manager from the restaurant walked by on the dock. He asked how Michael was doing. I told him he was resting but doing well. Then Michael told me he wanted to sit outside again and that I should join him. I did. A few minutes later, two gentlemen from the restaurant delivered a cake to our boat. They lit three candles and sang the “Happy Birthday” song. Awwww. So nice! I am not gonna lie: I was 100 percent surprised. More so, I was touched that Michael thought to do that when he was in pain from his broken leg. He is a keeper!! Later that night, we got food from the restaurant and I treated myself with a shot of tequila. They served it with an orange wedge. It worked!
The last time we wrote, neither of us had a broken bone.
But I digress, let’s talk about what happened before that. We left KaÅŸ for Göcek on April 17. We chose Göcek because one of the marinas there had the charts of Europe that we needed for our chart plotter.
We spent the first night on the way to Göcek near Gemiler Island. We’d had to pump out our black water and get diesel in KaÅŸ so we didn’t get an early start and wanted to travel fewer nm that day as a result. Gemiler Island was the perfect distance. It was a very picturesque trip. We saw the mountain I’d walked off of into the air the previous day, among several other beautiful views of the shoreline.
The tallest one is the “paragliding mountain.”
We picked up a mooring ball at no charge. . . provided we ate at the restaurant on shore. We’d read mixed reviews of the restaurant but we decided to try it to get the free mooring. Turns out the food was not good and too pricey. We probably should have anchored in a nearby bay instead, but all is well in the end. Here is a picture of the restaurant from our boat.
I liked the look of it on the inside. Flags from all over hung from the ceiling.Looking out at the bay, Seahike, and Gemiler Island (left-hand side of the photo) from the restaurant.
We’d planned to take the dinghy to the island the next day, but the marina contacted us in the morning and told us that the charts were ready to be picked up that afternoon. So, we just sailed around the island and took some pictures (which, in the end, was just as good as going there I think). Here is a short history of the island from Wikipedia:
“The Byzantine ruins of five Greek churches built between the fourth and sixth centuries AD remain on the island, along with a 350 meters (1,150 ft) processional walkway. Other remains from the same period include around forty other ecclesiastical buildings and over fifty Christian tombs. One of the churches was cut directly from the rock at the island’s highest point, and is located at the far western end of the processional walkway. It is possible that the Island was used by Christian pilgrims enroute to the Holy Lands.
Modern archaeologists believe that the island may be the location of St. Nicholas‘ original tomb. The traditional Turkish name for the island is Gemiler Adası, meaning “Island of Boats,” which may be a reference to St. Nicholas’s role as the patron saint of sailors; the island was also referred to as St. Nicholas Island by seafarers in the medieval period. Archaeologists believe he was interred in the rock-hewn church following his death in 326. His relics remained there until the 650s, when the island was abandoned as it was threatened by an Arab fleet. They were then moved to the town of Myra some 25 miles (40 km) to the east.”
Here are a couple of pictures of the very small island. You can easily see some of the ruins:
This is Gemiler Island as seen from our mooring.Closer to us as we sail by on our way out.
. . . . and we are on our way to Göcek. As per usual, I took pictures of our short journey from our mooring spot to our anchorage in Göcek.
Our plan for today was to view a couple of beaches on the way to Ölüdeniz Beach then go paragliding. Well, I was going paragliding. Michael was going to take pictures and cheer me on. 🙂
We saw this along the way so stopped to enjoy the view and take a couple of pictures.
Snow on the mountains!
I love showing off my Corps de Catherine shirt every chance I get. 🙂
This is Butterfly Valley. Beautiful!! We considered visiting it by sailboat later in our trip, but we don’t think we will make it after all. I am glad we got to see it from up top. You can’t hike down to it.
Michael on the edge.
Our next stop was Hanuman Paragliding on Ölüdeniz Beach. Ölüdeniz Beach is a big, beautiful, and popular beach, and the perfect location for paragliding. Hanuman Paragliding is a trustworthy company. I highly recommend them. If you have an opportunity to select a pilot for tandem paragliding, I recommend my pilot, Törehan ÅžimÅŸek. He was great – he even let me take control of the chute for a bit,
When we arrived, we were told that we were going to take off from the 1200 meter point because it was too windy for the highest point of 1960 meters. Oh well!
The drive up the mountain to the launching point was a twisty-turny experience. The driver must have driven this road hundreds of times because he drove quite fast (did I mention there are no guardrails?), even on the switchbacks. I am glad I took my motion sickness pills that morning; without them, I would have been pretty carsick by the time we got to the jumping off point.
We saw the top of a chairlift as we were making our way up the mountain, so they clearly ski this mountain.
When we finally stopped, we were told that we were taking off from the 1960 meter point after all. Yay!
A little background: I’ve jumped out of perfectly good airplanes 48 times, so I know what to expect from that. I did not, however, know what to expect from walking off a cliff with an already-open chute over my head. Törehan told me that I should walk when he told me to walk and run when he told me to run. He also told me not to sit down (there is a comfy seat for the passenger) until he told me to. I asked him how fast I should run (is this a sprint?) but I don’t remember what he said. In the end, it didn’t matter, because I think I took maybe two steps before we were airborne. It was pretty windy.
Here are some pictures from the top before we took off.
As per usual, I had spent a fair amount of time researching what to do in the part of Türkiye we would be visiting. One adventure that presented itself repeatedly was Saklikent Canyon. I had written it off at one point because one post indicated that the water would be too high and too cold (from the melting snow from the mountains) in April. Happily, and luckily, I put it back on the To Do list!! It was amazing!!
First, the water was pretty much freezing! It was the kind of cold where your feet go numb so you no longer care how cold it is. The water also got quite deep: mid thigh at the highest point (although that is probably because the rapids made the water run up my thigh – it was probably just knee deep). Second, any good Colorado gal has hiked in the Big Thompson River (or some other river) when it was high, fast, and cold due to snow melt, so she knows what it is like for her feet and lower limbs to go numb. Right, my fellow Coloradoans?!
Saklikent Gorge, also known as Hidden City, is about 18 kilometers long and 300 meters deep. It is the longest canyon in Türkiye and one of the deepest in the world. The hike we took (out and back) is four km total.
Okay, let’s just start with this entrance sign. There are two comical things. I understand why one wouldn’t consume alcohol while traipsing through the water, but . . . nuts? What do they have against nuts? And, I don’t know how one would enter the canyon “from a hard hat” unless they are the size of Ant-Man (when he is, you know, ant-sized). I love these signs!
“Girisi” means entrance, so this was our starting point.
You initially walk on this boardwalk. Then you get to this little picnic area where you can buy coffee. We did. The hike hasn’t begun yet.This is next to the picnic area. Very pretty, I think.You start the hike through the canyon here. (The area in the middle of the picture.)And we’re off!The walls of the canyon vary in appearance and are super pretty.Looking up and ahead. Every view was breathtaking!Continue reading →
There is one way for us to get into town: by dinghy then foot. This is completely cool with us since we actually have a dinghy now. Oh how we are enjoying that!
But first, let’s remember why we are even here. We’d planned to go directly to the Greek Dodecanese islands after we left Cyprus, but Michael did what he often does: he chatted with a stranger he met at the marina. When telling this gentleman of our plans, the gentleman suggested that we visit KaÅŸ, Türkiye first. Because we are open to new ideas and don’t have a really strict schedule, we did some research. After about an hour’s worth of study, we decided that it was an excellent idea to visit Türkiye before Greece!
So, here we are. We shared a couple of pictures of the anchorage in the previous post, but since it is so pretty, we are sharing some more.
The clouds!
This Colorado gal loves, loves, loves seeing mountains!
We also have great views of the sunset and a portion of KaÅŸ at night from our boat.
We left Cyprus on Good Friday and arrived in Türkiye on Easter Sunday. The GRIBs correctly predicted the winds, so the trip was uneventful. Whew! What a way to spend the Easter weekend!
We are now in the KaÅŸ marina anchorage. A berth in the marina would have cost about $170/day so we said, “no thank you.” This means that we need to revisit our plans. We’d expected to be in a marina for at least a part of our visit so that we could take a four-day road trip. That’s not going to happen now.
Let us first say something about the work we got done at the Limassol Marina. It was lightning fast! We were astonished and grateful. 🙂 The Raymarine dude replaced two navigation instrument displays and installed a triducer. The Yanmar folks emptied and cleaned our fuel tanks, cleaned our fuel/water separators (for both engines and the generator), replaced the serpentine belts on both engines, and replaced the water pump belt on the starboard engine. It wasn’t cheap (at all!) but everything needed to be done and was done quickly. We also hired a diver to check our props and propellers. (We are certified divers but we don’t have a tank on board. Must get one.) We hired the diver for a couple of reasons. First, Michael had cut yet more plastic from the props and wanted to make sure that it had all been removed. Second, we’d been hearing a weird sound from the rudders and wanted to make sure that nothing was amiss. There wasn’t.
Here are a few pictures of the work we had done at Limassol. We’ll start with the fuel tanks. First, they attach a hose to the bottom of the fuel tank. You can see a nozzle toward the bottom of the tank in the middle:
Next, they put the hose through the portlight and attach it to a pump.
This little pump (the black thing in the middle with two hoses attached to it) moves the fuel from the tank to a big barrel in the back of their truck.
They emptied the starboard tank, then we used the fuel transfer pump to move the fuel from the port tank to the starboard tank. When they were done, there was no more fuel left on Seahike.
We’re back! April Fools pulled a fast one on us. That, or I jinxed us again by saying over and over how much we LOVE Cyprus. She called us back!
What actually happened is that we were headed to Turkey – we left at 12:40 a.m. on April Fools Day. After motoring for about 18 hours, the RPMs on our starboard engine dropped. When we went to check it out we smelled smoke coming from the engine. We turned off the engine and decided to go back to Cyprus. We would rather have professionals look at the engine than try to fix it ourselves. And we don’t want to head to Turkey, Greece, Albania, Montenegro, Italy, and Tunisia with only one working engine. We don’t have a great deal of trust in either engine at this point. 🙂
This seems to be our curse. I think we’ve had more engine problems in four months than we should (well, maybe “should” isn’t the right word) in four years. Although, we are wondering this time if dirty fuel tanks might be involved. . .
Rather than return to Ayia Napa, which is at the east end of Cyprus, we contacted Limassol Marina to see if we could stay there. It was closer to our (then) current location and also closer to Turkey (in the big scheme of things). We were happy when they said it was okay. We got to the marina at 5:00 a.m. yesterday, went to sleep again, then checked in with Customs and Immigration a few hours later.
I took a walk around the marina and nearby area yesterday morning while Captain Michael took a nap. This place is amazing! There are numerous restaurants and bars, and even a Cigar Lounge. (You might recall that Michael and I share a cigar or two every year.) There are showers for the yachters (we’ve already used them), and a gym and spa. I might – wait for it – get a pedicure!
In addition, no more than 10 minutes after we moved to our temporary berth yesterday, Kathy from the U.K. (I don’t think that is her official name) came by to welcome us. She introduced us to the owner of the boat she was a guest on, Brian from Britain (ditto, but how alliterative). Brian told us that he had a friend staying at the marina who could give us the name of a good diesel engine mechanic. A women who works at the marina also told us she would contact folks who could work on our engine problem.
So, that’s where we are now. We considered flying to Turkey in case we don’t have time to sail there, but the cost of the flight alone is pretty prohibitive given that we are now spending more money on a marina, mechanics, and coffee and pastries at the coffee shop (!).
p.s. I wrote most of this yesterday. As of this moment (12:06 p.m. on April 3), a mechanic is looking at the engine and the fuel. Michael also arranged to have someone look at one of our Raymarine instrument displays that just started acting up before we left Cyprus the first time, and he has already come and gone. He will have two new instruments (we are replacing two since one is simply old and will likely fail soon, given our luck <grin>) for us within three days.
Everything works out for the better in the end. Stay calm and carry on!
In the meantime, here are some pictures of the marina and surrounding area.
