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Returning from our Middle East trip, our thoughts turned to this year's sailing. We decided to head west and after hearing about a good marina on Sicily, booked it! With an ultimate winter destination it was only a question of which route to take: Enter plan 'A' - clear out of Turkey at Bozburun, head north up the through the Greek Islands, cruise around the top of the Aegean before sailing south when the Meltemi started to blow and go west through the Corinth Canal - a good plan!

We spent our last few weeks in Finike preparing the boat and stocking the cupboards, but had another 'holiday' when my brother-in-law Terry flew out for a week. We hired a car and visited a few local archaeological sites including Myra, Limyra and Rhadiopolis, overdosing on amphitheatres! As an antedote to all this ancient culture we drove 150 miles north to the famous World Heritage site of Pamukkale to see a natural phenomenon. From the edge of a high plateau, covering the hillside are hundreds of white travertine pools. Some shaped like water lilies, others like shell bathtubs. These amazing pools have been formed over millennia as warm spring water, saturated with dissolved calcium bicarbonate, surges over the edge of the plateau and cools, giving off CO2 and precipitating calcium carbonate as hard chalk (travertine). To preserve the site visitors have access to only a handful of pools but are able to walk/bathe without shoes. We walked barefoot up the hillside through a series of the pools, luxuriating in the warm water that flowed down the hillside. Despite being February it was a hot and humid day, with thunderstorms expected later, so we didn't really explore Hieropolis, the ancient city and Roman health spa built around the source of the spring. ...besides we needed a day off from ruins!!!

We stayed overnight in Pamukkale Koyu, the little village at the foot of the hill. In the evening we sat under an umbrella (yes, it was raining by this time!) with a beer and gazed at the white hillside that from a distance looks more like snow than mineral deposits.

Next day we drove back to Finike, stopping to take in what would definitely be our very last archaeological site in Turkey - Aphrodisias, which sits on a high plateau surrounded by mountains. This is amongst the most isolated and beautifully set of Turkey's ancient sites, only excavated in earnest since 1961 by a team from NY University led by Dr Erim . With well preserved colonnades, a theatre, baths, library, odeion, and temple, with much more peeping out from beneath the ground waiting to be uncovered. It is a huge site that may one day rival Ephesus when/if excavations are complete. Unfortunately little work has been done since 1990 when Dr Erim died and was buried and commemorated on the site of his life's work.

Perhaps most impressive thing at Aphrodisias is a 30,000 seat stadium, the largest and most complete in Anatolia, in such good condition that you can almost hear the roar of the crowd!!! We also wandered around the very good site museum that displays hundreds of superb marble sculptures: products of the ancient on-site school of sculpture which was supplied by a conveniently- sited local marble quarry of high grade marble.

Once Terry had left we bought our last few stores, said fond farewells to the many friends we'd made over the winter and set off west. This was our first change of plan as we were heading for Marmaris, where we'd leave the boat and fly back to the UK for 6 weeks. First stop was Kekova Roads where we spent a few days in the company of Viv and Alistair on 'Largo Star' - New Zealander friends who were also sailing west along the Turkish coast. We anchored our boats at the end of Kekova Lagoon, enjoying the peace and freedom of being out of the marina. Next was an overnight stop in Kalkan anchorage, where I had my first swim of the year (the water was only 20C - Brrrr!), then an exhilarating sail, making long tacks out to sea, to pass the 'Seven Capes' and on to Fethiye.

Lying at anchor off Fethiye, the phone went early one morning and Alistair, who was anchored nearby said 'turtles off your starboard bow'! We rushed up on deck and saw what we thought was a turtle with a broken shell lying at a strange angle in the water. Gradually it dawned on us that this was two turtles mating! Feeling like voyeurs we watched as they came together 'face to face' as it were, holding one another with their feet and 'necking'. It was an amazing sight as they drifted close to Quilcene in the clear water, completely unperturbed by our presence. A few times they broke apart, swam a few circles then coupled again. We felt quite privileged to have witnessed this event!

The next leg of our journey was a very long trip to Marmaris. Leaving Fethiye Bay our boat was circled by a Hoopoe. We'd seen them on land occasionally but never on the wing, so once again we felt fortunate. With quirky winds we sailed, motored, sailed, motored eventually arriving in the early evening. Not too eager to go into the marina we anchored for two nights off a sand bar near 'Pupa Yat', a small yacht club pontoon. Surrounded by tree-covered hills, Marmaris Bay looked better from the sea than it had when we'd previously visited the town by bus! We were pleased to see 'Rockhopper of Lune' also in the anchorage as we hadn't seen Peter and Sue since last summer - a catch-up over sundowners was promised!

All too soon we pointed Quilcene into the marina and tied up, we were flying in a few days so needed to 'put her to bed'. There followed two hectic days when we decided to lift out, Quilcene hadn't been out of the water for more than a week since we left England so it was a good opportunity for her to dry out. We also arranged with Ali, a local tradesman to scrape and sand the hull and apply new gel-shield and then antifouling in our absence. This was a real treat for us as we normally do it ourselves and it's very hard, very dirty work. Ali came recommended by Steph and Stuart on 'Matador', their boat had been in Marmaris for the winter whilst they returned to NZ, and did a bit of travelling. He had done a great job on their yacht and even emailed pictures at each stage! He is quite a character and his English very good - although he soon became known as 'Ali Antifoulinge' by us for obvious reasons!!!

Leaving Quilcene in his capable hands we flew back to the UK......tbc