The emergency services were quickly deployed with many fire trucks, sirens wailing, heading out of the town. They also had helicopters and planes rapidly on the scene. Despite this, the fire grew, taking in the far hillside and stretching all along the near hillside. The six helicopters and three fire planes were on constant rotation until they lost the light at about 9pm. By then the blaze seemed to be under control. The next morning at first light there was another round of action from the air but the fire seemed to be out. From what we could find out there were no fatalities and only one house was lost. Considering the size of the blaze and how close it was to the town of Datça, this was some excellent work by the emergency services.
During the incident we were directly underneath the flight path for the helicopters and planes. The skill of the pilots was to be admired as they collected water, accurately dropped it were it was most needed, all flown in strong winds and close quarters. The music from the beach bars all stopped as the town watched the emergency unfold. The only noise was from the aircraft dealing with the incident.
When we left Datça a few days later we could see the scorched hillside were the fire had been.
On the day of our departure from Datça we had a few anchor issues to deal with. We had gone onto the town quay and been waved into a spot in the corner. As you moor with your anchor out the front and the stern secured to the quay, in a corner there really is no way to avoid crossed anchors. When we tried to leave, we discovered not one, but two other boats had managed to lay their anchors over ours. This required some untangling. During this procedure you are the centre of everyone's attention as you are caught in the middle of the harbour. Sometimes these situations can be quite stressful as people get cross, or shout lots of different pieces of advice. However, on this occasion all remained calm and we sorted out the problem in a business-like way.
Once free we were off to our third anchor issue of the morning. A British couple, Paul and Di, whom we had met the day before, had had to detach their anchor from their boat and leave it buoyed for later collection. This was because a gullet leaving the anchorage had dragged a submerged electricity cable a hundred metres across the sea bed and over their anchor chain. The first they were aware of it was when they heard it scraping against their keel. That morning they asked us for assistance to retrieve their anchor. Phil went over with his mini diving tank to help. He was able to reach it free diving without the tank and pulled the chain out from under the cable so that it could be dragged away to a safe distance. Paul and Di then fetched their boat and re-attached the chain and with a further bit of untangling, were able to successfully pull up the anchor. Well done to Phil who certainly re-certified his anchor wrangler badge!
By the time all this excitement was over it was still only 1030, so we left for the Ali Baba restaurant in Bozuk Bükü and are hoping for a quiet few weeks to catch up on some boat jobs.
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