Wow! Week 2 in Turkey started on a high. We celebrated Dick’s 60^th birthday at the Taj Mahal, in Marmaris. Originally discovered when our son and family, were on holiday in Marmaris, last year.

On the same day, we were approached by a yacht broker who wanted to buy our boat, on behalf of a wealthy customer. Naturally, we turned him down. It took 2 years from deciding to buy a sailing boat to getting delivery of Tucanon, a further 18months to get to where we are now. We really couldn’t start all that again. It was great to get the offer though.

Dick’s birthday was a definite improvement on my last birthday when we damaged the parasailor, broke the SSB (single sideband) aerial and in their eagerness to help, the marinaros managed to get 2 lazy-lines round our propellers, 1 per prop.

I have just cleaned the rib, including the fiberglass seats, top and bottom. Ouch! The fiberglass splinters dislodged from the underside of the seats transferred themselves to my arms and thighs. It was a similar experience to picking prickly pears, a few years ago, in Spain, with some dear friends.

The signal flags which are required for dressing overall are in dire need of repair. The strong winds experienced on Rally Portugal last year, have really taken their toll. Of the 40 flags which make up the set, probably half have needed some sort of repair. I am pleased that there are only 5 more that need attention. These will be much in evidence when we are in port, on the EMYR.

Klepto-cat, who featured in last week’s blog is quite famous. His last 15minutes of fame were in a letter which had been published in a sailing magazine. Nicknamed Klepto-cat because he liked to steal socks and undies from other boats, causing his owner a great deal of embarrassment.

This last weekend, we joined a small group of yachties and did some land-cruising, visiting a number of interesting ancient sites including Aphrodisias, Nysa, Pirene and Miletaz. Alexander the Great passed through all of these cities in the 3^rd century AD.

We left the marina at 6.45 Saturday morning and returned just after 7pm, Sunday evening. When we left the boat, we were clad in fleeces and lightweight jackets however, by early afternoon, it was 32 degrees centigrade, approx 90 F for those that don’t do metric. It was quite an exhausting weekend but well worth the effort to have the opportunity to see such amazing relics dating back 4000 years.

I have posted some photos taken at Aphrodisias which includes a tiny butterfly, on a piece of grass and an olive grove, peppered with poppies.

It was a great way to spend the weekend, away from the boat, getting to know some like-minded people from Australia, America, Belgium and the UK, some of which were also going to participate in the EMYR.

The enormous crane which handles boats up to 330 tonnes, is working at least 12 hours per day, fighting a losing battle to put the boats back into the water on schedule. It’s all a bit catch 22. There just aren’t berths available in this marina, for most of the boats which are leaving the hard, for the new season. Many are launched and leave immediately. Not a pleasant proposition if your boat doesn’t go back into the water until 8pm. It seems that we were fortunate to be launched on the date we had initially agreed and even more fortunate to have a contract in place for a berth until the end of April.