What Dost Thou Think Of This Then?

After a great night's sleep Jon's off in the dinghy, rowing to each boat in the flotilla giving them the low-down on what to do and what to expect for today's sail. It was interesting watching Jon at work and it quickly made me realise I never want to be running flotilla holidays! Not only is the responsibility of ten boats a lot to deal with but the degree of commitment to each and every person on that flotilla is unprecedented. From the moment Jon wakes up to the moment he hits the sack he has to be on call 24-7, dealing with questions, problems and worries. What is the best route to this evening's destination, what sails should we be using, where are we eating this evening, how am I supposed to get out of this anchorage if my prop has just fallen off? We soon found out how to deal with the last problem because that's precisely what happened to one of the flotilla boats, Dost (see yesterday).

After our thorough search of the seabed we realised the only way of getting Dost out of the anchorage was to tow it (there was no wind in that sheltered part of the estuary). Time to learn another knot as Jon tied a butterfly knot to some spare warps and rigged up a line from the back of Esper to the front of Dost. We had fun and games trying to throw Dost the line but after the second attempt we were off and after a slow motor out of the anchorage we were able to tow Dost effortlessly back to the open sea, whereupon we let the lines go and made the most of the good winds to Taçk our way back towards Gümüslük.

Under Jon's guidance I pulled off some cunning gullet-style reverse parking using the anchor, backing up to the jetty to make the most of water and electricity.

Esper towing Dost