Bozborun to Bozuk Buku and a choice of restaurants!

Saturday 5th September  

If the book's true we'd better not bother

What a rubbish sleep! It's quite amazing that when  swinging several tons of boat around a small anchor we can sleep like babies, yet when safely tied up to a nice little harbour wall, every sound reverberates around and conspires to keep waking us up every hour on the hour...although by 'us' I mean me, as the exhausted skipper (!) slept as usual, like a log.
The fridge was making all sorts of weird sounds during the night - this was unusual as it hadn't happened before, and I wondered if it had anything to do with Marco flicking various switches yesterday in an attempt to locate the second water tank....I dozed off. Then woke up with a jump. Someone was on the passerelle (the board used to get from land to boat)...shit! I listened for another sound - nothing. I was imagining it....lots of creaks and groans on a yacht. 'Click' 'creak' oh bugger there it is again. I lifted my head, just in time to see a shadowy figure leap from the companionway steps to the galley sink - followed by a plaintive 'miaow'. It was a bloody cat!!! I couldn't believe it. One more creak up in the cockpit and before i knew it, another cat had stuck it's head through the hatch. The first cat's  mate. We had two night-visitors. As i got up to see what they were doing, they jumped back off the boat and sat on the path by the boat,  staring at me. Then they wandered off as quickly as they had arrived. Back in bed I only managed to doze before the mezzuin started calling for early morning prayers so I grabbed my camera and took a few early sunrise pictures (which came out badly) then put the kettle on. We went and got some provisions from the minimarket nearby, then after breakfast Marco cleaned out the cockpit (wetting the bed through the open hatch in the process).

Once we were ready to leave, the lines were slipped and I was given the signal to raise the anchor. Pressed the 'up' button on the windlass......nothing! The anchor windlass was dead. Hmmm, this wouldn't have anything to do with M playing with all the switches last night would it?? We tried everything we could think of, then called Yildiz. This was the second time in two hours, the first due to having called them already about the location of the second water tank switch. Within minutes, Yildiz had fixed the problem.....there was a trip switch that was lit green, but was meant to be red (bizarrely). But within minutes we had got the newly working anchor up and were off.



The ruins at Kiseli Adasi. As close as we got.

 We had planned to stop off for a visit to the ruins at Kiseli Adasi island on the way out, but a large gulet was already anchored with lots of daytrippers splashing about and screaming at the top of their voices so we gave it a wide berth and added the island to our 'must do next time' list.

Once we were out into the Yesilova Korfezi, we were able to sail straight away on a close reach towards Symi at 4kn. It was really lovely to be able to sail so early in the day and with such reliable winds. We switched on the autohelm, grabbed a cold beer each and sat at the bow of the yacht listening to Bob Marley and scanning the area, both taking in the fabulous scenery and looking for would-be hazards at the same time. We made ham and cheese rolls and ate these along with beer number two as Balina gently heeled and stayed on course.

After lunch, we tacked around towards Marmaris, only needing the engine for a very short while when we got too close to land and lost the wind. Having figured out where Bozuk Buku was, we followed a catamaran into the bay, passing by the very impressive fort ruins to port. There were a couple of nice looking restaurants as we entered, but Marco had read about Loryma restaurant and reckoned it sounded the best.
As we approached their jetty, two men rushed out and had picked up a lazy line for us to grab. Ha! little do they know i'm an expert now. As we approached though, the wind suddenly picked up and was reading 12 knots - well, it was a farce really! I chucked a stern line to the waiting Turkish boys, who passed me the lazy line in return. But before I could run it to the bow, Marco let go of the helm for a second, and the wind took the bow away and we ended up alongside instead of stern-to. Not what was intended - oh no! One of the chaps asked if we'd like some help and before we knew it, Balina was tied up with a lazy line at the front and side, effectively achoring us in twice....were we in for a blowy night??.



Bozuk Buku at dusk.

 Having switched the engine off we sat and admired the beautiful bay that we were looking into. Had it not been for the noisy generator of the Loryma restaurant, it would have been idyllic. Time for a beer and we sat, watching all the yachts coming in. Without fail, they all turned to port on entry and went to Ali Baba's place. Eventually just one boat came to share our pontoon. Two Germans who obviously knew just what they were doing as they perfected the lazy line mooring perfectly despite there being more wind than before.  They then leapt out and sat drinking beer with the owners of Loryma.

We played music to try and drown out the noise from the generator, then got ready for a very lazy dinner. Loryma didn't really look too inviting all in all, but in reality of course, the food was lovely - meze and fresh fish. It was nice to be almost alone and to look out at the entire bay. After all that relaxing, we were more tired than we thought and were both asleep by 10! We had wondered about our choice of restaurant, given that everyone else had gone over to Ali's, but it had actually be quite nice to eat on our own.