Sailing from Gocek to Cappy Creek

Gocek was nice and quiet where we are docked and my cabin has a nice fan in it So I slept well. There was a big breakfast for all the crews in the flotilla and a briefing afterwards. Then my father and I walked down the waterfront to the shops and bought a few more supplies and got some Turkish Lira. We went back to the boat and had our boat checkout with Will the flotilla captain. We discovered that our anchor windlass had a jammed clutch. Will got a repairman to come and un-jam and grease the clutch.

Meanwhile Martha went for a walk and we were given permission to sail soon after, but had to wait a couple of hours for Martha to return. Then we cast of and motored out of the harbor and set sail for Cappy Creek. We tacked our way between the rocky headlands in some flukey wind. Our boat sails much better on port tack so we tried to gain as much ground as possible on port tack. We had Estill giving us advice on sail trim and when to tack since she has been racing sailboats for a few years now.

It took us a few hours of tacking up wind but soon we were reaching into Cappy Creek. We took down our sails, started the engine and radioed to the lead crew that we were coming into harbor. They had us put out fenders on both sides of the boat, rig two stern lines and prepare to drop the anchor. We spun around and backed into the harbor and when we were about four boat lengths from the dock we dropped the anchor and let out chain until we were at the dock. Then we tied our stern lines to the dock and cranked in the anchor chain until it was tight. We put our boarding plank over the space between the stern of the boat and the dock and we were set for the night. We put on our swimsuits and jumped into 12 feet of clear blue water and swam until we were refreshed.

There are a few people who live in Cappy creek and run a restaurant for the boating crowd. If you eat in the restaurant they don’t charge you to dock your boat.

My father and I went for a walk to the top of the hill and we could see where one family was still living in the old stone house except they had plastic sheeting on the roof and the electric cables were just strung through the trees from house to house. We cam back down just as the punch party was starting. We drank punch and introduced ourselves to the other crews and had a nice chat before dinner. There are 8 total boats in out flotilla including the lead boat on which Will is the flotilla captain, Nellie is the entertainment director and Josh is the repairman.

Most of the other boats are crewed by couples and there is another boat with a family of four with kids in their 20s. No kids Estill and Winfree’s age. Too bad! ☹ We ordered fresh fish and calamari for dinner. It was all cooked by the family in a bid wood fired oven behind the restaurant and was very tasty. After dinner I had a couple more beers with the lead crew and then went to bed. I crawled into bed and was lulled to sleep but the gentle rocking of the boat.