Autumn Sunshine

My return to Matapan in September was made via Greece! A lovely detour to Ermioni (Eastern Poleponnese) to visit my dear friends, Liz and Laurie in their, almost completed, cottage, on a hillside over looking Ermioni! Stunning views, lovely walks and refreshing swims in clear waters with empty beaches - unknown to tourists! Heaven! In three years Liz and Laurie have almost rebuilt the little house on the hill - though Liz still has no kitchen !! I don't know how she copes!

I got back to Fethiye on 12th September and met up again with Brian and Margaret on Freya. We spent a few days together whilst they were moored at Yacht Classic until my friend, Rosemary arrived. Rosemary and I had a few lovely days in the anchorages around Fethiye Bay and even met up again with Freya - in Sarsala Bay!!

In the mean time, my new friends, Carol and Maurice on Swan Off, had arrived back in Fethiye and were about to head off to Orhaniye. They kindly invited me to sail part of the way with them, on their Moody 35. It was great to be crew on a different, and more modern boat and we visited some delightful places that were all new to me. One particularly lovely, and remote, spot was Sogut where we spent several days before I took the bus back to Fethiye.

I had a few days on Matapan before friends, Ruth and Freeman, from Woodbridge Cruising Club arrived and we set off on my first 'proper' cruise ( ie outside Fethiye Bay!)We had two weeks and planned to sail eastwards to Kas and then on to Kekova Roads.
We spent our first night, on a buoy, in a little anchorage just outside Fethiye Bay, called Karcaoran where we enjoyed a great fish meal at the restaurant.
We made an early start the next morning - with no wind, as usual, and detoured as we past the Greek island of Castelhorizon - which looked delightful,so we earmarked it for a stop over on our return! We  arrived at Kas by mid afternoon and decided to stay on anchor, just outside the marina for one night - very peaceful! We ended up staying a further  two nights in the marina and really enjoyed the delights of this little town.

From Kas it was just a short hop to the beautiful bay of Kekova. We had a great sail and, to my sheer delight, managed to get the cruising chute up for a while! I really never thought I would see that beautiful sail set again It felt like a great achievement!





I last visited Kekova Roads, with Geoff, about 15 years ago while sailing with friends so I was pleased to have finally brought Matapan to this beautiful spot and was intrigued to see whether it had changed much in all that time.

 

 

 

 

Our first anchorage was right at the end of the first inlet, Polemos Buku, to the west of Kekova Adasi. A very tranquil and beautiful bay with just a few boats quietly anchored nearby. Idyllic! Ruth and Freeman took the dinghy ashore to explore and returned having booked a table at the restaurant on the beach. Here we dined, in the company of one other, German couple, on freshly grilled fish, chips and a huge tomato and onion salad. Delicious!

 

 

The next morning we took a walk across the isthmus to the ancient, and partly sunken, site of Aperlai, where we found many sarcophagii scattered around the water's edge and on the hillside amongst other ruins.By the time we returned to the restaurant at Polemos Buku a very welcome Turkish breakfast awaited us!

 



We spent several days in this beautiful, very protected bay - moving the boat just a few hundred yards to new anchorages and exploring the area. The village of Ucagiz was, for me, a little disappointing as it has gone from being a tiny hamlet with  two jetties that boats could tie up to to visit the restaurants - to a small marina in which hundreds of days boats are moored to ferry thousands of visitors out to the sunken cities in the bay. The village of Kala Koy, with it's picturesque castle perched above it, was still very much as I remembered it - just many, many more restaurants had squeezed themselves into the available spaces on the hillside!

View of Kala Koy from the castle.

 

After several relaxing days at Kekova we headed back, eastwards, to Kastellhorizon, the tiny, most easterly of the Dodecanese chain of Greek islands, which lies just a stone's throw away from Kas, on Turkish mainland. This tiny little gem of an island is instantly recognisable as Greek, with its distinctive architecture and colourful waterfront. At one time the island was a thriving economy with a population of around 10,000 - today there are just 430 inhabitants! We enjoyed the views, an ouzo at sunset, and were delighted to spot a turtle in the harbour! We finished off the evening with a lovely meal at a waterfront restaurant.

 

We made a very early start to get back to Fethiye and found what was perhaps the most idyllic anchorage of the whole trip - a tiny little inlet called Bestas Limani, just outside of Fethiye Bay itself. We spent a lovely evening here and swam, watched birds and generally chilled out before heading back to Fethiye and Ece Saray marina - a perfect end to this delightful little cruise.



It's great to have visitors!

After Jan and Colin left I had a week on my own at Yes Marina. It was hard at first, getting used to being alone again and really not knowing anyone in Fethiye. A friend in Marmaris had introduced me to some of her friends here in Fethiye and I decided now was a good time to contact them. Everyone was very kind and gave me lots of helpful information, even helped me sort out my application for residency. This would solve the problems caused by the new visa regulations which only allow tourists to stay 90 days within any 180 days. I did more boat jobs and kept myself busy during the day and began to explore the area. I met some of the folk at the marina, including Harry on a very large power boat, who later took Mike and me out for a short 'spin' around the bay!


Mike arrived on 14th May and we dined at the fish market restaurant and planned our week.










As Mike had not been to Turkey before it seemed a good opportunity to show him a little of the area. Tuesday is market day so we biked down to town, had a look around the thousands of clothes and  food stalls, stopped for Turkish pancakes for lunch, and then in the afternoon, took the little ferry from Fethiye to Chalis, which is the more toursisty, beach area.

The weather at this point was, unfortunately, still a bit unsettled so on more cloudy or wet days we did visits. We took the dolmus to the deserted village of Koya Kuyu, which had been inhabited by Greek Orthodox Christians until 1923 when, following the war of Independence, the  compulsory population exchange took place and entire villages, like this one, were exiled and forced to go to Greece, where many had in fact never lived.



We took a day trip to the ancient site of Tlos which has examples of Lycian, Roman and Ottoman buildings, including several rock tombs!









We also visited the river gorge at Saklikent which was still running too high for us to walk through and looking  at the very muddy, fast flowing water I was quite glad not to have to get wet!

We managed to get ourselves a ride on  Harry's boat - Seaburn Princess, a  large motor boat berthed near Matapan at 'Yes Marina!  This was certainly my first 'motor boat' experience - well,apart from those Geoff and I used to look at the the Boat Show!!!









As Mike is not a sailor and I did not feel confident enough to take him out on my own, two other 'yotties' from Yes Marina, kindly offered to come out with us for a couple of day sails. We had two great sails and enjoyed lunch in two of the many anchorages in the bays around Fethiye.

We had 10 great days together and I really enjoyed introducing Mike to Fethiye, one of my favourite parts of Turkey, and to Turkish breakfast ...in the sunshine!

Thank you Mike for coming out to visit me and for being great company.

It is always a sad day when visitors leave and I go back to the boat on my own. However, I only had a few days now to get ready for my next visitors...Paul and Sandra! We had  arranged to have an RYA instructor on board with us for 3 days so Paul and Sandra had just a day to get used to being on board before we set off with Peter Jackson, our instructor, to begin their  ICC course, (International Certificate of Competence).



 We set off across Fethiye Bay and spent our first night in Sarsala Bay, after a good day's sail with lots of navigation practice, helming and sail trimming.

At the end of  3 days intensive training and continual assessment we celebrated back at Yes Marina where Paul and Sandra duly receieved their ICC!! After a day's rest from sailing we then headed back out, by ourselves this time, to enjoy the peace and beauty of the bays!


It was really lovely having Paul and Sandra on board,and Peter was a great instructor, whose company we all enjoyed, and who finally persuaded me that I should take a berth in the larger, official marina in Fethiye - Ece Saray.

It was a good decision, and before Paul and Sandra left to go home we had sorted out an annual berth at Ece Saray, and Matapan was safely tucked up on E pontoon!

My last visitor this Spring was Peter, work colleague and very good friend of Geoff's, who, despite having helped with much of the original fitting out - all those years ago, had never actually sailed on Matapan. Peter has, himself, sailed for many, many years and I hoped that he would enjoy a little trip out to the bays and maybe a night or two at anchor. This would be yet another first, for me. Whilst I had berthed on pontoons overnight in the bays I had not actually spent a night at anchor yet. This seemed an ideal opportunity! After quite a long day's sail and much searching for for a good spot to anchor we eventually anchored in a little bay I had visited with Jan and Colin several weeks ago. It was idyllic!  Just one other boat - we had the place almost to ourselves.It was so peaceful we stayed 2 nights and just relaxed in the warm sunshine. We had another day sail with my dear friends, Chris and Claire  ( from s/v Vonasi)  who had just arrived in Fethiye. We sailed to Boynuz Buku Bay where we attempted to anchor AND tie back to the shore 

 In Matapan this is not an easy manoeuvre - mainly due to her reluctance to go backwards in a straight line... but after much effort I did finally manage it, with a great deal of help from my friends!!








Shortly after Peter left I packed up the boat and flew home...the temperature having now reached 40+ it was definitely time to get back to the cooler climate of UK!!!

With all her summer covers on Matapan is now quite well protected from the harmful rays of the Turkish summer sun! I look forward to getting back on board in September!

Back on board Matapan

As many of you know, I have decided to keep Matapan and to sail her in Turkey this summer. I felt that Matapan was so special and such an important part of Geoff's life that I could not bear to part with her.  She had not been painted since Spring 2009 and her topsides had deteriorated quite badly in the last year or so.  I arrived in Marmaris on 26th March and organised for the boat to be hauled out  of the water and re-painted. It all seemed very daunting and at times I felt truly overwhelmed by the task of trying to restore this boat to the very high standards Geoff has always set.

With help from my dear friends, Liz and Laurie who came from Greece, for 10 days we managed to get most of the work done in two weeks. Looking all smart and gleaming again Matapan was  re-launched on 14th April.

Once afloat again Laurie helped me to get all the running rigging and sails back on before he and Liz caught the ferry  back to Greece. I waved my dear friends a sad farewell - I owed them so much, I could never have achieved the re-fit without them.

I then continued the many little 'jobs' there were to do on Matapan but began to give serious thought to how to maintain her and prevent more sun damage. I had a sun awning made to cover the middle part of the boat and give more shade - for me and Matapan! The clear plastic panels allow sun light to reach the solar panels on the roof of the wheel house.

I had two pvc 'skirts' made that would cover Matapan's topsides from stem to stern, when she is not being sailed, to keep off the harmful summer sun.

And finally, I ordered a stainless steel ladder to hook over the bowsprit, as an alternative to the passerelle that I always found too steep to climb safely!

My next aim was to learn some boat handling skills. Dealing with the boat at sea has never been a problem - there is plenty of space there, but I always left the close quarters work to Geoff. So just getting in and out of the berth at Netsel marina was going to be quite a challenge in itself. Through friends, I found Foxy! I had three sessions with this ever patient, very supportive instructor and with his help I have slowly begun the long journey to becoming a more confident sailor. Thank you Foxy!

My dear and very experienced sailing friends, Jan and Colin arrived on 27th April and they
took over from Foxy, helping me each day, to practise controlling the boat, anchoring and getting in and out of the berth!

Marmaris to Fethiye

Early on Tuesday morning, 2nd May,we left the berth at Netsel and motored out of Marmaris Bay heading for Fethiye. We had hoped that the wind would kick in around lunch time, but no such luck!  Still motoring after 4 hours we found ourselves rolling about in a swelly sea with little wind. A couple of hours of motor sailing with just a headsail up was all we managed under sail that day! We arrived at Kapi Creek, just inside Fethiye Bay, and were all tied up at the restaurant pontoon by 4.00 pm. We enjoyed one or two celebratory drinks on board and then a very good evening meal at Kapi Creek restaurant!!

Kapi Creek

After a late, large Turkish breakfast and a walk over the hill to the hamlet of Kapi Creek we set off across the bay to Fethiye town and 'Yes' Marina where Matapan will be berthed for the next few weeks. We had to motor yet again in light winds under a grey and cloudy sky. We looked in to several of the 'bays' which were all still very peaceful and quiet - too early yet for gullets and charter boats! Some bays now have buoys to tie up to rather than having to anchor in deep water and tie back to the shore. Whether this is to replace all anchoring in these bays is not yet clear..... we shall have to wait and see what happens this summer!

We arrived at 'Yes' Marina by 4.00 pm and,as Jan and Colin had spent several summers here with their boat, we were warmly welcomed by the owner and staff.

Matapan at 'Yes Marina' Fethiye

A very big thank you to Jan and Colin for helping me achieve so much in the 10 days they spent here with me. With their support I am now learning to manoeuvre Matapan in small spaces, anchor and park her safely. I have a very long way to go yet but I feel I have taken the initial steps towards keeping the dream alive, and taking Matapan on the next stage of her adventures.I hope Geoff is watching over us and keeping us safe.

Ski-ing trip in French Alpes

Had a great trip to La Rosiere in the French Alpes at the end of February. I went, not to ski, but to be the resident child minder for the lovely Beatrice, and to enjoy the company of my family and friends. The weather was great all week, and the scenery stunning. Bea and I had an excellent time and on the last afternoon we all took her out for her first sledging experience! Great fun!