36:33.2N  029:04.1E

As expected all did not go so smoothly.  Indeed by 08.30 Monday morning we knew we weren’t going anywhere that day.  We couldn’t check ourselves out with the harbourmaster but the nice man who told us that said that he could do it for us for the small fee of 25 Euro’s.  The upside was that we had some breathing space to get ourselves a bit better organised and it didn’t do us any harm to have a slower day.

And finally we set off.  Thinking we had missed the best winds on Monday we found there was plenty still out there and we had a fabulous few hours sailing.  Tashi Delek shook out her new headsail, picked up her skirts and scooted along reaching eight knots at times.  Everything came together under blue skies and we knew exactly why we were doing this.

We now have numerous instruments that we need to learn how to use.  Knowing what the wind speed was seemed a good place to start and not terribly difficult.  Mike had noticed that the indicator read ‘Zero’ when we were in the Marina but Raymarine said that we needed to do seatrials to set it up.  So, now we had put to sea, we got the book out and set about the trials.  This meant turning the boat slowly, clockwise, twice until we heard beeps.  Nothing heard.  We turn slowly twice more, nothing.  And again, nothing.  Close to seasickness we give up for the day and find an anchorage to enjoy for the evening.

Next day we try again.  In addition to no wind speed indication the Nintendo chart that we have on screen on deck is great but the little picture of the boat that is supposed to be us would suggest that we are sailing sideways which is a little weird.  We sense more sea trials and calibration is required.   More turns (apparently this ‘linearises’ the wind indicator) and still no windspeed and we are still sailing sideways although this could just be because we are now very dizzy.  We headed for a small bay, Boynuz Buku (close to Gocek), we had visited seven years ago on one of our early Sunsail charters.  It was just as we had remembered, mosquitoes included, only this time we were armed with full defences and won 13 – 0. 

Next morning, at anchor, with very little wind it is time for Mike to go up the mast, test his climbing kit and check the lights.  While up there he notices that the whizzy thing on the wind speed indicator is missing.  No whizzy thing, no wind speed.  Phone call to Raymarine who took a bit of convincing but then thought it may have blown off in the February storms.  We are not entirely certain that the device to measure the wind is likely to have blown off and favour the argument that it may not have been put on in the first place but no matter, Raymarine arranged to meet us in Gocek the next morning to fix it.

Port Gocek Marina is very posh.  We thought we may stay until we asked the price - £60!  Cheaper to take the boat to a Travel Lodge for the night.  Four hours cost £22 so we made sure we filled the tanks, recharged everything we had and used the wifi so that at least we had some electricity and water to show for it. 

While there we recce’d the anchorage and dinghy pick up points because the town is quite close to Dalaman airport and therefore a good arrival or departure point for visitors.

By this time we knew we had another two days of fine weather before some strong winds and heavy rain so we returned to the same anchorage for another day and then moved on to Gemiler Buku where we could tuck in behind an island and ride out the strong weather for a couple of days.

And strong it turned out to be (apart from all the clattering and banging we now had a whizzy thing to tell us) but we were very comfortable and used the time to do more work on the boat.  To our complete surprise the one boat that arrived during the bad weather turned out to be Steve and Julie on ‘Silver Bugle’.  Mike had taught Steve when he was working for Faro Sailing School.  We had caught up with them in Marmaris and knew they were heading roughly the same way but there are so many bays to choose from it is strange that we are the only two boats here.  They tied their boat to us while Steve took their shore line across in our dingy which saved Julie a chilly swim.

A particular treat here has been the ‘pancake boat’.  We had barely got our anchor down when it arrived so we arranged a rendezvous for a nine o’clock breakfast.  And what a breakfast; we watched the pancakes being made, passed our plates over and enjoyed a real treat.  And they delivered fresh bread while they were at it.

One last word on the wind.  It is very cold and now we know why – there is snow all over the hills!  But it is a lovely sight to see blue sea and snow all at once.

Here are the pictures..........