Jun 212015
 

 

sailingmap

we arrived in selimiye late afternoon after a really wonderful days sailing and found anchorage in the bay, it was our last stop before returning the yacht to marti marina, so it was a little sad, but we were also happy to be back in selimiye. kai and i hooked the paddle board up to the tender and i dragged him round the harbour!

sal and i had another lovely meal at sardunya restaurant, where we had been for her birthday, and then the following day we had a leisurely start for the short sail round into the next bay and back to orhaniye to return zambak to her home. we had to be fuelled up and back in the pen by 5:30pm and then we could stay onboard until 9am the next morning.

the marina services were very good, they had amazing showers – we all had very long, hot showers! it also has a lovely big swimming pool and a few restaurants, we chose to eat at the one beside the pool for our last night.

by lunchtime we were back in our cottage in bozburun, it truly felt like we had arrived home and i got a sense of how sad we are going to be to leave when we head to germany in a week or so!

anyway here is a last motley collection of images from the week on zambak!

Jun 212015
 

 

sailing-15

Skipper Sal at the helm with first mate kai

while we were in knidos i kept trying to get the best panorama to show the layout of the 2 bays, mainland and island that make up the area. the island was joined to the mainland by a causeway the ancient greeks constructed. anyway here a few of the attempts that didnt end up on the cutting room floor!

from knidos we sailed south, round to the outside of the greek island of symi and down to the ancient city of loryma on the east coast of the bozburun peninsula called bozukkale. it was a great day, although the breeze was a bit flukey, luckily we managed to sail most of the day. the entrance to the bay is overlooked by the ruins of the castle.  measuring 27 m. wide by 320 m. long, and surrounded by fortification walls, this long, narrow castle was erected to protect the bay. there were once nine square-shaped ramparts along protective walls made from straight cut stones. however of the original nine, only a single promontory rampart in the north can be seen today. there are round towers situated at the two ends of the castle. its quite an impressive sight!

we moored off the sailor’s house restaurant, which proved to be an inspired choice. the food was fantastic, and given that there is no road access so everything has to come in by boat it was all the more amazing. it was a set price -50TL for dinner, we got 3 yummy mezes and a coice of main courses, sal chose a wonderful lamb dish with a large part of the leg of lamb cooked in the wood fired oven and i had scrumptious grilled octopus. all served with amazing fresh salad and vegies out of the extensive garden behind the restaurant.

mustufa was a very friendly host and was passionate about his lifestyle and wonderful little restaurant business.

after a very pleasant stay we had once again to move on. we sailed out from bozukkale and headed around the cape towards bozburun, but the wind was perfect for sailing so we decided to keep going and head across between the islands off the bozburun peninsula and the mainland and head towards selimiye. it was the best sail of the week, the wind was perfect and the scenery was stunning – the cliffs of the mainland on one side and the craggy islands the other.

May 122015
 
our first glimpse of turkey

our first glimpse of turkey

we left NZ on sunday lunchtime and landed in singapore after 10 hours flying at about 7pm, we then had about 7 hours in changi airport. I had booked a room in the transit hotel so we just crashed in there and slept until boarding. we then had another 10 hrs or so to istanbul, the flight left at about 2am so we were able to sleep a bit on the plane.

we flew singapore airlines all the way and found them as good as ever, polite, helpful air staff, good food (for planes!), and soft landings!

we were a bit disconcerted when the first glimpse of turkey as we crossed the eastern border early on monday morning was snow covered mountains!! as you can see from the image, its not light snow either, maybe the spring thaw is a little late?

with the aid of google maps on my iphone we were able to direct the taxi driver to our apartment, no easy feat as the area, fener balat, is a maze of tiny little cobble stone streets.

serdar, from whom we rented the apartment was there to meet us and it soon developed into a bit of deja vu – like our arrival in havana some years ago. the similarity was more than just visual, there was a ‘misunderstanding’ about the apartment. We were not in fact renting the whole apartment as we had understood, we were renting 2 bedrooms in the apartment, serdar lives in another bedroom, and there is another double and another single that he rents out also.

so in effect we are sharing with him and whoever stays in the other rooms. its not the end of the world, and i am sure we will meet some interesting people – although so far we are the only guests anyway.

 

its 4 stories high, so kai is sleeping on the ground floor, where serdar’s bedroom is also, then on the next floor is a double and single bedroom, then on the third floor is another double (ours) and a kitchenette, and on the fourth floor is another kitchenette, a living room and the balcony!

the apartment has a narrow winding staircase up through the floors and in the middle of the lounge room on the top floor there is a thick piece of glass set in the floor so you can see all the way down to the ground floor!

we are only just starting to explore the food, so far we have just been getting a big plate with heaps of stuff, rice, chick peas, lamb, kofkas, vegetables etc so we can try different things and see what we like. in fener balat they serve it with the most delicious, light bread – very similar to baguettes.

we have also been buying the most scrumptious tomatoes from the street stalls and fresh hot bread from the bakers for a yummy snack at home!

we have done a bit of exploring in our immediate neighbourhood, my foot gets better by the day, but I still have to be a bit careful about how much walking we do! its certainly a fascinating city to wander around and I am sure we will continue to be amazed as we explore further afield over the next couple of weeks.