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Day 6 & 7 - Sailing Trip

Posted on 11:49 AM by 4 8 15 16 23 42 and filed under
It’s better to wrap up two last days together, since in the last day mostly “end of trip” theme was around.

In the 6th day I were totally convinced that the bays of Marmaris are marvelous.

This is a picture from the Selimiye bay:
Basically in the 6th day we went from above to below.


The photo above belongs to Bozukkale Bay, which was our final destination before returning Albatros Marina, where the trip started.

At the end of this cold February Sailing Trip, I’m glad I did it. I got wet, cold and maybe got exposed to tough weather conditions; still I learnt a lot, had fun and my motivation for sailing multiplied.

I had almost no experience with a big boat, and a Dufour 40 ain’t like a 23 Feet Gorbon. I had never stayed in a boat, and I had doubts whether it would be annoying after some days. Seven days after, I think life on the boat is really enjoyable (as long as you have working toilet and drinking water).


Le Fin


About Sailing Trip Blog Posts: Writing these posts were a lot difficult than I expected cause I only know Sailing terms in turkish. And writing these when you are tired really affects your writing skills. Sorry, if I made any grammatical errors or formed meaningless sentences.
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Day 5 - Sailing Trip

Posted on 11:44 AM by 4 8 15 16 23 42 and filed under
When we woke up, sun was  welcoming us to the new day. Normally you think a sunny day would be kind of warm, right? NO . NO . NO.

Before the trip, they told us to not carry a sweater for each day and they were right. We all wore the same things all day and even at night, because it can be very cold and since our day clothes are the thickest ones.

I brought 2 sweatshirts to the boat, which were insufficient. In February, if your clothes get wet, they will stay wet (Lesson learnt). My first sweater got wet to the maximum in the first day (vomit festival). So I had to wear the other sweater each day. I didn’t feel skinky or anything but if that one got wet also, I wouldn’t have another one which kind of sucked. (Move away quickly if you see anything fluid-likeJ )

Coming back to Day 3, it was the coldest day of the trip despite the sun. My uniform didn’t keep me warm enough to let me think anything except “it’s damn cold!”. So I went to my room, and put on anything that is not much wet (dry was a strong word in these conditions).

So I kind of looked like Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters:



Ok, I admit I was not that sweet.  Still, after costume change/upgrade, I felt a lot better and enjoy the day. 

We anchored in Dirsek Bay for lunch. Well, honestly anchoring was a lot harder considering the fact that anchor rode fell off without our control and we had to pull all the steel rode in. It was good practice because all the crew wanted to pursue career in weightliftingJ.

We didn’t want to spend the night in Dirsek Bay, and we wanted to do some more sailing. I guess we exegerated a little because the night fell when we were out in the sea, abay from safe bays.  Sailing a night is very different from daytime, it is riskier and much more difficult. Yet we had working GPS and hopefully we were not that far from Selimiye Bay. So after putting on lifesavers, using projector and gps we managed to anchor in a safe bay.

In the first days, for dinner we were having classical easy to prepare food like macaroni or scramble-eggs. As days went by, we discovered that some of the crew were really good at cooking so our simple dinners transformed to feasts.

Todays menu:
  • ·      Noodle
  • ·      Really really good Salad (Not because I prepared it myselfJ )
  • ·      Tiramisu
  • ·      Turkish Coffee

Yummmy. I got hungry again.


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Day 4 - Sailing Trip

Posted on 11:37 AM by 4 8 15 16 23 42 and filed under
Keywords of the day:
Rain, Hail, Horror, Marina, Bath , Happiness

Here comes the story:

We left Bozburun early in the morning to go to Marti Marina which is a very popular especially in summer.  We were ahead of our schedule, so we thought let’s hangout for a while in the open since we have time.  Well, sometimes in sailing you never know what to expect.

The wind got stronger and stronger and it started raining really hard. All of a sudden, the waves in the sea took a different form, as if we were in the middle of a hurricane. Plus hail started to fall which made it worse. We had to reef the sails with one hand and cover our faces with the other. Adrenaline!

Looking afterwards, I kind of enjoy now for what I’ve been through, yet at that moment I was only hoping weather to change.


Surviving the weather zone, we could finally reach Marti Marina. Hot water is really a miracle on earth.


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Day 3 - Sailing Trip

Posted on 11:33 AM by 4 8 15 16 23 42 and filed under


To compensate the first 2 rainy and windy days, climate has decided to make a gesture on the third day. Sunny warm weather, less wind but suitable to use spinnaker we all  had really enjoyed the day.

I could explain that day a little more visually:







We reached Bozburun and had dinner in a fine restaurant. My motivation is  at tops.
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Day 2 - Sailing Trip

Posted on 5:54 AM by 4 8 15 16 23 42 and filed under

After 10-hour sleep, I was reborn and back alive. We took our fixed main sail, had some breakfast (scrambled eggs) and left the marina in the hopes of a better day.

The weather was again windy and rainy but the waves were smaller compared to the day before. No trouble for our stomachs.

Before the trip, I had only 1 hour to prepare and no time for shopping. I didn’t have windproof pants, some proper shoes or gloves. I was WET WET WET!!!!!

Who wants some adrenaline? The spinnaker was nearly falling to sea, we catched it at the last minute.  When it is wet, spinnaker weighs a lot such that 5 guys could only carry it.

8 hours of sailing and we reached Serce Bay, a very lovely bay indeed.  
In the trip along with us, there were 3 other boats. We were sailing together and communicating via VHS.  We heard that one of the boats had some trouble when they started their motor in the bay. A black fluid was leaking from their engine and no one knew the reason. Again the solution was to dive in and check the blades. Well, a giant plastic bag was stuck in the blades of the engine!!! After it’s removed, everything works perfect.

We had macaroni for dinner and some soup. You know what, after all day sailing every hot meal is a feast.

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Day 1 - Sailing Trip

Posted on 5:12 AM by 4 8 15 16 23 42 and filed under
To go  to Marmaris, you first go to Dalaman by plane and then you have a one-hour drive. My flight was very early and I couldn’t get any sleep at all (Lesson Learnt: Always sleep before a sailing trip).

Since we plan to spend a whole week on the boat, a group went to shopping for vital supplies. Chocolate bars, chips and alcohol are very important in our survival as the shopping bags show. One-week supplies for 8 people cost almost 500 Euros and to give you an idea we took 25 water bottles of 5 liters.

All the supplies are taken, the paperwork finished we were ready to sail at noon.
We untied the ropes but wait, a rope was stuck to motor fan. In order to leave the marina all the rope must be set free of the motor or motor could be damaged.
Solution: One must dive in the sea (Rainy day in February) and cut the rope.
Victim: Our captain of courseJ

At last, we could leave the marina and get on the way. The weather was very windy, that was not the problem, but the waves on the sea have caused trouble in our stomachs.

40 minutes sleep + hunger + giant waves for 3 hours = VOMIT

I was not the only one of course; half of the crew has vomited. We were all wet, all kind of panicked of the harsh weather conditions and most of us were tired.

Most importantly at that moment, we would all prefer to watch tv in the house, than sail there. I kept asking myself why I was in this trip.

And then, we noticed our main sail was ripped. When a sail on the boat is ripped you have to fix it, otherwise it could be dangerous. You may not control it, yet it may be unusable. So we decided to turn back to Albatros Marina, the place where we left off 3 hours ago.

After a hard day, we were all begging for some hot soup and some food. When our stomachs were full, and our clothes were dry, we thought:

It wasn’t that hard, was it?


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Sailing Trip February 2010

Posted on 4:50 AM by 4 8 15 16 23 42 and filed under

Finally the semester is over. After all the finals to take, projects to finish, and reports to write I finally start enjoying some vacation for myself.

For my vacation plans, the most interesting one is a sailing trip I am planning to go. I started sailing almost 3 years ago but I couldn’t continue all the time for various reasons, mostly due to the sailing club I was going to. Although I enjoyed their company, I thought they lacked professionalism and proper organization.

Hopefully, my new university has a very good sailing club, they have tons of activities and they work very hard. 3 times a year, in different seasons, they organize one-week trips to beautiful sailing spots of Turkey and you spend whole week sailing, which is great.

It’s a great experience because you eat, sleep, hang out on the boat and you learn to live like a sailor.

For the first time I am going to a sailing trip and I am planning to write a couple of words each day about it.

We are going to Marmaris and we are planning to sail between famous bays of Marmaris. Mostly we will stay in bays and other times in marinas. 


Here is our map:




Our boat is a Dufour 40, it looks pretty cool in the Youtube commercial video below (although ours is older, dirtier and a little smelly)




Let the trip begin……