Discovering The Perfect Crew

11-12th October, 2005

Log | Esper | Summer 2005 | The Yanks Come To Town

We left Gümüslük nice and early and headed towards Kos, leaving Catal Ada to port. At one point we had to switch courtesy flags since we were much closer to Kos than anywhere in Turkey. I'd already visited Kos as a foot passenger earlier in the month in order to renew my visa and I had no intention of going there again. Despite getting the sails up for the first hour we furled them away after passing Kos because there was no useful wind at all. Still the beauty of Mersincik and the headland of Knidos was enough to keep us occupied.

Unfortunately we were accompanied by a Sunsail flotilla which potentially could have scuppered our plans to anchor by Knidos but they went off elsewhere and we had plenty of room to anchor in the crystal clear waters of Knidos bay. However a mish mash of already anchored yachts made positioning ourselves quite difficult so after dropping anchor once and swinging round dangerously close to another boat we upped anchor and did as the pilot book suggested that no one in the vicinity had tried: anchor stern-to to the break water wall and tie to it. Time for Ethan to get wet! Considering this was the first time Ethan and Chris had executed a manoeuvre like this they did really, really well. The great thing about these two was that they didn't arse about. They listened and did as they were told until the boat was safe and secure. Proof that the best crew are not always the most qualified. In fact we executed our anchorage so well that another guy in a French-flagged boat who was having problems anchoring decided to copy us!

The approach to Knidos from Bodrum

After a swim we raced up the side of the mountain that looks out across to the west and once at the peak we took in the sunset. A sight to behold as the pictures will testify. The walk back down was a little less arduous but it was strange seeing all these random signposts pointing to cliff edges and sheer drops. Very odd. Chris and I were to see more of these tomorrow....

A stunning sunset from Knidos Peninsular

Ethan taking in the sunset from Knidos

Log | Esper | Summer 2005 | The Yanks Come To Town

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Boat: ESPER
Distance: 900nm total throughout summer
Leg: Gümüslük to Knidos
Wind: N1
Sea state: Calm
Destination lat/long:
N 36° 41 06
E 027° 22 31

Knidos

Country Turkey
Population -

Cnidus or Knidos (at the modern-day locality called Tekir in Turkey) was an ancient Greek city in Anatolia, once part of the country of Caria. It was situated at the extremity of the long Datça peninsula, which forms the southern side of the Sinus Ceramicus or Gulf of Kos.

It was built partly on the mainland and partly on the Island of Triopion or Cape Krio, which in Antiquity communicated with the continent by a causeway and bridge, and now by a narrow sandy isthmus. By means of the causeway the channel between island and mainland was formed into two harbours, of which the larger, or southern, was further enclosed by two strongly-built moles that are still in good part entire.

The extreme length of the city was little less than a mile, and the whole intramural area is still thickly strewn with architectural remains. The walls, both of the island and on the mainland, can be traced throughout their whole circuit; and in many places, especially round the acropolis, at the northeast corner of the city, they are remarkably perfect. The first Western knowledge of the site was due to the mission of the Dilettante Society in 1812, and the excavations executed by C. T. Newton in 1857-1858.

The agora, the theatre, an odeum, a temple of Dionysus, a temple of the Muses, a temple of Aphrodite and a great number of minor buildings have been identified, and the general plan of the city has been very clearly made out. The most famous statue by Praxiteles, the Aphrodite of Knidos, was made for Cnidus. It has perished, but late copies exist, of which the most faithful is in the Vatican Museums. In a temple enclosure Newton discovered a fine seated statue of Demeter, which he sent back to the British Museum, and about three miles south-east of the city he came upon the ruins of a splendid tomb, and a colossal figure of a lion carved out of one block of Pentelic marble, ten feet in length and six in height, which has been supposed to commemorate the great naval victory, the Battle of Cnidus in which Conon defeated the Lacedaemonians in 394 BC.

Knidos was a city of high antiquity and as a Hellenic city probably of Lacedaemonian colonization. Along with Halicarnassus and Kos, and the Rhodian cities of Lindos, Kamiros and Ialyssos it formed the Dorian Hexapolis, which held its confederate assemblies on the Triopian headland, and there celebrated games in honour of Apollo, Poseidon and the nymphs.

Source: Wikipedia