12.01.2010

Watch Your Head: Chapter 2 "Sailing"

Chapter 2: Sailing

Well we were on a boat, so the only natural thing for us to do was to spend a day sailing.  That would’ve been an excellent plan, except for the fact that there was no wind. 

It seems in Turkey when the weather is beautiful and sunny, there is no wind.  If you want wind it generally comes with dark clouds and precipitation.  So we got amazing sunny weather, but only about 5 knots of wind at most.

Dad has a bad habit of growing roots at a place when he’s docked there for awhile.  The roots here were starting to really dig deep so when we decided to take the boat out, away from the dock, it required some snipping.  Dad spent the morning unhooking things, stowing things, and making sure things were attached to the dock that needed to be in order to go out and Bryan and I decided to go for a walk at Moonlight Park which is part of the Turkiz plot.

Welcome to Moonlight Park!  What a great pool!  This pool is for the use of the marina and Turkiz hotel, but clearly off season it’s not exactly taken care of.  Next to the pool is a dolphin pool where there is a dolphin show during the summer.

This is a bridge that connects the tourist beaches and fishing harbor.  I got to show Bryan the fishing boats of the Mediterranean!

Bryan and I enjoying the sand and the mountains.  There is a great walk around the woods on the cliff looking out at the water so we got to go on a small hike before setting sail.

This is a view of the marina from the point at Moonlight Park.  I love how the mountains are in the background of every photo. 

At around 11:30am Bryan and I made it back to the boat, closed all the windows, and we were ready to go!  Like I said there was close to no wind so getting out was easy.  Once on the water we raised the main for the purpose of raising a sail, raised the jib for the same purpose, and then decided to cut the engine to see what we could do.  There was about 5-6 knots of wind for about an hour and then… it died.  But we had a really good time floating around, enjoying the weather, and sailing the little bit we could even if we didn’t go anywhere. 

Bryan hanging out by the main sail.  It was at least mostly full.

Bryan got the hang of the sailing thing real fast.  We made sandwiches for lunch and then Dad went down below for a nap while Bryan decided to just relax on deck.

While the others napped, someone had to be on watch to make sure we didn’t float into land so I decided to take advantage of the newly delivered Harry Potter books and read a little.

Since we had no wind we decided to take the time to take some photos!  This is Bryan and I on the bow of the boat.

Bryan on the bow of the boat.

Katie and Bryan on the stern of the boat… as you can see the weather was beautiful.
As when we arrived the first time at the marina, docking was easy.  All it took was a call over the VHF radio to the marina and two men in a dinghy were waiting for us at our spot to help ease us into the spot.  I love this marina.

Bryan and I went to pick up dinner while Dad got everything tied down and put back into its spot.  We got on the bike and went to get two rotisserie chickens for 12TL a piece.  Bryan got a taste of real Turkey while we waited for the chicken, he got to see the wall dedicated to Ataturk and watch a Turkish cartoon.

Dinner on the boat.  For 12TL you get a salad, pita, rice, and a rotisserie chicken.  It’s so good.

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