Fethiye
Friday 24th June...
Linda - Our first full day in Fethiye. I think we can finally relax and start to enjoy ourselves. The anchorage is super, loads of room, and not too deep at 12 metres. We took the dinghy ashore to get petrol for the generator, and were allowed to leave our dinghy in the marina whilst we went to do some shopping. But first we found a lovely cafe/restaurant in the marina and stopped for orange juice and something to eat. The temperature here is around 35 degrees and we are drinking loads and loads of water and pop.
Flags in the marina
Dean outside the cafe
Delicious cajun chicken and chips for me
We had to walk along the front to get to the Migros supermarket. It was a bit further than we expected, and we were very hot. The town looks great, we are looking forward to exploring but not today. Then we went back to the Carrefour supermarket in the marina for the heavy stuff, water, pop, potatoes etc.
A successful outing all in all.
Fantastic flowers along the seafront
Saturday 25th June...
Linda - A lovely morning here in Fethiye. It was our friend David's Birthday, and we were invited onto Peter and Anne's boat (White Cat) for morning coffee and a surprise Birthday cake for David.
Morning views
Surrounded by the greenery
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVID
Strawberry Sponge cake
After watching David & Caroline battle out a game of Backgammon we all went ashore. David, Peter, and Dean were going for a Hamman (Turkish Bath), whilst the ladies did some window shopping in the old town.
Heading ashore
Beautiful hotel where we were allowed to land the dinghy
The guys getting ready for their pamper day
At 2pm we all met up again for a late English Breakfast. And it was a proper one. Delicious. After a few hours rest back on the boats we all went back into town to the Blue Bar for evening drinks. The place is busy but not packed. It's got a really nice atmosphere. From there we grabbed some street food (kebabs), and then strolled back towards the dinghy where we stopped for last drinks at the lovely waterside bar at the posh hotel. It's been a great day celebrating David's Birthday. We didn't arrive back on Thesee until 11.45pm!!
Evening stroll through the old town
Tempted by the enormous selection of spices and dried fruits
All 6 of us at the Blue Bar
And well done to Caroline for all the planning required for getting us all together in the same place at the same time.
Sunday 26th June...
Linda - It was a great day. First thing this morning we walked to the Rock Tombs (Kaya mezarlari) near the Castle. It took us about half an hour to get there, and it was hot walking but well worth it. The price to walk up close to the main tomb was 75p each! What's not to like?
Turning right here
First glimpse
Part of our 75p each
Great views across Fethiye
Looking out to sea
Stadium
The main attraction, not sure about the worthiness
of the two columns though??
Next we see the start of the Lykia (Lycian) way
The road up to the castle being re-laid
Not a lot left of the castle
Tombs in the middle of the road
Mega Mosque
So we finished walking and stopped on the seafront for a nice salad and even garlic bread, a real treat.
The we popped in to see Eternité for a drink, then back to Thesee. Not a lot of rest though as by 7pm we were back on WhiteCat for games of Rummikub. A very entertaining evening had by all.
Monday 27th June...
Linda - Could someone sack the weather forecaster please! Forecast 6 knots, gusts 15 knots. Reality, well I'm not actually sure, but it was enough for two boats in front of us to drag anchors. Yes, drag towards us of course.
The morning started quite breezy but around 10am it calmed down. Dean went ashore to exchange our empty campingaz bottle. Bargain £10. Then he picked up WhiteCat's dinghy and towed it back to Thesee to try and fix their outboard engine problem.
He hadn't been working on it for too long when the wind picked up again, and we had white horses all around us. We're not used to the wind picking up until mid afternoon, but it was only about 11.30am by this point. However, he continued to work on it. You know what he's like once he starts something, he just won't stop until he finds the answer.
We had a bit of lunch, and then I noticed a small boat that had been in front of us was now almost alongside. There wasn't much we could do, but soon someone came out in a dinghy and tried to salvage the situation. Trouble was they couldn't get the anchor up. I don't know what it's stuck on, could even possibly be caught on our chain. Anyhow, it had stopped dragging at this point.
The first dragging boat
Not long after, I noticed another boat getting nearer and nearer to us. This time it was a larger vessel. I didn't want that hitting us. We were keeping an eye on it, when Dean noticed the Coastguard nearby in his orange RIB. Dean whistled to him and luckily he heard it and came over to us. With a bit of google translate on the mobile phones we were able to make the Coastguard understand that the white boat was dragging.
Within about 15 minutes there was someone on the white boat, so we can only presume that the Coastguard had contacted the owner. Same thing with the small wooden boat. Well done to the Coastguard. An escalating situation averted.
Dragging boat number 2 getting closer to us
Tuesday 28th June...
Linda - The duck family came to see us for breakfast this morning, had a little bread, then swam away. I finished off my wasgij jigsaw that Caroline gave me. Never done one of those before. Only 150 pieces but kept me occupied for a while.
We waited for the wind to turn as dragging boat number 1 from yesterday was quite close to us. Then we went ashore to the weekly market. It was the biggest market I've ever seen. We did manage to spend a little money coming away with some fruit and veg, and even CORIANDER !! shock horror.
Plenty to choose from
This was just a small part of the market
We had walked around for ages and I was very hot. Eventually we got to a Turkish Barber's shop and Dean received more pampering.... Long awaited haircut, close shave, massage, even a face mask. The Barber was really good, but I don't think Dean enjoyed the hot brush thingy that went in his ears. Anyway, he's now looking rather spic and span for his Birthday tomorrow!
Haircut
Close shave
Massage and face pack 😀
Wednesday 29th June...
Linda -
*** HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAN ***
Dean's Birthday morning started with a whizz around in the dinghy. Down at the south end of the bay here in Fethiye there are many small boatyards where we saw boats hauled onto the shore and being worked on. There was a fair amount of trash in the water as this is where it all ends up when the wind blows from the north. Most boats are tied back to shore, and there are also a couple of pontoons to tie to. We saw this beautiful boat. I can't remember the name, Royal something or other. We might go for a walk tomorrow so I shall look again.
Beautiful boat, what is your name?
The afternoon was a bit blustery on the water. We didn't do a great deal because we were saving ourselves for tonight. At 6pm the six of us met on shore to go for Dean's Birthday dinner. First a drink and then we walked along the promenade to find a restaurant for dinner. We ended up at the same place which we had lunch at the other day. They had a lovely table for 6 set out, the menu was extensive, and they had TABLECLOTHS of course. So that was it, decision made.
Dean opens his cards
At the restaurant
More card photos
Clay pot dinner
It was a very enjoyable evening, great company and calm warm weather. The restaurant was busy with a good atmosphere and lots of staff. Dean even got a piece of Birthday cake too!
Happy Birthday to You 🎵
Thursday 30th June...
Linda - Dean's been trying to fix WhiteCat's outboard engine, but no luck so far. He made a new diaphragm for the carburettor as the old one had split (and glue-ing it didn't work). However, the engine still does not want to work properly.
Making the new diaphragm
A new Brit boat has arrived in the anchorage. The other guys know them, and we all went out tonight for a beer (rum and coke) and then ended up at a Fish & Chips bar in town. Our new friends are Helen and Graham on boat called Xpletive.
Friday 1st July...
Linda - Dean ran through his monthly maintenance checks this morning, then this afternoon we went ashore again. I was hoping to buy a new summer dress and a bikini but came back empty handed.
In the marina the Coastguard boat was alongside, and they were having an open day. So of course we went on it to have a look. They let us sit at the helm and take photos. Whilst we were looking at all the controls we could see Thesee's AIS transmitting on the screen. They zoomed into Thesee's name on the screen and all our boat details came up. We were tickled pink.
New Coastguard Crew 😀
Saturday 2nd July...
Linda - For a change this morning we went ashore and walked in the other direction, away from the town. We were surprised because it was better than expected. When we got to the pontoons at Yes Marina we went in for coffee and fanta. Orange Fanta is about the only fizzy pop flavour you can get here in Turkey, apart from Coke and Sprite.
Along our walk we passed this lamp post with a button to press for a taxi. It says a taxi will arrive within two minutes. What a great idea, and how easy is that?
Taxi button
We stopped at a small shop. Dean spotted some new swimming shoes and bought them. These are for when he clambers on the rocks when tying to shore. His others have fallen to pieces.
Along the route we passed this lovely hotel called Yacht Classic Hotel. They also have pontoons and I know from my research that people actually winter their boats here. We saw that they also have a swimming pool. By this time I was very hot and could have done with a dip in the pool. The weather is too hot, every day it's around 35 degrees.
Yacht Classic Hotel
The bar at Yes Marina
And so, this afternoon we stayed on the boat and snoozed a little, hard not to when it's so hot. Being a Saturday night we knew the music would be blaring out from the beach, so around 7.30pm we went ashore. First stopping for a drink at the nice waterside bar in the marina complex, then for something to do we walked around town. 10.30pm now back on the boat listening to the blaring music 😞. It sounds like they only have one track to play!
Sunday 3rd July...
Linda - Day 9 in Fethiye. Time to go and get a black water pump out. There is a pump out station here at Ece Marina which is just across from our anchorage. It's a bit tricky to get to having to go right inside the marina and to the far corner, navigating through a narrow channel of moored boats. Then once you're finished you have to reverse all the way out past the moored boats before you can turn around. I have to say Dean got the manoeuvre to absolute perfection, even though there was a little breeze blowing through at the time.
Before all this excitement, this morning we had watched a crane lifting a new mast onto a large boat at the shoreside.
When we lifted the anchor and chain (to go for pump out) lot of it was completely covered in thick black gooey mud which didn't want to come off. See two photos below. No wonder the holding here in the anchorage is good.
Black gooey mud all over the anchor swivel
Late afternoon we were invited on board WhiteCat again for more Rummikub games and dinner. We're also attempting to learn Backgammon.
Monday 4th July...
Linda - Our Varta boat batteries have been failing badly. We have to run the engine for about 2 hours every morning just to charge them back up. We've only had them since last October too! This morning we had had enough of waiting for the Varta mechanic to come and have a look (as promised). We just can't go on like this, and so we had no option other than to go to one of the local chandleries and order 4 new batteries. They should arrive tomorrow afternoon, we're told. They'd better or Dean will be throwing himself overboard!
Next stop was the Turk Cell phone shop to get more data loaded onto our MiFi. We were told that you can actually buy more data easily online, but no-one told us that you need a Turk Cell card in order to do it. Believe me, this has been another ongoing saga. The staff in the Turk Cell shop were useless (the second time we've found this out). They looked completely blank when we asked for this Turk Cell card, as if they'd never heard of it. Our friends have one so we know they exist.
For lunch we stopped at the Tamarind Cafe in the marina. It was a nice way to chill out after our stressful morning.
Tuesday 5th July...
Linda - Praise the Lord, our batteries arrived this afternoon as promised. We had the option of taking Thesee to the quayside to pick them up, but it's such a palava to move the boat...... putting the outboard engine and dinghy onboard, raising the muddy anchor, and moving across the bay to a dodgy quay where we would have had to set the passarelle up to get on and off. It was far easier to dinghy into the marina, and collect the batteries there. The only downside in the dinghy is taking four heavy duty batteries across the bay to the anchorage and it was quite choppy. But, that's how we collected our batteries last October, so we chose the same option. We couldn't go very fast in the dinghy because of the weight, and I got a little wet but that was the least of my worries. I was just happy we didn't sink and lose the lot.
Safe battery arrival at Thesee
First battery on onboard...they're really heavy
Nicely lined up and ready to be installed
Last one going into place
We've given them a good charge. Let's see how they are looking in the morning.
Wednesday 6th July...
Linda - The battery voltage this morning was much improved, but there's still some tweaking to do with the fridge going on and off. We are feeling fairly pleased with the batteries on the whole, and the day was less stressful.
Tonight David and Caroline invited us for supper and we played Rummikub and Sequence. It was a great night, as always. I took this photo of Thésée from their boat before it got dark. After two weeks here in Fethiye we are going back to Gocek tomorrow. I hope it's not too busy and we find a suitable place this time.
The next blog post will be called 'We return to Gocek'
