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The last Hoorah 2024

 

As a result of Covid and the rapidly passing years, Jan and I realised that we should now plan our future, to ensure that we don’t place ourselves in an impossible situation where I am unable to undertake ocean sailing.The fear being that at the end of the day we could find ourselves with a sizeable yacht in Turkey and faced with having to find an interested purchaser. The problem is that the Turks are mainly involved with motor-yachts, leaving those who prefer to sail under canvas, a fortnight’s holiday to sail up the coast and weekend club racing around their local bay.

The Turkish marinas are all fully occupied, as a result of a massive influx of Russian motor-yachts some of which, are more like commercial cruise ships rather than that with which we are familiar. This has been brought about as a result of Russia’s war with Ukraine which resulted in their being denied entry into the E.U.

We decided that our best course of action was to sail Song of the Ocean back to Henan, Sweden to where she was built. This would then permit us to sail the next 8 years in the Baltic Sea, Denmark and up the Norwegian coast. If possible, we would like to sail to the Lofloten Islands, just north of the Artic Circle. This would take me to age 90 when I might then be obliged to ‘swallow the hook’; however, Jan and I do keep ourselves fit and to this extent participate in yoga, plus three days a week in the gym with an instructor and aqua aerobics.

The outcome to this we hope, is that with a yacht that has been exceedingly well maintained, and with our placing ourselves in the right location, there should be no difficulty in selling SotO when the time arrives for us to part company. I started sailing on my Father’s Camper & Nicholson yacht Patna which he acquired in c1950 and kept in Burnham on Crouch. As a result, I join the Royal Burnham Y.C. in c1954 of which I have now been a member for 75 years. Since then, we have owned a number of yachts; in more recent years, a Najad 460, followed by a N511 and finally N570 with which we have achieved three circumnavigations of the Atlantic, followed by a further eleven years in the Mediterranean. However, our plan for this year, was to sail SotO to Sant Carlos, Spain: a distance of some 1,480 NM, if we could sail the course in a straight line without the considerable adverse currents and westerly winds that dominate from its entrance through the Gibraltar Straits. However, as you will come onto read, we actually clocked-up 1,826 NM.

This then leaves us with some 2,300 NM remaining to Sweden in c2025, however, with inclement weather to be expected in addition to adverse tides and headwinds, plus Atlantic depressions bringing-in storm conditions, it is likely to end up with our undergoing a greater distance. At least we can expect to be welcomed with following winds, once we are into the English Channel and onwards across the North Sea………. I say, hopefully!

On our return to Turkey in the last week of May, we were confronted with an intolerable week of 48 degrees centigrade which even had the Turkish people moaning, with their shops needing to close at 1100 and not reopening until 1900 hrs. As a result, we were out of our bunks by 0500 each day, to start work for 5 hours followed by a further 5 hours through to midnight with the help of the marina lights. During the afternoon, we turned the AC on and read our books and went out for long lunches and early suppers in air conditioned premises.

We ultimately put to sea at 0630 on the 8thAugust, down the Antalya Bay to Cold Water Bay, where we anchored on the 9thJune in Round Water Bay, in roly seas. Next day, we continued in near gale conditions to to a bay outside Marmaris where President Erdogan has a Summer retreat. We were then obliged to remain at anchor until 12th June, on account of Mamaris marina apparently being full. However, on arrival we found there were many empty berths available which is not the first time that we have come across the marina’s belligerent staff which is why we always prefer to anchor off the town. Only its available wealth of first class engineers in the town made it the right call for us! As is the practice of the Turkish engineers, they lead you to believe that their work will only take them a day or two. However, I must say that on this occasion that wasn’t the case as fortunately on dealing with the new rig, we found that some electronic items in the bilges would also be better replaced. It should be noted that the Med. weather is very hard on electronic equipment which is okay, providing one keeps an eye on it rather than waiting for it to crash. The outcome of which, was that we couldn’t get underway until the 8thJune. This put us under pressure because we had our good friend, George Malony flying out from the UK to meet us in Rhodes on the 21stJune. To add to the predicament, it was made all the more difficult as a result of the Meltemi weather which set up every afternoon with 30kt winds. Even when it gave-over at night, we were still left with the high seas which necessitated our motor sailing for half the time. However, the biggest setback was the Ede holidays being suddenly declared for 5 days which presumably was why the marina was so empty. We dropped our lines on the 22ndJune, having checked out of Turkey to make for Rhodes, Greece in continuing strong winds and high seas. Understandably, the open sea was bereft of yachts. In our eleven years of cruising in the Med. we have never experienced such an unsettled season. As it turned out we made it to Antalya at 1600 on the 28thJune in time to welcome George at 1800 and go out to dinner at one of the many excellent Greek restaurants. Next day was given over to shopping as we didn’t want to make any further ports of call until we were in Sant Carlos. Our biggest encumbrance, was dealing with the Bureaucrats who sit in their offices passing the day by being as antagonistic to the yachtsmen as they can. They are seemingly, too lacking in knowledge to realise that yachtsmen are their best tourists of the season; apart from arriving on their own yachts in the marina, for which they are heavily charged, everything else involves their spending money in the local community, be that at coffee shops, restaurants , bars, food stores, clothing shops plus a whole load of general shops etc. This is as opposed to the holidaymakers who fly out to their pre-paid holiday hotels all-found, even down to their transport to and from their hotels.

As we were now approaching the end of the month, we weighed anchor on 24th May to make for the Bozburun Peninsular followed by a Simbo Rig run up to Kumlubuek and then onwards to Yacht Marina two days later. Turimtek the Raymarine agents, duly set about removing our existing Chart Plotters and installed new wiring for the new Plotters which were due to arrive on the 1st June. In the meantime we took the opportunity to send our outboard away for servicing. North Sails also fitted new covers to protect the backstay and main boom-vang hydraulics.

Next day, we cast our lines for Spain. However, enroute we discovered that our new rig had slackened and needed tightening. As a result, we contacted riggers in Palma, Majorca who obliging said that they would complete the work within a day. Furthermore, they were able to expedite the job for half the cost of the Turkish riggers. We have always found the people in Spain together with Portugal, to be the nicest, most accommodating people in the whole of the Mediterranean. The following day, we set sail for Palma on another memorable sail. With the wind just forward of the beam, we were able to make 10kts through the water under our twin jibs and full mainsail. As we closed the Spanish coast, we came across sailing yachts making SW down the coast in the direction of Gibraltar, I do like to hale the yachts sailing by and occasionally have an exchange of views on the VHF. As we closed the coast, the wind noticeable dropped off for the first time since we set-out from Turkey. On arrival at Sant Carlos, the marina staff were on hand to take our lines in a quiet, virtually empty wing of the marina which is reserved for the larger yachts which made us feal somewhat overwhelmed! Our distance covered from Turkey was 1,860M which meant that the westerly trade winds and currents, required us to sail another 346M more than the distance over our charted course. Our departure from Kemer on the 8th August and arrival at Sant Carlos on the 11thJuly, might seem a little frenetic. However, we were on a mission as opposed to a holiday cruise and the same will be true with next year’s sail back to Sweden, which will be substantially more demanding what with the commercial shipping, strong tides and unsettled weather etc, a case of first the pain and then the gain of hopefully, another 8 years of relaxed social cruising around some of the most dramatic coasts in Europe.

However, following George’s departure, Jan and I, were then given to 14 days hard labour laying up SotO. With our not being on station for the next nine months, it is imperative that everything is serviced or checked for repair in order for SotO to be in perfect order next summer for sailing to Scandinavia. This took us two weeks in unbearable heat. On this occasion though, it was the local Spanish people who complained non-stop on our becoming engaged with them!