A Ride of a Lifetime 2007

Having thoroughly explored west of Marmaris we set sail again in May in an eastward direction along the Lycian coast spending many days exploring all the Gocek bays. We continued east down to Fethiye and on past the seven heads to the stunning Kekova Roads. Lots of nice anchorages to explore before our next stop just outside Finike marina. We dropped anchor in the southern harbour of the ancient Greek and Roman city of Phaselis. A 24 metre wide ancient street runs through the middle of the city shaded by fragrant pines. We continued as far as Antalya where we hired a car and did some more exploring inland. We visited the ancient site of Termessos built 1000 metres high in the Taurus mountains, the Roman city of Perge and the great theatre at Aspendos. We also visited Side a bustling modern sea side resort interspersed with some of the most notable ruins in Asia Minor.

 

It was soon time to head west again and back to Marmaris where family were due to join us for a week. We had a lovely time revisiting Dalyan and enjoyed a river trip past the Lycian tombs and ruins of Kaunos. The rest of the time was spent swimming and chilling in the glorious Gocek bays. We spent another month on our own in the same area before a good friend joined us for a week at the end of August. More of the same. Bliss. We made our way back to Marmaris Yat Marina in early September as we had a small job delivering a boat from Denia, eastern Spain, back to Haslar marina in the UK.

 

We flew to Alicante stopping in Palma on the way enabling us to say hi to some good mates there. We found Otra Vida, a Moody 376 sitting in Denia marina. Before we set off a few minor issues needed to be sorted but we were soon on our way. We re-provisioned in Gibraltar and spent a couple of nights in Vilamoura, Portugal. We had a leaking stern gland which needed to be nursed up the Atlantic coast. We stopped in Sade marina, northern Spain, to wait for a weather window to cross Biscay. It was an eerie crossing in thick fog and very little wind. We stopped in Dartmouth to re-fuel but they had no diesel so we had to make our way round to Brixham before setting off on the final leg to Portsmouth.

 

We remained in the UK to visit family and friends before returning to Marmaris for our second winter. It was another social whirl of bowling, Turkish lessons, skippers de-stress etc. We joined friends on their boat for a shopping/visa renewal trip to Rhodes and fell in love with the old town. We also had great fun at the colourful and atmospheric Selcuk camel wrestling festival.