Sailing Turkey September 23

3.9.2023 – Sunday – Some boat jobs we normally do ourselves, for instance cleaning in general and especially cleaning the outside. Frankly this is something I dislike doing and when we saw that the laundry man also gave that service we decided to let him do it. He said his fee was 100 euro, which is quite a lot but we decided to try it. The man came to the boat with all the equipment needed including a Karcher water pressure machine. He worked about four hours and the result was amazing. It was absolutely worth the cost.

Jem the ultimate cleaner

Gili came in afternoon. We did some shopping for the next few days at the Migros supermarket which is located right by the marina office, had a nice dinner at a restaurant near by and called it a day.

4.9.2023 – Monday – We were sitting in the cockpit having our breakfast when three bangs under the boat made us jump. I looked around and saw nothing that could explain it. Both of us said simultaneously;”An earthquake!” and a minute later I received a message from Google :”An earthquake occurred at 0826 10.1 miles away from your location”. It also said that it was 4.6 on the Richter scale. No other phenomena followed and we continued preparing our departure from the marina.

In the spirit of not sailing daily long distances we chose to go to a bay called Port Saint Paul, about 20 miles from Kusadasi, located at the point where you turn left after exiting the Samos straight. It seems to be well protected from the northerly meltemi but less from winds from the south. We entered it and dropped the anchor at 3.5 meters. We went for a swim which was nice even though the water were greenish with bad visibility. The bay itself is not very pretty but it was good enough for our purpose. At first the wind changed directions frequently and had the boat turn from side to side but later it died down and we passed a quiet night.

5.9.2023 – Tuesday – The day’s target – Cucurcuk, pronounced “chukurchuk”, 22 miles to the southeast. In the beginning the wind was easterly 15-17 knots and we had a lovely sail, slowly it veered and abated and the engines were turned on. In front of us covering the vista we saw a huge number of fish farms. We had to slalom between them; Gili started counting but stopped after reaching twenty of them.

You may remember that we are having problems with our TMC toilets. Today the port one suddenly refused to empty the bowl. I put in some toilet cleaning liquid which solved the problem but I was so pissed off that we decided to enter the Didim marina which has, according to the guide:”Extensive repair facilities”. I called them on the phone and arranged a visit by a technician tomorrow morning at 0915.

We reached our target at 1330; again it was not the enchanted bay we were hoping for. So again, lunch, nap, a swim and dinner on board.

6.9.2023 – Wednesday – We left the anchorage at 0730 and entered the Didim marina 45 minutes later. The marineros tucked us into a berth, we had breakfast and then I went to the office to check in. Back on the boat at 0910 We only had to wait 5 minutes for the mechanic and Yasin, his supervisor slash translator to come on board. The mechanic disassembled the port TMC machine and took it to the shop.

A bit later Gili and I went to the Migros supermarket just out of the marina where we replenished our food supplies. We Investigated the Yacht Club building which has a restaurant, swimming pool and spa and walked back to the boat. We were surprised to see that the mechanic was already back and installing the TMC. I did not want to disturb him and waited outside for him to finish. I heard him work the unit a few times and then he came out and using Google translator advised me that “now it is OK”.

I entered the head to see what he did and saw that he changed the vented loop (anti siphon valve) position from between the pump and the bowl to between the seacock and the pump. He did not need to take the starboard unit to the shop, he just replaced the vented loop position, showed me that it was working well, said good bye and was gone. Minutes later the chief of the Yachtworks company texted me on whatsapp: our project manager coming, you can give him 80 euro it’s OK”.

In my last post I wrote that I was ready to throw those TMC units and invest a lot of money buying another brand…Now, after suffering a full year from Toilet troubles all it took was two and a half hours, 80 euros and of course the knowledge of a real pro. Yachtworks phone is +90 2568135244. site: www.yachtworks.info. I highly recommend them.

. TBC…