Going to Cyprus

 

May 29 2001 Rome-Antalya
Are left alone at a time of Finike to prepare the boat before the rest of the crew I reach for a cruise planned in Cyprus. During the winter I put an ad on "Bolina online to find a crew worthy of Gattadapelare. The second myth "and this year will not be there is a good replacement. But the large crowd of aspirants in the end were only Gino and Marcus. Gino had the opportunity to meet him a few days ago during a visit to Rome vua. Comes from Brussels where he works as an interpreter. I had him a good impression, positive and not trivial. I think it will be a good traveling companion.
So here I am arriving in Antalya where the 18 after a flight Rome-Istanbul.
The Hotel Perla is located in the Citadel and the garden is surrounded by fresh and old walls. Lemon trees ambreggiano breakfast tables and a small, clear pool cools the eyes. The old structure of the hotel, but harmonious between the walls of the citadel. Not attractive to tourists demanding, but able to touch my oriental fantasies. The room is inhabited at night by other timid beings.

30 May 2001 Antalya-Finike
I reached the harbor of Finike with little public transport. The sight of my boat suspended on wooden stilts awakens emotions and memories. Finike, port of arrival and departure of a new path. Panta rei!
The day spent in hot and in maintenance. I drink a lot. Ceno lonely inn in the Navy.

31 May 2001. Finike
Continuing maintenance work. Replacing the cup of the process and protect the keel and under the weight of the boat to dry it is open along one edge. Work calmly. Elke will arrive tomorrow, Gerlinde, and with the same flight, even Gino. There's festival along the piers. The dual face of Turkey, ancient and traditional, modern and Western, is expressed in the behavior of couples and women in clothing.

1st June 2001, Sunday. Finike.
I await the arrival of Gino working on the boat. I am not satisfied because I can not completely seal the crack in the keel. A shadow of moisture from the bilge filter still prevents the fiberglass to adhere well. Increase the layers of material. In the afternoon I put Gattadapelare in water and purchase a new battery. The idea that the engine is not put in motion in case of need frightens me. It 'true that with a sufficient crew and prepared the engine is not essential, but one of these conditions has never been verified. Of course not speaking of the preparation, which has always been good. He spent the day between work and the expectation of Gino.
Finally a phone call alerting me that the plane landed. The ladies are heading for the hotel Perla (love? I doubt it, but now it is booked.) And Gino is coming here.
Finally arrives at 20th Dinner is at hand in eastern nenie in a room on the pier and make plans for tomorrow. We want to arrive early in Antalya.

2 June 2001. Finike-Antalya. 58 miles
Navigating. After eight months of inaction, the keel of my boat fendi greedy waters of the sea. In recent months some have profoundly changed balances and began a new phase of the journey Gattadapelare in the Mediterranean. The project to come up to the Red Sea, and here in Aqaba, is now abandoned. I intend, after a stopover in Cyprus, returning to the Aegean and find in the act or in the Peloponnese, a definitive basis for the boat. This will be done within a couple of years. Then you will see.
We left at 10.00 after having fought with the avvolgifiocco who did not want to learn to start to work after eight months of rest. We direct the bow to the east in a day serene and calm. To sail with sailing and motor weak breezes along the coast. The sea is so that the new invogliante marinaio urges me to be an unlikely draw for shark fishing. The drag for one quarter mile of three nodes and then exchange roles. It 'a good opportunity for Gino to take the boat. I confess that the idea had crossed his mind, but it is Gattadapelare has changed his mind .. Which will have to say?
The fishery for skipjack excites a sense of photographic Gino and my appetite.
Navigation proceeds quiet and we have time, Gino and I, to familiarize yourself. Sailing is a wonderful catalyst and creates or destroys friendships. Gino seems to know me always.
Without a detailed chart the entrance to the marina of Antalya is a hypothesis that a certainty. We arrive again with the light and we are reaching the ladies with a taxi.
Their experience with the Hotel Perla, and the owner, as feared, was not exciting.
They are enthusiastic, however, of another inn that found in the vicinity of the port and the coast as the other. Therefore, we willingly surrender their reservation at the Pearl and all together we go to dinner on the ramparts of the Crusader port.

June 3 2001 - Pentecost Sunday. Antalya-Aspendos-Perge.
Today and tomorrow, not sails. We want to visit two wonderful locations archaeological near Antalya. For this we rent a car and under the hot sun, but bearable, first we visit the ruins of Perge and the well-preserved theater of Aspendos. Here are preparing the stage for the representation and a huge dell'Aida guineafowl is authorized before our eyes. Places and times is ill-suited to Egypt, but basically we are in East and West in the eyes all forms in a single scenario. We ate very well in a restaurant along the highway. Genuine Turkish cuisine and good wine. On the way back we choose the hotel in which we move (maybe!) A few days playing golf. A bell 'anonymous, international, aseptic hotel on the shore of the Sea. I think the charm of our Hotel Perla, genuine caravanserai, host turtles and beetles, from the creaking stairs and bathrooms without locks. There is no comparison!

4 June 2001. Quirino S. T. Antalya-Telmessos.
We are in direct proportion to find the ruins of this ancient city which hosted Alexander the Great. E 'in the mountains, through forests and pleasant valleys, about 800 meters in height. But before we look at some caves that housed less famous characters who lived in prehistoric times. Which dated back from the coast to reach the entrance, overlooking the plains below. The summer heat makes the air vibrate and the singing of the cicadas accompany our tiring walk. Sitting in the shade of a tree we do magro caressing breeze that rises from the valley and try to catch the notes of the flute of Pan.
The cave and cool and dark and transmit sensations of primordial existence.
Eat again in a restaurant along the way. Trout to mugnaia and wine. Everything has a flavor different from those of the Black Forest. Not food, but the air, the atmosphere, the smells local affect the taste. For some time we have learned not to return home from our travels brought us food that pleased us on the spot. They never taste the same.
The ruins of Telmessos are hidden among the trees and between rocks. Few things are a big city. The theater is well kept and in a wonderful position. High, flanked by high costs of reddish rock, dominates, looking towards the sea, the plain below.
In the evening Marcus comes from Rome. Men sleep in the boat, the ladies at the hotel.

5 June 2001. S. Bonifacio - From Antalya to Alania. 70 miles.
Tolle 9 whole crew arrives and we start direct south-east. The time and very beautiful. We pass in front of Antalya, which appears high on the rocky coast. After a while 'the coast is low and sandy, and will remain so for many miles. The wind, initially modest breeze strengthens. This is from the north-west and us in the large garden and the slack. We also somewhat 'because the engine is is long and the crew is not prepared to "suffering" for many hours at sea. Therefore proceed to the 8 nodes that do not prevent a significant, and probably faster, letting skipjack fishing. The ladies are behaving very well. In some time Gattadapelare is well inclined, so that in the cockpit is the preferred position to leeward dormicchiare lying. Spend the day talking, sleeping and doing calculations on the route and position (which is assumed by Gino). Set in the evening, the sun, the moon rises and a silver highway before us shows us the route. Finally we see, on the high seas and skillfully illuminated the medieval fortress of Alania. It stands on a rocky head behind which hides the city. The port is hidden and spend two hours looking for a reasonable landing. On the one hand, the undertow is so strong that with effort we the land lord and entrusts to the willing arms of robust Turks. We are going to escape in a basin inside, dark and uncomfortable, where berths finally holding to a few meters from the quay disadvantaged. Gerlinde Elke and reach to a restaurant, as per agreements. The ladies have already chosen a hotel nearby and economic, which also shelters Marcus. So it's all for Gattadapelare Gino and me.
During the night I feel the wind. Yesterday, a shroud was dropped dall'arridatoio. And I saw the tree falling. A feeling that I was shocked. I am not quite sure of the work done in Marmaris. I fear that the turnbuckles were not very tight and that the wind might lose the tree. I turn around and listening to berth in the wind and thinking that tomorrow we have to do to get 70 miles a night in a port in I do not know anything. I do not have a serious portolano we know that time will do nothing in the next few hours. A heavy heart I decided to go back and leave the boat in the marina of Antalya where I will be able to do for the next season, a strong control rigging. Tomorrow I will deal with Gino.

6 June 2001 - From Antalya-Alania to 70 miles.
And so we will do. Gino has great adaptability. It is agreed to surrender part of the cruise more interesting for the sake of my peace of mind. Let the others at the table for breakfast and we start with rough sea and wind as yesterday. Only now that we almost bow. The encounter with a large turtle that leaves almost caressing marks the transition from behind the headland to the annoyance spray. Resting a little better to take the wind and sea and we are forced to make a couple of turns. Antalya is 12 noon. The hours spend quite slow and suffered because there is this curiosity is the news. The skipjack is spent yesterday at two different meals. A pasta lunch (Gino says excellent). Spend hours. Do we dress cool, using the heavily waxed. At last night the two enter the marina. Tired and vaguely dissatisfied.

7 June 2001 - Antalya-Alania.
We do Gattadapelare wing and drill the keel to eject all the water that is in bilge. I look all surprised disbelief. How can I explain that I want to totally dry the bilge in order to seal the keel without problems of moisture? I intend to undertake this work in October when I come back and I want to be sure not to fail again.
The formalities for the abandonment of the boat in Turkey, the so-called transit log, take the bus to Alania, and we let ourselves be spoiled by a kind of steward who distributes, upon request, glasses of fresh water. Alania to climb on the rock to watch the sunset. The descent through the medieval houses cliffs surrounds us in the dark times of facts mezzelune, scimitar, quartered infidels and other things like "Mamma li Turks." Instead we meet a boy who, we learned that Italians are informed about Juventus.
Spend the night in the famous hotel.

8 June 2001 From Alania in Girne (Turkish Cyprus)
The catamaran trip ends in just over four hours. A British Girne in hotel ahead Elke, Gerlinde and Marcus who arrived here yesterday. The port of Girne is very picturesque, full of restaurants and bars, and crowded with tourists middle rather quiet. The rest of the country does not have much to submit. Celebrating the meeting with copious libations of raki. Gino is a rare example of a rating teetotalers. Better this way, we are less divided.

Taxi ce we Bellapais. Here he lived and wrote Lawrence Durrell, English by birth and by adoption Cyprus. His book "Bitter Orange" describes these places through the eyes of a Nordic love of perfume and a prisoner of the atmosphere of an Eastern European geography, Christian and Muslim history, Gothic and Mediterranean. A bridge between two worlds linked to a common hard, confrontational fate. The remains of the former dominating the plain Bellapais going to end in the sea.
The monks who lived here were so gaudenti from incurring the punishment of Richard Leoncouer. But as not to justify their guilt: the place and beautiful and inviting to sin. Later wander around the port and finally dinner in a room on the wharf.

9 June 2001 - The island of Cyprus-Turkish zone.
Predio hired car and we go to visit the island. Our freedom of movement is restricted to the area of Turkey. But tell us, this is the most beautiful because less polluted by tourism. In fact the road that runs east along the coast of that long peninsula which is called Karpaz meet only rare cars and no place where to have lunch. The road is little more than a trail asphalted road and driving on the left, the way English, presents no problem. It always travels to the center of the road.
We cut and see the sea from the south side of the peninsula. Our goal is to Famagusta. Just the name evokes battles between crusaders and maomettani, between Christians and Muslims, between the Venetians and Turks. Here Mustafa Pasha was living skin Admiral Morosini after conquering the last bulwark in defense of the Venetian. The old part of town is closed between walls in ruins.

Many beautiful facades of Gothic churches is what remains after the destruction caused by the victors after the siege in 1571 Some have been turned into mosques and architectural grafts seem unreal.
Reach Nicosia and the sadness of his reality split between two worlds enemies.
We do not like this atmosphere of hate and bloody events pending. The leave with no regret to return to the pleasant resort of Girne.
Appetizer with raki. Dinner at the same restaurant

June 10 2001-Sunday. Nicosia-Istanbul-Rome
Starting at dawn.
Gino travels first class with the VIP, we, mere tourists, in the second.
He lost luggage.
We do not.
Gerlinde leaves us in Istanbul to Vienna.
Gino leaves us in Rome to Brussels to Mary.

But we know we are STILL ALL TOGETHER TO THE TABLES OF trampled OF OLD BRIDGE GATTA.
AND THEN: GOOD WIND FOR THE NEXT MONTH AND ARRIVEDERECI