After a busy afternoon in Turgutreis we sailed a few miles north and, just before sunset, heard the evening call to prayer from the village Mosque and found a good place to anchor off Gümülsük. (That "ü" is pronounced as "ew" in pew.)

The next morning, having experienced a bit too much rock & roll in the open anchorage outside Rabbit Island and late night disco music too, we moved inside the enclosed and very pretty Gümülsük "bükü" (bay). There we rendezvoused with new friends Bunny & Bill Bailey aboard "Onset"(from Block Island, RI) whom we first met in Lakki the week before.

It was a bit strange to be real Americans aboard two boats in the anchorage flying American flags because virtually every other boat was also flying the American flag, but they were all Turkish. Go figger! It seems the Turks have discovered a way to avoid Turkish taxes by starting Delaware corporations and registering the boats under that corporation. Being US documented vessels requires them to fly the US flag so they fly a small US flag off the stern and a large Turkish "courtesy" flag off the spreaders. Only in America!

Anyway, a couple of lazy days of swimming, walking ashore, admiring the local crafts, treating ourselves to a multi-course traditional breakfast and socializing each evening with the "Onsets" made for a great introduction to Turkey!
The montage has some good shots of Gümülsük's artfully decorated waterfront and some typical Turkish "gulets".

Our next stop in Turkey was Aspat Köyü (Aspat village), just a short 10 mile sail south and around the corner a bit towards Bodrum. The tranquil northeast anchorage became a "sticky" place as we stayed on for another 3 days. We caught up on a few more chores and, of course, swam off the boat in the turquoise water, walked the surrounding hills and explored some ruins.

The interesting shore-side resort had many marble sculptures dotting the grounds as you can see in the picture below - to the right is an interesting one called "the eye" - that changed dramatically as the sun caught it from different angle.















Bunny and Bill from s/v"Onset" joined us here our last night and then each boat was off to meet arriving children ~ Jen and Sam come to meet us later today! Yeah!