We have had terrible weather
here, in Gocek. We
think a small cyclone came through Tuesday night; it
was a nightmare. The lightening was like a fireworks show, the seas were very
high and choppy - shooting up through the docks ten feet in the air. It had
come on in the late afternoon and raged for a while. We
were anchored and planning to go in to meet BeBe for dinner
on shore. We had decided not to go, but then around 7:30, it becalmed so we
went in. After getting seated and chatting for a while the rain and wind came
back but we were indoors and couldn't hear the howling. Apparently what we
thought was the end of the storm was only the eye. The winds were now fiercer
than before and coming from the other direction. After dinner, we walked out to
a horror show. Boats were violently pitching and slamming at the wharf. Locals
told us they had never seen this before in Gocek. Our dinghy was gone from the
cleat we had tied to! We found it half deflated, slamming up against and under the
little footbridge to Skopea Marina. BeBe was tossing up and down so much; their
passerelle was pitching about 4 feet up into the air. A catamaran moored next
to them was full of drunken Russians who were partying and singing, the girls
looked as though they were pole dancing on the shrouds without a care in the
world as they came perilously close to slamming into Bebe. Frank and Jaime got
on board to help Judy & Bill get BeBe secured, but some other boats didn't fare so
well sustaining stern damage and damage to their passerelles.
We were now stranded on shore with no
means to get back to Destiny. We couldn’t even see if she was still where we
had left her. Eventually the captain of one of the mega yachts deployed his
dinghy (looked like a Navy seal tender) and jetted us out to our boat. Sure
enough she was there but pitching like a mad bull making it extremely difficult
and more than a little scary trying to get on board. The captain was kind
enough to return to shore for our crippled dinghy, towing it back to us. Frank
raised the prune-shriveled tender on the davit, and we all hunkered down inside
trying to ride the rest of the storm out. None of us had seen this on the
weather forecasts.
The next morning of course the skies were
clear and the day beautiful. The dinghy was taken to the hospital with a rip
(above the waterline) and some cracks in the fiberglass bottom. Jaime and
Christine left on the 3rd. They certainly had some adventures to
write home about.
After the dinghy repair we leisurely
returned to Yacht Classic in Fethiye, via the lovely islands on the way, to get Destiny ready for her long Winter’s
nap.
We had gotten so lucky with our summer
cruising here because it was quite mild and then our trip back up from Kas was
one of the best sails we had here, which is amazing since we've heard that it
is a bash coming back up. So I guess the odds were heading us toward a really
bad day, eventually. The cold has settled in here as well, which makes nice
sleeping weather. Today the winds are unmerciful but skies are clear and the
temp is cool. I guess when the season starts it comes in with a bang!
