BODRUM

GULET RACES

Gulet, from the French golette (schooner), is a traditional Turkish broad-beamed wooden coastal sailing vessel with a raised bow, a broad, flat stern, a main foremast and secondary mast aft.

We have seen hundreds of these boats here. Almost all in charter. The ones we have seen under way are never under sail. So, when we found out that the annual Gulet Regatta was this week we got excited. We wanted to see them sailing. Due to an interpretation error, the printed program said the race starts in Bodrum at 11 AM, we missed the boats around the corner in Bodrum. Programs are sorta like road signs, something the Ottomans left.
The schedule said day 2 they sail from Gokce to Cokertm. This is a bay so we knew if that we got there we should see them.  It is over the mountain and through the dale and we had come that way and it is a beautiful drive so we were off over the hills to see boats!  Some of the road is less than stellar but it is a rental car and we have already turned in one of their cars for poor maintenance, (more on that somewhere else in the blog) so we press on. We came down almost off the mountain and pulled over at a "scenic overlook", which means, we stopped in the road.  Vicki said "isn't that them over there on the other side of the bay?" Can't be because from what the schedule says they could not be that far this early. Out come the binoculars. Yep, that is them.

Yep there they are.

We made our way on down the mountain and into the town of Oren and figured we could kill some time and they would sail over to this side, where the schedule said they would overnight.  It became obvious that they were not coming. There was no wind and after an hour they had moved no closer.

Not to worry. I will charter a yacht and go to them. Remember "spend it before Wall Street steals it"? So off we go to the harbor. I tell Vic to pick any boat she wants and cost is no object.

She selects the Cokertm I, a fine shiny vessel.  I negotiate the fee with the captain.  Well, that is not exactly true. He says 100, I say 75, he says "have a nice swim".  Ok, ok but you supply the drinks.  With the business end completed he heads off to get fuel and drink. About a half hour later he returns and we set sail for the other side. It is a beautiful day. Not a cloud in the sky and the temperature is actually warm.

A fine state room.

 The blue pipe is the shifter and is connected to the cockpit by a pvc pipe. The thin rope is a throttle and the the other one that is hard to see is the starter rope.

It took about one hour to cross the bay and as we first approached the boats they looked like a mirage.  As we got closer they actually looked like a picture as not a single boat was moving.

About 300 meters out some the boats actual caught a wind. Well, more a breeze than a wind. As we got amongst them they actually started to drift apart and start to move. The race was on!!

We moved through them and then turned around and headed back. The wind was taking them straight back to our port, so we cruised along with them. It was a beautiful sight.    The only disturbance was our one lung, dry stack engine thump, thumping away.

The Captain did a fine job of consuming all our rations. The beer, the raki and the water. Well, not really the water, just enough to put in the Raki as is required. I did get one beer which was all I wanted.

 All the beer.

 And all the Raki

Back in port, Vicki gave the chef the day off, so we had to entertain our guests on the beach. The fish and calamari were excellent as our guests can attest to.

Sadly I could have no Raki with our 5 pm lunch as I had to drive the 65 km / 2 hour drive over the mountains home. (That 33 km/hr = 32 mph average should give some idea of the road home)