saturday morning , and those of us who did not abandon ship Friday evening woke to another cloudless sky in sogut, early morning swim taken in mill pond conditions. A leisurely breakfast and dorithy and i set off for Selimiye where were due to pick up the new crew. A couple of hours on the motor under cloudless skys with hardly a breath of wind. We moored up in Selimyie outside the Aurora restaurant, sandwiched between two boats, one occupied by british types you would only really expect to find in a novel, a bluff ex navy man, flowing grey hair and choc full of phrases you might expect, all rounded off by "what what what"... on the other side we had particularly surly Russian chaps, who clearly had no intention of passing the time of day with anything that might be likened to a pleasantry.
We soent the day in the village, treat ourselves to a Turkish ice cream which is very good indeed. We sampled the delights of semilyie , we visited the local fruit and veg market and stocked up on locally grown delights.
Sandra and Chloe appeared at 1200, a good 30 minutes ahead of schedule, due to a kamikazi taxi driver who treat them to a white knuckle ride from Dalaman airport. A stiff G&T for Sandra to calm nerves and all retired for the night.
Sunday, we headed off to Bozburun as we had to alter our paperwork for the boat. We spent Sunday evening in a cozy little nook outside of Bozburun, swim in the sea and dinner on board. We had visits from various purveyors of fish/groceries/bread etc who patrol the bays making sure everyone is topped up with essentials. one gentleman in particular wondered by ...he was particularly persistent , offering us all sorts of consumables..but in his own style. If you have seen the film Painted Wagon with Lee Marvin, then you can imagne this chaps delivery.... in an incredibly deep voice....he would ask....very slowly....and very deliberately....eeeeegggs? breaaaaad?..... huuuuuunnny????...after a while , it was too much to take....and it was getting dark, so we stocked up on huuuuuuny...and incredibly good honey it is too, like no other honey i have tasted, dark dark colour, almost black treacle...yummity yummity yum yum.
Monday we wandered into Bozburun to perform the required paperwork jiggery pokerey. Again , in the Bozburun harbour we were asked to plonk Aurora in a space where you might anticipate putting a canoe, not a 42 foot boat...oddly, all went to plan and Aurora and neighbouring boats escaped unscathed. We met our very good friend Durkan (well i hope he is ...as he is about 8 foot tall and pretty imposing)...he did the crew change for gratis, which was an absolute bonus as the other crooks...ahem i mean agents fleece you for 50!euros for the pleasure. i watched him do it.....log into website....delete crew names... add crew names and passport details...print off new crew sheet...fax crew sheet to someone...job done...5 minutes....certainly not 50 euros worth. We loped around Bozburun prior to settng off to Dursek bay for our overnight stay. Not before...of course ...a bit of a kerfuffle in Bozburun. Crew Chloe managed to lose her passport in the 50 metres from the passport office to the boat. Frantic checking here there and everywhere (including the Migros fridges)...still no passport. Chloe spotted a fireman sat next to his fire engine...who better to ask?..said fireman then took chloe over to an official looking building...I stood outside...saw chloe talking to a young lady..i then saw chloe trying to hug a bemused turkish lady...transpires passport had been found and handed back to its owner...more attempts at a hug from chloe, and turkish lady clearly had enough, bundled chloe out of her office. We finally left Bozburun and made our way round to Dursek, a beautiful bay, spent at anchor.
Tuesday involved a longish haul to Knidos. one of those frustrating days where there was little wind yet the sea behaved as though a hooley was blowing, so a long bounce along to Knidos. Target Knidos was one of those places i had been looking forward to seeing. 3,600 years ago they were building Trimarines in the harbour, the streets were full of people selling all sorts of goods, the theatres were chocca block full of audiences watching the latest Euripedes blockbuster play...maybe i am being a little over the top , but Knidos as it stands today 3,500 years later gives a glimpse into a tiny dot of time, long before chaps in Britain thought it would be a good idea to paint their faces Blue. Chloe decided to give this piece of history a miss, time required on the puzzler book. Dorothy, Sandra and I , handed over our £2.50 for a stroll amongst the ruins in the early evening sun, tremendous. The evening in Knidos did not pass off without incident however, as we sat down to dinner, we noticed a boat intending to raft against ours. Now, in the UK, if this sort of thing happens, a polite conversation takes place, end result, boats rafted together...not in Knidos..I returned to the boat to find a crewfull of hairy bottomed Russian blokes all over Aurora , who , on my return, only grunted in my general direction regarding passing ropes...so rude. it spoilt my starters let me tell you....in fact by the time i got back to the table, it had all gone !!! eaten by my fellow crew.
Next day, we had a tremendous sail interspersed with an amazing swim stop in the turquoise waters of Echo Bay just south of Palmut. That evening, we ended up, clinging on to a jetty which once upon a time, stood proudly offering shelter but is now half submerged....involving a 5 metre dinghy journey to shore. So, its time to get out the patchwork quilt and try and get Chloe and Auntie Sandra in it! Chloe...not a problem....Auntie Sandra...lets just say , in future, dinghy travel will not feature highly on Sandras preferred choice of travel.
Dorothy, being the angel she is, decided that after 4 days slumming it, that guests might like a spot of comfort...warm shower...toilet you can flush.you know the sort of thing. So, we headed for Octopus at Sogut, and let me say, a choice well received by the crew. Bing..a swim and a shower , all smiles from the crew.
Friday took us on a short but very exciting sail around to sheltered creek called Bencik. The excitement of the sail was due entirely to the skippers tardiness in reducng sail as we approached the headland between us and our target destination. Sandra had her first glimpse of how powerfull the wind and sea can be, the boat heeled over and the noise of the wind howlng in the rigging. Having said that, attempts to reef the sails by the crew ended up with everyone laughing so much, it all took a bit longer than it should. Once round the headland we had a super sail across the bay without any more alarms. Bencik provided a breahless haven away from the wind. The down side was the attack from little bitey flies who had clearly been waiting for us. Flyswatter Rovers 28 Flybites United 20 was roughly the final score at the end of the evening.
Saturday involved a lazy sail to Marti Marina in Bozu Buku in order to empty the black water tank and take on some diesel, its not all loungng around in your speedos and bikini, there are boring jobs to be done too. We finished the day with a very slow sail down to Semilyie where Chloe would get her taxi to Dalaman airport for her flight home.
Sunday morning,we waved off Chloe, took on a few provisions (including Baklava) and headed off to our next port of call. We moored off a sort of retirement holiday resort, complete with carpeted walkways into the see, each with its own little hand rail for security. The homes were loveley, surrounded by green gardens and trees. We all felt very young and sprightly as we walked along dodging the mobility scooters and wheelchairs. In the afternoon we sort of sailed over to Bozburun , finally giving up as the wind gave up completely.
Tuesday morning, and Sandra caught the bus at 7:30 to Marmaris from where a connecting bus to Dalaman airport could be had, thereby spending aprrox £9.50 on the journey rather than a £65 taxi.
A year ago on the 15th September, Sandra had her first treatment of Chemotherapy for cancer. This year , the 15th of September proved to be a whole lot more pleasureable.