Friday, July 4, 2014

Day 146

6/1/2014

Force five southwest winds in the morning, force six to seven in the afternoon.  For the first hour, I fought into it to leave the deep harbor.
  
After I rounded the headland, putting the wind at my back, Icarus flew.  My paddles sliced through the water like swords and I rode the busting two meter waves around me.

I passed the last Greek archipelago.  On land, rocky green mountain wilderness stretched on forever. 

A narrow channel cut a piece of peninsula off into an island and I sped towards it, or at least, I hoped it did.  The slice of sea between the mountains was so narrow I couldn’t see it.  If my chart was wrong and it wasn't there, then I would have to turn around and head into a doom wind.  Five hundred meters away and I still couldn't see it.  I worried.   Two hundred meters away, it looked like there was no channel.  I peered back over my shoulder as the wind continued to rocket me forward.   Every moment would be another agonizing struggle back around the peninsula.  Fifty meters, maybe it was there?  Twenty five, I turned to cut through the mountains and was overcome with relief.

After the channel I headed north along more wilderness.   Frequent small bays provided shelter for breaks.  Finally I turned west to cross a large bay.  The beam gusts grabbed my paddle and fought me for control of it and my boat.  I held on tightly and switched to my storm paddle once the crossing was complete.

I entered an inner bay.  It was crowded with boats seeking shelter from the storm but eventually I managed to find a parking spot.

While I work on this post in a cafe I'm chatting with the friendly manager.  He's telling me the advantages of black woman.  Unfortunately, it would seem, he has trouble finding them here in Turkey so his next vacation will be in Brazil.  I like that we're talking like friends and I'm not being interviewed about my adventure.

[gallery type="rectangular" ids="5154,5153,5152,5151,5150"]

Nautical miles paddled: 15.5
Current location: 36.196949,29.849612

2 comments:

  1. So the map seems to indicate that you have reached Cypres !!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have, check out the Facebook page for the latest news.

    ReplyDelete