Turkey XIII - The Lycian Coast IV, Kas, Sailaway's home for some time to come.

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Turkey XII - The Lycian Coast III, Fethiye Körfezi and Skopea Limani and on to Kas.

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Turkey I (2013) - The Long road journey from the UK to Kas, Turkey begins.

Dear followers,

Ann and I are to return to the UK for an unknown period, I am in desperate need of attention to both of my knees, we are unable to continue further without assistance. Thank you to all of our follower, over 1000 visitors every month! Our adventures are not over, only on hold, please keep checking on us, the log entries plan to re-start mid-April (2013) please use the above link to check, see you soon?

Goodbye for now.

Log Entry Wednesday 10th October - We bid farewell to Sailaway, off to Antalya and the UK.

Our packing away is almost at an end, almost everything exposed to the sun and it harmful rays has been removed and safely stored away. We feed our "feathered friends" for the last time, the fish cleaning up below and around them.

The last major task is to lift our dinghy up onto the deck, deflate it and cover it from the sun and weather. It does seem a lot of work but if nothing else we will get another year out of our equipment when we return.

With every thing secured below we put our bags up on deck, our time of departure approaches, our friends Ian & Adrianne (Tamino) are running us up to the coach station for the coach to Antalya, from Anally we fly to Istanbul early in the morning, then on to London and finally Newcastle where we arrive about 2300 hours tomorrow evening. We have booked a room for this evening in the "Star Pension" only a short taxi ride from Antalya coach station situation in the old town area.

The taxi takes us into and through a warren of narrow cobbled streets to our lodgings, at times just getting the car through what seems to be forever narrowing lane. We are very happy with our lodgings located in the hub of activity, restaurants, cafes and bars surrounded with character.

Ann takes the camera and disappears for an hour or so, the only regret we have is that we are only staying one night here, perhaps when we return we can spend more time here?

Near to the pension is the "Korkut or Truncated Mosque". It has a long history, part of it's foundations dating back to a 2nd Century A.D. temple, later, in the 6th Century being replaced by a magnificent church. It was converted to a Mosque by Sultan Beyazid II's son, Prince Korkut during his period 1470 - 1509. The Mosque then stood the challenge of time until it's upper section was destroyed by fire, it then became known as the "Truncated Mosque".

The local streets are amazing, residents making them as attractive as possible to the visiting tourists.

The ancient "Clock Tower" is amazing as are the bars and restaurants, amazingly Ann bumps into two other residents of Kas Marina, John and his dear wife, also on their way home to Newcastle!

Ann returns to me at our lodgings with a camera full of pictures and of coarse the tales of the things seen, we leave for dinner. We stay nearby and are coaxed into a restaurant adjacent to the Korkut Mosque where we barter down the price of a fish meal.

The meal is prepared, the fish filleted by the proprietor who tells us he is a former fisherman, an excellant meal, far exceeding our original thoughts of a kebab? The evening passes quickly, the proprietor educates us with regards to the cities history, the raki passes equally as well! At the close of the evening we ask for the bill, it was, as we had guessed far in excess of the cash we had, we offer a debit card - guess what, he does not have a machine? He asks us to follow him a short distance, as is the Turkish way, resourcefully he takes us to a small shop just around the corner - we pay the shop owner the price of our meal, they obviously sort it out between themselves later.

Our stay in Antalya is a great evening, we will return and spend two or three nights having a good look around, there is certainly plenty here to see.

Log Entry Saturday 6th October - The hard work comes to a close!

The past days have seen an unbelievable amount of stripping down, every rope, piece of canvas and fitting that can be removed, has been then washed/serviced and packed away.

The sails we purchased just before we left the UK from Quay Sails (Poole , Dorset) have lasted us well and have lots of service left in them so we remove them, wash all of the salt and dirt from them, hang them out to dry and fold them away too. In places the odd stitch is required, they are now ready for when next needed?

Sailaway's deck is looking very sparse, down below, well you can imagine - every thing has to go some where?

The marina is receiving boats every day but still plenty of room for more, the winter clubs (aerobics etc) beginning to surface with schedules appearing on the notice board, the nightly "happy hour" well established - shame we will miss it all.

Log Entry Tuesday 2nd October - The hard work begins!

Every thing in the marina is new, well maintained and cleaned daily, one could (if needed) eat one's dinner off the boatyard ground? The water is clear and blue, no weed as yet or any form of pollution, the fish are plentiful and some enormous. There is a Migros Supermarket, two restaurants/bars and a swimming pool and bar. We are pleased with our choice but regret not being able to spend the winter here, there is already quite a live aboard community here, the boat moored along side Sailaway is known to us we met them in Fethiye.

We intend to remove every rope and fitting that can be removed, wash and clean and pack them away to save a year's decay from the sun and weather - some things take some persuading to be packed away, but all is done in time.

There are ducks always around the pontoons, we fed them this morning, now, each time they see us on the stern of Sailaway they expect a treat - we real do like this marina.

We sit sipping cold beer as the sun goes down, a reward for the day's hard work!

Log Entry Monday 1st October - We leave the anchorage and make our final trip to Kas Marina.

As we make our final trip in Sailaway for some time the short journey of 15 miles or so is very quiet, very little spoken with each completing their required tasks without much conversation. The anchor is raised, washed down and secured and we head east to Kas Marina.

We leave the small cove that has been our home for the past few days and make our way along the coastline, holiday traffic already too en route.

The wind is very light with again rain to the north of us, the ripples created by the light breeze seem to open a channel a head of us, under motor nothing else to do other than watch traffic, coarse and drink coffee?

We are soon in amongst the many small islets and islands surrounding the Greek island of Kastellórizon, only a couple of kilometres off the Turkish coast, a Greek ferry on way to Kastellórizon passes us in the distance.

With the coastline always in view through the mist we pick up a passenger, the insect about 50mm long makes a couple of attempts to leave Sailaway but always returns, the land too far off perhaps or just lazy, taking the easier option of a lift?

We continue on through the islands until we reach Gurmenli Adasi, the last time we were in this area was last year. It was about 3am in the morning, no wind and we had problems to resolve with an over heating engine, we had pulled a plastic bag into our cooling water intake - bad memories. We motored on, entering Buçak Deniz in which the marina sits.

It seems strange looking for some thing with nothing else than the limited information the marina offers on it's website - the marina is so new.

At the top of the deep bay we find the marina and call in on channel 73 as requested, a rib and two friendly gents greet us and guide us to our berth. The office staff are very helpful, our registration and contract completion could not have been easier.

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