Hi Everyone,
I am a little late with this update sorry but time just seems to fly by and I don't seem to have time to do it. Much too busy enjoying myself.

We left Varna after stocking up with plenty of wine, beer and all the lovely foods that we missed in Turkey. We had planned to leave at 0600 on a Monday for Sozopol Bay where we would anchor for 1 night before heading to Tzarevo to check out of Bulgaria. On the Sunday I went to the ATM to get money to pay for our berth. The ATM gave me my money and receipt but NOT my card back. PANIC, my worst nightmare. I stopped a passer-by to use their phone to call Clive to come with our phone to call the bank. While I was waiting a Bulgarian lady came to use the ATM. I tried to tell her the problem but she tried anyway. The same - money, receipt but no card returned. I felt a little happier as her card was on top of mine! She hammered on the door of the bank and got the security guard. I got the gist of the conversation and it seemed I would have to go to the bank Monday morning at 0830. But I wanted to leave at 0600. Hard luck I had to go back at 0830 if I wanted my card back. All day I worried about my card. I didn't want to cancel it because that would cause us real problems. I kept checking my internet banking and nothing was going out. The next morning at 0830 I was in the bank, the security guard took me to the teller and she had more than a dozen cards she had to sort out. I signed for mine and was very happy to be on our way.

Our next exciting event was as we motored down the Bosphorus towards Istanbul. As I explained when we came up this is a very busy stretch of water being the major route to the Black Sea countries. You cannot sail and have to motor. We kept just outside the shipping lanes and were flying along with the current in our favour. As we were approaching a bend in the river and a very large ship coming our way the engine just stopped. PANIC (again). Clive started the engine, put in into gear and bang, it stopped again. Start again, into reverse and bang, it stopped again. At this point it looked as if the ship coming up was heading straight for us, we had to get out of its way NOW. We didn't want to call for help as it would cost a fortune in tug fees, so, on board we have two 8 foot oars that we have carried about on Jane-G for about 16 years and never used them. Out they came and with Clive on one side and me on the other we paddled Jane-G out of the way. I would loved to have seen the captains face of the approaching ship looking at this 35 foot yacht being paddled. Once clear Clive jumped in the water and found a tug rope with a big knot stopping the propeller going round. He cut it off and we were on our way again.

As we had decided not to check back into Turkey but go straight to Limnos,we anchored overnight at the Princes Islands and in the Mamara Islands but did not go ashore. We did plan to stop at the bay at the bottom of the Dardenells where the War Memorials for the Battle of Gallipolli were and have a look around. We arrived there at 1400 but received a weather forecast saying that high winds were expected in a few days. As we had a good forecast for that night we had a swim, had some dinner and decided to sail overnight. It was one of those sails we dream of. We had flat seas, 12 knots of wind just aft of the beam and doing between 6 and 3 knots as the wind rose and dropped. As we had motored all the way to and back from Romania it was wonderful.

In Limnos we caught up with a few friend - Orca Joss, Silver Heels 2 and Matador and as we were stuck with high winds it was a sociable time for all. The next few weeks were spent moving slowly south stopping at a few of the Greek Islands. One island, Oinoussa, we will remember fondly. It is only a small island but apparently 1/3 of Greece's shipping Barons came from here. While we were there an 85 foot motor yacht came in. It belonged to the mayor of the island and himself a ship owner (I told him we had that in common). Val (off Silver Heels 2) and Clive were talking to the him and he then invited us all for lunch. We had a wonderful time and lunch was outstanding. Sadly Val is no longer with us. She had a brain haemorrhage before Christmas and passed away. It will always be a very happy memory of our short time sailing with her and Graham.

From here we stopped at the islands of Khios, Samos, Patmos, Leros, Kalimnos, Kos and finally Simi where we checked out of Greece. We were very lucky with the weather and in the only high wind we had we anchored on the south coast of Kos in a lovely safe bay. All the islands were beautiful and we explored them by local transport or on foot. All worth returning to some day.

From Simi we went back into Turkish waters and checked in at Fethiye. Our friends Mark and Jacquie were joining us once again. It was now the middle of October and it was cooling down somewhat. We all had a good time. We first stopped in the Gocek area with all its fine islands and then made our way back to Finike. It was like coming home.

One reason for coming back to Finike was to work on the boat out of the water. Clive planned to re-spray the hull. Once lifted out we found we had a lot more work to do. We had a problem with the paint under the waterline and all that had to be scrapped off. It was very hard work but we did it. We were very lucky as many of our friends invited us for dinner which meant I didn't have to cook much for about 3 weeks. Clive did a very good job of the re-spray and Jane-G is looking sooooo pretty now.

We went to the UK for Christmas and were very lucky to get there in between the airports being closed because of the snow. We did enjoy ourselves but it was cold and we weren't able to get about as much as we would have liked.

So that brings you up to date before we start a new season cruising.
Take care and keep smiling.
Jane and Clive