Tue 27 Sep - Bodrum to Marmaris

A short post - after 3 hours in bed last night and drinks till now (02:30am) it's hard to give justice to such a top day. Craig and Sandra arrived in good shape at 03:00 am, albeit after a typical Thomas Cook charter flight experience. A quick beer or two and off to bed.

Up at 08:00 for the RV with the agent only to find out that they decided to do immigration paperwork themselves and we were not required any more. That gave Craig time to fix the tender, connect a 3.5mm input for the stereo, learn the boat, fix the helmsman's flybridge seat and check the engines. We loaded some essential beer and, after the agent arrived at 11:30 to relieve us of a large sum of money, we set off. Good skills by Sandra en-route.

Cleverly, I had not identified that the sight glass on the fuel tanks did not go down to the bottom so, 10 miles past Marmaris I had a panic attack when the cockpit gauge on one engine read zero and the other showed 'R' (below zero). That led to a backtrack to Marmaris! Happily, Craig and I decided not to worry about the prospect of flameout and, instead, instigate a complicated photo shoot plan (results at the header picture).

The photo shoot was by far and away the funniest, and most dangerous, part of the day. The tender is ridiculously overpowered and fast but, at only a few feet long, it's also seriously unstable. Four miles out we launched Gorgy and Craig in the tender. The plan was to run both Athina and tender at about 25kt and get some great pics. At about half that speed it became apparent to me, in Athina, that the guys were looking a bit uncomfortable. Nevertheless, press on... Then I spotted the wake of a local pleasure boat approaching, trivial for Athina but huge for the tender. I waved furiously but the boys were focused on their mission. With absolutely no exaggeration, the whole of the tender was airborne. It's possible that the prop was still in the water but certainly no part of the hull. It was simultaneously both terrifying and hysterical to see Gordy's reaction.

The very wet boys and tender were reloaded onto Athina and we proceeded for a 5000 Turkish Lira fuel bill. Both times I've been amazed when the fuel payments gone through. Interestingly, there is 250 litres remaining at '0' and 150 at 'R' (super empty). Knowledge stored so we can push the limits further next time! I'll calculate exactly how far we've traveled these few days so that we have confidence that we can leave the safety of the Turkish coast for Cyprus on Thursday with a reasonable reserve. That trip will inform the Cyprus to Suez leg, which is longer, and that trip will inform the feasibility of the Egypt to Jeddah leg.