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Carol’s brother Andrew, sister-in-law Julia and nieces Sarah and Emma came back for more!!  Last year they had spent a week with us in Turkey on what amounted to a motor boat holiday given that we had very little wind and needed the engine on most of the time.  This year they got to sail properly.  Last year Mike dislocated his shoulder part way through their week so they were left to their own devices looking after the boat at anchor while we did our tour of the regions hospitals and clinics.  This year we all stayed in one piece.

Their flight was delayed so they arrived after dark when the village was revving up for a festival to celebrate their ‘glorious’ victory over the Turks.  With the help of text messages we tracked them down to the outskirts where the taxi had dropped them considerably further from the boat than planned but it was downhill and with wheels on the luggage not too much of an effort to get to the harbour through the crowds.  With lots of “Excuse-me”’s we got past everyone sitting on the quayside waiting for the extravaganza to begin and got into the dingy for a couple of runs out to the boat at anchor. 

We watched the re-enactment of the battle complete with burning ship in the harbour and then had the best possible view of the fireworks from the front of the boat.  It would be great to provide such a welcome for all our visitors.

Given their late arrival and the entertainment in the harbour we didn’t have time for the full Vodka Martini ceremony so we delayed that until the second night.  A further refinement this time was the cocktail umbrellas and paper novelty birds that Carol and unearthed in Mum’s kitchen cupboard while at home the previous week.  A considerable improvement to presentation and overall naffness.

As ever keen to pass on his knowledge and skills Mike took Sarah on as his pupil and she has now been assessed as competent to take on this duty should the need arise.

Last year in Turkey we needed to take a line ashore pretty much every time we anchored.  This year there has always been plenty of ‘swing room’ in the anchorages so we haven’t needed to do this until this week.  Carol usually does the swimming, clambouring over rocks and tying on so that Mike can manoeuvre the boat if things get a bit tricky which they very occasionally do if it is windy.  This time she had company in finding the only suitable tree in the place.

We travelled further this year which was good but returned to Pythagorian where Andrew had booked an apartment for the second week.  We had an exceptionally hot last night on the town quay before they left after breakfast the next morning.  We had to make a rapid getaway in order to reach Kusadasi, three hours or so away in Turkey where we were meeting our next visitors David and Susan.