Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year

Snow caps on the mountains

In the morning the snow is glistering on the the peaks around the marina in Finike.
I am still dressed in t-shirt and shorts even if it is getting colder now. The winter is on its way, its more wind and rain. Its getting time for going home to the real winter. It has been hurricane force winds and a lot of snow in Sweden the last week. Nevertheless its nice to come home to family and friends for a while.

No wind but big waves

A few days ago I went up on the pier just where we used to go swimming. There was no wind but big waves comming in from a storm far out. The wooden deck and the steel ladder was gone - no more swimming this year. Or maybe one more more time.It is almost 23 degrees in the water now.

Air supported vessel

There is a strange boat in the harbour.
When it was on shore for a couple of days it was easy to study it. The bottom is very much as a catamaran but  with a conventional bow. In the front there is a big fan blowing air under the hull at a rate of 15 m3/sec. I saw when they started it, the whole boat lifted 15 cm. The boat is powered by two Volvo Penta diesels each at 300 hp. The boat can achieve a speed of more than 30 knots and the power requirements is about half of a conventional boat. It is a norwegian invention and today some americans is testing the boat and will build two 80 feet boats.

Ayva - another exotic fruit

In Trabzon we walked around in the bazar and saw a lot of nice fruits. We stopped at one stall and looked at big yellow fruit almost like a big apple. Immediately a man approached us and said something in turkish but pointed at a younger man and said english. It was his son who had been in London for seven years and now he was back in Turkey to get married. He explained that the fruit called ayva was almost like an apple, quince in english.
We bought two of him and when we came back to Finike Ulla made a very good marmelade of them.

Dogu Ekspresi

We decided to take the night train instead of flying. We booked tickets for the Dogu Ekspresi which goes from Kars in eastern Turkey to Ankara. We embarked in Sivas. The train was already one hour late. but no problem. We are on a slow trip either on sea or land. It was going to take 12 hours but it became 13 hours, so we were 2 hours late in Ankara. The train was good with twobed cabins, waterbasin and fridge with water, juice and snacks all included in the cost of 56 lira.

Pitepalt a'la Turkey

We found the small restaurant Sema Hanimin Yeri recommended by Lonely Planet. It was a place mostly visited by students and obviously very popular. We ordered madimak soup, it's some kind of vegetable and I had Iscl Köfte which looks just like the traditional Pitepalt from northern Sweden. It was a ball of dough filled with minced meat, boiled and with melted butter. Ulla had a gözleme, pancake with cheese.

A visit to the great mosque in Sivas

We walked to the Great Mosque in Sivas. It didn't look like a traditional mosque, it's a low flat building with one minaret. As we walked around it we didn't know if it was ok to go inside the courtyard but we did and suddenly a woman came up to us and by signs showed os to follow her inside the building. After taking off the shoes we walked around an also a man came and showed us around also taking pictures of us. There were men sitting on the floor reading the koran. It was all very quite. It was one big room big like football arena and only men apart from one part which only Ulla was allowed to enter where all the women were. It was built in 1196.

 

the Kangal dog

In the fields we saw a few very big, almost white dogs among the sheeps. It was the big Kangal dog named after the village Kangal outside Sivas. It's a dog used to protect the sheeps from wolves, bears and jackals. It's up to 80 cm high and usually it wears a collar with big spikes to protect it from attacks of wolves.

Express train to Sivas

After enjoying the stay in Samsun we took the express train to Sivas. The choice is easy, there is one in the morning and another in the evening. The trip took nine hours and the cost was 18 lira. Good value per hour but the speed wasn't too impressing, sometimes the old ladies was walking at the same speed on the path beside the rails.
It was a nice trip with an interesting landscape, canyons in the beginning, then a deserted landscape and on the high plateau acriculture with beets and cows.
At the trainstation in Sivas we managed to buy tickets for the Douglu express at 22.00 the next day without speeking any english.

Kokorec - another culinary experience

It's always interesting to try the local food. On the corner we found some rolls being grilled. We asked for a portion with bread.
It was close to what the scots call haggis. Minced intestines from cow or lamb.
The taste was what it looks like.

Samsun was a nice experience, much better than the guide book says. We visited the Bandirma steamer and museum also the very good city museum which tells about the history and the economy of Samsun. There was also a modern Basar next to the tobacco pier where Atatürk landed.

Atatürk in Samsun

Atatürk arrived in Samsun with the steamer Bandirma in 1919 and it was from here he started the liberation war.

Black Sea coast road by bus

After a good breakfast at the hotel we  went to the otogar, bus station, and asked for a bus to Samsun. No problems, next bus was leaving in half an hour. The tickets were 30 lira each for the 350 km trip. When waiting for the bus we were served a cup of tea. The bus was nice we good seats, television at every seat and the bus steward served tea and cakes several times on the trip. The road followed the beach most of the way. It was interesting to see it all. At Giresun we saw a huge building project in the water. It looked as a new harbour but was in fact the new airport, built completely in the water.

Sumela monastery

We . took a tour to the Sumela monastery which is 50 km up the mountains.
The monastery is built on the side of the rock at 1200 m. It was founded in 386 by greek monks and at 1923 they had to leave it due to the turkish-greek exchange.

Turkey's most expensive coffe

All places has it's tourist traps. In Trabzon we took a turkish coffe in the park and two coffes  were 15 liras about three times as much as it should be, After a discussion with the owner the price came down to 10 liras.
However it loked very nice.

The best Pideci in Turkey - Cardac

Hungry ! Where do you go? To Cardac who has the best pide, pizzas, in Trabzon or maybe Turkey. It's like a hole-in-wall but big. There were not too many people but it looked very turkish. We got a menu and after a short while a nice waitress came to help us. No english. We understood what was meat and cheese and she recommended one which we choose together with Ayran and Su, salt youghurt drink and water. The pides were big and good. They asked when we had finished them if we wanted cay, the turkish tea, which are very good and this is the tea district. The waitress went away for five minutes and returned with a bag of baklavas and she gave us four filled with hazelnuts.
This was a very good start in Trabzon.

On vacation by the Black Sea

We decided we wanted a break from the work on board.
We wanted to see the Black Sea coast and flew to Trabzon where we landed in the rush hours of friday afternoon, The streets were crowded. As we hadn't booked a hotel room we tried to find the hotel area. After asking several people and got different answers we ended up at the main square, Atatürk Alani, and tried the Park Otel, it didn't look very impressive but the rooms were very good and the breakfast excellent.
As the coast is very mountaineous the airport is a stretch along the beach.

Bbq jam

At the sunday afternoon bbq there was a wonderful jam . Pelle and Tomas playing guitarrs and Mats singing. They knew every song people usually sing by the camp fire, mostly from the sixties and seventies.
It was a wonderful evening!

Bycycling with a bird of prey

When we went bycycling from the marina , sunday morning, there was a big bird of prey taking off from the road just in front of me. I managed to take a picture of it on the fly. It didn't move until I was really close.
We were 18 people starting from the marina on a trip to Limyra and Turuncova. It was about 21 km and at the end the body ached and especially the ass. Othervise it was very nice as we got new big bycyles with 21 gears.
After the first change of gears Ulla did, the chain came off and then she used just one gear.

Ironwoman

West of Ucagiz is a spring mentioned in the pilot book. Rod Heikell writes the man who can sit in the water for five minutes is an ironman or at least a very cold one. Ulla was sitting there enjoying the fresh water bubbling up around her. Not a problem for an ironwoman grown up in the northern Sweden where the water comes from the glaciers.

 

Kastellorizon - Meis Adasi

We made a  detour to the  small greek island of Kastellerizon. It's main attraction is the small supermarket that sales ham and wine. Just outside of the island we saw two bottlenose dolphins performing a show with giant leaps out of the water. It was magnificent.
After a night with lots of thunder and some wind we went back to Kekova Roads.

Eating sea weed

Yes, we're eating sea weed.
In the market we bought a bunch of green bransches. The first time we saw it was in the market in Ayvalik. Un old lady sold it but we didn't understand how to prepare it. Later we have found it both in Datca and Finike.
Now we know how to do. First boil it for ten minutes, then take off the outer skin and threw away the inner sticks. Pour over some olive oil, salt, lemon and garlic.
It's called Deniz Bördlce.

Geo-caching Simena

We needed a good walk and decided to look for the cach in Simena. At 8 o'clock we started out from Ucagiz in company with two dogs. Walked around the bay and up towards the Simena castle. After looking around the sarcofags for a while, Ulla found it under a big stone.
Then we continued up to the castle and had a talk with Ahmed who told us that about 100 people lived in Kale Köy during the winter and 250 during summer.
It's a beautiful view from the castle.

We always complain about the wind in the Med

There is either too much or too little wind in the Med.
We motored a few days ago to Kekova in no wind and now it's blowing gale force winds and so it will continue for a few days.
We are however anchored in a ni nice bay, Pölemos Bükü. Ulla has made bread today and we have food enough and there is a nice restaurant at the beach.
It's a good life even if windy!

Smoke in Finike

There was a cloud of brown smoke comming down the valley just east of Finike. The forrest in the valley was on fire.
Soon three yellow water bombers appeared, they touched the water just outside of the marina and scooped up water about every ten minutes the whole day. They were successful and the fire dissappeared.

Smoked fish

Yes, we're back onboard. Last saturday we went to the market to buy our fruit and vegetables and also two nice trouts.
We had brought a  fish smoker with us and now was the time to test it.
Salted the fish and put it in the tin box with some saw dust.
After half an hour there was a nice smell of smoked fish. It tasted delicious.
Looking forward to catch a lot of fish. Suppose  the fish market is the best bet.

The water world

In Kekova Roads on the the northern side of the Kekova island there is an underwater city. After some severe eartquakes the buildings sank below the water. Still the walls of the houses can be seen.

A different latitude

The first night at home, I woke up when the sun hit the window. It must be about 6 o'clock.
No - it was 3 o'clock. The northern latitude makes a big difference.

Tree goat

When we walked between Pölemos Bükü and Aperlai we met a large heard of goats with a shepard.
There is never a lot to eat, so some goats has evolved to climb the trees.

Full sails

Full sails - not really but all sails.
When we sailed from Kekova to Finike we were looking forward to a good sail. We started out with setting all sails but the wind was only a few knots from northwest. We were doing about one and a half knot but it was very peaceful. After a while we heard thunder and Ulla said it's time to reduce sails. She was right, after a while we were down to only a reefed mainsail and the wind on the nose.
It blew hard for an hour and then it was all over and we motored back to Finike

The diesel bug

This is our fuel filter after two months of use. A 1 cm layer of slime on top of the filter.
The reason - RME diesel. Diesel mixed with vegetable oil creates an excellent platform for bacteria. Environmentally friendly? Not really, as most people put chemicals in the tank to kill the bacteria.

The cave man

On the small island Ashil adasi, is a very nice cave. It's at the eastern end of Kekova Roads.
From the wonderful anchorage with lots of turtles around the boat we took the dingy to the cave. There was a trip boat before us and the whole boat disappeared into the cave. It's quite big, like comming into a church but by dingy.

Purple, the imperial colour

Purple was the imperial colour. It was the colour of Ceasar's robe and of Cleopatra's sails.
The dye comes from the Murex mollusc. One source in antiquity was Aperlae close to Kekova on the turkish south coast.
In the very small restaurant in the bay we saw one example of the Murex. It was the son of the family who had collected it at a depths of about 10 m. The dye is first colourless and then in the sun it turns from light green to deep green, red and finally deep purple red.

Dangerous fish in paradise

We were sitting in the small restaurant by the beach in Kekova and the lady was fishing with a line from the restaurant. Maybe tonights dinner. She caught an intressting fish that caught everyones attention. About 30 cm, silvery with dark spots on the upper side and white below. They didn't touch it. With a knife they took out the hook and still with the knife they passed it back into the water. "No eat!! No eat!!" they said. Maybe japaneese.
It was a Silver-Stripe Blaasop, an immigrant from the Red Sea. It is the same as the japaneese eat and some die. In the Med about ten people have died by eating this fish,

Nice boats but different

There are some extraordinary boats around among all the factory produced ones.
In Bozburun we saw this one. It's called Bristolian and is british flying the white ensign. Woops said our british friend either it's from the navy or it's from the Royal Yacht Squadron. The boat was impressing, 36m by 8m and able to take 6 guests. Thats about 50sqm per person. The mast was so high it needed a red light on the top for the air traffic. They were flying all there signal flags in the mast but Ulla immidiately noticed that it was in a completely wrong order. Hope they didn't come from the navy.

 

We met another boat in Göcek. We heared it before we saw it. Bomp, bomp, bomp - an old single cylinder engine in a green wooden boat. It was an old gaffer from Germany with a lot of happy people onboard.

 

Midsummer and full moon

In Sweden it's usually the midnight sun that shines all day and night at midsummer

. Here in Turkey it's a beautiful moon that comes up in the evening. Just like a big glowing orange.

Complaining - it's getting hot

The summer is here. It's getting hot. Today 37 degrees, centigrade.
We're anchored just outside of Göcek town. It's crowded with boats here. The town is small, just about 4000 people but they have several ship chandlers and good super markets. There is an american West Marine chandler here where we have bought some electrical parts and we have ordered a solar panel regulator from the shop next to it. We will try to get some oilfilters and maybe a washin basin too.
I also got a british yachting magasine so I have been busy all day.
The regulator will arrive tomorrow afternoon and then we will go to one of the bays to anchor again.

A walk across the hills

We had moored in Selimiye at the Aurora reastaurant and we were told by Susan that it was a nice walk across the hills to Bozburun. Early in the morning we took off along the beach and missed the path but met a nice woman baking village bread, big round things, so we bought one from her. We returned along the road and found the path. It was up, up and up. On the top it was a nice view and after a while we also saw the Bozburun harbour. Half way, there had been a land slide so we had to climb up together with a lot of goats. We met the shepperd and he explained that it was water that caused it. We continued down the valley to Bozburun and were greated with "tjena, tjena, hur mår du?" by Osmans where we had cay and cappucino. Then we went to the bus station to take the dolmus back and suddenly Renate and John showed up, our neighboroughs in the harbour. They had been walking half an hour behind us and seen us occasionally. It took 2 1/2 hours to walk and ten minutes by dolmus.

Gale!

There is a gale!
We are recording winds up to 50 knots, about 30 m/s. We knew about this so we went to  Keci Bükü. It's well protected but the wind comes down the valley and over the moutains.
It started this morning and will end in the evening. There are a lot of boats here and some have reanchored but we have been lucky so far. Our anchor seems to hold well.
We installed a wind instrument mainly to show Ulla it's not blowing as much as she thinks. Today it does!

Alarm!!

Half way between Greece and Turkey the engine alarm came on. No charging, no oil pressure and too high engine temperature.
We had a nice wind and were motor sailing towards Knidos. I quickly stopped the engine and Ulla continued sailing. Soon I found out that we didn't have any drive belt any moore. A few days ago we had discussed if we had a spare one on board. Yes we found one and now was the time to use it. The boat was rolling and I was laying down beside the engine releasing the generator and putting on the new belt. As always when you work with a boat engine a bit uncomfortable. The belt came into position and I tighted it up and started the engine again. Everything was working.
In Datca we took the broken belt and went to the gulet captains usually sitting at a cafe in the harbour. No problem they said, just take a taxi they know where to go. So we did and we ended up at the sanayi just outside town. There we bought two so now we have spare ones.
Sanayis is an excellent turkish invention where a lot of workshops of all kind are situated. If they don't have what you need, they make it.

Stoned in Didim

We sailed down the turkish coast to Altinkum and anchored off the beach. The main attraction here is the tempel of Apollo apart from irish pubs, discos etc.
The temple was built with 124 huge columns. It was the place of the oracle in importance only next to the one in Dephi.
Here was also Medusa who by

just looking at you could transform you into stone.