Dinner on the Anna M

The trip from Kemer to Karabiga was yet another day of rough seas and lots of wind.  I am going to quote my Dad again because he sums it up in a nutshell:

Trying to stay warm over here.  When most people think of going sailing they are wondering what SPF to bring not which set of long johns to put on!

We made a short 20 mile jump from Kemer to Karabiga in about 8 hours.  I thought we had made it through the opposing current but managed to find another stretch of about 2 kts.  25 kt wind, on the nose 3-4 ft chop 50 degrees, all making for a very long day.

It was a long day.  I took a Dramamine to avoid being sick, but one of the major side effects is it knocks you out.  I was sitting on deck trying to stay warm in my long underwear, sweater, and jacket and my eyes kept closing.  I told Dad I couldn’t keep them open and needed to close them for a minute and I ended up passing out in a sitting up fetal position.  I was curled up trying to stay warm and my head tucked in and I was out.  When I woke up everything was stiff and hard to stretch out, but I felt 10x better.

We got to Karabiga and was trying to figure out where a yacht was supposed to go.  This is a major shipping port. The book says they load coal and marble into dry cargo carriers and that a yacht should be able to anchor in the breakwater or pull up to the wall.  Now when we pulled into the harbor area there were two big cargo ships being loaded and a car/truck ferry sitting there.  There was NO way we would be able to dock or anchor anywhere near those ships and come out unharmed.  We went to the other side where the fishing boats were docked and were going to anchor in the harbor within the breakwater.  A man on the dock started to whistle at us and told us it got shallow really quick and sure enough out depth sounder began to beep at us.  He motioned to a space on the cement dock behind a line of big fishing boats and Dad and I gritted our teeth and prepared to back in. 

Part of the crew from a big ship on the other side of the dock came out to help us dock and get everything set.  We were trying to figure out how we were going to get onto the dock since the cement dock was meant for much bigger ships than ours it is about a foot up from the top of our back railing.  We ended up rigging the wooden board we have as a backup gang plank and one of the crew members helped us do this.  We asked him where a good restaurant was and he left for a minute and came back saying if we wanted to go to an authentic Turkish restaurant his captain would like for us to dine on board with them.  We were a little hesitant since there are 9 men on board and we weren’t sure if there would be an escape route, but said why not and accepted the invitation.

This was dinner.  In a fishing town it doesn’t get much fresher than this.  The captain bought the fish off of a boat and this is how they prepare the fish in Turkey.  They literally take the fish and chop it into pieces, bones and skin and anything else in or on the fish and then cook it.

They had a small grill on the dock that the fish was being cooked on with onions.  The man putting the fish on apparently worked at a pizza place in Tampa in 1999?  That’s what I think he said at least and is the ship cook.  The man with the white hair with his face towards the camera was who invited us to dinner and the man with his back to us is the ship captain.

We ate in the officer’s dining room, but it didn’t look any different than the other dining room.  I was surprised at how nice everything was in the ship.  There was a TV where we were eating and curtains on the windows.  Dinner was the fish, which we ate with our hands to pick out the bones before actually eating it, a salad of cabbage and onions, and garlic soup which is eaten before the meal.  There was fresh bread and they even brought out a bottle of water for us.  Then we were shown into one of the sitting rooms where Turkish tea was served and we all talked about retirement and what the government does.  The man who invited us on board, seen behind me, it turns out is only 52… Dad and I thought late 60s – 70s for sure. 

We were given the grand tour and got to go up to the bridge of the boat.  It had a lot of the same things we have on our boat, radar, AIS, compass.  There was a room with a bed right by it though which makes you wonder whether or not the person on watch is watching the water or inside of his eyelids.

This is the Anna M.  It’s on the smaller size as far as dry cargo cruisers go, but it still make the Pipedream look like a dingy.  I really enjoyed getting to go onto the ship and see what it looked like inside.  The company was very nice and the dinner was good.

After we got off the ship, we ran into the French sailor who we had seen in Canakkale and Kemer.  He was anchored outside of the harbor and we asked if he wanted to get a glass of wine in town.  It turned out there were no bars or even open restaurants in town that served alcohol so we invited him on board and had a bottle in the cockpit. 

His name is Gigier, we are still having some trouble pronouncing it, and he is working his way up to Istanbul also.  He has lived on his 32ft sailboat for 13 years now and is still employed.  He works on an accommodations barge for oil workers off of the Congo in western Africa.  He is at sea as an electrician for 5 weeks and then gets 5 weeks off which he spends sailing from port to port.  Not a bad life.  He’s sailing alone and Dad is familiar with how hard it is to meet people when you are alone on the boat.  He made a comment about how I am his ticket into things like dinner on a cargo cruiser.

We aren’t plugged into power at all so running the heat isn’t an option.  It got super cold at night and the next day. Dad and I went to a local cay (tea) house and there was a great stove in the center of the building that made it cozy and pleasant.  We watched fisherman make their nets and enjoyed our hot tea.  We asked the guy running it where to get lunch and he pointed across the one road in town to a Ma and Pop restaurant that was filling up fast.

I know it’s sort of hard to see Dad but I like this photo because you can see where they are loading and unloading the cargo ships in the background. 

The lunch was delicious.  You got a tray and got whatever was made that day.  We happened to get Turkish meatballs, fried potatoes, a chicken and vegetable in red soup, white rice, and a piece of dessert which was like shredded wheat in honey and made into a dessert bar.  All of this plus a Pepsi cost us 13TL for 2. 

After lunch we went back to the boat and I was determined to make peanut butter cookies.  So I started making those and Gigier came back with fuel jugs. There is no fuel dock and Dad went asking about a truck and they didn’t have one.  Gigier had two containers to move about 25 liters of fuel and he said Dad could borrow them if he wanted.  So Dad spent the rest of the afternoon making the half mile walk to the gas station and back.  He went about 5 times and was able to make a little bit of a dent in our tanks.  I assisted by holding up a paper town to catch any of the drips that tried going into the water.  There are huge fines here for getting diesel in the water.  I don’t think they care so much in this port, but we wanted to be safe and not sorry.

I made lemon chicken for dinner and officially shucked fresh peas for the first time in my life.  We invited Gigier over for dinner and had a great time.  Two and a half cheap bottles of wine later we had a dinner party going and made a new friend. 

We ended up spending a second full day in Karabiga because of the wind which was a good idea.  It was spent catching up on blogs, returning for a home cooked meal at lunch, and Dad fixed the gang plank which split a little about two weeks ago.  We were adventurous here and I would say even though the city doesn’t have a whole lot to offer, it was will be a lasting memory that will stand above the rest.