36.43N 28.14E

Friday 12^th July, 2013

We’ve had a very pleasant week or so revisiting old haunts and trying out some new ones. Recovered from all our sightseeing by anchoring for 3 days in Orhaniye where the water was even warm enough for Clare to swim.

I’ve concluded that a restaurant is defined not by its food but by its host/esses. C will doubtless disagree but by far the best evenings I have had have been in places with nice people.

Dirsek was OK but the new boss was surly and chose to berth us as far away as you could get, the food was OK but I wouldn’t go back, particularly as he was so obviously pissed off that I had interrupted his breakfast in order to pay the bill. Other places were magic especially the Sailors Paradise nearby in which a lovely girl cooked lamb in the oven which couldn’t have been better (we hardly had enough Tl to pay the, small, bill but she said pounds or dollars would be OK). Spent a couple of days in Bozburun where we watched F1 and Murray (sadly not the Lions though). It’s a bit of a con now, they charge 50Tl per night and only rarely have anyone to take your lines; if there is someone he watches where you anchor is and then moves the stern about 15 ft left or right so all the anchor lines are at an angle with predictable results.

Two of the three boats had crossed anchors, thankfully not us.

Just spent 2 days in Sogut, where we’ve never before which is very nice (no charge and good food) but very busy with flotillas every day so far. Off to Serce today with 20knt following wind. I’m proud of myself because Rod Heikel (who writes all the pilot books) says how difficult it is to sail into Serce, so of course I had to do it – and succeeded!

K

Serce is a beautiful bay but no one we talked to seems to go there now , so being pig headed we thought we’d give it a try. The ‘restaurant’ is a real dump where they only turned on the generator ( and presumably fridge and freezer ) when we walked in. We were on a buoy to save jetty space for a flotilla and had a dusty hike through a building site to reach it. The food was the most expensive and least appetising we have had in Turkey. During the night I also remembered a reason people don’t go there; the meltem howling down off the hill. We won’t be going back!

We are now back in Ciftlik nearly where we started. A bit busy now we are so close to Marmaris but sheltered, friendly and a nice restaurant.

C