Cappy Creek to Bestas Limani (Cold Water Bay)

Bestas Limani (Cold Water Bay)
We had some nice wind yesterday and are off to a good start and having a lovely sail today. There are eight boats in our flotilla. We have nice wind and we head east. We make some sandwiches with the local bread a cheese and have lunch in the cockpit under way.

In the afternoon just outside our destination harbor Bestas Limani (Cold Water Bay) the wind died so we hove-to and jumped over the side and swam in 300 feet of cool deep blue water. It was so terrific!

We rafted up in the harbor by dropping our anchors and backing towards the shore where Ali the local restaurant owner directed us and a one handed guy took a long line off our stern and tied it to a rock on the shore and then we tied all the boats together. The one armed guys was a really good rope handler. He was amazing to watch. We found out later that he lost his one hand and three fingers off the other when he was young fishing with dynamite! He has adapted amazingly well.

When the work was done I swam to the beach where Estill and I hunted for sea glass. We are hoping to find enough to fill two old bottles as a memento of our trip. After the swim a hiking expedition headed for the ruins at the top of the mountain. It was quite steep hike and Pop didn't have on his hiking shoes and didn't get all the way up. I scrambled up and took a few pics of the abandoned Greek town. It was built in medieval times but abandoned in the 1920's when there was a big exchange of people between Greece and Turkey.

Now the roofs have fallen in but mostly it looks just like an empty town. Randy noticed that my father was starting back down by himself so I scrambled back down to walk with him.

On the way down we passed Pavarotti, the donkey owned by Ali. Later while I was making dinner he began to bray. It was an amazingly musical and ultra loud bray. Which echoed all around the bay. He was a tenor like Luciano his namesake and he could sustain his call for a long time. He was amazing. (I didn’t eat in the restaurant but my brother recalls it was one of his favorites.) It was up on the cliff with a great view, a cool breeze and wonderful food.

Then I made dinner for he and I while the rest ate ashore. I made pasta with eggplant, onions, black olives in tomato sauce. The only oddity was instead of canned tomatoes I bought 2 large cans of tomato paste but I made it work. And with it a cucumber, yogurt and garlic salad. And of course I served fresh bread. All the restaurants sell bread that is baked fresh and delivered every morning. And we finished off with banana and nutella (chocolate hazelnut spread).

It was nice to have a quiet dinner and after while father clean-up I went skinny dipping off the stern. All the boats in the raft we empty except for the one at the far end where a couple were cozying up in the cockpit and listening to one of my favorite Roxy Music albums. For some reason the water cool on top and warm underneath except for a few warm patches. I found a warm one and floated and looked a sky full of stars and listened to Love is the Drug"

After the song was over and I was chilly I got out and dried off in the cockpit and settled in my bunk and started The Oracle of Stambul which Connie sent me from San Francisco for my trip. It’s a recently written novel about Istanbul during the time of the Sultans and looks very interesting. Good night!
The others came back late from the restaurant and I was already in dreamland.