Hanımeli Cafe, Restaurant and Bar

It's a quiet friday night in Kaş. The tourists have left, Dave and Chris (Electric Monk) have left, John and Jenny (Blue Talisman) have left and Ingrid and Rolf (Mandara) have left. All back to Europe for family and Christmas. Just us and Rose and Brian (Alixora) left on B Pontoon.
In Kaş all the restaurants along the front are closed as families recover and take stock after the summer season. But hidden down an alley near the Internet cafe is Hanımeli, a tiny Turkish cafe with just three tables inside. Two are empty when we enter the other is occupied by a mixed group of Turks and Germans. In the corner the proprietress' husband is playing gentle traditional Turkish music with his friends - guitar, baglama, bass guitar and electric drum kit. We order double rakıs with water (su) and ice (buz) and chill out in the warm. Without asking, a segmented mandarin and later a slice of chocolate cake arrive. The cafe is like your grandma's front room. Photos on the wall, some old and faded mostly of Kaş and memorable evenings, advertisements for diving companies, a tiny TV (switched off), a shelf of CDs and another of LPs. Not much has changed here for 20 years.
The music warms up, the rakı flows and the Turkish men get up to dance. Bizarrely the band plays a Turkish adaptation of Happy Birthday for one of the Germans. And then it is time to leave. Iyi akşamlar and iyi geceler. Time for bed. This is what living away from home and out of your comfort zone is all about. It just happens.

Petronella meets Turkish Legend

Two years ago we met Round the World Turkish sailor Ozkan Gulkaynak in a quiet Greek anchorage. Today he posted that his new boat, Lady S, was almost destroyed by fire as he brought her into Teos Marina near Izmir. Luckily things worked out, the fire was doused and all is well. Tonight we spoke to him for over an hour on Skype and heard how his plans for Lady S are progressing. Amazingly this Turkish hero was asking US for our advice on steel boats. Humbling or what? We certainly have come a long way since our first tentative steps back in Portugal.

Ozkan plans to use Lady S to train young Turks in the art of seamanship eventually taking her to the Arctic or across to the Caribbean. An amazing guy with boundless energy, pride in his country and a boatload of plans for the future.

The Crazy Turk on the boat that took him around the world

The new and the old. Lady S and Kayıtsız III at Teos.

Vagaries of Autumn

Yesterday was a gorgeous day. Blue sky, gentle breeze and a milky blue sea. Just the opportunity for a last swim of the year followed by a picnic with most of the remaining sailors from the marina here at Kas.

By contrast today and last night have been windy and much colder. We had wind gusts of up to 35k and we were squashing our fenders up against Argo the German boat next to us.

Cool Dude

I was sitting in the saloon this morning looking at the wall and thinking just how well Jenny and Emma's birthday card to Gill reflects my attitude to things in general. As soon as it arrived I commandeered it and stuck on the wall.

For Gill the destination and the people are all important. For me it's the journey itself.

Blog Updates by Email

As we are hoping to cross the Atlantic this time next year we have been experimenting with posting to our blog via emails. This is the first attempt.

We are currently in Kas, southern Turkey for our third winter. Why has our blog been neglected for a couple of years? Well, we don't think we have really been doing anything special. But preparing for our Atlantic crossing is more special so we have decided to reinstate it. Watch this space for future updates.

Turkey Evacuates Citizens from Libya

We were kept awake last night by police sirens, blue lights, red lights and a great commotion as two large commercial catamarans pulled in alongside the marina in the berth usually reserved for cruise liners.

This morning it turns out that Marmaris was the location used to repatriate the first 3,000 Turkish refugees from Libya.

This was the scene last night right next to our berth here at Netsel Marina.

The whole N. Africa, Middle East scene seems to be kicking off.  At present though, whilst everyone is keeping a close watch on how things develop, Turkey seems quite content to sit on the side-lines.

Back to the UK

We're really enjoying life in a marina.  Netsel is pretty modern and well run with a mix of live-aboards, charter boats and stored boats on the the water.  We're pleased we spent a bit extra on being close by the town of Marmaris rather than further out though there seem to be more people overwintering out at Yat Marine half an hour away by dolmus (minibus).

Last few jobs to finalise and then tonight it's off to Dalaman Airport and home for three weeks for yes, you guessed it, yet another wedding.

We're settling into marina life here at Netsel.  We've been for a walk along the front here, explored Bar Street (now thankful pretty much closed down for the winter) and Chandlers Row (with its new West Marine store) where you can buy just about anything.

Yesterday, after organising a taxi share to the airport tonight we were visited by Graham from Scudder who told us that Blue Horizon were unable to get the taxi to pick us up from Netsel but that he is going to the airport tonight and we can share his car. Success!  We called Blue Horizon up on the radio and it's all sorted.

We've had loads of rain since we got here and it's raining again now - quite hard.  I got soaked going to the supermarket for bread and humus.

Most days now we wake up to find a new cruise ship berthed a hundred metres from us on the big pontoon adjoining the marina.

Each morning execept Sunday at 9am there is a 'net' where long stayers discuss what's going on, the weather, help required, taxi shares, things to give away or sell etc.  All quite new for us but they seem to be a good bunch.  One of them (Dave) is coming round in a while to discuss keeping an eye on Petronella while we are away.  It will cost us a few Turkish Lira but will give us peace of mind while we are away.

We're looking forward to going home for a while but will be glad to be back here for an extended period too.

The 3 days in Netsel Marina just flew by in a whirl of boat cleaning, storing stuff away, arranging for someone to look after Petronella whilst we were in the UK, taking anything that might be damaged in winds off the boat etc etc. But we found time to go to our first Happy Hour and visit Lydia and Neil from Silver Lady in Yat Marine. And time to explore a few of the watering and eating holes in Marmaris. At night it is still warm – the only drawback of living here is that at 10pm the discos start up and they finish at 4am. So the night sky is strobed by spot lights and the air pulsates to the noise of the clubs. But we hardly noticed it we were so knackered! And it rained – most days. That’s why Turkey is so green.

Our flight left at 0.20am on 19th October. We were offered a lift to Dalaman airport with Graham (who has a boat called Scudder) who was picking his wife up from the incoming flight we were taking back to the UK. Had a good cheap Turkish meal with him first then he negotiated the road works on the way to the airport in the pouring rain. Arrived back in Gleaston at 8am the next day.

Marmaris Town Quay

Cruise ship blocking our sun!