David's Diary: Saturday, July 26, 2003

Anchored in Bozuk Buku, Turkey

We spent another night in Gocek stocking up on supplies and enjoying the fantastic bathrooms one last time. We have reached a point where we have explored the limits of the Mediterranean in our two-year odyssey. Gocek is as far east as we are going to get. This morning Karalee and I were up and we are off the dock at 05:30 to start moving Dragonsinger back to the west.

We take turns doing the passage. The wind is right on the nose at F4. We motor sail into the waves as we pass the Greek island of Rhodes. It is still surprising to us how close some of the Greek islands are to Turkey. I had hoped that we would have made it to Rhodes, but it is too much hassel and too expensive to clear out of Turkey and back into Greece. The Greek and Turkish governments certainly do not want to make it easy to go back and forth between the two countries.

Local Dock

We arrive at Bozuk Buku in the early afternoon. The last time we were in this bay was on Jocelyn's fourteenth birthday just over two weeks ago. As we enter the bay the wind increases and there are small waves in the bay. This is a common occurance in the Aegean where the wind accelerates down the mountains near the shore. The owner of a restaurant waves us over and we tie up to his mooring buoy. We don't want to take a chance with our anchor in these winds. The restaurant owner goes ashore and brings out a shoreline to Dragonsinger as extra insurance against anything happening.

Playing Crib

While there is no charge for the mooring lines, we feel an obligation to go and have something at the restaurant. We don't want to eat dinner there, so I take Kevin and Allen ashore in the dinghy. The boys each have a pop and I have a beer. Electricity is supplied by a generator and apparently there is not enough supply to keep our beer and pop cold. We play a game of crib in the restaurant, but find it challenging as the table is covered with hundreds of ants.

The boys and I explore the shoreline while Jocelyn swims into the dock -- quite a feat given the size of the waves in the bay. We skip some stones and poke around for a bit more before heading back to Dragonsinger. None of the rest of us want to go swimming in the wind, so we have an early dinner, watch an episode of Friends, and head to bed.