Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Day 145

5/29/2014

This was the first town since Symi, so I searched for and found a glasses shop. When I walked in, the salesman told me he had nothing under 200 lira. But we chatted, got friendly, and with a little bit of bartering I got a pair for 100 lira. The salesman assembled them with extra fortitude to withstand my rugged lifestyle.

I also needed a new camera and found a waterproof model in the town's digital shop. Unfortunately, it was disposable and stored the pictures on film, which can't be plugged into my phone. So I'm back to paddling without a camera, I hope you liked the pictures from the Josh Harris Camera while they lasted and I'm sorry about the water spots.

After arriving I had hauled my kayak a considerable distance to the water sports dock, which was much too high to launch from. So I loaded Icarus then slid her down into the water, jumped in after her, inserted myself upside down into the cockpit, and rolled upright.
Addressing my spectators above I said "That's how it's done."

I passed a double masted sailboat tacking into the wind. I liked that. It seems most of the sailboats I see turn their motors on and take down their sails when headwinds come.
About half an hour later I heard a motor. I turned around and saw a dinghy rushing towards me. When they were close enough I said hello and smiled.

There were two men on the dinghy, a crewman in a white uniform and a middle aged fellow in casual clothing, probably part of the party chartering the yacht and crew.

The sailboat stood still in the distance with sails down.

"Are you okay?" the fellow asked. "We thought maybe you were in distress."

Maybe they saw me waving my nalgene around trying to break up a chia slug.* I about a mile from land heading towards a peninsula.

"I appreciate the thought, but I'm fine. Thank you though."

After that there wasn't much more to say. They asked me if I was okay again and I told them about the blog and gave a goodbye roll as I pulled away.

As soon as I landed in port I found myself talking to kayakers from BC. Apparently I'm in a popular kayaking destination. A local outfitter, Bougainville, invited me to stay in their hotel. They also take groups scuba diving, canyoning and climbing.

Friday I went to the police office to get my passport stamped. I was only a little worried that they'd throw me in jail, but I told them I spoke to the embassy [four years ago] and they told me I would be fine. I also told them I just paddled over from the Greek islands. There are a handful of Greek islands within a few miles off the coast here, and I could have arrived in Turkey today from Greece by kayak.

The best way for me to get a visa was to fill out the form online.

I submitted my email address kayakdov@gmail.com and the visa was emailed to me. I logged onto my personal email account, where the kayakdov address forwards to and waited for the visa.

The police saw this and wanted to know why I lied about me email address. I tried to explain about the automatic forwarding, but they wouldn't understand. The matter was made worse by the visa not coming.

I filled out the form again, and the second time it worked. I got my visa. My passport was stamped and I'm now in Turkey legally. If Greek prison is bad, then I don't even want to think about Turkish prison, so it's nice that for the moment I'm not breaking any laws.
I was unable to find a waterproof camera here in Kaş.

* Sometimes chia seeds don't coagulate with the water but coalesce into gobs, or chia slugs.

wpid-20140529_120823.jpg

Nautical miles paddled: 15
Current location: 36.199008,29.64029

No comments:

Post a Comment