Frank
stayed in Phuket where it rained torrents every day until he flew to Istanbul
on June 26th. He spent one night in Istanbul before flying to
Dalaman, which is the closest airport to Marmaris where Destiny will be
unloaded.
Here is a note Frank sent on
his arrival in Istanbul:
“After my 1st 12 hours here are are a few of my thoughts.
I have to preface this with from where I am staying and the
neighborhoods I have been able to ride or walk through.
Everything is very clean. No litter to speak of, sure
there is a little here in there but mostly very clean.
The streets are in good repair and there is a continuous
sidewalk.
More people in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand spoke some
English. Very rare if you find someone who speaks English here. The TV is
almost all Turkish or some other language I don't understand. There are over 70
channels and only about 2 are English. There aren't even English subtitles. Oh,
that's right I am in a foreign country I forgot.
No bars or nightclubs. No beer or anything else served
at the restaurants. When I went out to dinner tonight I thought for sure there
would be some joint that had beer. Not happening at least in this area.
The only American food place was Burger King and Popeye’s. Everything else is their stuff. Instead of bars there are a
lot of bakeries. Beautiful stuff and all fresh.
The weather is down right perfect. A breeze and a high of
about 80. I didn't feel any humidity. No smoke in the air.
I
think you can say we are back in civilization. Hurry and get here I miss
you a lot.”
The Clipper
Aurora would be Destiny’s home for nearly a month. The crew finished loading
all of the yachts on June 21st and then set off for The Maldives
where a few more yachts were waiting to load before transit up the Indian
Ocean, through Pirate Alley and the Red Sea into Turkey. We were in a very
anxious state because the shipping date has moved well past what is considered
safe for this transit. Pirate Alley is extremely active with daily reports of
incidents. Without any detail we have been lead to understand that to some
degree during the voyage there will be protection on board the m/v Clipper
Aurora. Monsoon season is now in full swing and desert sand storms sweep out to
sea from Africa. All we can do is pray that all goes well.
Marieke
Derks of 7Star (we call her our Angel) kept us apprised of Destiny’s status the
entire journey, from loading and departure from Phuket to arrival in Marmaris. She
would forward us the reports from the home office in Amsterdam. Here is a copy
of the first report we received:
Sent:
Monday, June 24, 2013 3:42 PM
Dear
Sir / Madam,
Mv
Clipper Aurora is on route but is suffering from the bad weather caused by the
Monsoon. The vessel cannot maintain her speed and is delaying as result.
schedule
is than as follows:
ETA @
Male pilot station: 27th of June, 2013 @ 22:00hrs AGW WP
ETA @ Marmaris,
Turkey pilot station: around 10th of July, 2013 AGW WP
Note that ETA Marmaris is July 10th
Frank got
to Marmaris and waited for Destiny’s arrival. While there he had plenty of time
to get to prepare for the arrival & plenty to do with paperwork and red
tape.
Meanwhile
we received another report from the Shipping Company… I’m including the full
detail to show what we were seeing.
Amsterdam, June 26th, 2013
Dear Sir / Madam,
Mv Clipper Aurora is on route but is suffering from the
bad weather caused by the Monsoon. The vessel cannot maintain her speed and is
delaying as result as cargo safety is first priority in these conditions.
Following received from the master of mv Clipper Aurora:
Date of report
:
26-06-2013
Time of report
:
08:00 (GMT+6)
AAA. Position
:
05-08 N / 081-32 E
BBB. Course
:
263 Deg
CCC. Speed
:
10.0 Kn
DDD. Distance for 24 hrs : 256 Nm
EEE. Daily average speed : 10.7 Kn
GGG. Distance to go :
483 NM
III. Wind/Sea/Swell :
SW-6/WSW-4/WSW-3
JJJ. ETA to next port : Male
28-06-2013 08:00 LT wp agw
LLL. Comments
:
Ship's cranes are on starboard side.
Vessel is
pitching & rolling heavily, ETA may be changed considerably.
Cargo
checked, all in good condition.
ETA @ Male pilot station: 28th of June, 2013 @
08:00hrs AGW WP
ETA @ Marmaris, Turkey pilot station: around 11th of
July, 2013 AGW WP. Discharge will take place on the anchorage.
We continued to receive similar reports, as the monsoon
season threw gales at the ship constantly. The Aurora had to at one point go
into shore to hug to coast because of severe seas, and while coastal cruising,
got hit with severe sand storms.
Meanwhile I received updates from Frank as well. He was
pretty miserable in Marmaris. He had booked a nice hotel online, but when he
arrived it was closed for renovation. So he was put elsewhere. The new room was
above a disco that roared all night long and his bed was wall to wall in the
room. So he changed again as you will read:
“Ok this morning
I have been very busy. I changed hotels, that was #1 on my list.
The hotel situation has been a total fuck up. The manger of the
hotel that I was supposed to be staying in asked me if I had looked at the
rooms of the hotel I was going to? I told him it was twice as big as
advertised with a balcony at half the cost of where they put me. I ask him if
he had seen my room and that any thing in town including backpackers would be a
step up. So I got to go back down there to work out the financial
arrangement. I know I'll get screwed on that but at least I will get a
night of sleep.
Took my clothes
to the laundry. I am sure I wasn't pleasant to be around. I will pick
that up this afternoon.
Talked to Soner
our agent. We will get together for coffee tomorrow morning.
Having dinner
with Brian and Isabel on Wasabi this evening.
I might need to
take a nap I’ve been so busy. Take care and I will send some pictures.
Love F”
Poor Frank! We continued to receive scary
reports form 7Star and then the reports just stopped. Apparently when in the
heavily pirate-infested areas the boats go Radio Silent. We heard nothing until
July 13th when Frank got word that the Clipper Aurora was at the
Suez Canal. Sweet Blessings! She made it through Pirate Alley!
July
16, 2013
Hooray!
Destiny is reunited with Frank after a dreadful passage that lasted just shy of
a month! She is caked with salt and desert sand but as far as Frank can tell,
we only lost a canvas cover from the anchor locker hatch, a cockpit instrument
cover and the use of our wind instruments. The crew broke our swim ladder on
the stern using it to board to check the boat from time to time, since she was
in the very front during two Monsoons and a Sahara sand Storm. The goosneck
cover and pulpit covers are completely shredded. A few areas of our stanless
are cracked and everything looks sandblasted. Frank has not surveyed the
damages yet but we paid for extra insurance for this.
Unloading
was first delayed by the presence of a cruise ship in the Marmaris port, but as
soon as Clipper Aurora got the thumbs-up to begin unloading, he said it all
happened so quickly he didn't even have an opportunity to snap pictures because
Destiny was second off the ship. Once on board, he immediately deployed the mainsail
and headed south to Gocek where he'll worry about getting her cleaned up and
re-dressed as she is getting her bottom scraped and repainted on the
hardstand. I'm really looking
forward to joining them soon.
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