Amazon Creek to Kale Koyu, Bodrum - Trouble Brewing!

It was all going so well.....

11th September

Woke up on deck to find that my sky of stars had vanished, it was a bit nippy and some menacing cloud cover had formed, obscuring the moon. The creek was dark and no longer seemed romantic - creepy more like! Disappeared downstairs and was kept awake all night by pounding rain on the coachroof and other weird sounds that in the dead of night, send your imagination into overdrive! Having thought i'd heard the sound of a lighter being constantly flicked, someone banging on the door, and dreamt someone stole our outboard, i was just glad to wake up in the morning! That Baileys has to go.......! Once we were up though, all we could see were fluffy white clouds and sun.  The cove was deserted except for one other yacht and a small fishing trawler. We had breakfast on the move as we motored straight across a bay that wouldn't have been out of place on a Scottish loch or Norwegian fjord. Pine covered hills were everywhere in all shades of green and brown. The sea was like a millpond and very picturesque. We reached the cove of Cati and One-Tree-Island (named such for the obvious reason) and dropped anchor in clear fish-filled water. I jumped in for a snorkel and tried to go ashore on the so-called beach but found myself invaded by flies so gave up and swam back to the boat....just as well really, as I discovered the anchor had dragged and we were drifting slightly. Time to go,  so we set off, the idea being to get into the gulf ready for an easy, close reach sail to Bodrum with the wind coming from the west in the afternoon as usual. Sails adjusted, beer out, sunbathing accomplished...oh! Wind coming from the East...bugger! And with the wind came black skies and rain....howling wind and lashing rain as it happens - bloody cold as well..what happened to the weather!?! Ten minutes earlier i'd been sunbathing with a beer on the foredeck! Time to hot foot it back to Bodrum! 

...and then it all went a bit pear-shaped

So many yachts had been caught out (probably due to a broken Navtex, like us!) and there was a flotilla of yachts and gulets heading towards the shelter of Kumbahce Bay at a pace, so we decided to ramp up the revs and join in. The rain kept coming and the temperature dropped quickly. Being the optimistic types we had only packed 'summer' clothes with short sleeves and had to root around for anything vaguely appropriate to the conditions. We were wet, cold and miserable......holidays eh? 

Bodrum Castle loomed into view eventually thank heavens and we had a speedy look at Rod Heikells book to ensure we knew where we needed to be......we were ok! I got up onto the rain-lashed foredeck to drop anchor..nervous times! By some miracle we managed to dig in at the first attempt and celebrated with a coffee (what?), sitting in the saloon listening to the storm batter the coachroof. Very tiring all this storm-sailing so we tried to have a nap but were constantly fretting over the anchor and whether it would hold or not. 

Marco offered to go into Bodrum for supplies so that we could cook on board and fitted the outboard to the dinghy in wind and horizontal rain.....me, not wanting to look like a wimp decided to go with him and we headed off to the nearest bit of land....the jetty near Halicarnas night club. The ride was actually quite good fun, albeit wet! We tied up and dumped some rubbish before nosing around some side streets for a shop that would sell us our last supplies of the holiday. Eventually we decided to find a restaurant and chose a cheap place (being all unwashed and scruffy as we were), and had overcooked steak with accompanying fat, which Marco fed to a big dog, a cuddly looking hound who sat at our table, much to the disgust of the locals. 

After dinner (and drinks), we walked around a bit, then went to a market for food and a small shop for beer. Another wet trip back to the boat and bed, just as the rain started again. We lay awake for what seemed like hours listening to the pounding of the rain on deck and the different pounding of Halicarnas nightclub, along with other bars....before dozing off into a fitful slumber!