Goodbye Turkey thanks for the memories.

Carpets, juicy Finike oranges, honey, lamb shish, ruins, even more ruins, crystal clear water, goats, camel wrestling, ANZAC memories, plump red tomatoes, acres of hot houses, snowy mountains, head scarves and baggy flowery pants, chai, donner kebab, Mavi Sofra the nicest restaurant in Finike, friendly Turks, Sunday BBQ, Pub night, the call to prayer floating across an anchorage, good luck blue eyes, Efes beer, Saturday market, the majestic Aya Sofia in Istanbul, help and advice from fellow yachties, phone frustrations, Kapadokya, superb long distance buses, hairy goat hides full of cheese, images of Atatuk everywhere keeping an eye on his people …..so many memories.

Time to leave Turkey and head for Greece. Yesterday we visited all the proper authorities here in Marmaris, added Brian and Marion to our crew list, had our passports stamped and we were off to Rhodos this morning. As we left the windy harbour, we looked at the wind direction and the time and realized it was a bit late in the day. The SE wind could make the anchorage at Rhodes difficult and if we couldn’t fit into the mandraki, we would be too late in the afternoon to get to Symi, the next Greek Island, before dark. So we turned around and sailed back up to the top of the harbor to anchor in smooth water outside the Marmaris yacht marina. Any early start tomorrow morning will give us some leeway if we need to carry on to Symi. So not quite goodbye to Turkey just yet.

We arrived in Marmaris on Sunday and were able to catch up with Bruce and Lesley, NZ friends, on their lovely catamaran, Midi. It’s a rare sight to see two Bay of Island yachts in the same anchorage in these parts. Just a 24 hour get together before they headed out for the start or their summer cruising. Before they left, their guest, John had a look at our stern gland. Water in the lazarette made Alan think the stern gland was leaking, John kindly came and added some packing to it. Midi left and we motored into Marmaris, still water in the lazarette!! After little more investigation Alan found a small leak in a pipe going into a shut off valve in the exhaust hose line, luckily above water so it only leaked when the motor was on. So to cut a long story short we decided a marina berth in this windy weather was the safest place to be if the motor was to be out of action for a few hours. 74 Euros($NZ140) later we were safely tied up, the contents of the lazarette piled up on the aft deck and Alan in the bottom of the lazarette working out what to do. Muttering regrets about not knowing about it while we were on the hard at Finike, Alan eventually decided how to stop leak. 24 hours later, topped up with water, emails checked, a lighter wallet, we left the marina with a dry lazarette.

Tomorrow with any luck we will be in Greece…….bacon, pork, good wine, maybe even weetbix , don’t be mistaken its not just the food that matters there is history and more ruins awaiting us in Greece, I just won’t tell Alan about the ruins!