28th September 2020

Today was the time to move on to Fethiye. Both Nina and I had found new crochet projects and in Gocek there where no wool shops, so we where busting to get to one in Fethiye. We hardly arrived and put the anchor down and Nina announced she couldn’t possibly wait for another minute longer, so we all readied ourselves for a trip to town. I found a wool shop on google, so we followed the instructions, walked through the old town, seeing amazing shops along the way.

The boys decided they would go and search for a chandlery while Nina and I would take our time in the wool shop. I found some beautiful hemp thread to make a bag I had seen and a bamboo and cotton mix for the blanket I was planning to make over autumn and winter. Nina choose some acrylics and we both got some more crochet hooks and came out happy as Larry.

We found the boys again by the dinghy and we where all tired and hungry, so it was decided this was the time for a belated fathers day dinner. We found a nice little restaurant away from the tourist hustle and had a super nice meal. The owner came from a shepherds background and when he spotted our wool bags he warmed to us straight away.

On our way back we saw a boat called Intrepid Kiwi with Donna and Ross on it. Our friends from Sunday had told us about them and the Imagine crew told us they where anchored nearby. After taking Lucy for her walk we stopped by and said hello and it was decided to meet up at our boat for a cup of tea. We had a nice evening together, getting to know each other. As usual such nice people and our hearts felt wrapped up once more by our sailing community.

Our flotilla told us next day it was market day, so we spontaneously decided to join them. After a short stroll through town we arrived at the huge market. One side was dedicated to genuine fake clothing, handbags, shoes where you find every brand under the sun, just fake. Its exhausting listening to all the vendors calling you in to have a look. Luca has grown so much he needed some new togs, so he and I stopped at a stall and he acquired new togs and some long pants and I got some short pants, my uniform at the boat. My ones from NZ looking a bit worse for wear after a summer season. I paid $6 NZD for my Nike’s. We lost the others, but Tim and Nina had waited for us a bit further on.

We decided to head over to the vegi, fruit and food section of the market, which was again, busy, noisy and so full on on all the senses. I didn’t know where to look first. Nina and Luca got lured in by a Turkish delight seller, Tim found 2 Turkish bread tins and I choose fruit, vegis, some fresh cheese, butter, some wild sage and walnuts. I didn’t manage to take a single photo, packed with our bags negotiating all the people and trying not to loose the family.

On the way out there where rows of market eateries, really simple, cheap and good food. We decided to sit down to have a bite and tea. We ordered 2 Pide – they are almost like thin pancakes. One with spinach and cheese and one with lemon and sugar. The kids had an apple tea and Tim and I a chai. There is no guilt here for little outings like this, as it is so much cheaper than in Greece. The small meal and teas where $15 for all of us, compared to 3 coffees and slices of bread in a chora in Greece for almost $50.

Later in the day the battery / power man came once more from Marmaris, as surprise, surprise our power problem was still ongoing despite his visit in Gocek to disconnect the suspected culprit. It felt a bit like groundhog day! However this time even he was fed up and he brought a new Lithium battery that he had tested for 3 days in his workshop and a brand new charger – free of charge thankfully. We have now all our fingers and toes crossed that this is going to work and we can finally have a breather from 6 months of trying to figure this out. As soon as the words battery and power are muttered all the hairs on my body are raised and so are Tim’s and I am sure the battery / power man would rather not see us again either.

The next morning I had just settled in to feed my new crochet addiction, making a bag with my new hemp yarn, when Tim came back from seeing Donna and Ross. They had an Amel boat, same as SV Delos and Tim said I would have to come and see it. The Adventurous crew where already on board and so we all crowded their absolutely stunning boat oohing and ahhing at everything. If we didn’t have kids I would move on without a minutes thoughts, but as we had found out in our research before settling on the Bavaria 46, the accommodation layout of lots of the “blue water” yachts is not really great for family living. Apart from the fact that the Amels would have been completely out of our budget. But what eye candy. Every beautiful detail was thought about, the finishes, storage, galley, the engine room, the center cockpit, the electrical winch button to get the sails in and out (oh how I wished we had one of those!) Even a tucked away washing machine, the beautiful wood finishing’s. Its a stunning boat no doubt and so nice to see how the delos crew live on real life boat.

Luca busted to get to the café in town that Donna and Ross had told us about, the one with the blue chairs with the nice waiter called Auto. They headed in too to catch up on some work and sure enough they where still there when we arrived. We where introduced to Auto and ordered some drinks for the whole family (which are usually more expensive than buying another internet package, but nevermind ….). Donna reminded me of Libby and showed me how to access magazines from the library in New Zealand. I got hooked straight away and now that I had my new crochet addiction found that audiobooks would be the perfect companion for this activity. So I downloaded a few and some magazines for the family to browse when boredom sets in.

Donna suggested she shows me the fish market and vegi shops and she guided me to the chandlery that Tim was looking for all this time – only a few meters from the restaurant where we had his belated fathers day dinner. Back at the café Tim sprung up straight away and walked off to the chandlery and returned over $100 NZD later with the never ending treasures needed for boat maintenance and the ever breaking things. After the 3 hours of ‘free’ internet we headed back home to Polly and prepared dinner.

Freddie and Birgul suggested a trip to a nearby gorge in the public bus, but we didn’t feel comfortable to leave Lucy by herself for the whole day. On their outing they found that we could hire a minibus for all of our flotilla and take Lucy along. So it was decided that was a deal and the bus driver would take us to 4 locations! How exciting to be real tourists for a change. All about that in the next blog. See you then. x