39 25N 26 14E

27 April 2008 

On passage to Ayvalik

Gokceada and Bozcaada

We continued our passage down the Dardanelles passing quite close to the Turkish and British war memorials.

The wind steadily increased on our onward journey to the Island of Gokceada but with no real difficulty we were soon all moored on the Quay the holding isn’t the best here but we managed well enough eventually.

We had our rally dinner in a wonderful panoramic restaurant overlooking the harbour our hosts were wonderful and the meal again was excellent.

Gokceada and Bozcaada are the only two inhabited islands in Turkey, Gokceada is known as the windy island and it proved true to name.

On the following morning we all took a bus tour around the island with our guide Onur, Gokceada was at one time predominately Greek and Greek people still live there but now only about 250.

The villages they left behind are in the main deserted and it was quite sad to walk through the empty streets that at one time would have been the centre of village life.

This weekend is Easter for the Orthodox Church and the church we visited was being prepared for the services.

A cup of coffee in a traditional coffee shop were we signed our names on slips of paper and pinned them to the former thousands of pieces which decorate the walls I tried to find last years EMYR participants but they were well hidden.

A forecast of  5 to 7 Beaufort didn’t daunt our hardy sailors and at midday we set off for Bozcaada the main part of the journey we had winds on our side or behind us but in the later part of the journey we encountered a real gale 8 we entered the harbour thankfully and preceded to arrange our anchor.

In doing so the anchor chain (or so I thought jammed) it turned out to be the anchor winch whose gearbox had jammed with an anchor down but unfortunately very near the ferry terminal we were stuck.

The wind by this time had increased somewhat and it was impossible to recover the anchor by hand or reverse the boat backwards to the marina quay.

No problem to our group a long line was got together on the quayside Jean Claude soon had his dinghy in the water Pepon, Enrique and the rest of the rally members organised themselves and with Jean Claude’s dinghy pushing Mashona’s nose round and the others taking in a long warp we were soon at the quay.

This was a wonderful joint effort and illustrates a true spirit of the rally.

The weather the next morning had not improved and with a Gale 8 forecast we decided to stay another day.
It was a cold windy horrible day more akin to the North Sea than the Med.
A bus was organised to take us for a tour around the island which was most appreciated and also a lot of inter boat hospitality was underway.

Today the weather has improved dramatically and although we had up to 20 knots down to Baba Kale we now have no wind and are motoring to Ayvalik a brief visit from the Dolphins was a pleasant interlude.

Dave and Kath
S/Y Mashona