The lighthouse, behind which are the ancient ruins of Knidos

We finally left the Marmaris area last Friday heading north slowly towards the Dardanelles. The overall plan is to get as far north as we can then return slowly down the coast when the Meltemis (northerlies) 'kick in' usually July and August. Our first stopover was in a small protected bay and village called Bozburun. Through our friend Peter, who has a friend there with a resort and jetty we were able to tie up and had our first experience of mooring Med style. Bern was most excited as it was the first outing for the passarelle, which worked very well. We were pleasantly surprised that we could use the jetty for free and weren't expected to dine at their restaurant which is often the case. We were keen to buy a bottle of champagne to toast the passarelle but at 300TL (150AUD) we resorted to white wine and beer! We spent two nights here and explored the quiet little village where Bern had a haircut, beard trim, ear hairs 'Flambed' with a wad dipped in methanol, set alight and waved past his ears singing the unsuspecting hairs in its path, all for $7!

On Sunday we sailed on towards Bodrum and managed to get full sails up for most of the morning. At the moment the winds are light and we have been motor sailing most of the time to make miles. The coastline is magnificent, steep, craggy mountain ranges with little green growth. The scenery is more barren than expected, but there are numerous bays to anchor so a lot on offer to explore on our return trip. We spent the last two nights in Gumbet Bay just over the hill from Bodrum. Once again, this area is very popular with the English tourists and many of the hillsides overlooking the water are densely covered in white concrete, holiday apartment blocks. We took a short bus trip into Bodrum which has a busy waterfront area and is home to the luxurious Gulets. Today we left early and motorsailed all morning until we reached a quiet little cove which seems home to only a few local fishng boats. We have good internet coverage with our Turkcell dongle and have been able to update our blog and catch up on emails.