Returning to Turkey (4/25 – 5/10/2008)

Marmaris Yacht Marine, the marina where we store Sugilite is huge! Click on the sidebar link for satelite photo of the marina. You can see all the boats. By October, they have crammed an incredible number of boats into the hard-standing area of the marina, some separated only by inches. Each boat has the “date of launch” chalked on its rudder, and hopefully they are stored so the “first to launch” is near the outside of the pack of boats. However, they usually have to move one or two boats each time one is launched. Yesterday, they launched 23 boats. They start at nine and go till about ten at night. We are scheduled for the 28^th of April.

We had arranged for the Marina to send a van to the Dalaman airport to pick us up. Although United still allows 1K members almost unlimited luggage, the reality is that taxis in Europe and Turkey are small. We would have needed 2 normal taxis to get everything to Marmaris, about a 90 minute ride from Dalaman..

We have this great book on the boat called Traveler’s Tales Turkey. It’s a collection of stories written by different people and their experiences while traveling throughout Turkey. Over the years, we have read just about every one of the short stories. One is about this lady traveling alone in Turkey. She’s waiting for the bus but realizes how hungry she is. She sees these Turkish women beneath a sign advertising “Golzeme.” She knows she doesn’t have a lot of time before the bus comes and asks the lady how fast she can make one? “No problem”. Well, sure enough, the bus comes and the Turkish lady says it’s not ready – “You can’t rush the Golzeme.” The bus driver says he can’t wait. “But it’s not done yet! Just a few more minutes” says the Turkish lady. The bus driver starts pulling away. All the people on the bus start yelling at the driver. They make him stop and go back. “It’s worth waiting for a good Golzeme.” As we drove from Dalaman to Marmaris that evening, we passed about ten signs advertising Golzeme. This is definitely the year to try Golzeme. We plan to take the Shuttle Ferry to the town of Marmaris and look for Golzeme later this week

My friend Connie’s daughter, Jana flew to Istanbul last Monday (we left a few days later, on Thursday). She was going to spend a few days discovering Istanbul, then head for the ruins at Ephesus. We offered for her to visit us in Marmaris even though the boat won’t be ready to sail yet. Maybe she would like to try her hand at varnishing while in Turkey? Or there is certainly lots of other boat chores which need to get done!

Last August when we drove the same route to the airport, we noticed there were car and truck “showers” next to the different roadside restaurants. The driver had told us that they were for cooling off your car while you were inside eating. The evening we passed through the area, there was no need for the car showers. It was very pleasant. In fact, when we got to Marmaris, I noticed all the people in the bar wearing shorts and T shirts. I had on my long sleeve sweater and a fleece pullover and a scarf. The next morning by the time we got the tarps off and found the hose, we were in shorts and sandals as well. It was so nice to finally be warm again.

The official EMYR (Eastern Mediterranean Yacht Rally) never comes to Marmaris but stops in a marina close by. It’s due to arrive in about 10 days. It’s a big event for the yachties that are “stuck” here in Marmaris (they have a year’s contract and just stay in Marmaris and take their boat out on day sails.) We met an older lady (maybe 80 years old) who said a group of them were getting on the dolmus bus and going over for the big EMYR party. I guess as an EMYR alumni (2007), they still let you in for all the parties.

Marmaris to “The Bull” (5/10 – 6/4/2008)

Our daughter Stephanie, who has traveled extensively, says among the younger generation, that Istanbul is called “The Bull”. Since The Bull was known as Constantinople for centuries, only changing its name in 1930 to Istanbul, it doesn’t seem too sacrilegist to change the name again.

Our goal this year was to spend some time sailing in the Black Sea. We had been emailing back and forth between some other yachts and had formed a loose “Coalition of the Willing” for a Black Sea Rally. The kick off date was to be from The Bull on June 4^th. From Marmaris to The Bull is a little over 500 miles, or we needed to cover at least 25 miles per day and mostly upwind as the prevailing winds are from the North. And we had 3 business trips to take in the middle! This left little chance for seaweed to grow on our tiller if we were to make it in time.

Michael and Susan signed up to be with us for this part of the trip. They got married a couple of years ago, and as a wedding present, we promised them a dinner in some exotic port. All they had to do was to get there. We paid up in Bozok Bocu, a small cove on the Turkish Coast.

Having them on this part of the trip was good and bad. It was great having them aboard, but it was unfortunate for them that we were grinding mile after mile, day after day to get to The Bull for our Black Sea Rendezvous. Not much chance to sightsee or just kick back in some deserted cove. But we did get a chance to stop at Ephesus, one of the best preserved ancient Roman cities in existence and an UNESCO World Heritage Site.

A little diversion from our sailing adventures

Although we’ve been out of the US more than a month, our Screamer business has been keeping us pretty busy. We visited the factories in China, then a potential new customer in Europe and finally last week our English distributors to discuss the 08 selling season. Brian and Gretchen again came over to take care of Sugilite while we were in China. We left them the boat in Canakale and took a seven hour bus trip to Istanbul. Then we found the metro and got to the airport without having to take a taxi.

It’s interesting to fly to China going the “other direction:” We flew from Istanbul to Shanghai via Dubai on Emeritus Airlines. Imagine arriving in Dubai at 2 am. The airport is filled, no not just filled but packed with exotic people wearing either very colorful print clothing and headdresses or perhaps all white flowing gowns. The majority are shopping in the 24 hour Duty Free Shops with a substantial minority on the floor sleeping. It’s like small camps of nations as you walk through the airport. We’re feeling like we’ve just stepped into a Stephen Speilberg movie set. We see a lady in a long black burka dress with just a slit opening for her eyes. She has just unwrapped a bag that has a pile of gold jewelry in it and she is slowly and carefully admiring each piece. There’s a lot of jewelry in that bag! Everyone seems to have big stashes of packages. We are wondering how all that is going to fit into the carryon luggage rack? The Duty Free Stops are on a lower level from the gate level and runs the length of the concourse. It is completely packed with people in a shopping frenzy. We’ve never had much interest in this type of “over priced” duty free shopping, but this night we are drawn to it.

Emirates Airlines is a big step up from United Airlines. We had great food and wine during the trip. However, it turned out our fancy TV/ Sound system did not work for the flight from Istanbul to Dubai. The stewardesses were very upset about that and gave us a box of Godiva Chocolates to say they were sorry for the problem. Now that’s a memorable problem to have. Hope it happens again on the next flight!

On our return trip back from Shanghai to Dubai, we landed in Dubai in the early morning. It was fascinating to look down at the city prior to landing. We could see regular 4 lane superhighways. Then, all of a sudden the sand covered all 4 lanes of the highway and – that was that. No more highway. We looked as far forward as we could see through the airplane window and still no highway reappeared! The sand is everywhere. Near the Sea they have built the biggest, most exotic buildings and hotels imaginable. They obviously have lots of money and oil here – as well as sand. The stewardesses had told us that it’s very expensive to live here. The airline subsidizes their rent, but still they can only afford to live in the “poorer areas” of Dubai. One stewardess has worked for Emirates Airlines for four years. She thinks now it may be time to go back to life in Australia.

Seems you meet interesting people on these flights. As we left our hotel in Shanghai at 4 am, there was another person on the shuttle: a guy from India who comes to China on a similar schedule. He also was using a Blackberry to get his emails while in China. We had just gotten one for this summer’s trip and were raving about how good it’s been for us. His only comment was, “Wait until the scrolling button stops working.” Today, about three weeks later, our scrolling button is starting to act up. Now we are seriously worried. Guess next summer we will have to bring two Blackberries so that we can always have one that works.