We have a favorite port just as you round the tip about half way down the coast of Turkey. It is the old Roman harbor of Kindos. We have stayed there several times before. The afternoon winds were so strong, we once again took shelter. While we were hunkering down against the strong winds, other sailboats eased in as well. One sailboat was not so lucky. With the strong winds, their anchor did not hold and they found themselves shoved up against the rocks, pinned down by the gusty winds. We jumped in our dingy to help them out. Another dingy from one of the other sailboats joined us. The husband was standing on one of the rocks desperately trying to push the boat away from the damaging rocks. I could tell that his wife was pretty clueless about what to do. We tied our two dinghies to the boat and tried to pull it off the rocks. But the wind was no match for the two small outboard motors. It was going to take something bigger. I jumped aboard to help the bewildered woman. One of the other sailboats came over and I tied a long line to the boat and told the woman to feed the line through the bracket designed to hold the rope while I went up front to use the anchor to pull the bow of the boat away. I guess the woman did not understand the significants of how important it was for the line to stay in the bracket, because when the sailboat started pulling on the line that by now had slipped out of the bracket, it pulled off ever single stanyon on that side of the boat. We did manage to get the boat off the rocks and in a safe place for the night.
The next morning we motored out of the harbor under much more favorable winds. When we were a safe distance from the harbor and shore we raised our mainsail. Just as we were turning into the wind, the boat came to a jarring stop. We hit a rock in what was suppose to be 60 feet of water. Yikes. One of the hulls was cracked all the way through and a small amount of water was coming into the bulge. The automatic pump kicked in and managed to keep the water pumped out of the boat. But with that damage, we were forced to head to Marmaris Turkey, which was about 7 hours away, and have the boat hauled out for repairs. Fortunately this is one of the best-equipped marinas in the Mediterranean. Over the next couple of weeks we got estimates, talked to the insurance company and arranged for repair work to be done. Our navigation system electronically tracks exactly where the boat goes. When the insurance appraiser came on to the boat, we showed him the navigation records along with the pilot book that normally has those kinds of obstacles carefully plotted. Evidently we were privileged to be the first ones to discover a previously uncharted rock just below the waterline. Great huh. I wonder if they will let us name the rock?
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