The Hotel Dogan

The boat was in need of tender loving care of the expensive kind, and we 'knew a man' down in Orhaniye. We decided to sail down to meet Hasan Yuksel and talk about the jobs we wanted done. 

The Dogan Hotel entrance

Its about 70nm down to Orhaniye from Fethiye, so we thought we'd line up for our first overnight sail. Still learning my way around the local meteorological sites, and I neglected to get a weather briefing on wind and sea-state. We had a 3 - 4 m. steep short chop on the way down. I'd also forgotten to rig jack-lines, and with the sea state picking up, decided that I should rig them before nightfall.

Anyway, I'm up on the foredeck, green water pouring over the deck, holding on while the boat plunges around like a wounded bull with testicles firmly lasso'ed. Suddenly, I'm feeling incredibly sea-sick, and projectile vomiting over the side while hanging on for dear life. Megan was back in the cockpit, madly trying to remember the man-overboard drill and having visions of life as a sole skipper. Got it all sorted somehow, and crawled back to the cockpit. Never let any-one tell you that the Med is always a piece of cake, just ain't true.

Pavlov and friend at the Dogan jetty

Back in the cockpit, feeling very worse for wear, we needed some GPS course corrections. I asked Megan to go below, and change our route. Speaking coherently was getting pretty difficult. Megan went below, and of course, became desperately ill as well. She raced back to the cockpit and started vomiting and groaning over the side. Hmm, two down, none to go. We knew that we needed to stop sailing and recuperate, but where? There were no sheltered anchorages nearby, and night was rapidly falling.

There was just a long coast-line and we were too close to heave-to for the night. However, there was a small rock just off the coast, and it looked like a bow of a boat poking around the edge in the gloom. We set off to investigate, and it was indeed a very small rock, with a fishing boat moored in its lee. It was shallow enough to anchor, and there was just enough room to shelter from the swell. Somehow we  set the anchor, and then just fell into bed, glad that we were now relatively still and could close our eyes and not have to think!

New deck caulking

Renewed by a nights rest, we set off again for Orhaniye and arrived in the early evening. We nosed around the marina but couldn't find the free jetty we could tie up to. So, being inventive, we mozzied around and saw a small jetty outside a restaurant. We took the tender in and ate an evening meal there.

New bimini frame taking shape

We met Hasan the next morning and he arranged a permanent stay at the restaurant jetty. The mooring is free, the agreement being we eat around one meal a day at the restaurant (We mainly eat breakfast here as its the cheapest meal). I guess its fair, as we're providing a good income stream to several of the village trades-people.

Luxury, our new passarelle

Hasan has been a great help negotiating and translating between the different craftsmen we've had on the boat. Ergun, the INOX (Turkish for stainless steel) man designed a new bimini to accomodate my height and Megan's need for shade. We also lifted the rear dodger about 40 mm. Ali, from Ozlem Tente is building new canvas work for everything: new bimini and dodger, new thick cushions for the cockpit (Megan was starting to get sailors bum syndrome), new covers for the new life rings, hatch covers, shade clothes and a winter tent, so we can completely enclose the cockpit for winter.

Luxury Marti Marina across the bay

Saban, the mechanic serviced our Perkins Prima, we seem to have a problem with sludge in our fuel tank. The inflatable is off to Marmaris to get its hide stitched back together. I've also been busy: 1000 hr maintenance of the generator, full service of the outboard, fixed the fridge including fabricating an anode out of zinc bar with just a dremel tool, got the wind speed indicator working, pulled out the exhaust seperator for the genny and installed new exhaust hoses. We found a technician who could repair our Mastervolt inverter which blew two output MOS-FETS. Megan (the mega Safety Officer) has replaced all the extinguishers with new ones, is working on registering the EPIRB and trying to source new flares for the boat (We also need to dispose of a heap of old ones, they've been accumulating for years and the wet locker might get renamed 'Guy Fawkes locker'.

Bar and lounge area at the Dogan

While all this industry has been going on, we've been free to spend some time at the delightful Hotel Dogun, which serves as a summer sunning spot for mainly British expats and holiday's of our generation or older. We've met some lovely folk who have become friends (Now, Kevin and Pat, Chris and Barbara, Rita and Bill... you know who we're talking about!).

Escapees from the weather!

Its been great to be able to converse and chat (something that we could never do in Fethiye, so few English speakers), practice and refine our coarse Australian manners at tiffin (Kevin, is it really still called Tiffin, or has it just degraded to afternoon tea?). We've learnt more about skinning chickens than any sane person should know!! including bleed out timing and the feather pluckin' finger lickin' chicken picker.

Passionate gardening

The hotel is also a small family business with a parade of characters. Sertun is the manager, with a retinue of Fawlty towers characters who really add to a great ambience and friendly feel. We really enjoyed being able to mingle with all the hotel characters, made working on the boat a real pleasure.

Beach at the Dogun hotel

Sertun and Kevin, taking the mickey

So, from thinking that we were only going to chat with Hasan to work on the boat later in the year, we've actually settled into being 'regulars' in the parade of characters staying in the hotel. We're coming back in December, to haul out and do the bottom. We've lined up a little apartment in the village as everything else is closed. It will be interesting to experience Orhaniye from the villager perspective in winter, as opposed to the English tourist perspective in summer.

What's next!