For some people buddy boating can mean sailing, anchoring and exploring everywhere together, every day. But buddy boating for us is a little different as we still have to work a 40 hour week, yes that's how long it takes to do what we do, so we're not always side by side every day with our buddy boat.
Last week some of our viewers questioned why we didn't stay longer in the picturesque, tranquil and completely protected anchorage at Serce Limani (north). The simple reason for that was that even though we were there by ourselves (other yachts notwithstanding) we were at that time actually buddy boating with our mate Kev on Barbara Ann.
To complete our work we'd stayed longer at one anchorage while Kev moved further north and west up the Turkish coast to explore a bit more. This put us about 2 days away from each other. When we received a message that Kev was having intermittent issues with his outboard engine we asked if he needed help.
Kev was now close to Bozburun and had arranged for a mechanic to have a look at the engine. Kev needed us to tow his dinghy and outboard to the town harbour from the nearby anchorage and that was why we only stayed 1 night at Serce Limani (north) and made our way to Bozburun.
English breakfast
I'm always wary of lines getting caught in the prop, either A B Sea's prop or the outboard prop. Even floating line can sometimes become a problem. That's why whenever I'm towing another dinghy I always tie it off alongside instead of out the back. The other advantage of this is when delivering a dinghy back at a boat or quayside it's much easier to get the other dinghy tied off and then just release the tow lines and go. That's what we did when we towed Kev and his dinghy.
October 2018 was our first time checking into Turkey at Bozburun and at that time we'd been introduced to Osman and Lyn from Osman's Place restaurant where we sampled our first amazing Turkish cuisine and found that they also did a full English breakfast.
Now we were back in Bozburun we couldn't pass up the opportunity to introduce Kev to Osman's Place and the big breakfast. We weren't disappointed with the welcome or the food.
Luckily they serve breakfast all day so when we arrived at 3pm on Saturday afternoon there was no surprise when we ordered three big breakfasts. Afterwards we had a short wander around the harbour area, bought supplies from the local Migros supermarket and headed back to our anchored boats. It was going to be Monday before Kev heard anything back from the mechanic.
The following day, Sunday, we took our dinghy and snorkelling gear back around to the first anchorage we'd tried and did a little exploring there. The crystal clear, shallow waters were amazing. Not much sea life, which is what we've come to expect in the Mediterranean, but good soul refreshing immersion in nature.
Monday and Tuesday were work days for us and by Wednesday we were ready to move to our next planned anchorage. It was to the north east of where we were, around the Bozburun peninsula.
It looked good on paper. Well protected, big sandy bottom and only 5 metres (16 feet) deep. That was plan A and we had a plan B and C, because if we thought plan A was a good spot there was every chance that a lot of other people were thinking the same thing.
The best laid plans
Plan A was Cennet Koyu, roughly 2 hours away at 6 knots speed. We got lucky-ish with the wind. Nice and steady at 22 knots and blowing us in the right direction. We fully unfurled our huge headsail and that was the moment the wind gods did their usual routine. We'd just trimmed the sail and the wind speed dropped from 22 knots to 14 knots, but because it was from the right direction we were still managing 5.5 knots of speed.
The area to the north of Bozburun peninsula has 3 small islets and 2 decent sized islands just off the coast, we chose to stay on the outside of the islands to make the most of the wind.
Roughly 2 hours later after we put the sail away and motored into Cennet Koyu, we were disappointed, but not surprised, to see that there was no room at the inn for us.
We headed out of that bay and continued motoring around into plan B, the huge bay at Semiliye. All of the best spots there were also crowded, the only spots we could get into were either too deep or too shallow.
Plan C meant we had to double back on ourselves and this now meant motoring against the wind which the wind gods had now turned up to a constant 25 knots. This time we decided to go inside the islands to get as much shelter as possible from the wind and waves.
By the time we reached Kocabahçe Koyu the wind was gusting to 30 knots. Our mate Kev on Barbara Ann was stern to on the restaurant jetty but is was fully booked and the only option available to us was one of the restaurant mooring balls. A guy came out in a tender and directed us to the mooring which was scarily close to another yacht already on a mooring and the wind was not doing us any favours.
Our first approach looked good, but at the pointy end, as Aannsha took the mooring line off the guy she found that the line was too short to go around the cleat if it was fed through the fairlead, which is our normal practice.
At this point A B Sea was at a complete standstill and I had no control over her position, the wind was in control and we were in danger of colliding with the boat next to us. I left it as long as possible for the two at the pointy end to get us secure but it wasn't enough time and eventually I had to reverse out and go around for another attempt.
The second time worked a charm. Aannsha grabbed the line and whipped it straight around the bow cleat. The wind worked with us and spun us around away from the other boat to face into the wind. The guy in the tender grabbed a long shore line and quickly brought it to our stern cleat. We were in.
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Until next week stay safe and healthy.
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