Logbook Entry
Date: 4/18/10
Distance: 17.6 nm
Sailed from: Bodrum
Lat: 37°03.4’N
Long: 27°13.9’E
After spending most of the day in Bodrum, we left the dock at 2:30 p.m. and anchored three hours later in this quiet little fishing village on the Bodrum Peninsula which is slowly being taken over by tourism judging by the fish restaurants lining the shore and the grid of holiday homes being constructed on the surrounding hillsides. We’d already visited a historic site and eaten out once today (a döner kabob snack on the walk back from town), so we decided against going ashore to look for the ruins of ancient Myndos. We shared a bottle of wine and enjoyed leftovers onboard while watching two men fishing in a small boat off our stern instead. It seems that they were doing the same as us, except they had a few fishing lines in the water and were pulling in some small fish every now and then.
We couldn’t help but wonder if the haziness in the sky today might be related to the volcanic ash cloud covering much of Europe and rapidly approaching Istanbul to the north of us. We learned about it when we called David’s mom yesterday to wish her a happy birthday (we don’t get much news when we’re underway). We actually felt a light film of dust on some of Gyatso‘s newly polished exterior surfaces today, but this is a common occurrence here in the Med, so it might not be related to the ash cloud at all. We’ve bookmarked the website with a map that shows the extent of the cloud which has made it as far as Rome and Istanbul as of today. We plan to keep a closer eye on it as we continue to push north toward Istanbul, although it probably won’t affect us much. However, in Bodrum, one charter yacht captain told us how he had a catamaran full of guests who had just finished their cruise and couldn’t get back to England and another group waiting to begin their charter who couldn’t get out.
We have gone about 110 nm since leaving Marmaris. It’s great to be underway again even if we’re doing a lot of motoring – it’s pretty much what we expected for the run up to Istanbul and beats going against the prevailing summer “meltemi” wind that we hope to ride back to Marmaris in September if all goes well.
