Getting “What You Always Wanted”

For the last four years, the plan had always been to pick up the boat in Sweden and sail to Turkey. It’s amazing to think that at 6 miles per hour, you can actually go that distance.

It was a bit sad to have finally completed the journey.

The trip from Rhodes to Turkey was very short. As we pulled into Marmaris Yacht Marine, the boat guys directed us to a slip and they actually jumped on board to help us tie the lines. Wow – were we impressed! Usually landing the boat into its slip is always a time when some “high drama” can happen!

Within 5 minutes of landing, Dick and Eileen (part of our “buddy boat” group from last summer) came walking down the dock to greet us. We were just catching up on the summer experiences when Tom and Charlotte (our friends who were to join us for a cruise of Turkey) also walk down the dock. Seems the rendezvous with them was perfectly timed.

It was a bit of a culture shock checking out the Marmaris Marina. It seems we had just arrived at a very exclusive Country Club. They have this very large swimming pool complete with poolside drink and food service. If you don’t want to have lunch in the deck chairs poolside, maybe you want to eat in the formal dining room overlooking the pool! It was all VERY nice! Yes, we decided, we did want our drinks in our lounge chairs by the pool. We immediately decided we could maybe spend an entire summer here at “Club Med Marmaris.” Another amazing thing about the marina is that they have a variety of stores – a marine hardware store, a canvas store, an engine repair place and so forth. For those boats that had come down the coast of the Med on a constant treasure hunt trying to find boat parts, this was like a dream come true! We could find just about everything we had been looking for except for the brand of replacement oars for our dingy (remember the Meltemi that flipped our dingy in Greece?) The prices were better in the town of Marmaris, but they weren’t that bad at the marina, especially if you compare the prices to what we had been seeing in Italy! After the boat is hauled out, they even have a separate tub area for washing sails and a place to hang them to dry.

We decided to get a bimimi made for Sugilite so started looking at the different sources. Other people in our group were getting new leather seats made for the interior of their boat or new chrome work done. We’ve heard that the chrome work is actually cheaper in Rhodes so may check that out next season.

Discovering Turkey – the ALI BABBA experience

We spent the next few weeks cruising the Turkish waters with Tom, Charlotte and Stephanie. The question was always, “do we go east or west?” We finally decided on west and that afternoon ended up at Ali Babba’s Restaurant. It was not really in a town and it was not really a restaurant. It seems that the locals get together and decide to create a place for the sailboats to congregate in some secluded bay. The place was marked on our chart as a “town” and as we headed into the harbor, we saw a kid waving a flag at us, trying to get us to come to his “dock” and stay for the night. We had heard that the docks were “free” if you ate in their restaurants. We had a few drinks at their “bar” then started watching this Greek lady stoking a fire in a clay oven. We soon learned she was preparing the bread for the restaurant for the night. We got out the cameras and took photos and movies of the process. It was pretty neat. Our enthusiasm was so great that when the bread was finally done, they gave us a warm loaf to sample. It was fabulous. Needless to say, we stayed for the nightly meal.

ALI BABBA’S is conveniently located by an ancient fortress so we did a hike before dinner. See the great photo with the Greek flag.

The Money Card Blues in Turkey

Throughout our travels in Europe, we have gotten a bit spoiled. In the last few years, both internet WIFIs and ATM machines had become increasingly easy to find. So, we were in the habit of not carrying much “cash” with us. However, once traveling in Turkey, we found that was not a great idea. On the second day of our tour of Turkey we were running low on cash, only to find out that not every town in Turkey has a money card machine.

As there were no stores, banks or groceries in the Ali Babba bay, we asked at the next harbor we entered, Bosphoran, where their ATM machine was. They told us to sail over to Datca, about 30 km away because that was the only town on that Turkish peninsula with an ATM. Once we found the ATM, we quickly learned that US banks are very cautious of any charges coming from Turkey. It seems the only way to get money from the machines was to call the US bankcard customer service number and tell them to “stop blocking” the transaction so we could get money. That usually worked, but resulted in large telephone charges.

Later when we got to Istanbul, we found out that hotels and restaurants there do not accept credit card (the US banks disapprove the charge because it’s from Turkey.). Sitting in our hotel’s rooftop terrace one afternoon, we met other travelers from the States (Seattle) and heard about their problems trying to get money from the ATMs. Next time we will bring more “emergency money” and have both US dollars and Euros available when funds get tight. We heard one tour guide tell his group that getting travelers checks cashed in Turkey was next to impossible, so that’s not such a great option.

At Bosphoran, we met a restaurant owner who was delighted to learn that we were Americans. He showed us the newspaper article about Bill Gates coming to his restaurant to eat last year. It was a really big deal. Bill and Melinda came in on a 50 m super yacht complete with helicopter and the two ate alone at his restaurant. The meal came to about $30 but apparently Bill tipped the guy the equivalent of $100. The waiter was certainly distressed later that day to find that our boat wasn’t as big as Bill’s and our tip in no way matched Bill’s. What a letdown.

At this point in the trip, Stephanie decided to leave Sugilite and take a bus back to Marmaris and continue her travels around the world. We made plans to meet up again with her in Istanbul.

After saying our goodbyes, we watched Stephanie’s bus pull away. Then it goes to the next corner and stops at the butchers. We watch as they load black garbage bags of raw meat into the back luggage compartment. Then that gets full and they load more meat into the back seats where Stephanie is sitting. Along the route back to Marmaris, the bus stopped at various restaurants to drop off the meat for tonight’s meal.

We had always heard about the Turkish barbers so Steve and Tom decided to give it a try. First they lather you up, and then out came the straightedge. When that stage is done, they massage your neck, and when you’re least expecting it, CRACK – they give you a realignment of your spine! As the grand finale, out comes the fire and they burn off any unwanted hairs in the ears and nose. If you don’t know the process, then this tends to be quite an exciting event.

Greece and/ or Turkey

It seems that as a result of various wars, Greece won all the islands. As we came along the Turkish peninsula, we got temptingly close to our favorite Greek island, Simi. It’s a really cool place. So, to give Tom and Charlie a quick taste of the Greek Islands, we decided to make a quick, unofficial stop in Simi. The harbor was packed with all the yachts from the various countries and the buildings in the town were painted in the most beautiful pastel colors imaginable. Again the food was fabulous, the Metaxa great and the night life in Simi rocks all night long (especially in the bar across from where our boat was tied up!) It was a huge contrast to the Turkish coast. We had a great time shopping again at all the stores. They have many jewelry stores as well as fabulous spice markets. We ended up buying spices from a street lady even though we didn’t think we really were. Anyways, it was all fun. We climbed up to the upper town above Simi to have dinner, then, half way down, stopped for Metaxa to toast the beautiful sights in the harbor. When we got back into the main plaza, the entire town/ island had congregated for a rock concert. Everyone was really into it – even the bar tenders were dancing as they served drinks. It was a great evening.

We met another couple on a Hallberg Rassy and had drinks on their boat one evening. They had done the EMYR (Eastern Med Yacht Rally to Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Egypt) the prior year and had great stories to relay. As we are considering that for next year, we were eager to hear everything they had to say.

We ended up going out to dinner with them that night at a local Taverna. The dinners were very big so the lady decided to have they pack the rest of her meal in a doggie bag for lunch the next day. We stayed at the restaurant for another hour or so, drinking and having a great time. While finishing up dinner one of the many Greek cats quickly spied the “doggie or should I say Kittie bag” and while we were having a merry time drinking and talking, the local cats were having a feast!

You can spend an incredible amount of time in Greece taking pictures of cats. They are everywhere. Most are quite skinny, but these guys in Simi sure had a great feast that night!

On our way back to Marmaris, we had to retrace our steps and ended up in the Ali Babba harbor once again. This time we decided to check out the two other restaurants in that harbor. After going ashore to check each out, we finally decided that the Ali Babba “restaurant” was the best choice so we pulled up the anchor and came back to our original restaurant where the lady made such great bread. When we arrived, we saw that they had had a problem this past week and their “dock” was now broken. That was definitely unnerving as you naturally assume that it’s “safe” to tie up to these local docks. Not true here..

Soon we were back at Marmaris, Tom and Charlotte left for Istanbul and we were faced with the annual job of getting the boat ready to be hauled out for the winter. This place is very efficient. Once they pull you out of the water, they take chalk and write the date you will be re-launched on your rudder. There is a penalty if for some reason you “miss” your re-launch date.

After flying to Istanbul, we again met up with Stephanie. She had met another guy from the US in her “couchsurfing” adventures and the two of them joined us as we toured the city. To tour the Blue Mosque, all people had to have their arms covered so, instead of turning people away, they issued blue shawls and fabric to wrap around as skirts. See the photo of Jan in the latest Turkish fashions.

When little boys get circumcised in Turkey, they dress them up in elaborate costumes and take them around the city the day before their “special” day.  It’s quite an affair. Often you see the women dressed in black, almost totally covered. The thing to remember is that it is VERY hot in Turkey so these long black robes must be very hot.

Stephanie’s friend who was staying at the same couchsurfing place with her in Istanbul was from Oregon but now lives in Shanghai teaching English to Chinese. Very similar to what Stephanie did for 4 years in Japan. He heads back to Shanghai in a few days so we hope to meet up with him next time we go to Shanghai. We had a great time playing backgammon in the bars in Turkey.

It’s interesting to see that McDonald’s are everywhere in the world. One thing we learned about Turkey is that they love mosaics. Also, they keep very clean public bathrooms. Check out the photo of the mosaic public bathroom. We never realized we needed a camel bag until we got to Turkey. Now we are looking for the camel that fits the bags.