1st January 2021

The first day of the new year was a quiet one. I did some crochet on my poncho and everyone was just pottering around doing their own things.

Tim decided to make a bonfire at the beach, as there was already a fire place from a previous one. We took some snacks and drinks and sat snuggled by the fire, watching the sun go down and eventually the crews from Lostura and Adventurous joined us. We had a nice evening talking and being together.

The next 2 days where pottering around days. The oil / petrol film on the water in the bay had cleared mostly and the water in one of our water tanks tasted odd, so we decided to drain it and wash the deck with it and make some new water. I scrubbed the deck and windows, which looked so nice and Tim scrubbed the dirty waterline on the outside of the boat.

On Sunday Tim and I took Lucy for a shorter walk to Cleopatra Bay, as Tim wanted to take another aerial photo and footage. I collected some olive leaves for tea and daisies for our Vase, since the donkey ate our last posy that was destined for the vase. It was a sunny day, so we aired out mattresses on the deck. We have a water tank under our V-birth bed, so the mattresses sometimes feel a bit damp underneath.

When we walked to Cleopatra Bay we met another family who had a bag with bread with them and they told us that the bread man made some today. So Tim and Nina took the dinghy over to bread bay and bought some for us and Adventurous. Its just so delicious. One loaf was gone within a minute. Lucky Tim bought 3!

On Monday we went back to Fethiye. We needed a pump out of waste tanks, stocked up a few groceries and Nina wanted to go back to wool shop to find treasures.

When we arrived Lostura and Adventurous got checked by coastguard and where told they had to add things to their transit log. So Tim went to the Harbor master as well to double check ours. The time had come for Lostura to be lifted out of the water to have work done on it and Freddie and Birgul are planning to settle in Bodrom to live. So we are one boat down and it was sad to say our good buys as we have created so many happy memories together.

In the afternoon it transpired that the other 2 boats where thinking of a spontaneous night passage, which I was not keen on at all as I already had a headache all day and I like to prepare the boat and myself mentally for bigger sails like this. I didn’t see the point of the hurry and Tim was torn in the decision making as it was already getting dark. He decided we would go to and we quickly prepared to leave. I was already feeling unwell and queasy and not at all happy. I asked Tim if he could do the first watch, so I could lie down and get some sleep and hopefully feel better when I wake up. No such luck.

Within an hour I was seasick from being downstairs, hanging over the toilet emptying my stomach once more. I changed from the V-birth to the lounge, which made it slightly better, but I kept vomiting in regular intervals and feeling really unwell, making it impossible to take my watch. I tried to get up once, getting dressed and prepared to give him a break, but as soon as I sat down at the helm I needed the bucket again, so Tim did the whole night watch by himself. It was a really cold night and when the light came up I got up again with my stomach now completely empty I figured I could give it another shot. Tim went below to make himself a coffee and some breakfast, while I took the helm.

We left 9 pm the night before and arrived in Kalkan / Yali Limani at 1 pm the next day. The whole night had odd winds and at daybreak we finally got winds with 6-7 knots. We sailed 42 nm. Again I felt like Zombie and needed the rest of the day to recover from the ordeal. This incident really showed me that I don’t want to make decisions for us to go anywhere based on what others decide. I wasn’t up for the passage already feeling unwell when we left and didn’t get a chance to medicate ahead of time. Another lesson learnt.

The following day we left from Yali Limani to Bucak Deniz / Kas. It was a windy passage and cold but no one got sick and I was able to helm some of the time. It was only 13 nm and we left 9.30 in the morning and arrived 3 pm. We anchored in a cute little harbor nearby Kas. It was quite windy and in the night Tim and I had to get up to re-anchor as our chain had dragged and we had come too close to another boat. I am so grateful for anchor alarms, but truth is when the weather is not ideal both Tim and I sleep with one open ear and eye. Tim more so than me. We unconsciously listen to every odd noise, so nights like this our sleep isn’t very sound.

I finished my poncho and started to make crochet produce bags from the yarn left overs Nina and I had accumulated. We have our reusable shopping bags from home, but I didn’t bring produce bags and am very conscious of every plastic bag I take from a supermarket, although we usually repurpose them several times – I still find it would be better to not have them in the first place. So I was really happy to find a free pattern on the internet that was easy to make.

Imagine and Adventurous decided to go to another anchorage around the corner, but we where happy were we where and decided to stay. There seemed to be a walk to a beautiful Amphitheatre nearby and we also needed to stock up on groceries and data.

We were parked right in front of the Kas Marina and Jonathan and Dot from the Sunday catamaran reminded us that Sunday was on the hard there, while the 2 of them visited their daughter in the Netherlands. Sure enough we were right in front of Sunday. We took a dinghy ride and said hello to her and checked that she was o.k. We were quarantined with Dot and Jonathan for a few months in Athens, so where happy to see Sunday but missing Dot and Jonathan. They are coming back to Turkey in February if Covid allows, so hopefully we can see them again then.

In the last few days we had a few people from New Zealand approach us checking in on the gossip they had heard. Oh dear, one can’t escape it – not even on a boat in Ocean. I guess it doesn’t help that we share our journey so publicly, but one would think that people would at least make the effort to check the many ways we share honestly what’s going on for us – blogs, videos, Facebook, Instagram – we are basically an open book.

One rumor was that I am apparently leaving the boat, which we had heard several times. Yes I am struggling at times in rough seas and don’t enjoy every aspect of the journey, but that doesn’t equal me leaving. It it seems other people know better than I. Another goodie was that we apparently lost all our money in a Turkish port and had set up a give a little account to get money to get back home.

So here is a positive affirmation for us all: Talk to people not about them. I have engaged in a fair share of gossip in my lifetime and avoided uncomfortable conversations, but try to be mindful about my actions. Being on the receiving end shows me how uncomfortable it feels to be the talking stock of others.