Alanya
Scott-Free’s blog
Steve & Chris
Mon 24 May 2010 19:47
36:33.4N
31:57E
Up early for an
04:30 departure for the 70 nmile trip to Alanya. With no wind we motored
(uneventfully) all the way,and arrived late afternoon. A couple of hours
later we were enjoying cocktails at the poolside. Later we went for supper
at the marina pub which was nothing to write home about so I won't. The
company was good though.
Next morning Pete
and Mary crept off the boat at 03:45 without waking us,and set off on their
two-day trip to Capadoccia. We spent the day relaxing and doing a few jobs
around the boat. We met up with Phil & Francis from Tulameen who we haven't
seen for a couple of years, and went on board for dinner in the evening.It was
good to catch up with their news.
The following day we
took a bus into Alanya and another up to the castle. It was a fairly
unimpressive pile of stones but the view was worth the ride. After lunch in town
we took the bus back and awaited the return of our crew. Just as we were
beginning to think they had jumped ship, they arrived back looking very tired
but happy.
View from Alanya
castle
After a good night's
sleep the crew were up early again the next morning to join us on the bus for
the white water rafting. This was great fun.We teamed up with Trevor &
Lesley from Serafina and Michael & Carin from Windjammer to shoot the
rapidsand we obviously did it well because our raft guide told us, after we had
cleared a particularly good set of rapids that he usually overturns the raft at
that one! Thereafter he tookus down the more difficult side of each set of
rapids in an obvious attempt to get some of us in the water. Trevor
eventually obliged, and that seemed to keep him happy. On the final rapid,
he had us all move to the back of the raft and the front reared up so high out
of the water several of us thought we were going in, but managed somehow to stay
on board. It was great fun and for me one of the highlights of the trip so
far.
Number 1 team
ready for the
off
Safely out of the rapids and heading for the next
The final day in
Alanya brought the EMYR regatta, organised by the Alanya liveaboards. Each
group had to supply a dinghy in which to race, so we lowered our dinghy, pumped
up the flat tube, attached a flagstaff and green pennant and we were ready to
start. Steve and one of the chaps from Dubbe won the first race, so we
were off to a good start. However, the green team ladies in the next race
managed to get entangled with some mooring lines and came in last. We did
slightly better in the ladies coxless fours, though we were nobbled at the
finish line by the yellow team. Steve was part of the build a raft race
who came nowhere but at least managed to build a raft that got to the finish
line. Green group ended up in joint second place and great fun was had by
all.
Steve lining up
for the mens double
sculls
Chris in the ladies' coxless fours (far right)
At least the
raft made it to the finish line!
The regatta over, we
just had time for a swim in the pool before getting the boat ready for sea and
slipping the lines late afternoon and heading off for
Cyprus.