Fethiye/Marmaris/Marmaris, Turkey, October 2012

This holiday ended up like October 2011 which I described as a (fortnight) game of two halves. But originally we booked for a single week, the Graham family's half-term. This was because Ian thought that he would only be able to get away for a single week. In the event he could do two weeks so we extended the trip to the preceding week, still with the same 39-foot yacht .

Again, we planned to inviting another sailor, with whom I have sailed for two decades at least (including May and September this year), to join us for the first week. He (Bob) lives in France but was in England after the September trip (which was to Greece), so he agreed to join us again.

The weather forecasts warned of thunderstorms so we took heavy weather gear (though this year not my sailing wellies!).

The first week had no squally thunderstorms but some very pleasant weather for sailing. We had some exciting sails, and learnt to use the two-line reefing system on the mainsail to keep just the one reef. Bob treated us to some French cuisine home-cooking for our lunches. He also cooked an evening meal while we were moored to a buoy in Turunç bay. This was only slightly compromised by discovering, when the gas cylinder ran out, that the spare was just as empty! So we went ashore for breakfast the next morning to get not only hot coffee but a full fry-up.

Bob left us in Marmaris and Brian, his wife Diane and son Jamie arrived. This second week was the one with squally thunderstorms. We spent our first night away from Marmaris marina very uncomfortably on the pontoon at Çiftlik having little sleep because of the bucking, surging and snubbing of the yachts. Accordingly we were roused even earlier than our intended early start to head back to the comfort of the marina. The rest of the week did not follow the normal itinerary for the same reason..

Google Earth "KMZ" multi-coloured path files first week (19Kb); second week (11Kb). Alternatively use these links to display via Google Maps: first week; second week. The colours go brown, red, orange, yellow, green and blue for the first week and then brown, red, orange, yellow and green for the second week. In the second week tracks the red track for the second day appears suddenly because in the haste to get away very early the GPS did not get switched on until we were half way! Similarly we did have a day-sail on the Friday but there is no corresponding blue track.

Below are collages of photos taken on the two weeks. Click to view in Picasa web.

Back to the list of my yachting trips.