The Plan
Insofar as it can be assumed that we have a plan, its this. Some time in June we’ll be off in the direction of Turkey, hopefully ending up in Marmaris as a port of entry. I say hopefully because we prefer to sail and not motor, because we dont really like motoring, its too noisy, polluting,and most importantly, expensive,with diesel costing around $1.5 a litre in the Mediterranean. So we may end up in Finike or Gocek, depending on the wind, but it doesnt really matter, they are nice too. We will wait for a wind with an eastern component before setting out, and that can take a while, so no fixed sailing date until a few days before. The eastern wind is important to allow us to slingshot outselves round the bottom of Cyprus, then we can ease round to a more northerly course if we need to.
Last year we gunkholed up the Turkish coast from Tasucu (pronounced Tashuchu), a beautiful, unspoilt part of Turkey, to Orhanye, and visited most of the interesting anchorages on the way.
We did much of it under sail, although the Meltemi is hard to sail against, and often is the only wind, there being complete still when it isnt blowing, which is usually during the night and early morning. So this year we’ll be attempting to get further round, up the Datcha peninsula and to Bodrum, then on to wherever we get to. On the way back we’ll visit our favorite spots from last year, especially the mussel wall I found in a not to be disclosed location!
In the longer term, we are setting out in 2008 to circumnavigate, and tentatively plan to sail down the Red Sea to Bab el Mandeb, and on to India. After India …. well lets get to India first! We still have lots of preparation to do until then, including getting charts and pilot books, putting a holding tank in and changing the spinnaker that came with the boat to a cruising chute, hopefully.