Farewell to Turkey.

It took us longer than expected to get away from Marmaris – we kept hoping our generator would be fixed, but after several days of trying, the local engineer had to give up & we’ve agreed to send it away to be collected in the spring.  Apart from that, the boat is all fixed up & looking great, so we left feeling very proud of her, and at great speed (the work on the hull seems to have given us an extra knot!).  We left Marmaris with mixed feelings.  The marina itself is nothing special & a bit out of things, but the people were fantastic, especially those who helped us with the boat.  The local company Mavimar & the boss Ercan did a wonderful job with great goodwill and charged peanuts – I had to force extra money on him when he didn’t want to charge for work with which he wasn’t completely satisfied!  We had time for walks & runs up the pine-covered hillside that overlooks the marina and as a bonus found the remains of an ancient settlement at the top and visited a spectacular Palaeolithic cave on the way back down.  We wondered how many other yachties knew they were there.

Our final leg in Turkey took us along the Datca peninsular to an almost deserted inlet.  Only “almost deserted” because the local restaurateur (who had provided the mooring buoys) was still on the lookout for his last few customers of the year.  His generator had failed (a familiar story), so we ate a modest fish meal by gaslight & were delivered back to the boat very early under an amazing starry firmament.

The next day was to be the 1^st of the final 4 legs to Crete, but even before we had left Turkish waters our chartplotter failed and we had to divert back to Rhodes where a Raymarine agent is based (we have a backup, but it uses the PC which has been playing up for some weeks now so can’t be relied on for days at a time).  We didn’t need him in the end, as with a bit of help from the internet I managed to get it going again.  However we’ve now missed the window to carry straight on as a weather system is approaching fast.  We’ll probably have to wait until Wednesday before we can head out again, which has given me time to get a 2^nd back-up chartplotter working using the laptop. 

We now have confirmation that there is a winter berth for us in Agios Nikolaos on Crete, which is a relief as we had left it rather late to ask for a place in the very popular marina there.  Meanwhile it has been educational to explore a bit more of Rhodes town out of season and appreciate the incredible fortifications without the summer crowds.