Week 2 with the Whiteley’s
 
The time came to say ‘Goodbye’ to the ‘Hassan Deniz’ family. We were heading back to Fethiye with a few stops on the way. First stop back to Kas. Once out of the Kekova roads bay, we attempted sailing and were going along nicely. Unfortunately we were going along nicely in the wrong direction. So motor on time. We arrived in Kas and were once again directed where to moor up. It wasn’t the same man as last time. This time it was Mr Smiley, no he wasn’t smiley, well he was a bit, that was his name Mr Smiley of Smileys restaurant. Each morning the restaurant would leave a couple of loaves of nice fresh bread in the cockpit (scrumptious). We negotiated a reduced rate for staying on the quay. Well it was hardly a major negotiation, the man in charge said a price, we came back with a counter offer, he agreed! If that’s wheeler dealing I like it. Got to save the pennies where we can, could mean another year of ‘sailing the dream’. We spent two nights in Kas doing a spot of sight seeing a lot of relaxing and generally watching the world and their boats go by. We saw parascenders or is it paragliders, you know the people with parachutes, well they would drop into land on the quay that we were moored on, all very exciting. A very nice Turkish man on a Hunter 44 (for those not in the know, very nice big boat emphasis on comfort) invited us on to have a look at the boat. Had to do a head count on the way back to Stella to make sure Mr & Mrs chien de Mer hadn’t tried to jump ship, lured away with the promise of double beds and hot showers! We heard that friends ‘Reckless’ (Chris and Tim) were heading to Kas, it was the day that we were due to leave. As we wouldn’t be able to meet up we said we’d keep an eye out for each other on the horizon. We were about an hour out of Kas when we spotted a boat that we thought might be them. Shiver me timbers and call me a pirate, if it wasn’t them. We got our fog horn out and started blowing to catch their attention well that and jumping up and down like idiots. Needless to say they spotted us, I think we can safely say, we were as glad as they were that they had clothes on (but that’s a whole other story). We arrived back in Ysilkoy Limani outside Kalkan. You remember the bay where the anchor dragged and we had to abandon the shoreline. Yes it’s coming back to you now isn’t it. Now your probably asking yourselves ‘why in high seas heaven would they choose to go back there?’ Well I’ll tell you, leaving from the bay shortened the journey back to Fethiye to 40nm, so it was worth stopping off there. As it was we were going to have to leave the bay at 5.00am (I know outrageous isn’t it) to avoid the wind and waves around the treacherous ‘Seven Capes’, this time we would be heading straight into the prevailing wind. The pilot book talks about people leaving at 4.00am, but that’s just obscene! The conditions in the bay were a lot more settled than our last visit, other than a bit of boat rage, when a gullet came in and anchored very close to a yacht. Gullets do appear to be a law unto themselves and in the end the yacht had to move. That night we feasted on a hearty chilli to set us up for our early start the next day. At 5.00am we were woken by the alarm clock on our phone. It’s a ladies voice and she cheerfully informs you ‘It’s 5 o’clock’ and insists ‘It’s time to get up’. The mere threat of her repeating this is enough to get ‘Team Stella Maris’ ‘up and at em’. We motored out of the bay in darkness. Seadog came up to help but as there wasn’t much to do he went back to bed to save himself for the ‘Seven Capes’ swell. We didn’t see Mrs Seadog till lunchtime, something about fancying a lie in (just can’t get the crew these days). All in all the journey went very well by leaving early we avoided the winds and confused sea!, down side is we had to motor but motoring in no wind will always get my vote over battling and bashing into wind and swell. We had planned to spend a night in a bay near Fethiye then head back into the marina the next day. But the lure of a group of hunky men chasing a ball around (rugby) was to much for Mrs Seadog and myself. So back to Fethiye it was. In Fethiye we met up with the Mrs Seadogs school friend (Betty) and her husband (John). They are ‘real sailors’ and have travelled all over in their boat ‘Joy Ging’. They have a house in Fethiye and invited us over for supper. When we heard we were going to have curry myself and the captain once again had to pinch ourselves. Life is good and it just gets better and better all the time. John and Betty’s house is lovely and guess what, go on guess. Yes that’s right their cat lovers, (makes them nice people, that and curry makes them wonderful people) they’ve got 4 cats who all looked like they were living the life of Cat Reilly!! (we know some other cats who are also living the cat dream). The next day John and Betty came and picked us up in their car and took us all on what they call their ‘Yachties tour’. They took us to Saklikent Gorge http://www.saklikentgorge.net/ that was just amazing. You can wade through the ice cold water and walk in the gorge. After a trout lunch we went to a ruined Lycian city called Tlos. http://www.hitit.co.uk/tosee/XanthosV/tlos.html Then onto a rather interesting bar/trout farm, not something you see everyday. We ended our tour with a visit to their house in the hills that was the most perfect and peaceful hideaway. A huge huge ‘Tesekkur ederim’ to John and Betty, I’m sure I speak for us all when I say we had the most fantastic day. Monsieur et Madame Seadog clocked up a total of 157.9nm on Stella Maris. So I think we can safely say that Madame Seadog has well and truly left her ‘seapup’ days behind her, she has without a doubt earned her ‘Seadog’ status and will be pleased to hear she is now on our crew shortlist for the Atlantic crossing! After a few days lazing around the marina pool (well somebody's got to do it). The time came to say ‘Hosca Kalin’ (Goodbye) well they can’t stay on indefinitely, they’ve got responsibilities at home, there’s cats to be fed! We had a great two weeks with the Whiteley-Seadogs and really hope that they enjoyed their time with us and Stella. Thanks once again for all you do for us, it is much appreciated. We are going to spend the next couple of weeks pottering around the Fethiye area. The ‘Whiteley juniors’ are coming to stay for a week at the end of October, we will then head East with them to Finike, where we’ll be spending the winter. Love & beautiful bays The Captain & his sidekick XX P.S. Note to Mrs S We’ve been using cafetiere to keep up our caffeine intake. P.P.S. Note to Mr S Where’s our sleeping bag? http://www.saklikentgorge.netshapeimage_1_link_0
Saturday, 29 September 2007