The final sail of the season was one of those sails that are best forgotten. So I shall write a little about it. I had to make a thirty mile hop to get back to where I will store the boat for the winter. I left as the wind was picking up, but naturally from a different direction than the forecast thought. When I got out of Buzzakalle and into the Aegean to head back, the wind was a steady 12 and gusting to 25 knots. It was coming just off the nose so I had to point off my destination a bit. This was not so bad, and to make sure I made it before dark Slick was motor-sailing into the waves. A few times I was able to turn off the engine when the wind speed and direction where steady. At some point, when the motor was running, I decided it was time to turn on some Jimmy Buffet, just to commend my last sail of the year. 
When I got down to the chart locker my feet felt wet. I looked down and, to my horror, was standing in an inch or so of oily water. My first suspect was the engine, as I have so many problems with it. When I opened the engine compartment, I saw a little water spout coming out of the exhaust manifold. I shut off Perky straight away and was stuck with sailing. If I couldn’t motor there was no way I was going to make it, especially with the wind expected to die in the afternoon. The only option was to devise a patch. I used an old piece of Vectran (since it was on the exhaust manifold I needed something to take the heat) and tied a matted knot, then I wrapped it liberally in Teflon tape and used lock-wire to lash it into place. This patch is one any submariner would be proud of. It held back the rest of the trip.
To catch up from the last blog post though is really not that hard. I left from Bozburun and made way to a little inlet called Orhanye. This was a nice protected little anchorage with a marina and a few restaurants. I hid behind a beautiful castle-topped island for about ten days. I didn’t do a whole lot, climbed the castle once and had a few dinners. It was really relaxing to be there and just watch the days go by, oh and to read about the greatest comeback in any sports cup victory ever. Congrats to the Cup-keepers even if it took a Brit to win. There is a long spit that sticks out of a river, but it is ankle to knee deep, so tourists come to walk the quarter-mile or so, this yielded some entertainment. I rode out a couple of blows there too, but when a southerly was predicted I had to move into one of the restaurant docks. Its a good thing I did as the highest wind recorded by the meter was 39 knots. There was also a tremendous lighting storm that came in, and the lighting went all night. The rainfall was terrific and I was able to clean Slick, finally. Everyone else at the dock was hiding under their dodgers but I was out wiping down the stainless and the decks. They looked at me like I was crazy.
