It is Monday 21st of September, Charlie and Kathy have left us to explore Istanbul, so its time to get our mountain of laundry done. The Laundry lady gave a deep sigh when we walked in and asked in a pleading voice if tomorrow afternoon was soon enough. As there was no way we would be able or willing to work our way through 15kg of laundry, we agreed tentatively (to appear magnanimous).

Chris decided to take advantage of the marina restaurant's swimming pool to do some laps, just in case the body has completely forgotten how to exercise. The weather forecast is predicting winds of 40 to 50 knots with rain over the next couple of days, so we decide to stay put at least until Wednesday.

The worst winds and rain were predicted to hit us today, Tuesday 22nd September The winds started around midday as predicted, lots of lovely cleansing rain. The wind only reached 37 knots max.. We decided that we earned a day off, so it was good day to hide inside and catch up on reading and watching/napping through a couple of silly 'Parks and Recs' episodes.

Wednesday 23rd September and oops, we have run out of WiFi credit so Francis took the dolmuş into Marmaris to get some more. While he was gone Chris decided to dry off Clio with a chamois (sjammy) and the very second that she finished the rain came down again. Oh well, at least Clio has had a lovely fresh rinse and is free of salt for a little while. We're paying full marina fees of €35/night (probably one of the cheapest in the whole of Turkey), and the time has come to vacate the Marina. We've stacked up on food, drink and water, and we're headed off and anchored just outside the marina for free: it feels a bit like camping in your own backyard where you leave home, walk 50 m and sleep in your tent. We tried having a swim here but it is not very nice: the water is too warm, there is 5m visibility and lots of stinging things in the water. These are most likely 'sea lice', not lice at all but tiny jelly fish larvae with the same stinging cells (nematocysts) inherited from the adult, albeit in much lower numbers (stinging cells that is). Still bl... annoying.

Thursday 24th September, and while the wind has settled the seas outside are still churned up considerably from the storms that came through, so we decided to stay here for another day until the waters calm down.

Today, Friday 25th September, we moved about 6.5 NM through Marmaris bay to the other side to Kumlubuk bay to what we hoped would be a nicer anchorage and away from the resort which emitted loud music every night and with better water for swimming and interesting underwater shorelines. When we arrived it was like grand central station with gullets and day trippers everywhere. So we dropped anchor off the local beach for the afternoon and waited for better anchoring spots to become available. At 4.30pm most of the boats had vacated the area so we moved to a small bay.
after dropping anchor Chris swam our stern line ashore and fastened Clio to a rock, followed by a pleasant swim and snorkel. Francis found another new (to him) fish, a Red Squirrel or Red Soldier fish (Sargocentron hastatum, Cuvier 1829). These fish are very shy and retreat far within their hideout grottos, so Francis had to put the GoPro in the grotto entrance while running in video mode hoping it would show itself and retreated to the surface for some much-needed air. Luckily it did (show itself) and we got a bit of video (see photo top-right, also note the colorful cave-wall dwellers on the photo). The top-left photo shows a very common yellow sponge Aplesina aerophoba, Nardo 1833. Probably the 'aerophoba' (fear of air) comes from the fact that the sponge turns ink-black when exposed to air.
That night Chris tried a new recipe: chicken risotto and it was very rewarding after such a long and exhausting day and will join the other recipes in the Clio Cookbook.

After a windier than expected night anchored on leeway, with the accompanying waves, skipper was anxious to get away early this morning, Saturday 26th September, to catch a breeze to push us to Gocek, which is about 40 NM to the East. Unaccustomed as she is to getting out of bed before a hot lemon drink and a cup of tea, Chris donned her swimmers and jumped into the waves to release the stern line, rise and shine! Once underway, we unfurled the head sail and Chris got to finish her lemon drink and got a cup of tea, so all was well with the world. Clio was scooting along for a about an hour. Then the wind died of course, so back on the iron horse for the rest of the trip. We made it to the lovely Deep bay, one of the many great anchorages/moorings in Gocek Bay. It is Saturday, and many Turkish waters lovers were also out and about, it was very crowded but we were lucky enough to grab the last mooring buoy. After getting Clio secure and a quick swim, Chris spotted a green turtle pop up nearby. She hastily grabbed her mask and snorkel and jumped in, in the hope of getting a close up view, but the water is so deep here (hence the name of the bay) that it is not possible to see once the turtle dives to graze on the Neptune (sea)grass (Posidonia oceanica) 25m down. So, we had to be content with the infrequent sightings from Clio's deck as it came to the surface for air (bottom-left photo).

It is so nice here we are staying another night, Sunday 27th September, before heading into Gocek. After a very quiet and restful night last night, tonight we have been invaded by a fleet of gullets. At our stern we have three sister ships tied together, full of French vacationers and on our bow we have a gullet full of Dutch. So our peaceful bay has become party town. The French celebrated with Turkish music, belly dancers and fire eaters (spewers), while the Dutch cheered and sang drinking songs in a strong Rotterdam accent. It sounded like lots of fun, but we were soon asleep and left them to it (we weren't invited for some mysterious reason).

Monday 28th September and the gullets left this morning and peace had been restored. After a long lazy morning, it was time to move into Gocek for some shopping and to catch up with our friend Tolga. We finally met the Australian couple on Fourth Dimension who we have been seeing all over the Eastern Med during our travels, their yacht is marked to come from Sydney, but they are from Brisbane. They were on their way back to their boat in their dinghy and only stopped to say hello and told us that they were on their way to Finike to overwinter there and we promised to catch up properly soon. Unfortunately they were gone the next day, but we're sure we'll meet again some sunny day (don't know where, don't know when). That night we enjoyed drinks and dinner with Tolga. He's doing quite well, and it was great to catch up on what is happening in his world.

More shopping today, Tuesday 29th September, and thanks to our friend Tolga we have a meeting with an upholsterer to get a quote on a cover for Cloe's tubes (not a overall cover) to protect her from the sun.

On our return to Clio the wind picked up and as we were feeling a little exposed we moved out into the bay and around the corner into Boynuz buku, one of the many excellent anchorages around. We're running out of superlatives to describe these places. We dropped anchor and Chris dived in and swam our stern line to shore again to secure us to a bollard of which there are many dotted along the shoreline of most bays. This area is a national park and there are a host of strict regulations to abide by. One is that you're not allowed to tie your landline to a tree. A good rule as you would expect that the chance of ring-barking the tree (which leads to certain death) is quite high, especially with some of the very big boats around here. It is astonishing how quiet and tranquil these coves are compared to just outside in the main bay where it is more like a freeway of boats of all shapes and sizes coming and going. The Turkish Riviera is a very popular place.

At around five pm a gullet tied up alongside us and we thought that might be the end of the serene evening, but they were a group of well behaved mature people and after they had finished swimming a singer/guitarist (bottom-right photo)set up on their bow and we were all well entertained for an hour or so. When they left we applauded and waved them goodbye. We enjoy our Med-life, even more so with Tony and Joe gone and we now may even be allowed to decide what to do with our own hard-earned superannuation $$, yeahhh!