On the morning of the 18^th October we left Symi town at 07:10 having managed to log out of Greece the previous evening.  I think that Richard had quite a hard time doing that as the chap in the office (or rather one of the offices) couldn’t believe that we didn’t have some stamps in our transit log.  However he let us go in the end!  It was only a short sail before we got out the Turkish courtesy ensign.

 Turkey in sight!

We had decided to sail to Loryma on the Turkish coast where we would stop for breakfast.  It is a large sheltered bay which has no access by land – that is there are no roads there at the moment.  It was really calm and the water crystal clear.  We had to have one last swim there before arriving in the marina for the winter. Absolutely gorgeous, we could have stayed for several days but we had a rendezvous to make! Our friends Ray and Carol were on their way up from Fethiye to meet us so we upped anchor and set off again.

We kept scouring the horizon for any sign of their boat and tried calling them on VHF.  Neither of us heard anything, however subsequently another boat told us that they had heard Ray.  We eventually made contact by mobile phone and agreed to meet up in Kadirga Bay just at the entrance of Marmaris Bay.  We kept looking for them but it was really only at the last minute that we spotted each other and amazingly we both arrived off the bay at the same time!

 At last!

 Anyone else recognise these faces?

It was indescribable to finally meet up after talking about it for so long.  We took a little time to find a good spot to anchor but once anchors were set and the dinghy was in the water the bottle of bubbly in hand off we went to Ostrea!

 Akibbon coming into Kadirga

 Richard unshipping the oars

 Cheers!!

 Serife!!

Well I’m not certain that if we had been breathalysed on leaving Kadirga what colour the crystals might have been but we motored into Marmaris Bay as the sun was going down.

 Sun on the hills behind the marina

 Can’t quite read the sign on the island but it definitely says Yacht Marina Marmaris

 Just past the island looking back towards Icmeler

 Following Ray and Carol into the gloom

 Crumbs look at all those masts! Is there room for us?

What an amazing sight – we have never seen a marina on this scale.  Anyhow we didn’t go into the marina that evening but picked up a mooring outside and continued the party on our boat!

Distance run 39.49nM   Cumulative total 3536.21nM