Fethiye, Turkey

Med Moored at Ece Marina
Fethiye
Lycian Coast
Turkey
Mediterranean
36'37.4N/29'06.1E
(Click on photo to enlarge)

"There is no place more beautiful than Fethiye in the world" reads the headlines in the local paper here in Fethiye. A quote from Alim and his wife Hattaya from S/V My Chance. If you have been a follower of this site for awhile you will have read about S/V My Chance in many of our past entries, along with S/V Shiraz, who have been traveling along with us for Sandpiper's transit up the Red Sea. We met Alim and his wife Kian (Hattaya in Turkish) when in Aden Yemen at a internet cafe. We were asking each other what our plans were for transiting up the Red Sea. Alim asked if they could tag along with us and we said "Why not?"

We shared many anchorages together, some for much longer than we would have wanted. And we shared many travels inland together. Alim and Kian had told us that they had been writing for well known sailing magazine in Turkey and were well known. We were like "Ya, right. You are on a 32 foot catamaran, being the smallest boat in every anchorage we were in." Imagine our surprise upon our arrival to turkey to see them in every Turkish newspaper we saw. Turkey does not have many sailors that circumnavigate the globe, and they are the first catamaran to complete this trip from Turkey.

Since we broke our dolphin striker crossing the Med and had to stop in Cypress we missed their arrival. But they were met by a large group of boats when they approached the harbor here in Fethiye. And a large crowd of people were on hand to greet them. The governor was even there to give them an award, and he gave a few speeches to congratulate them on their accomplishment.

After sandpiper arrived in Fethiye, Alim and Kian invited us and Steve from S/V Shiraz to their house in the mountains for dinner. (S/V Shiraz is now our next door neighbor here in Ece Marina). We had always pictured a family dinner in Turkey as something like in the movie 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding' and that is exactly how it was. Alim and his brother live next door to each other along with their mother. A large table was set out in the front of his house while food was being prepared all over the place. By dinner time his whole family was there and much great food was devoured. A great time was had by all and we got to met some really nice people.

Our current plans are to keep Sandpiper moored in Ece Marina for the next month till we can figure out what Team Sandpiper's next adventures will be. So stay tuned!!

Tom and Amy