Friday 5th May, finally we left the comfort of Yat Marin for the high seas. Dorothy took up position in Dorothy corner and donned half a litre of suntan lotion. It is warm here after all. We took the same route as last year, out of beautiful Marmaris bay, turn left and off you go. Unlike the sailing caper in the UK, the wind was in the right direction and blowing at the right strength. 15/20 knots of wind on the aft beam and we fair flew here at a steady 7 knots , with the occasional thought that perhaps we had too much sail up, i can normally tell with the yelps from dorothy followed by a general banging and crashing down below as the boat rearranges all the carefully stored items , moving them from one side of the boat to another. Arriving in Ekincik, we remembered just how beautiful it is here. The wind had died down as we arrived pretty late, so no mooring tales to tell.
Today, we took a boat trip would you believe. This time we were in the capable hands of Arif as we headed for the Dalyian river in a boat with no more than 2 foot draft. There is quite a history attached to this river as it was once a major marine port until it silted up so much that the boats could no longer navigate, thus the city of Caunos just died. Much of Caunos can still be seen, its 5,000 seater theatre with a backdrop to die for, very much in one piece and i can vouch for the accoustics. A huge Roman bath house still stands along with various other structures that one can only guess their use. We decided against taking on the acropolis as we reckoned serious climbing gear would have been required. The customary 'guard tortoise' was at the gate as we arrived...in the UK we have rottweillers... in turkey they have tortoise. The Dalyian river is a major tourist attraction and clearly, Saturday is the day all the locals take to the river too. the river was full of dinky little boats dancing around the winding reed beds. Dorothy and i could have been re-enacting the famous film "the african queen" ...always fancied myself as a. bit of a humphrey bogart...and obviously dorothy is beautiful enough to be katherin hepburn.
The Dalyian river hits the sea at Iztuzu beach which is a beautiful long , praps 2 kilometres or so of soft sand. The turtle population just love to lay their eggs here and as a result, today we have seen lots of turtles who unlike most of their mates who travel far and wide, have decided to stay closer to home, spending their whole lives dodging the vast armada of tripper boats.

Just a small aside and furthur proof that Helen is a minor celebrity in Yat Marin, during our 3 hour wait for a pump out of our black water tank (you dont want to know !!) ...the young lad who spends most if his day checking the underneath of recently launched, asked "where is mama" ...a complete stranger to us dressed in a neoprene dive suit asking us where Helen was...a bit bizarre if you ask me