The huge boat lift at Marmaris was out of order when we left. There are boats on the hard, which should have been put back in the water by now, but don’t have a clue when the lift will be fixed. At least one of these boats is taking part in the EMYR and is not well pleased.

We should have left Marmaris marina Monday morning but rain was forecast and we really didn’t want to sail towards Bodrum, in the pouring rain. The rain fell like water from upturned buckets but fortunately, unlike the last lot of rain we had, a few days after our return to Turkey, it was clean and did not cover the decks in sand.

Postponing the departure by 24 hours was quite fortuitous as miraculously, the weather-fax was delivered to the boat on Monday afternoon, the part required to fix the inverters arrived Monday morning. It was the wrong part!!! Hopefully, when we reach Antalya, the local office, for the supplier, will be able to sort this out. The Seajet antifouling paint, for which we had been waiting since last year, finally arrived and was delivered to our boat Monday evening. Too late for this year but will do very nicely when the boat comes out of the water at the end of this season.

The marina office lost the keys to our boat, which we had to leave with them when we left the boat here last November. How they could have dealt with a problem, should it have arisen in our absence, is anyone’s guess. That is the second lot of keys to get lost this winter. The first lot of keys that went missing, had  by accident, been dropped in the water.

Tuesday morning, as we prepared to leave port, we switched on the navigational equipment. The auto pilot was not working!!! We had arranged for another GPS to be connected and at first thought that the workmen had dislodged a wire. Dick made an urgent call to Raymarine who arrived, almost before the call had been disconnected. It transpired that the unit was faulty and nothing at all to do with the additional unit. Within the hour, the autopilot had been repaired and reinstalled. We were away.

The sun was shining and we picked up some wind but it was blowing in the wrong direction. No change there then. The next morning rain had been forecast and the forecast had unfortunately been correct. We donned several layers of warm clothing underneath our wet weather gear but although the sea was much calmer than when we sailed from Marmaris, it was a miserable, cold, wet passage.

Thursday, the sea was flat and the sun shone hotly so we continued sailing until we were within 4 miles of the marina where we were to join the EMYR on Friday. We anchored in 6 metres, in a pretty little bay, consisting of pale blue sea with a sandy bottom. Apart from a bit of rock ‘n rolling for a few minutes about 10pm, we hardly moved at all.

 About 5 miles short of our anchorage, we passed a ship-wrecked commercial boat which was leaning against the side of the cliffs. It could not have happened very long ago.

We left the anchorage soon after 11am, for the short sail to marina at Bodrum I use the term “sail” very loosely. We did actually motor the few miles to the marina, as the wind, such as there was, was right on the nose. The sun shone hotly but with the wind blowing from the direction of the bow, we found it necessary to wearour fleeces, just to keep warm.

We arrived at D-Marin, Turgutreis, Bodrum. The staff were all very welcoming and we moored alongside the hammerhead, quite a rare occurrence nowadays, with two marinaros taking our lines and making us secure.

We expect our crew, who will be joining us for the duration of the rally, to arrive early evening.

Leaving Marmaris, above ....Shipwreck, below