VdeG Cyprus to Egypt, day one.

Suleika beneath the sun.

Some time ago, I driveled 'last of the long hauls'. I didn't know at the time that we would be sailing from Cyprus to Egypt and would have to take another two day sail south, some 215 miles to Port Said, Egypt. The port fixer 'Tony', who charged for the water, was given the job of organizing a fuel delivery for those that needed a top up. It was arranged for 9am. At 12 he had not been seen. Come 6pm people were getting concerned. He finally arrived after dark and said there was no fuel delivery arranged. This obviously upset those waiting for the fuel and some exchange of opinion as to his parentage ensued. Thankfully I took five fuel cans up to the garage earlier and bought 100 liters at €1.38. A problem was sorted when another local got his friend to come at 6am on the day of departure, (before the port was awake) and supplied the required diesel.

Sunrise on thundercloud.

As it was decided that as no two boats sail at the same speed, a free start was given from Paphos, the skipper deciding how long his yacht would need to get to Port Said. The problem was, those on the inside could not leave till those on the outside had untied themselves and free the inner boats from the raft.

Port Said, Suez Canal

We had decided, with a few others that a PM start would be OK for an arrival in the morning, two days later. This gave us time to watch the F1 car 'parade' and get a cooked breakfast in the local bar. No wind was forecast for about 12 hours so drifting with the Cruising chute was the only option, very dull. Several boats motored past as we bobbed along at 3knots. Night fell and the wind came in as promised. The wind was driven by thunderstorms that decided to chase Jigsaw and Christina. We  both motored as fast as possible and kept a safe distance from them using the radar to locate the rain. Both boats got a shower but thankfully nothing more. I was reminded of our crossing from Italy to Corfu, big strikes were regularly hitting the water within two miles. The wind rose to a regular 18kn so we reefed down the genoa to play safe. We still made 5kn on average but the boats with bigger rigs were doing 7knots. Suleika is a 20 ton ketch that needs similar wind to us to maintain reasonable speed. I called John to let him know it was us 3 miles east of his position and we agreed to keep in touch. Jigsaw was also close and Kerching was catching us from behind. We were soon dropped as both Moody yachts sail better than Colvic's. In the morning we were on our own again. The sea state had picked up to make sailing beam on to the swell rather uncomfortable. Gay took some Stugeron and went to lay down.
The day passed without any major interest. We had a few birds visit us, Pied Wagtails, Swallows and Sparrows but saw no Dolpins or sea birds. Didn't see any ships either which was strange? Day became night again and we sailed on, the distance to go getting ever shorter.

VdeG Tusucu Turkey to Cyprus

My Birthday LtR Ian, Self, Gay, Melanie, Michelle, Andy.

Blue Magic's mystery crew member

A dog called Bollock, for obvious reasons

The Skippers were now getting itchy feet and wanted to get going from Turkey. We had had our last supper with full support from the local Mayor who provided us all with a bag containing hats and tea-shirts, Fuel had been delivered and food hoarded. The last detail was checking out of Turkey. For some reason we could not check out till midnight, meaning we would leave on Monday from 0000hr till 7am. We were ready to go so rather than wait till morning we left Tusucu at 1am to do the 140 miles to Paphos.

Paphos Fort and fishing fleet.

An ideal and unusual Easterly wind was in our favour as we cleared the headland and set a southwesterly course to West Cyprus. Large thunderstorms were to our port side over the mountains of Turkish Cyprus and I expected them to remain there and not bother us. We could see and hear the flashes and rumbles some 60 miles away. During our passage the wind blew from 25 knots to zero, mostly on our rear quarter making for a pleasant sail. The last part we had to motor as the wind died but we arrived in Paphos ahead of the others only by one hour, at 0600 on Wed 3rd October. The fleet were not so lucky and got caught up in the storms, some getting 35kn of wind but no lightning strikes. Most of the way they had to motor.

Rafted with seven others, Paphos.

Paphos is not a Marina as such so we were required to raft up alongside each other, the largest boats on the inside going down to Jigsaw on the outside, eight boats in all. Another group were tied together next to some local boats with lines running in every direction. Kiwi, Gavin from catamaran Sol Maria dived down and got a line to a secure block behind us so we became the anchor point for the raft should we get any strong Easterly wind....
For most of us, Cyprus was an opportunity to re-stock supplies not available in Turkey. I'm not talking Marmite and Tetley. Very reasonably priced spirits meant every available space on the boat was filled with bottles, cartons and cans. Lydl provided tins of ham and other preserves that would make the winter easier to 'endure'.

Vasco da Gama Yacht Rally

Christina pimped, Alanya.

Gay, Nemrut Dag 6am.

This winter we will be back in 'Africa', taking part in the VdG (as it will be called from this point), a yacht rally to the Red Sea, Egypt.. The rally was conceived by Dutch sailor Lo Brust. Lo has made a living from organizing rallies, usually from India to the Mediterranean over the last decade but due to the Somalia Pirate issue, this trip terminates in Eritrea. It has always been our plan to come down the Suez Canal and spend some time diving the worlds best sites in this much troubled region. The Arab Spring has followed us through the Med, though our time in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Turkey has not been effected by any revolutionary activity despite what is reported on the TV. The last twelve months in Egypt have seen greater changes than in most of the Arab counties. The Muslim Brotherhood have taken the reigns of government and are trying to bring about change, restricted somewhat by the powerful military that have controlled things under Mubarak for many generations.

Tusucu port.

Sunrise Nemrut Dag

The discussion I had with Lo at a Sunday BBQ in Finike in 2011 convinced me to encourage others to join us in this next adventure. Wives can be more cautious of such endeavors so it was important to bring as many of our Finike friends with us who could be persuaded. Thankfully this was not as difficult as it first seemed. Given a few months summer sailing and time to consider another winter in the Med our friends Andy and Michelle on yacht Kerching and Ian and Melanie on Yacht Jigsaw (with cat 'Puzzle') signed up for the Rally. We all get on well and having spent a winter together in Finike the Wives had bonded with recipe exchanges and shopping trips.

Gipsy girl Mosaic, Gaziantep.

Due to a slight detour back to England to get married, our summer cruising was limited to going East. We spent five weeks in Alanya Marina getting 'Christina' ready for the winter. A long list of jobs were completed during the scorching heat of July, the last being new anti-foul before being gently lowered back into the water. The VdeG was due to start from Alanya Marina on September 22nd but we decided to sail East to Mersin so as to visit Nemrut Dag etc and then back to meet the rest of the participants at Tusucu port, the jump off point to Cyprus.

Arriving before the other twelve yachts meant we got our previous place back on the wall, in earshot of the Rocky punch ball machine. A more annoying machine could not be envisaged. It plays an irritating blend of Western pop and Turkish music on a loop tape from 8am till the owner decides to unplug it, usually about midnight. Just as I am about to fall asleep, some tough guy will feed one Lira into the machine and then punch the ball as hard as he can. The resounding Kaboom as the punch ball flies back into the bowels of the device is similar to the sound of a car crash without the tinkle of broken glass. I never want to hear 'eye of the Tiger' again!

No excuse, time to move on.

                                          What a mouthwatering sight, Jane's roasties.

Sprung Arabs 2011

The Eastern Mediterranean has seen great uprisings during our time here in Turkey, though Turkey itself has remained quiet and peaceful, despite a general election. The Greeks, having been living off the fat of the Germans for the past few years are now up in arms at having to cut back and work for a living. The Syrians are being massacred by their own army for demanding western style (?) democracy while the Libyans have had NATO to ensure that the oil is in safe hands. Egypt is looking forward to elections and renewed tourism, but the poor Palestinians are still being shat on by the Jews. One cannot but wonder who it is making the rules that allow one nation freedom while others are left in tyranny. The British just put up and shut up.

Our time has not been wasted so far this year following our six months commitment to a berth in Finike. Christmas came and went; Gay stayed in England for three months while I fettled the boat and learned a few chords on the guitar. On her return we took a trip to the local ski resort with some of the neighbours (see last post) Snowboarding was excellent but one day was enough this late in the season with lots of rocks and very little base snow left. Gay stayed on her feet and walked the empty, unfinished ski lodges from a previous time of plenty.

Our old friend Nutty Norma came to join us for a couple of weeks, staying in the local hotel. We didn’t go far as her legs are 85 years old, her brain thinks she’s 35. We then went to Cappadocia as mentioned below, with Tony and Claire. Come May we had had enough of land travel and took the boat off to Rhodes via Fetiye with a good easterly breeze pushing Christina Lee at 5 knots. Mandraki harbour in old town Rhodes was chock full of Charter boats so we anchored next to a huge war supply vessel in the commercial port. It was bound for Libya, full of armoured vehicles etc. The following day we got on the wall, stern too, with some other Brits in Mandraki. I cheekily suggested to our neighbour that he might run us up to Lydl to get some supplies (Alcohol) while he still had his hire car. Top bloke! It was the quickest we had ever filled a trolley with beer and got back.

Rhodes is a fascinating City that I last visited in 1990 but since then cruise liners have made the place a tourist hell hole full of carpet shops and crap trinket outlets. We soon left and sailed down the east coast in 25 knots to Lindos Bay where we met some old sailing friends I hadn’t seen for about seven years since they went off on their circum’ from the Solent. What a very small world. It was great to meet them again and get an email address. From Lindos we motor sailed south and then west to get on the west side of Karpathos, one of a small group of islands that nobody has heard of between Rhodes and Crete. Next island south was Kasos, also barren but unspoilt by tourists. As we were in a hurry to meet our friends Kerry and Helen in Crete we pushed on the following day with three other yachts into 15 knots almost on the nose. We made enough to keep sailing to windward while the wind was good but as it slowly dropped we had to give up and motor straight into the weather.

We all got to Sitia eventually but the place was full and we were obliged to go against the wall at the end of the breakwater where we had to stay for five days due to the incessant westerly wind. We got to have our transit log stamped at last! Our Swedish friends (Eino and Annette SY Vicki) from Tunisia were also in port so we had a chance to catch up with their news of the previous 18 months since we last saw them . Though our next destination was not more than 40 miles, it took forever to get there with the crap wind that we tried to beat against. Poor CL does not do sailing to windward in less than 15 knots of wind so we tracked back and forth till I got bored and put the motor on for the last ten miles to Spinalonga.

This island used to be a Leper colony till the late 50’s but has hundreds of years of history as a fortification. It held out against the Ottomans for three months of bombardment till they were forced to capitulate due to food shortages. We anchored off in 4m of water and took the dinghy ashore for a quick tour with the boat loads of others from the mainland. It was another interesting but sad place, the small museum gave an insight into the pitiful lives of the Lepers. Spinalonga anchorage is idyllic, protected from all sides and very shallow all over so the anchor can’t get levered out of the silt. We had some reasonable westerly winds that made using the dingy a bit of a task. Dont like to use the engine when so close to the shore!

The local village/town, Elounda, was geared up for taking the numerous hotel guests over to the Leper colony, competition was hot amongst the boatmen to capture the few tourist that were available. Elounda also had a great butcher where we could buy frozen packs of bacon or pork chops. We also availed ourselves of a full English breakfast at the nearest hotel, it was very ex-pat! The trip south from Spinalonga to Aios Nicolias was interesting as we were blessed with a massive thunderstorm over our heads. Loads of rain but strangely no wind? It only lasted ten minutes and gave the decks a good wash. Couldn’t see a thing around us so we basically stopped where we were and waited for it to stop. The Marina staff were not responding to VHF so we motored in and used hand signals with the marinaro who was standing on the pontoon. All was well and they were very pleasant to deal with.

The marina is owned by the local authority so it was cheaper than most and the facilities OK. Our Swedish friends had got in a few days before and were soon round to say hello. We met also another Englishman, John who has a house in the hills and makes his own wine, very reasonable it was too. The Island is incredibly attractive in the spring as all the flowers are out and the multitude of birds are all looking for mates and singing their lungs out. I renamed it Blackbird Island as they were at least four singing at any one time throughout the day, as well as all the other songbirds. A car is a must as the busses can’t get out into the sticks where we wanted to explore. I did a deal with a local funny man and got an automatic Toyota for €100 for five days. It was pathetically gutless and I wished I had not been so tight fisted and got a car with an engine. We got used to crawling up hills and it was good for the trip to Lidl.