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| West from Marmaris |
Charley and I haven’t sailed together for 10 years now, so imagine my surprise when he jumped at my suggestion of introducing Mel to sailing with a flotilla holiday for our annual autumn break. In fact he went one stage further and encouraged me to do a bareboat charter. I took a bit of persuading as I wasn’t sure I was up to it with the old body rather falling to bits now. And, although I have done the course and got the certificate, I know my navigation skills leave a lot to be desired. Ok, I can find my way round the local waters as I have done it once or twice but distant climes? However, having looked at the map I could see we needn’t be out of the sight of land so all should be well. Also, I was confident that Chazz would be able to use the chart plotter and keep us on track.
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| Free Upgrade, from Diamond Geezer to Honu |
It took me a while on the internet to find a boat of the right size at a reasonable price. Some good friends lent me their Turkish Pilot and a Cruising Guide so I was able to gen up prior to leaving. I left home on the Friday morning by car for the bus station on Lefkas. After the obligatory 5 hour bus journey then the 1 hour bus transfer to Athens airport the short flight to Istanbul was soon over. There is an airport bus into Taxim Square where Chazz met me and we went off to their flat for a pizza supper. Early next morning we took a taxi to the other airport in Istanbul on the Asian side. A short flight on Pegasus Airlines www.flypgs.com and we arrived in Dalaman. There was a very clever flight information film on the monitors peopled by children, captivating!
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| Lunch at The Pineapple |
An express bus to Marmaris, a short taxi ride and we were in Netsel Marina by mid-day. We went straight to Sail in Turkey’s office to leave our bags as we didn’t expect to get on board until 17.00. There was good news and there was bad news. The bad news was the boat we had booked had suspected mice on board but the good news was a free upgrade to a bigger boat, and it was ready immediately! I was a bit shell shocked but we took it in our stride. Lunch was now involved and Steff advised us of a couple of good places to go. We went to the nearest, The Pineapple, which was far beyond good.
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| Ciftlik |
Quick segue into holiday mood and by the time we had provisioned at the local Migros supermarket and done the paperwork it was time to leave. Steff had already talked us through a brilliant publication ‘The Bay Express’ which is a restaurant guide for the whole area. Specifically for sailors, it gives details not only of their menu specialities but of jetties and lazy lines together with co-ordinates and telephone numbers. Mark gave a briefing on the boat, and although I would have been happy to stay in Marmaris for the night, it seemed like a good suggestion to get off. The pilot makes the Marmaris approach sound terrifying but it was actually plain sailing to get out of the bay, round the headland, Kadirga Burnu, and into Ciftlik.
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