Sail to Kekova

We had a cracking sail from Lindos to Kekova…20-25 knots of wind (peak gust recorded 43 knots!). There were some good sized 3/4m waves but Irony took them in her stride. On arrival we couldn’t get the genoa furled in. We had to anchor with 80 sq m of sail flapping. When I winched Nic up the mast he discovered that a whole part of the mechanism was missing. He has ingeniously managed to fix this now by cutting up a plastic breadboard! The repairs have, of course, delayed our departure to Syria but it’s a beautiful spot here.

Leaving Lindos

Heading off from Lindos this afternoon for Kekova on the south Turkish coast. "Stumpy" healing well and out of bandages.

Lindos

Now anchored in Lindos with stunning surroundings and lovely weather. Bill & Pixi from S/Y Intsomi sailed down to visit us for a couple of nights which has been great fun. My hospital visit went well yesterday. They asked to see me again next Thursday to take out the stitches but we are going to try to head off the beginning of next week if it's all healing well. Doctor Nic will take out the stitches!

Medical Update

My little finger is healing slowly but there is still a dead patch on the tip. They took out a couple of stitches yesterday and want to see me again on Thursday. My other fingers are much better; 4 of 5 stitches now out of my middle finger. We are hoping to sail down to Lindos (30 miles south of Rhodes) tomorrow and anchor there until I get a final discharge from the hospital, hopefully Monday.

Storm

Rhodes harbour is one of the worst places to be in a southerly storm and, for 24 hours, that’s exactly what we had. It was blowing steadily Force 6/7 but as each front came through we were getting prolonged gusts of Force 8/9. We had to keep the engine going for around 12 hours to keep us off the quay and also deployed our fisherman anchor to take the pressure off our stern anchor.

At the end of the quay a catamaran sank - the anchor didn’t hold and the boat was being thrown against the concrete. The English owner has flown back the UK without leaving a key or telephone number making it impossible to get into the boat to start the engine and reset the anchor. A hole finally opened up in one of the hulls and the boat started going under, putting the neighbouring boat in peril. Terrible to see a boat lost to negligence on the part of the owner.

Still in Rhodes

We are still in Rhodes...when we went back to the hospital to have my injuries checked the surgeons were concerned with a dead patch of skin on my little finger tip. They decided to admit me and I spent 2 nights in hospital being pumped full of antibiotics. Fortunately I did not have to have a further operation, which they were threatening, and I am now back on the boat. The check-up yesterday was ok and they have asked me to come back in again on Monday. Hopefully we might be able to get underway by the middle of next week. My other 2 damaged and stitched fingers are healing really well. All very frustrating but the weather is fantastic and Rhodes town is beautiful so we can't complain too much.

Accident & Emergency

Well, plans can change quickly... on leaving Rhodes harbour I managed to catch my fingers in the anchor winch. The result was a lot of blood and the tip of my little finger ripped off while we were still hanging on the anchor! Poor Nic had to get the anchor up, redeploy it and remoor the boat. Meanwhile I bandaged up my hand and went up front to throw our lines ashore. The rest of the day was spent in hospital - not quite what we had foreseen that morning.

Unfortunately my little finger (left hand thankfully) was badly damaged and I have lost the first section but the surgeon has tried to rebuild a finger tip shape. All very Nip Tuck! There are stitches in the next 2 fingers too and my hand is bandaged and unusable. It brings a whole new meaning to single or short-handed sailing!

Since the stitches don't come out for 2 weeks we are going to delay going to Syria until after that. Current plan is to head to Kekova and take it easy. There we will be within easy distance of the hospital in Antalya which has a good reputation and a plastic surgery department.

Off to Rhodes

We left Marmaris yesterday at 6am and had a lovely trip over to Rhodes with a champagne breakfast to celebrate the renewed start of our travels. The day was spent fuelling and provisioning. Today we are getting on with preparing the boat for our trip to Syria.

We plan to leave Rhodes tomorrow evening and sail overnight to Kekova on the southern Turkish coast. We will probably spend some time anchored around there and then do our check-out from Turkey at Finike. We then have a 275 mile sail to Lattakia in Syria. The Syrian visas we obtained in London run out on the 14 May so we have to arrive there on or before then.

Back in the water

FOR PICTURES OF OUR HAUL-OUT GO TO http://picasaweb.google.com/Ironylondon/200704HaulOut

We are back in the water finally after two weeks, a huge relief. Great to be out of the dirty yard and back to functioning loos. It was a nerve-wracking experience going back in on the sled. Once it starts heading into the water the boat slides backwards with a massive whoosh! The stern anchor was under water. There is a nice tradition there of providing baklava for everyone in the yard when you are launched so we got 2kg of it. There have been almost daily boat launches so I am surprised we aren't fat by now.

I am writing this from anchor in Marmaris Bay. We are going to spend tomorrow doing our final errands in town. Tomorrow night we are trying to meet up with some friends who are arriving from France who we haven't seen since last year. Then, all being well, we will sail to Rhodes on Saturday in convoy with another boat. After fuelling up and provisioning we will head off east for Syria. Our visa validity runs out on 14 May so we have to try to get there by then.

Nic's Birthday

Sadly still our the water for Nic's birthday so it was a day of work. We did meet up with friends for a birthday dinner in the restaurant at Yacht Marine. In the meantime the painting, varnishing etc continues.