Love our new sails!!

The new mainsail

Leaving Gocek, first time raised new sails

The handle on the outboard was fixed within a couple of hours.  Thanks once again to Riza at Emek Marine in Gocek.  He sent someone over to pick up the outboard and a few hours later it was returned with a repaired and perfectly functioning handle.  That was fast!  The next morning we visited the Harbor Master’s office and had Elisabeth added to our crew list.  Off to the Sunday Market for a couple of rotisserie chickens and fresh fruit and veggies and we were off.

Enjoying time with each other

When we unfurled the mainsail for the first time at least a liter of insect carcasses spilled out onto the deck.  Guess this is what happens to boats that sit all winter!  And inside the boom was filled with caked up red sand and dirt.  A bit of a mess to clean up.

And look what we found on the new mainsail when we
first furled it out of the mast -- a next of insect cocoons.

Starboard tack

Port tack

Enjoyed a great afternoon of sailing back and forth across Skopea Limani and the large bay leading up to Fethiye.  Sailed about 22 NM just to exercise the boat and try out our new sails and to run the watermaker.  We love these sails!!

As mentioned before, last November we shopped several sail manufacturers and personally visited several sail lofts , finally deciding to have new sails built by Q-Sails in Izmir. Q-Sails is family operated and has been in business for over 25 years.  Q-Sails used to build sails for several world-name brands (like North) but recently severed ties with all the name brands except Hood.  They continue to build Hood sails for worldwide distribution and now they also build sails under the Q-Sails brand name.  Their price was competitive with the other lofts we shopped.   

Headed towards Fethiye

One of the other lofts was slightly less expensive but after visiting their loft we had doubts about their consistency of quality.  We paid a deposit to Q-Sails and agreed that the sails were to be delivered in January or February after we returned from our annual visit home to Texas.  Our return was delayed until this month because of Bill's heath issues but the sails were delivered on schedule.  The sails were installed on the boat and confirming photos emailed to us and we wired the remaining balance due; the mainsail and mizzen sail were furled into the masts and the genoa was removed, bagged and placed inside the boat to await our eventual return.  We put up the genoa on a calm morning while tied to the dock in Skopea Marina.  The quality of workmanship was excellent and we were anxious to see performance.

Happy to be out sailing again

Aft cockpit shade panels protect us
from scorching sun

The new tri-radial hydranet sails added a full knot boat speed over the original 10-year-old Dacron sails!  The original sails also were tri-radial cut; we had specified that the new sails be constructed exactly the same as the originals but in the newer hydranet material.   Dacron sails stretch within 6 months of use.  Hydranet has no stretch.  Reports have been that original hydranet sails did not perform well but that tri-radial hydranet is the best today for non-racing boats.  Our old Dacron sails were original to the boat and had about 28,000 NM on them over 10 years so they were definitely stretched.  They looked fine to me -- we had the stitching maintained regularly -- but the sails had developed a very slight belly.  We told Tasmin at Q-Sails that he could keep the old sails.  Hopefully, some gulet or local sailor will be happy to have them.  Those sails still have years of life left as long as speed is not of concern.  We have never been particularly concerned with speed -- we are cruisers after all, not racers -- but it did seem that S/V BeBe has been getting slower of late.  A full knot speed increase will be nice when we eventually cross the Atlantic.  Doesn't make much difference if only going 30-50 miles but does add up when going 3,000 miles.

Napping with her 'babies.'  Funny how the grandson
calls these pillows torpedoes and pretends to shoot
boats and pretend wars.  And she calls them babies
and gives them names.

After a perfect afternoon of sailing we anchored in the now-familiar anchorage between Yacht Classic Hotel and the coast guard dock.  Wow!  That anchorage has shrunk!!  Yacht Classic is building a new dock that should be completed in September (the city is holding up completion for some reason, although the building permit was issued last year).  For now, that floating dock has been completed and is placed lengthwise against the bulkhead in front of the hotel's new villas.  They are docking catamarans there temporarily.  And they have placed moorings in a line where the dock will soon be permanently placed.  Sunsail boats filled those moorings.  So that has reduced the size of the anchorage considerably.  This is an enormous bay and depth ranges 8 to 18 meters, so there is ample room to anchor just about anywhere........just not as close in to shore as before.

Nothing much on tiny island of Fethiye Adasi

We enjoyed the typical town things (meals and shopping) in Fethiye for several days.  And went out sailing several times, always returning to the same anchorage.  One day we anchored just inside the entrance to Fethiye bay beneath the small island of Fethiye Adasi.  That cuts arrival and departure time by at least 45 minutes each way rather than motoring all the way west to the usual anchorage near the coast guard dock, but there are no services or restaurants or anything out by Fethiye Adasi.  

Our neighbor one night.  Anchored next to us between
the moorings.  That makes for close quarters.

Twice during our sailing days we went by Sarila Koyu but could not find a place to stop.  This is the only bay in Skopea Limani that has moorings in place.  These are red balls that are spaced well apart along the shore line with a corresponding red bollard behind each ball.  There are no pennants on the moorings so you have to thread your own line through the eye on top.  Then you must take a long line ashore and tie to the bollard.  Honestly, I do not know why tying to that bollard is required.  The balls are placed far enough apart for a 60-foot boat to swing freely.  But sailor here are so accustomed to typing a stern line to shore that they just don't feel comfortable is they are not tied to something.  The anchorages are quite deep and the sea bottom slope dramatically.  Tying to shore is necessary to keep anchors from becoming unset when winds change direction -- as usually happens twice daily.  But a mooring is not an anchor so that should not be an issue.  Nevertheless, if a boat takes a mooring here then they still need to tie a stern line to a bollard on shore.

Missed picking up the ball on their first attempt and lost
their boat hook overboard.  She jumped in, saved the
boat hook, then threaded the line through the mooring
ring and handed it back up to the guy on deck.

Several days ago we finally arrived at an opportune moment and two of the moorings were available, side-by-side.   I steered for the one farthermost upwind as there was a 12-knot crosswind at that time.  I figured that way if the wind blew us we would be blown to the spot of the second mooring rather than into another boat.  Turned out it was a good thing we went to the mooring most up-wind.  It took us 3 1/2 hours to get tied to that ball and the stern line(s) tied to the correct bollard!  3 1/2 hours!!!  It was almost a comedy of errors except nothing we did was actually an error.  First, the line we used to attach to the mooring was too short.  Had to replace that with a much longer line.  Then the wind on the beam prevented us from maneuvering the stern into the wind at the right angle to allow Bill to attach a stern line to the right bollard.  And the outboard engine kept dying.  It would not operate more than a minute and then would not start again without taking it apart and messing with interior parts.  Bill was getting very frustrated with it.   Finally we gave up trying to get the stern of the boat that far upwind and just tied to the bollard for the mooring ball just downwind.  That mooring was still vacant anyway.  Maybe the wind would die down and/or we could get the outboard engine fixed before another boat arrived to take that mooring.

Nope, another boat did arrive.  A couple of young Turkish men.  They nicely tied to a rock on shore since we were tied to their bollard.  Bill continued to tinker with the outboard.  We brought it up on the life rail and he took it apart.  Got it to working but who knew for how long.  Put it back on the dinghy again and began again trying to get a stern line to the correct bollard.  We pulled out two 110-foot lines an one 130-foot line and tied those together.  I fed the line out as Bill dinghied toward the correct bollard.  And just then a Sunsail boat with an elderly British couple and their granddaughters arrived on our starboard side, dropped their anchor right between us and the next moored boat and back up to the bollard where we were supposed to tie off.  Bill continued on his mission.  The Brit was concerned that if we tied to that bollard then we would be too close.  Well, duh!  Why didn't you think about that before you anchored between two moored boats!  Bill told him we would put out fenders if he was too close.  The guy said he would only be there for one hour; Bill said that wouldn't be a problem and that he would tie our lines in such a way that the Sunsail boat could depart whenever they wished without disturbing our lines.  Whatever objections the Brit had, Bill had a calm and polite response -- but we were going to tie off on that bollard.  

Bill got one end of the 3-tandem lines attached to the bollard and I attached the other end to our electric winch.  We winched the boat to the correct orientation despite the crosswind, then moved the original stern line to that same bollard, freeing up the other bollard for the young Turkish men to use.  Next, we removed the extra lines from our 3-line string and cleated off the remaining 110-ft line to our stern.  This resulted in us having 2 stern lines to the correct bollard.  The 'one-hour' Sunsail boat remained there overnight.  The next morning he moved to anchor between 2 other moorings across from us.  The following morning he scraped along the side of one of the adjacent boats as he pulled his anchor to leave.  That is one charter boat that we will be looking out for during the next week or so because that man is not a prudent sailor.

This Turkish family makes their living going around the anchorages and
selling freshly made pancakes.  They come alongside anchored boats and
 the woman makes them as you watch from your boat deck.   Turkish
pancakes in no way resemble regular pancakes.  These are like enormous
flour tortillas and usually spread with chocolate or cooked fruit spreads
and then folded in half .  So a hot flour tortilla filled with chocolate or fruit.

We will stay in this beautiful bay until Monday morning.  Then we will return to Gocek and see about getting a real mechanic with real parts inventory to repair our 10+ year-old Mercury 15hp outboard engine.  As much trouble as we had getting secured to this mooring ball and bollard we want to stay put to enjoy the area.  Don't want to have to go through that stern line thing again just to be in another bay when this one is beautiful enough.  Each morning a small motor boat comes through selling fresh warm bread and cakes and other delights.  In the afternoon another boat comes through the anchorage selling ice cream.  The Gocek Market Boat also visits daily to supply boats with drinking water, frozen meats, fresh veggies and fruits, cokes and beer or whatever one might want.  Prices are reasonable.  There even is a small boat that comes through every so often to collect bags of garbage.  How could it be any better!