This seems so long ago, but with limited internet access in Turkey it has taken a while to get up to speed. So the weekend I am referring to was the 8th and 9th October.
We were aware that the storm was coming and chose Pedi on Simi to see out the event. The forecast was for Force 8 from the south blowing up on the Saturday, with respite on the Sunday, and blowing up again on the Monday, and finally blowing itself out by Tuesday morning.
In preparation we laid our 20kg Rocna and 20kg Delta in tandem and pointing south the direction the wind should have come from. I snorkelled them to ensure they were both in, and our only concern on retiring to bed on Saturday night, was that we seemed a little close to the end of the short quay when we swung around. So we picked 5 meters of chain up and went to bed.
At 2.45am we were woken by the noise of the wind, which had finally arrived. The whole bay was up as yacht after yacht began to drag their anchor. Some only needed to re-anchor once whilst others were at it for hours, still trying to get secure at 6.30 - 7.00am in the morning. There were two key reasons why we all dragged, one was was the notoriously bad holding in the bay, but the other was that the gusts were coming into the bay from the east, not the direction anyone had laid their anchor in. We sat holding well until about 6.00am and then we began to drag. However instead of taking them up and joining the re-anchoring madness, we decided to put out more chain and go along side the small quay that we had been worried was too close the night before. The manoeuvre went well, even with just the two of us and 30 knot gusts in the pitch black. [Phil: To clarify, the manoeuvre was awesome - approach the quay at 90° in unfavourable conditions, and at the last minute press "up" on the anchor button to park neatly alongside.]. We were all tied up, and fully chafe protected by 7.00am, with no injuries.
There we stayed through the thunderstorms and Force 8 winds of Sunday and Monday. More people joined us on the quay and a very friendly, helpful atmosphere developed. Little Gem, a boat that was also previously with Nisos and now with Sail in Turkey, turned up on the Monday. The owners were on board and so we spent a very pleasant evening swapping stories about the journey over from the Ionian and quizzing them about the new company and how things worked.
On Tuesday morning we left for Simi town, which we had been told was a beautiful place. We arrived in a heavy downpour and even through the rain you could tell it was pretty. We spent the evening on the boat next door but one, with a group of German guys who had been on the quay in Pedi for the storm. Very drunken and amusing evening, which left us hungover for the long trip across to Marmaris.
We were aware that the storm was coming and chose Pedi on Simi to see out the event. The forecast was for Force 8 from the south blowing up on the Saturday, with respite on the Sunday, and blowing up again on the Monday, and finally blowing itself out by Tuesday morning.
In preparation we laid our 20kg Rocna and 20kg Delta in tandem and pointing south the direction the wind should have come from. I snorkelled them to ensure they were both in, and our only concern on retiring to bed on Saturday night, was that we seemed a little close to the end of the short quay when we swung around. So we picked 5 meters of chain up and went to bed.
At 2.45am we were woken by the noise of the wind, which had finally arrived. The whole bay was up as yacht after yacht began to drag their anchor. Some only needed to re-anchor once whilst others were at it for hours, still trying to get secure at 6.30 - 7.00am in the morning. There were two key reasons why we all dragged, one was was the notoriously bad holding in the bay, but the other was that the gusts were coming into the bay from the east, not the direction anyone had laid their anchor in. We sat holding well until about 6.00am and then we began to drag. However instead of taking them up and joining the re-anchoring madness, we decided to put out more chain and go along side the small quay that we had been worried was too close the night before. The manoeuvre went well, even with just the two of us and 30 knot gusts in the pitch black. [Phil: To clarify, the manoeuvre was awesome - approach the quay at 90° in unfavourable conditions, and at the last minute press "up" on the anchor button to park neatly alongside.]. We were all tied up, and fully chafe protected by 7.00am, with no injuries.
There we stayed through the thunderstorms and Force 8 winds of Sunday and Monday. More people joined us on the quay and a very friendly, helpful atmosphere developed. Little Gem, a boat that was also previously with Nisos and now with Sail in Turkey, turned up on the Monday. The owners were on board and so we spent a very pleasant evening swapping stories about the journey over from the Ionian and quizzing them about the new company and how things worked.
On Tuesday morning we left for Simi town, which we had been told was a beautiful place. We arrived in a heavy downpour and even through the rain you could tell it was pretty. We spent the evening on the boat next door but one, with a group of German guys who had been on the quay in Pedi for the storm. Very drunken and amusing evening, which left us hungover for the long trip across to Marmaris.
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