Friday 13th November 2020

Friday saw us leaving Bodrum at 12 midday to sail to Gumusluk further up north. We where waiting for the wind all morning. The passage wasn’t pleasant we had some strong 20 knot winds, sailed 16 nm and arrived 5.30 in the evening in the small port of Gumusluk. On our passage our fruit bowl slipped off the kitchen bench and smashed into tiny pieces, so that was the first thing to tidy up once we arrived. I made a nice vegi soup for dinner and made some crochet Christmas decorations with Nina.

The wind was still strong the next day, but we had a walk through the village anyway exploring the cute township with lots of restaurants and shops, all mostly empty. One thing we noticed where the gourds that are hung on dead trees in water or land around the restaurants and cafe’s.

There where the usual stray dogs and cats and everywhere. The harbor is small and cute, but the wind blowing for the whole time we where there made our visit not very memorable. We had our “tea ceremony” in the afternoon, watching some sailing videos. We have adapted the Turkish tea brewing, only we make ours in a thermos and drink it in the little Turkish tea glasses with some cubed sugar. I wrote some e-mails and messages to friends, the kids did some math’s and writing for school, I baked a banana bread and made a pumpkin soup.

On our last day in Gumusluk we walked up to the flag on top of the hill, which would have been a lovely walk, if it wasn’t for the strong winds. We where all snuggled up and Lucy was grateful for the outing. We don’t take her into townships a lot, because we are worried about the strays biting her. She got bitten in Greece by one. So anytime we are out and about in nature she gets her extended walks.

Nina and I looked out for some small, pretty branches to hang our crochet Christmas decorations on as a Christmas tree replacement. There is just no space for a Christmas tree. We got lucky on our walk and found some that worked just fine and now live colorfully decorated on our saloon table.

On one of our earlier walks we collected some Olives and prepared some salt brine for our jars to carry on the pickling. I also wrote some more e-mails and sorted my clothes, putting all the summery stuff away, bringing the snuggly winter things to the forefront and tried my hand at crochet mandalas for presents for our cruising friends.

The next morning was an early start for us to return down south as we have our appointment for our extended tourist visa on the 25th November and we don’t want to be under any time pressure to sail in bad conditions, so leaving ourselves enough time to make the trip back to Fethiye. Tim and I got up at 6 am and lifted the anchor at 7.15 am at first light to tackle the 33 nm to Datca. We arrived at 6.20 pm just as it became dark. It was a nice sail with not all that much wind.

I made some crochet headbands and another gluten, egg and dairy free banana bread. Everyone likes it and its so easy and quick to make.

I am not an early riser but the next morning was again a 6 am start to leave at 7.20 am heading to Marmaris 45 nm miles away. While I don’t like get up early, those mornings on the sea are special, seeing the sun coming up and the new day start. There was almost no wind, so we motored most of the way.

I started on Luca’s crochet blanket for Christmas, having all my fingers and toes crossed that I will manage to finish it. I made some samples of stripes and squares and everyone apart from Nina liked stripes better, so stripes it is. I just love crochet, its so relaxing and therapeutic and I never really had time or headspace to do crafts projects. It feels so indulgent to just be able to go for it.

We arrived at 5.30 pm in Marmaris and had a catch up with Yvette, Martin and Jason from Pisces 2. We met and sailed with them in Greece and they came to Turkey a few weeks ago too. We asked them to bring us a few things from Greece that we can’t get in Turkey and they brought the treasures over – Pork Salami being one of them, Yumm! It was so nice to see them all again and we had a lovely catch up.