Day 139

5/22/2014

After a last desperate losing battle with customs I launched with my new gear and left Greece behind.  The sea was calm and I passed and waved to several sailboats as I crossed to Turkey.
Once I rounded the headland the strengthening beam wind turned into a tailwind and I made good time.
But I was drinking potato soup instead of chia maca gogo juice and I was tiring.  And I also had to poop.  At 16:00, still 10 miles away from my destination, I headed into a beautiful bay at the edge of a thickly wooded ravine.  There might be spots of fresh water in the otherwise dry stream bed.
Near the beach I found a shallow well with a few inches of clear sweet water and a pile of donkey poop.

I could beat into the bush and climb up the stream bed or paddle out to the moored sailboat and ask for drinking water.  The boat flew an American flag.  One of the sailors even spoke a little English and they were happy to provide me with some bottles of water.

The bay was protected by an island and I went through my repertoire of rolls on the pristine water.

While I was training in Symi I was very pleased, after years of working at it off and on, to get the hang of a reverse sweep roll.  I remembered long ago drills and a brief lesson given to me by the kayak wizard Jack Gilman, and with his teaching, lots of failed attempts, and warm water I finally got it down.

In the wilderness bay I also performed on both sides my C to C, sweep, butterfly, shotgun, and crook of elbow rolls.  Up next, spine roll.

Sadly, I've lost my once reliable hand roll, but hopefully it will be easy to remaster once I have a wide repertoire of Greenland rolls.

I lay down on the beach and was asleep as soon as my head hit my life jacket.

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Nautical miles paddled: 20
Current location: 36.650029,28.14211