Turkey, S/V PEACE AND ALOHA, Update, July 27, 2005
Aloha and Merhaba "Good Morning"!
We arrived in Turkey on June 17 without stopping in Cyprus after a passage of 340 miles from Israel. We anchored outside Finike Marina (36 17.9N 30 09.2E) and went into a slip at $39/night the following morning. We arrived just in time for their large impressive Saturday market where we purchased lots of fresh fruits and veggies, especially nice tomatoes. They do not seem to have any humus, which we so enjoyed in Israel, but they have lots of yoghurt and fresh cheeses.
We have found the Turkish people to be very nice, helpful, and friendly, but most do not speak English and their products have absolutely NO labels in English. We have also experienced a radical increase in prices including expenses associated with entering Turkey, visas, marinas, haul outs, boat parts, drugs, and restaurants. It took almost all day to check in to Turkey even with assistance completing all forms from the marina staff. As usual when entering a new country we have hit the ATM machine too many times!
Unfortunately, there was not enough time to obtain bottom paint and a cutlass bearing to be hauled out at Finike so we sailed 36 miles to Kas on Tuesday, June 21, anchoring at 36 10.6N 29 38.7E about a mile from town. We enjoyed a lovely day ashore exploring the sacrophagi and the ancient Roman theatre, plus the carpet and souvenir shops. We passed by Kekova Roads which might have been a mistake since many other cruisers considered that anchorage to be a "must stop" while traveling west along the southern Turquoise Coast of Turkey.
We sailed 10 miles to Kalkan, Yesikoy Limani on Thursday, planning to rent a car ($30US/day, gas at $7.50US/gal) to tour ruins at Xanthos, Patara, and other sites closer to Kalkan. However, the anchorage (36 15.7N 29 22.1E) was 1.75 miles from Kalkan, quite crowded with yachts and gullets with some tied to shore and some swinging. When the wind rose to 25 knots at noon we decided against leaving the boat there alone for a day, so we moored 43 miles into 15-20 knots of wind all day June 24 to reach Fethiye. We had planned to anchor at the harbor entrance to allow an early Saturday morning departure for Marmaris but with 20+ knot winds forecast we anchored opposite the Fethiye Marina in town at 36 37.7N 29 05.7E. The anchorage was in a large beautiful bay encircled by huge mountains. Ashore we hiked up to the rock tombs and the crusader fortress and checked out a few souvenir and carpet shops before returning to the boat for lunch and to repair a plugged-up head hose! The guys had no luck purchasing replacement hose there. Jason and Eric's head did double duty until we obtained new hose in Marmaris.
We motor sailed 48 miles to Marmaris on June 26 anchoring outside Netsel Marina (charges 60E/night) at 36.51N 28 23.2E to sort out some continuing medical problems, purchase bottom paint, have a tool made to remove the cutlass bearing, schedule a haul out, purchase replacement hose to repair our broken head, and prepare and provision for our daughter Julie, son in law Chris, and grandbaby Paul's visit July 6-15.
We were busy for the next ten days prior to their arrival replacing our hose and repairing our head. We had a part made to remove the cutlass bearing at a nearby machine shop, which was very expensive here in Turkey. We visited most of the carpet shops in Marmaris and finally purchased enough carpets to almost sink the boat (one can never have enough of these beautiful hand made wool Turkish carpets)! Shopping was easy in Marmaris with a large store a short walk from the dinghy landing in town. The Thursday local market was disappointing compared to Finike's and we concluded that it was more of a tourist trap than a good deal. We scheduled a car for Wednesday, July 6 to visit Marti Marina and to pick up Julie, Chris, and Paul. Quite to our surprise there was a spectacular fireworks display on July 2 in the harbor near our anchorage, which was greatly appreciated several days before our Independence Day Celebration on July 4! We baby proofed the boat, stocked up on baby food, diapers, and wipes, washed and cleaned in anticipation of our grandbaby's arrival.
On July 6 we drove 30 minutes from Marmaris to Marti Marina to schedule our haul out for July 19 for 435E for two weeks on the hard compared with Marmaris Yacht Marine's quote of 1200E. That evening David and Eric drove 1.5 hours to Dalaman Airport to pick up Julie, Chris and Paul at 1850. Unfortunately, their flight was an hour late from Istanbul, so all arrived on board at 2200. The following morning David and Eric returned the car, which we had rented from Josef (cell number: 0542 321 8959)for 45 NTL ($1US = 1.31 New Turkish Lira) and tracked down their stroller which had been left at the airport. We picked up the stroller at the bus station later that afternoon after Turkish Airlines sent it over. We unpacked all four large duffel bags of "stuff" which were mainly boat parts and mail for us and baby stuff for Paul!
We shopped for food at Tansas, the big supermarket, and for gifts for them to take back with a little taste of bargaining at the market! We swam several times a day behind the boat at the anchorage in really clear COLD (73 Degrees)water with Paul enjoying every minute! It was very hot especially compared to Colorado! Unfortunately, Julie and Chris did not have much sleep with the heat and with Paul's nights and days reversed from Jet lag!
On July 10, we motor sailed 12 miles to Gerbekse Cove (36 42N 28 12.6E) for Chris and Paul's first sailing experience and we stern tied to shore. It was a beautiful anchorage but very crowded with gullets, tourist and charter boats. We went ashore, hiked up to the Byzantine church ruins on the hill and played on the beach with Paul. We enjoyed dinner in the cockpit while watching the anchoring dance of several rental sail boats. Unfortunately we had to make a quick exit at 2200 with increasing winds affecting the ability of our anchor to hold. We moored three miles to Chiftlik (Ancient Phalarus)using our forward looking sounder (Echo-pilot), radar and C-map, which is not very accurate here, to anchor at 36 42.9N 28 14.5E at night. We never enter anchorages at night but this was an emergency! The following morning we motor sailed a few miles to Kumulu Buku (ancient Amos) to anchor at 36 44.8N 28 16.3E in a beautiful bay where we swam off the boat and off the rocky/pebbly beach ashore. That afternoon we showed Chris and Julie our carpet purchases. Eric and Julie are already making lists of their choices to be included with our wills but Jason could care less! Unfortunately, the wind blew 30 knots that afternoon so we re-anchored three times on the other side of the bay but the anchor would not penetrate the weeds. After the wind died down, we returned to our original anchor spot in sand with little weeds.
We celebrated Jason's 32nd Birthday on July 12th with Hersey's brownies brought by Julie from Costco. We had a very relaxing day swimming, resting, and playing with Paul. Unfortunately, we needed to sail back to Marmaris the following morning in preparation for their departure on a flight leaving Dalaman Airport at 0450 on July 15. We spent their last few days looking at pictures, taking pictures, talking, and packing. We dinghied them from the boat at 0100 (UGHHHH) to the dock near Netsel Marina where they took a taxi to the mini bus station to take the Turkish Airlines Shuttle to the Dalaman Airport. We were so sad to see them leave. They were finally adjusted to the time reversal when they had to leave. Their visit made us realize that we MUST cross the Med and the Atlantic this season and complete our circumnavigation in Florida by June 2006. We need to finish this mission and begin a new adventure chapter in our lives. We all wish to be closer to the rest of the family, especially our grandson, Paul! Julie is tired of worrying about us out here, taking care of our two African Greys Sammie and Manu, and dealing with our mail and financial "stuff" which seems to become more time consuming and complicated daily!
Grandson Update: On July 21, Paul was 1 year 4 mos and weighed 24 lbs 15 oz! No wonder his poor old grandparents had trouble lifting him! Julie updated his website at www.paulkekoa.com with many new pictures including ones of their visit. Please check it out! We are not sure when we will have time to update our website with new pictures and email updates.
On July 15 and 16 we went food shopping in Marmaris, stocked up on water as well as making it, washed, cleaned, purchased two beautiful Turkish pottery plates, and visited our carpet salesman, Naim, to view larger sized carpets which could be ordered from Maui after completing our new home in Olowalu. On Sunday we motor sailed 50 miles west around the peninsula to the beautiful bay of Keci Buku near Marti Marina at Orhaniye (36 45.8N 28 07.3E), where we anchored until we were hauled out July 19. This is our seventh time on the hard and hopefully, our last! Cruising boats are not meant to be on land propped up by metal stands with their owners scampering down long shaky ladders from 8+ feet above the concrete haul-out yard especially in 90 degree temperatures. We plan to sand and paint the bottom, replace the cutlass bearing, polish the sides, plus complete additional rope, sail, engine, and water maker work which always needs to be done as routine maintenance aboard a sailboat, especially after sailing 10,000+ miles this past year with 7,000+ to go! Ellen's projects, which include washing, cleaning, provisioning, flag making and preparing passage meals, are not possible with this heat or on the hard, so she has been answering 190 personal emails and writing out past updates which have not been sent for months. Her work will begin when we return to the water August 1. We still have not decided on our route across the Aegean Sea to Greece. Unfortunately, we will have to miss much of the Med leaving many sites and countries to experience at another time by plane. Many sites in the Med are very difficult to see while cruising on a yacht with a scarcity of safe anchorages and affordable marinas to safely leave our boat.
Our winlink address has changed from the recipient acceptance list back to the SPAM blocker so if you have written us and we did not reply, please write to our sailmail address and/or change your subject line and resend! PLEASE do NOT simply hit your reply button which will send this update back with your answer! If you are tired of hearing about our travels, please write and we will remove you from our mailing list.
We appreciate your patience in our lack of correspondence. We promise to answer your personal emails, send out all our belated updates, and update our website at www.peaceandaloha.com as soon as possible. We hope that you are all enjoying a wonderful relaxing restful summer. If you are cruising, we wish you fair winds and calms seas where ever you may be. Please send us your latest news and plans! We love to hear from you. Take care. Keep in touch. Be safe. God Bless.
With Love, Peace and Aloha,
Ellen, David, Jason and Eric
S/V PEACE AND ALOHA,
On the Hard, Marti Marina, Orhaniye near Marmaris, Turkey
July 27, 2005