'CAUGHT WITH NO ENGINE & NOWHERE TO GO'

When Tina McLachlan was caught by a 60-knot squall in the middle of the night and the anchors dragged, a grounding was just minutes away

Setting sail from the Black Sea my husband K and I have enjoyed wonderful journeys through the Bosphorus, Marmara, the Dardanelles and the Aegean, cruising south along the western Turkish coast on Diva, our 1989 Jeanneau Sunlight 30. The summer Meltemi winds have been particularly strong and gusting this year we were told, and it certainly seems that way. The last week has been very windy.

‘The holding’s a bit uncertain here, I think we should move on. What do you think?’ We sail gently out of pretty Bademli, but then in short order, the wind gets up again and is changeable and gusting. We reef to a tiny genoa. We see the British and US boats we met in Ayvalik and they radio us.

‘How are you? We’ve had a few weather issues that got us questioning our life choices.’ ‘Absolutely, same here.’

The engine is still out of action and we’re en route to find parts and somewhere to get it repaired, so it’s a sail through quite a narrow channel, with lots of rocks and steep hillsides with flowing winds funnelling down them. There’s a swirl of seagulls and herons high above one of the rocky hills. We decide to turn around, into a small bay on the other side of the island, hoping it will provide more protection. K manoeuvres the boat into the bay with great skill in the gusts with tiny reefed sail and no engine. We set and reset the two anchors we have been using lately a few times, trying to get good holding.