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SeaScape Trip Report - Installment 3 Mike Lee and Mary-Louise Johnson May/June 2002 Day 9/Knidos,
Turkey – I wake up early with a pounding headache and churning
stomach – I way overdid it last night! Thank
goodness Ogun has those wonderful facilities or I’d be miserable!
SeaScape amounts to what I call “camping at sea.”
There are no special amenities, space is very limited, and we do all our
own food preparation, clean up, and sailing.
This type of travel is not for everyone, nor the faint of heart when it
comes to personal hygiene, laundry and the like. It’s a wonderful experience, takes you to the places that
most tourists never have the opportunity to experience, but it all comes at a
price. Finding clean bathrooms and
hot showers almost becomes an obsession for most of us after a couple of days at
sea. We meet up with Ogun this
morning to settle our restaurant bill – he’s such a great guy, he went to
bed and left us on the “honor system” to close out the bar last night.
We head back out to sea mid-morning but there is almost no wind.
We put up a sail but are dead in the water.
Down goes the sail, but all of a sudden we get some good wind.
Up go both sails and we keep them up the rest of the way to Knidos.
Knidos is nearly deserted – just a couple sailboats and fishermen at
the dock. Knidos is an ancient
archaeological site dating back to at least 300 BC.
The site is huge and historians believe it may have been inhabited by as
many as 60,000 people at one time. Some
of us enter the ruins to look around a bit, but it is very hot, dry, and dusty.
This is a rustic place with no shower and limited facilities so I decide
to go for a swim to rinse off. I
wear my mask and snorkel but the water is shockingly cold and is pretty well
stripped of fish and vegetation, so I last about 5 minutes.
At least I’m clean and can just rinse off the salt with the shower on
the stern of our boat. There is one
small taverna at Knidos where we gather for dinner.
The owner has some cute puppies that we ooh and ahh over, but it’s
windy and cool tonight so mealtime is short. Day 10/Bodrum,
Turkey – We set out
very early today for Bodrum. Our
captains start the engines at 7 a.m. while most of us are still in our bunks.
It is an extremely windy day, but we want to make good time so the
captains decide we will motor all the way.
There is much to see and do in Bodrum and they want to arrive early to
give us maximum time in the city. We
pull into the Bodrum marina around 10:30 a.m.
What a gorgeous city! Many
of the buildings are whitewashed against the stark terrain.
There is a large medieval looking castle on a point at the entrance to
the harbor. The waterfront is
filled with shops, restaurants and all types of watercraft.
The marina is truly deluxe with tons of gorgeous boats.
A harbormaster meets us in his motorized dinghy and escorts us to a spot
at the dock. We have a great
location near the washroom and showers. These
facilities are top-notch – great toilets, warm, clean showers, blow dryers –
yahoo!!! We all drop off laundry, head for the showers and then set
out for a day on the town. There
are tourists everywhere, and things to buy galore, plus boat charters, dive
boats, and tons of activity along the waterfront.
Mike, Psycho Sharon, Richard, Charlie and I set out in search of an
internet café and shopping. This
will be our last chance to use up our Turkish lira.
Richard is on a mission to buy out the town. He gets new sandals, a fabulous leather jacket and lots of
souvenirs for friends and relatives. Mike
finds a great looking leather blazer that the shop agrees to alter for him on
the spot, and Sharon and I pick up a few final souvenirs.
Deanna buys some great “harem” pants, Brad scores on some gifts for
his honey, and Walter picks up a darling belly dancing costume for his daughter.
Here, as in Istanbul, the shops are all about service and friendliness
– and free water, soda or tea just for entering a shop and looking! Bodrum’s bazaar is a busy maze of streets, shops and
restaurants and it is hard not to feel as if we’re going around in circles.
Mike, Richard and I stop for lunch at one of the sidewalk cafes and are
served by an Antonio Banderas “look alike.”
He’s charming, funny and serves Mike and I “small” beers (ask Mike
about this one!). By the time we
return to our boat, it’s after 6 p.m. and we’re pooped.
There’s just enough time to take a second shower, change clothes and
head out for dinner. We’re dining
tonight at an Indian restaurant and it is also Walter’s last evening with us
before he heads back to New York. Our
group would love to give him a good send-off, but dinner drags on until 11:30
p.m. and we’re all fading fast. Nightlife
in Bodrum goes on into the wee hours and this city is known for it’s huge
outdoor disco. Part of our group
decides to check it out, but the cover charge is 25 million lira, it’s
“bubble night,” and they won’t let Kiwi Sharon in with a candy bar in her
bag – so much for the disco!!! Americans
are still in the minority here – lots of Germans, Dutch and well-heeled
Turkish out on the town tonight. One
last trip to the fancy marina washroom to clean up and then off to bed.
I sleep well in spite of the loud, pulsating disco music coming across
the water. Bodrum is a fun, lively
historic place that I would definitely be interested in visiting again. Day 11/Kos & Kalymnos, Greece – We’re up around 8 a.m., the sky is bright blue, the sun is warm and there is no wind. We’re heading for Kos, Greece this morning to clear customs, drop Walter and pick up new passengers for week 2. We’ve become a pretty tight-knit little group and it will seem odd to have new folks aboard our boats. We’ll be full to capacity by later today. We motor all the way to Kos and pull in shortly after 11 a.m. We have until 1 p.m. to look around town, get Euros from the ATM, buy a milk shake or whatever, while Diane and Ray clear customs and our new passengers show up. Kos is a busy, touristy island and all the waterfront restaurants have World Cup games going on their TVs. At 1:00 we all head back to the boats for lunch – chili from Angelina and veggie patties from Yoga Sharon on Vassilis. Most of our new passengers show up (Vlad, Brant, Marcus, Adrienne and Chris) but we’re missing Angela. She finally shows up at 2:00 and off we go for our first real stop in Greece. The hard core sailors (Brant, Vlad and Chris) are assigned to the Angelina, and we get Adrienne, Marcus and Angela on our boat. It’s windy enough to raise sails, so we tack our way back and forth across the Agean to the town of Vathi on Kalymnos. We finally reach the island around 5:30 or so. There is a beautiful entry into the marina through a sort of stone fjiord. Goats are on the rocky hillsides with their bells tinkling and there is a stone platform built into the hillside with a small swimming area. There are 3 tavernas, a street vendor selling sponges, a grocery store and one or two gift shops – that’s about it. Yoga Sharon conducts yoga classes on shore while some of us wander in to look through the shops. We’re eating tonight at Poppy’s, which is known for mama’s great dolmades (stuffed vine leaves). Mama is the proprietor and greets us warmly when we stop by for a visit. Dinner is at 8:00 and, once again, lasts an eternity – over 3 hours! We have lots of starters (mezes) including dolmades, Greek salad, tzaziki and olives. I order red snapper – the first fish I’ve eaten on this trip – and it comes with the head, tail and all! Photos on Webshots: Istanbul before boarding: http://community.webshots.com/album/40676351JlBcqZ Week One from Turkey - Part 1: http://community.webshots.com/album/40678737PuYeqv Week One from Turkey - Part 2: http://community.webshots.com/album/42007934xyvvvC Week Two from Greece - Part 1: http://community.webshots.com/album/41924549DeSznv Week Two from Greece - Part 2: http://community.webshots.com/album/42007991CCbeww Athens After the Cruise: http://community.webshots.com/album/42009364CKxFbV |
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