We've been out at anchor for the past ten days, the most recent five of which were spent near Marmaris, in the bay just N of Yacht Marina. Our new friends Johan and Elly helped organize a concert for cruisers at the marina and we wanted to be here to watch their performance. The extended time here in Marmaris also allowed for several trips into town on the Dolmus (Turkish mini-bus) to explore and purchase a handful of spares that we needed onboard.

We had an encounter with the Turkish Navy last week while we sailed here from Eckincik. There is a large naval base nearby and five destroyer class vessels were engaged in what sounded like "shooting practice". Although we were traveling outside the restricted area noted on the charts, the Turkish Coast Guard advised us to head even further South "for your own protection". With lots of thunderous booms reverberating in our ears, we eagerly heeded their advice.

During that exchange, I noticed poor reception with our primary VHF radio. We've had intermittent issues with either the VHF or the AIS transceiver for the past two years despite several service attempts by Raymarine personnel. So I opted to have two new VHF antennas installed yesterday --- one at the masthead for the VHF radio and one on the pushpit antenna stand for the AIS. We found corrosion at the masthead antenna connector which was the probable cause of our radio communication issues. With the new secondary antenna on the pushpit, we now have redundancy which is always a good thing for critical systems on boats.

We're leaving Marmaris today and heading SW towards the Datca Penninsula. We enjoyed spending time there last Spring while Tyler was with us and want to revisit a few of our favorite anchorages there. Peter and Ty arrive in 11 days so we'll be heading back towards Gocek by early next week to prepare for their arrival.

More soon...