31 May 2006 - A short holiday! – postcard from Mags

We have just spent a delightful week with our new friends from Tuckenhay Felicity and Roger. We wondered how we should all get on in the confines of a boat but in the end we all agreed it had been a super week. For Felicity it was an introduction to cruising and Roger was in his element on a boat. And even if I have said this before there is no better cruising ground than Skopea Limani.

We picked up our friends from Port Gocek, beautifully located, attractively landscaped and rather "posh". (We like to go posh now and again!) We sailed from there to a small bay for lunch and on to Seagull Bay for the night. The following night we spent at Karacaoren which is just outside Fethiye Korfezi and close to the famous beauty spot of Olu Deniz.They looked after us well in the local restaurant. In the morning after a dip we went and explored Gemiler Island where there are ruins of ancient churches and houses.

Gemiler Island in the early morning

Then to Fethiye where we spent two nights. We rang our local friends John and Bea and took a taxi to Kaya Koy to visit the deserted village. Felicity had read Birds Without Wings before the holiday and was very keen to see the village around which the story is based. She even started to re-read it and take notes so that she could try and identify different parts of the book. Having read it myself since our last visit I was also keen to go back and see the village with new eyes.

After a few beers with John and Bea at their house they gave us a guided tour making the whole trip far more interesting with their local knowledge. We finished up with lunch at the restaurant Poseiden at the foot of the village and were more than satisfied with the meal. The restaurater was very friendly and the chef came out for a chat. Lovely people.

Back to the boat on the Dolmus. We made room for a Turkish gentleman between Barry and myself carrying a couple of dark red roses which he kindly offered to me. My day was made! I may not have a garden at present but a red rose from a stranger is very cheering.

Good food and delightfully cool in the Poseiden restaurant at Kaya

After Fethiye we went to our favourite anchorage in this area, Wall Bay. We took two lines ashore, all now made wonderfully more simple with willing friends to take over some of the duties. We had a good night despite some fairly strong gusts. Roger took an anchor watch on his own initiative which allowed the rest of us to sleep easy. Having Roger's willing hands also meant that we could investigate the mainsail. Since leaving Kemer we have had several problems in furling and unfurling it and in the end while Roger and Felicity were with us it got finally jammed and could not be enticed out. Roger volunteered to go up the mast and after some time did manage to ease the sail out past the jam. It was a tough job and unfortunately wasn't permanent either as the next time we tried to pull it out the wretched thing jammed anew. There was some entertainment on leaving as our anchor was under a local gulet's chain but with the aid of their crew we slipped out easily enough. Finally it was back to Port Gocek where we were treated by Roger and Felicity at the local marina restaurant which is very chic. The food and wine were excellent.

Our guests did their best to creep out to their taxi at 0445 but we woke up to wave them farewell. As often happens I felt quite down the next couple of days with friends gone.

We spent the following evening with Sue and Chris who live on Elan in Port Gocek during much of the summer. We met them originally when we all did the EMYR in 2004. Since they know Gocek well they introduced us to a village restaurant in an orange grove. Standard local food but delicious. They had shown an interest in crossing the Atlantic with us so we made a proposal. They seem very enthusiastic and are looking into flights to the Cape Verdes and then back from the Caribbean. We are also excited that they may be joining us. They are a very relaxed and pleasant couple with a lot of experience. I am almost beginning to look forward to the adventure as things start to fall into place.