Stitches out and hunting Lion fish

10th September 2020

Peace got somewhat restored after we sulked enough and digested the shock of another 6,500 NZD bill to have just enough power to get us through – if it works that is…

We still hung around Marmaris for a few days. Luckily Mazurka was around with their kids, so the kids had sleepovers, fun and games. We still wanted to stay in Marmaris to get Nina’s stitches out as on the way south there would be little opportunity to find medical care at the right moment. The days where spent with cooking, washing, schooling, catching up with our boat friends of our little flotilla.

On Monday the 14th September Nina and I went to hospital after 9 days of having her stitches done, only to be sent away again, because we where a day early. After the unsuccessful hospital visit I took Nina to a wool / craft shop that I had found nearby so she could choose some more crafts things.

Then we had a pump out that day, where the contents of our toilet holding tanks get sucked out at a petrol / service jetty. I baked a carrot cake and we had a potluck dinner on our boat to say good buy to Mazurka, as the rest of our flotilla intended to head south. Mazurka planned to cross over to Malta eventually.

The next morning we went back to Marmaris and split up – Tim and Luca went to stock up on groceries, while Nina and I went to the hospital again to get her stitches out. This one was the most unpleasant visit of all and Nina was super nervous and anxious about having her stitches pulled out. When we arrived at ED we where roughly directed to wait outside until “She” arrived with no explanation as to who “she” was. It turned out after waiting for 15 mins that it was the English speaking nurse that had guided us on our first bandage change. There was a bit of back and forth in Turkish. A doctor poked his head into the cubicle for a millisecond not even looking at the wound. Then a rushed, stressed and rather unfriendly nurse came in and obviously preparing for pulling the stitches, pulling Nina’s bandage off in a rather unceremonious way. The stitches looked really tight and I was so worried that it would hurt Nina. I cuddled Nina, who was lying on the bed, while the nurse was roughly going about her business with Nina obviously being in pain. Luckily it didn’t take long and we where soon released to the taxi for the last time. We both where so grateful that it was over and done with and Nina was so brave through it all.

After everything was stored away we could finally hoist our sails again and be on the move after being stuck in Marmaris for 18 days. Both Tim and I where so ready for it. We definitely enjoy the quiet, calm beaches more than the hustle and bustle of the big town.

We sailed for approx. 5 hours and 18 nm to Koycegiz Koyu, where we anchored for the night. The next morning we moved on again as the anchorage was a bit average and we sailed to Buyukaga Koyu. We all rafted up stern to. I felt a bit seasick as the last part of the passage was a bit rocky and swelly.

Once we arrived in the anchorage our flotilla went snorkeling and the crew spotted lion fish, who is a bad invasion of the sea, as it eats soooo much. It has poisonous spikes, so one has to be really careful careful catching it. The team caught a whole 3 of them and Lori from Imagine gave us a lesson into how to fillet them safely without poking yourself with poison spikes. Nina got an anatomy lesson extracting the fish eyes and it was decided to dry them the next day in the sun. Low and behold they turned hard and where like little tiny marbles. Nina was so proud of her discovery showing them off to everyone. Luckily after a few days she agreed that we could dispose of them.

The next day was still spend in this bay tidying up, swimming, reading and Nina and I started to do some crochet, which quickly turned into a little obsession of making facecloths for all the girls in our flotilla.