Tuesday 15 September 2015

Monday 14 September 2015 – Knidos, Turkey

Not much happened yesterday, so I didn’t post.  Really we just did domestic stuff including instructing the agent to check us out of Turkey.  We would have tried to do it ourselves, but everyone said it is nearly impossible, so we spend the £20, and it is done. 

We also had a pleasant afternoon on the beach at a café where for the cost of a couple of drinks we got nice chairs under umbrellas.  For a change the water was quite cool and refreshing.  We can’t understand why.

This morning we hoped to leave by 9am, but didn’t make it until 10.  We did some last minute shopping and filled the boat up with water and off we went to Knidos.  Although we have legally checked out of Turkey, everyone said there is no problem about coming here.  We wanted to do that because it is the site of a very ancient city going back 3 thousand years.

We left our berth and had no trouble taking up the anchor even though it was very close to that of our neighbour.  There is not a breath of wind and it therefore feels very hot.  There is no chance of sailing.  In any event all two knots of wind is on the nose, as usual.  We did see one boat going the other way with a kite up, but it was having trouble filling the sail in this lack of wind.

Knidos is a pretty harbour.  We were not sure what to do.  You can anchor, or there is a pontoon with alongside berths.  So we went on the pontoon.  I think I have nearly forgotten how to berth alongside after all this time.  But there was someone on the pontoon to take our lines, so all went well.

I had bought a bit of food to have on board, but not much and nothing very exciting for lunch.  So out of laziness, we have lunch and dinner at the restaurant on the shore.  As we are paying for the berth there is no need to do that, but it is hot and we have little on board.

In the late afternoon we go to the archaeological site and have an hour wandering around the ruins which are very interesting.  One point is that the town has a harbour on each side of a peninsular.  We are in the larger one.  The smaller one was used by triremes in ancient times, but has now silted up and only has a couple of small open boats in it.  But in ancient times they used both and dug a waterway between them so they could always come and go with the wind!  Very clever.

We have had a couple of swims off the boat.  Now after dinner the wind has picked up a bit and it is fairly comfortable, so I should be able to sleep and sit here in the saloon.

Tomorrow we go back to Greece.  The closest port of entry is Kos so we are going there, but with a bit of trepidation as they still have a major immigrant crisis.  We shall see.  All we have read says it isn’t dangerous, but it may be unpleasant.

No comments:

Post a Comment