Küçük Kuyruk

Our division of the route back to Marmaris can hardly be described as challenging; today's task was a passage of just 12 miles. A late start seemed in order, if only to try to give the wind a chance to get going. As a result of that logic we left Gemiler Adası at 11am but, in hindsight, should have delayed even more because we got just 40 minutes of sailing.

Küçük Kuyruk   

The Law of Sod was in force because just as we came into  Küçük Kuyruk there was wind. We could have pressed on towards Marmaris but we are comfortably on our timeline and we like the anchorage at  Küçük Kuyruk and so decided to stay. The wind was being funnelled down the narrow bay which meant that we really wanted to moor stern to the wind at the head of the bay, however, that area was already full with 3 yachts. That committed us to mooring with the wind on the starboard beam; the wrong side for BV's prop kick. We laid out the anchor chain, set the anchor and got into the right position without a hitch, Nicky was securing the line and I was just taking in the slack in the the chain when Nicky signalled that the strop was slipping off the rock. Much to the confusion of the charter yacht just commencing his mooring run close by us, I had to motor out a little and turn through nearly 90 degrees to set up for going backwards again whilst at the same time waving at him to continue his approach. Meanwhile Nicky was swimming and holding tension on the mooring line so that it didn't get caught on our prop. After backing up once more she was able to get the line secured to a different, better shaped rock. All was completed with barely a minor blip in our heart rates and so we concluded that a season practicing this style of mooring has been beneficial. The only potential danger now is over confidence but fortunately we know that sailing has a nasty habit of making things go embarrassingly wrong (usually in front of a big crowd of critical 'sailing experts') if there is even the slightest hint of over confidence. We shall remain cautiously optimistic and hope that our mooring skills do not get too rusty over the winter.

Küçük Kuyruk   

The end of the sailing season definitely feels to be upon us. We have spent some time drawing up a number of lists: jobs to do to put BV 'to bed' for the winter; winter shopping lists for parts; jobs for the beginning of next season; and packing lists. We have a couple of days still to go but then it will be 'all go' to leave BV in good order and fly home.

Küçük Kuyruk, Turkey