Our boat launch went smoothly. The boat yard has a huge trailer, which was skilfully manoeuvred under SCII. Hydraulic jacks are lifted to support SCII and lift her off the props that have supported her over winter. Ahmet is on hand to do some last-minute touch-ups to the antifouling paint where the props rested on the hull and under the keel. SCII was then transported to the boat lift at the other side of the yard where she is lifted into the water. We spent one night in Gocek at the marina, where Glenn and Ahmet put the sails and the other canvas (dodger - the canvas protecting the cockpit and entrance to the interior, and bimini - the shade cover at the stern) back on the boat.

Our first two nights out were spent at anchor in Round Bay, not far from Gocek. It was good to be back on the yacht and just living our boat life again. There were a few other yachts about, as this was the end of Eid, the holiday at the end of Ramadan. There were also a few people back at work. At one end of the bay is a jetty used by locals transporting goods to the nearby islands. We saw about a dozen sheep being loaded from a truck into a small boat, we were surprised that they all fitted and did not jump out. Another boat arrived from one of the islands towing large logs in the water.







From Round bay we travelled a little way around the coast to a bay called Karacoen. There is a restaurant ashore here but we decided to stay on board as we had been eating out a lot recently while in Gocek. The weather forecast was for some wind to come through but it was getting much stronger than we had expected. By mid afternoon we decided we needed somewhere more sheltered, so ended up moving behind a nearby island. The shelter was good for a while but the wind changed direction and increased even more. We ended up having over 40 knots (75 kph) at times with gusts roaring through and lots of raised spray off the water. We had lots of anchor chain out and were quite safe, just a little uncomfortable! The wind gusts continued until after midnight, when it dropped to a much calmer 15 knots. We didn't quite get around to filming any of the action....

The next day we motor-sailed to Kalcan, as the winds were light, very different from the night before. We arrived at mid-day and were very pleased to see that there was lots of room in the harbour. Usually the harbour is full of day-trip and tour boats, with only a few spaces for visiting yachts. However, as we were visiting earlier this year, most of the boats were out of the water for their annual maintenance. The harbour car park now resembled a boat yard with at least 20 large boats there.

We enjoyed some lovely food in Kalkan, including minced meat and cheese pide for lunch and mixed meze, calamari and seafood casserole for dinner.





When leaving Kalkan, our anchor got caught up in a chain on the bottom of the harbour, one of the hazards with these harbours, as chains and ropes criss-cross the bottom. We were able to lift the chain up to about a metre below the surface. So Glenn went in for a quick swim in the not so clean harbour water, to get a rope under the chain. Once this was achieved, we could drop our anchor enough to untangle it from the chain.

From Kalkan we had a light tail wind, so we motor sailed with just the genoa down to Kas. We had only planned on spending one night in the Kas marina but it bucketed down rain on Friday night through to Saturday morning with winds gusting to over 30 knots. We decided the trip to Kekova would not be fun in those conditions, so decided to delay out trip to Sunday, where a 20 knot tail wind was predicted. Glenn spent time on Friday washing SCII but then Friday night it rained mud. It seems to happen when the wind is coming from the south, which brings red African dust. SCII was only clean for a couple of hours!

The 20 knot tail wind did not eventuate on Sunday so it was mostly motoring again.
We are currently anchored in the bay of Gokkaya Limani at Kekova. It is very quiet here, as normally this bay is full of yachts and day-trip boats. Last night there were only two other yachts, a fishing boat and three gulets here. The weather forecast is for a week of very calm weather, so I think tonight we will get the BBQ out and have lamb chops for dinner.

We intend to spend a week or two in the Kekova area before heading back up the coast.