Serçe Liman, Turkey

Anchored at Serçe Liman
The Carian Coast
Turkey
36'34.8N/28'02.7E

Ok, well we didn't quite make it to Greece yet. But we are just a few miles east of our first Greek Isle landfall. We left this morning at 8am but had a bit of a head-wind and we saw an inviting cove where we could stay for the night but most importantly we could swim and cool off our hot bods. After a splendid night at anchor before making our way into the town of Marmaris we awoke to a broken head, a.k.a toilet. Nothing better than scooping out poop in the morning before the first cup of coffee. 'Living the dream', that's what we keep telling ourselves anyways.

Once that was taken care of we motored into town where we anchored just off the marina. Then we packed the backpack with all the bits we needed to check-out of Turkey. First stop, Harbor Master. We ran into a bit of trouble as we originally thought we would be checking out of Fethiye and were threatened with a 1,000 Euro fine (almost USD$1500!) . But got away with a $30USD fine. The lesson here: When all else fails, act stupid.

Second stop, passport police. Because we got bumped off our first flight home and had a 'canceled' stamp in our passports, this caused some extra time. But once again, when there is a language barrier, act stupid. Finally we cleared with customs got our official get-out-of-Turkey paper work and we were legal. All in all, this process took us about three hours.

A cruise ship was in town. And customs/passport/police office where we cleared was at the cruise ship dock, which made for a very busy building. We had a liaison from the cruise ship help us get through quicker than to be expected. Usually when someone wants to help you in Turkey they also want to take you to their shop and sell you a carpet. Not this guy. His M.O... 'Can I use your passport to buy me a bottle of J&B duty free?' How can we say no? And surprisingly we didn't acquire anything duty free as there was no beer. So sure, why not?

We then had dinner and back to the boat. We should arrive tomorrow am on the Island of Symi where we hear they have bulk Ouzo and cheap wine. Yippee!

Peace Out,
Amy and Tom

---

Note From Ron: Serçe Liman is known for the discovery of a shipwreck of an 11th century Byzantine trader ship. Here is an pretty good post about from Texas A&M University.

N Nimara Adasi Spit, Turkey

Anchored N Nimara Adasi Spit
The Carian Coast
Turkey
Mediterranean
36'48.1N/28'16.1E
(clıck on photo to enlarge)

We were woken up this morning to the braying of 3 loud donkeys that were standing by Sandpiper's stern that was tied off to the shoreline. I think they make their rounds looking for handouts of the all the boats that have their sterns tied to the shoreline and bows anchored out.

After getting the 'Piper ready for sea, we made a break from all the charter boats around us and motored 30 miles north to where are currently anchored half a mile from the town of Marmaris. We decided to stop short of Marmaris when we saw a dive charter boat leave a small cove that was perfect for the Piper. We quickly dropped the hook and swam in with a stern line to secure it to the rugged shores of the Mediterranean coast. Then went for a very nice swim to cool off. Swimming in the Med is great because the water is warm and there is nothing underwater that will eat us.

The winds in Turkey are very predictable, being light in the morning and picking up to 10-15 knots from the north by the afternoons. Sometimes less, like today. The weather never really changes. It never rains. There are never any clouds around. It is hot and the wind is always from the same direction. This makes for great cruising grounds and explains why so many people come out here to charter boats.

There are charter boats all over the place, many 35-40 foot sloops and larger 100+ foot wooden motor/sail live aboard boats full of pale skinned people. There are very few cruising yachts in this area and Sandpiper really stands out with all her 'flair'. I think most people assume that we are on some sort of low budget charter as all the charter boats here are fairly new. Usually when we are next to a charter, they will ask where we are from. Then they answer, laughing, "At least you flew here and did not sail here on that boat from the States." We then have to explain that we did sail here, the long way, across the Pacific and Indian Ocean. Not the Atlantic. We then get looked at bit like we are insane before they go back to their boat to tell everyone on board what they had heard. Then soon everyone is waving at us.

The only downside to today was we had to motor 30 miles. And motoring when diesel is $9 dollars a gallon is not to good for our moral. Also our refrigerator has been giving us a bit of drama and is still acting up from being overcharged by a mechanic in Fethiye. We have to keep bleeding the gas out twice a day. This involves taking all the food out it and letting the whole box warm up so the gas in the system will thaw out. Then bleeding out a bit of the gas. Then throwing all the food back in hoping that the box cools down before all the food completely warms up. It is making it very difficult to have a cold beer.

Tomorrow morning we are going to pump the dingy up, put on the outboard, then motor to the anchorage in Marmaris where we will be checking out of Turkey. Our next stop: The Greek Islands.

More Soon,
Tom and Amy

Tersane Island, Turkey

Anchored at Kapi Creek
Tersane Island
The Lycian Coast
Turkey
36'40.5N/28'54.9E

Our first posting from an anchorage in a long while and what a wonderful spot we have chosen to return to after two months of marina/America living. We are currently anchored up Kapi Creek with a stern line tied to the shore for maximum usage of the anchorage. We have about 10 other boats with us mostly tied to the restaurant/bar dock and all of them charter boats.

We had an uneventful motor to the anchorage carefully, watching all systems, and everything is running smoother than ever (knock on wood). Upon returning back to the boat from the USA we had quite a long work list to complete and all jobs went fast and smooth, not usual boat living. Tom changed the oil, fixed the water pump that has been giving us issues since leaving Australia. In today's trip we noticed no leaks. Good job Captain Tom! We also had the fuel injectors rebuilt here in Turkey. Tom put those back in and what a difference that made. That job hadn't been done since Oakland 3 years ago. With the newly rebuilt injectors we are running smoother and quieter than ever.

Also, a very dirty job that should be done every year but this time we pushed it to about two years was the changing of the gaskets on the head (toilet). This job also went swimmingly and she is now pumping like she is brand new.

Another long over due project was getting a few lights fixed which we were able to do while home. We have Alpenglow lights and we can't rave enough about this company. If your looking for low-draw lights then these are the ones to get. They produce wonderful soft light and the customer service is off the hook. With those back in action I am now able to see over the sink again, which I haven't seen since Mexico.

The last job was the fridge. We were hoping for a simple empty the contents, defrost the freezer, turn back on, fill up with food, top off the R-134 (fridge coolant) and off we go. Of course since we didn't have any issues with any of the other jobs it just wouldn't be 'cruising' without something going wrong. We did the defrost, filled up with coolant, but then we had two days where it freaked out mainly due to over filling with coolant. After many hours of staring at everything we finally got it back to the correct temperature and stocked it back up.

We also sadly had to get rid of our Egyptian bicycles as they just take up too much room on the back of 'Piper and would get rusty from the salt. We taped 'For Sale' signs on our baskets, cruised the boardwalk and made a deal with two Turkish charter boat captains. Someday soon I'll own another cool cruiser bike. I even kept my fancy fringed seat cover just for that occasion.

It was a bit sad leaving the dock today as it was our last time seeing Steve from S/V Shiraz. They have put up with us since Bora Bora and we thank them (Steve and Rene) for all the wonderful memories we have experienced together.

As we continue on tomorrow to our last stop in Turkey we plan to check out and get to the Greek Islands. I have high hopes for these next few weeks of Greek salads, Tzatziki, Greek yogurt, and of course at least one shot of Ouzo.

Until then,
Amy and Tom

Thanks America!

Med Moored at Ece Marina
Fethiye
Lycian Coast
Turkey
Mediterranean
36'37.4N/29'06.1E

We are back on Sandpiper from our whirlwind tour of America. Firstly, we want to give a HUGE thanks to our good friend Sam who lives in Utah and hooked us up with his Delta Buddy Passes. Sam works for Delta as a first rate jet mechanic fixing all the broken things that get broken on airplanes. Without these passes we would have not been able to come home. Thanks Sam. We owe you BIG TIME!!

Secondly, a thanks to everyone back home for all that you did for us by putting us up in your homes and feeding us tons of food. Especially Mom Pat. You are the best. It was truly wonderful to have everyone come and visit us in Indiana!

Lastly, a big thanks to brother Ron, the ‘blogmaster’ who hooked us up with this very sweet laptop I am typing on. Thanks Ron!

Welcome aboard ‘Current in Carmel’ readers in Carmel, Indiana where ‘Team Sandpiper’ is on the cover of the 19 Aug edition. If you are not living in Carmel, Indiana then you can check it out online for just this week only! I jumped the gun a bit on my last entry about being featured in Latitudes and Attitudes magazine hoping for our red carpet fame. But Sandpiper will be featured in the October edition that you can check out on line for free. We may not be featured this month but I do have a short article entitled ‘Storm Madness’ published.

After overstaying our visit by two weeks at Pat’s house, enjoying a home filled with cold air and all the ice we could use, we packed up our overloaded luggage full of boat parts and headed out to Indianapolis Airport to get 2 standby seats to JFK Airport. With the help from the travel gods and the ‘power of the secret’ we made it to JFK no problem. Delta has only one flight a day to Istanbul from JFK, so we were sweating it a bit hoping that there were 2 seats open as we really did not want to spend 24hrs in JFK airport. Lucky for us 2 were open in business class!! Once again we got to lounge fully reclined sipping champagne as we took off heading back to Turkey.

It was another 11 hours of wine drinking, shrimp cocktails, ice cream sundaes, and as many movies as we would fit in. I think we lived a little too large as just before we landed Amy and I looked at each other and said “I don’t feel so well.” Shortly after that that airsick bags were broken out and the vomiting began in earnest. I think we probably should have not been eating shrimp at 30,000 feet.

We are not sure what we ate, but we were both feeling deathly ill by the time we landed in Istanbul. This is hard to describe unless you have experienced this, but to have to wait in line with hundreds of people in an un air-conditioned part of the airport where everyone is waiting to clear through customs while you want to vomit is a less than positive experience. Amy and I took turns pushing our bags forward in line while we took turns running to the bathroom to puke. I was sweating profusely and I was sure that I would get strip searched as I looked very guilty of something being so sweat covered by the time I got to the customs officer. Amy had just returned from the bathroom in time to join me and we figured we had just enough time to get our passports stamped and make it to the next bathroom before we puked.

But when we stood before the customs officer he said there was a problem with our passports. I think he got confused when he saw that we had flown out of turkey and returned, and everyone else in line was a tourist being in Turkey for the first time. We were close to vomiting on the guy which I think may have been bad as we might have been held in quarantine forever or until they figured out what was wrong with us. He had a moment of indecision and looked at the line behind us and said “Whatever” while waving us through.

From there it was a run to the nearest bathroom for more vomiting and to claim our bags. We felt so bad that we decided there was no rush to leave the airport so just laid on the floor next to our bags for about an hour trying to figure our next move. We had planned on taking a bus to Fethiye. But since we were so sick we decided that we were going to stay in Istanbul for the night and leave the next day. Once we felt we could maybe sit in a car without puking we grabbed our bags and jumped into a cab for a ride to Hotel Mola where we had stayed on our trip out to the U.S.

If you ever find yourself in Istanbul and need a cheap hotel near everything, then Hotel Mola is a great place to stay with very friendly helpful staff. After checking in we ran to our room and threw ourselves on our beds hoping to feel better. We felt a little better by sunset and was able to make it out for dinner. But even that was a bit much and we came right back to our room to watch really bad Turkish TV for the rest of the night.

The next morning feeling better I ran into our neighbor across the hall that I had met the day before, when we had checked in. He asked what we were planning on doing. I told him that we needed to make bus reservations to get back to Fethiye and was not quite sure how to do this. "No problem." he says. "I will take care of everything." He is from Iran, but ran away when he was 14 to Turkey. He then immigrated to Canada where he went to school getting a job as an interpreter with the U.N working all over the world. He even did a stint in Iraq helping people that needed to leave the country. He called the bus line and took my credit card making the reservation. At the time I was thinking "How safe is it that I just met him and now he is on the phone speaking Turkish giving out my credit card number?" Turns out he was a great guy and totally hooked us up with reservations for an overnight bus ride to Fethiye. This would have been very difficult to make without speaking Turkish and not knowing what bus line to call as there are 100’s of them here in Turkey.

We then decided that since our bus was leaving at 10pm to check out of our hotel while they kept our bags and we toured around Istanbul. We went back to the Grand Bazaar that we had been to before on our trip out. But this time we were not going to get lost. The Grand Bazaar is one of the largest covered markets in the world with more than 58 streets and 6,000 shops. It is well known for its jewelry, pottery, spice, and carpet shops. Many of the stalls in the bazaar are grouped by type of goods, with special areas for leather coats, gold jewelry and the like. The bazaar contains two bedestens (domed masonry structures built for storage and safe keeping), the first of which was constructed between 1455 and 1461 by the order of Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror.

The last time we were in Istanbul we got hopelessly lost walking around all the shops. This time we had a map and wandered around for hours till it was time to head back to Hotel Mola to get our bags. From the hotel we jumped on a shuttle van that took us to our bus. Turkey’s bus lines have the Dirty Dog (Greyhound) beat! Actually we have not been to a county in the last 3 years that have buses worse than greyhoun. We scored a first class bus that showed movies (in Turkish) and had an attendant that delivered snacks and drinks all along the way.

Twelve hours later we arrived in Fethie to a very dirty Sandpiper moored in Ecce Marina. The temperature upon our arrival was 105 degrees and 98 down below Sandpiper.

The last couple of days have been spent moping around in the heat while we try to get the 'Piper ready to head out on the 22nd. There are many projects to complete as we have brought back loads of boat parts with us. Here’s a short list:

• Recharge our refrigeration that has been low on coolant
• Replace fuel injectors
• Change oil
• Change seals in raw water pump
• Swim on the boat to clean the growth off the prop
• Replace stereo speakers
• Polish cockpit windows
• Fix sea water wash down pump
• Re-install 2 cabin lights that were sent in for repairs
• Clean Sandpiper's outsides and insides
• and finally buy enough groceries for several months and stow

Stay tuned as we are planning on leaving Fethiye on the 22nd, then heading up the Turkish Coast before heading west to the Greek Islands.

More very soon,
Tom and Amy

Latitude 38 letter about Somolia

Tom and Amy's letter to Latitude 38 magazine was published in the August-2008 issue (page 56). You can read it online here, but it is about halfway down the page. Hint: Use your browser's Find function to find the word "SOMALIA" to get to it (Windows: use Control-F, Mac: use Cmd-F). Here is the letter taken from that issue of the magazine....

THERE'S NO REASON TO GET CLOSE TO SOMALIA

In regard to the story you posted about a German cruising family being kidnapped off of the northern part of Somalia, the area is of big interest to me, as my wife and I have just been through it on our way to the Red Sea, the Med, and Turkey.

I think there is much hype about piracy in the Gulf of Aden, and it influences peoples' decisions about making this passage as opposed to not making it at all or going around South Africa. Incidents only seem to involve vessels that are too close to the Somalian shore. In this case, the German couple's vessel had gone close enough to take photos of the shore.

There is, in fact, no reason to go or be anywhere near the coast of Somalia, as the Gulf of Aden is generally more than 150 miles wide. Problems with kidnappers or pirates can be avoided by hugging the coast of Yemen, where the chance of an incident is just about zero. In other words, there is no reason to be less then 100 miles off the coast of Somalia!

It seems as though the only stories that make the news are the tales of irresponsible skippers who bring their boats too close to a coast that is well known for such problems. If you examine all the piracy reports, you'll see that none of them have taken place near the coast of Yemen.

In addition, it's also very easy to travel with other boats, as there are always other boats making the same transits. So why travel alone?

Tom and Amy Larson
Sandpiper, Yorktown 35, Ha-Ha Class of '05
Tiburon / Currently in Turkey

Readers — The reports on the kidnapping of the German cruisers off northern Somalia on June 23 have been rife with incorrect information. It was often reported that there had been four cruisers: an older German couple, their son, and a French skipper. However, the respected German newsweekly Der Spiegel has more recently reported that it was actually just a German couple, identified only as Jürgen K., 63, and Sabine M., 51, aboard their yacht Rockall. They were crossing the Gulf of Aden on their way from Egypt to Thailand when they were kidnapped, apparently having 'cut the corner' to shorten the distance to Thailand.

One of the kidnappers claimed the couple were seized for "invading Somalian waters." Right, as if the couple was the vanguard of the Fourth Reich and Somalia is the new Poland. Der Spiegel reported that the couple later were able to talk to relatives in Germany by phone, and diabetes medicine was sent to Somalia for Jurgen. A Somalian tribal leader in the mountains, where the couple are believed to be held, is the go-between, and says the pirates want $2 million in ransom. As for Rockall, she was found washed ashore. There have been no news updates in nearly a month, which sounds ominous, but is actually not unusual in Somalian abduction cases.

With nearly 2,000 miles, Somalia has the longest coastline of any African country, and the entire length is rife with active pirates and kidnappers. Somalia has been in chaos for decades because of the lack of a central government and because of corruption and numbing poverty.

It's estimated that about 100 private yachts transit the 'chute' that is the Gulf of Aden on their way to the Red Sea each year. Experts say that, although Somalian pirates have come to within 50 miles of Yemen, the Yemen side of the Gulf of Aden is far less dangerous. See this month's Changes for evidence that this is indeed the case.

The most high-profile yacht kidnapping case off Somalia in recent times involved the luxury French sailing yacht Le Ponant on April 4. French troops 'rescued' the hostages — after $2 million in ransom was paid. Eight of the 14 pirates were eventually killed, with the other six arrested. Some of the money was recovered.

But don't think that incident of piracy and kidnapping — which made international headlines — put a stop to such activity. In the July Yachting World, skipper Johan Lillkung of the 88-ft Dolpin reports that there were no less than five piracy incidents off Somalia — in less than 24 hours while he passed offshore. And in early July, Somali pirates freed the German ship Lehman Timber and her crew, who had been hijacked a month before. One of the pirates told reporters that the ship and crew were released after an English-speaking captain paid them $750,000 in cash.

Would we hug the coast of Somalia if we were on our way to or from the Red Sea? No. After all, it's not even one of the garden spots or cultural meccas of the world.

Tom and Amy are back aboard Sandpiper in Fethiey, Turkey. I spoke to Tom yesterday. He said the flight back was fine, but both he and Amy were not feeling well thanks to something they must have ate on the flight to Istanbul. He said that it is very hot there. Sandpiper was very dirty and had to be cleaned. Steve, from S/V Shiraz, kept a good eye on her while Tom and Amy were back in the US.

Ron

Carmel/ Indiana, America!!!

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Carmel
Indianapolis
U.S.A.

We Made It!! Our trip back to America from Turkey went something like this… We left Sandpiper in her slip at Ece Marina in Fethiye at 1am and grabbed a cab to the city bus station. At 2 am we hopped a one hour bus ride to Dalaman Airport where we caught a 5am Turkish Air flight to Istanbul. From Istanbul International Airport we checked in at the Delta gate with our baggage and was checked in for our stand-by tickets to JFK/New York. Then we checked out of Turkey through customs and then had about 3 hours to kill before our flight was scheduled to take off. So we wondered around the Istanbul Airport.

Istanbul Airport is quite large with flights going and arriving from all over the world. So lots of different people to check out. We decided to cruise the food court to kill some time and was happy to see a Burger King, a place we have not seen in years. Then we saw the prices…$18.00 for a meal deal! Then over to another corporate American icon, Starbucks, where the cheapest cup of coffee was $10.00! And all the other restaurants were just as expensive.

Then there’s the ‘Duty Free’ shops where things are supposed to be cheap because no taxes. But the prices are higher then if you were at home paying the taxes. We did cruise by the perfume and lotion section where Amy doused herself with $300.00 perfume displays and I lubed up with $200.00 lotion for free.

At 11am our gate opened and we went through another security screening to the boarding area where we had our fingers crossed hoping they had 2 empty seats for us. Just our luck, the lady said "I have one business class seat and one economy seat for you." We were pretty stoked, until she came back saying that some new paying customers had arrived and now we both had seats in economy. No problem, as long as we got on the flight. Right before the flight was to depart she came back and said “Sorry! But your seats have been taken.” We then watched our plane depart without us and we were told to return the next day.

Then we were walked through the airport, through customs, and had our passport stamps canceled, then taken back to baggage claim where we got our luggage. We then held a quick ‘Team Sandpiper’ meeting and decided that there was no way we were going to stay in the airport for 24 hours. So we hopped a train that runs under the airport to downtown Istanbul.

The trains are really easy to catch and super cheap. We made one transfer and were soon downtown where we found a really cheap hotel to stay for the night. As soon as we got our bags in the room, we took off and jumped back on the train to the ‘Grand Bazaar”. The Grand Bazaar is full of thousands of shops and stalls, and it was not soon before we were completely lost trying to figure out how to get back to the train.

Day 2 had us back at the airport with an exact repeat of the day before. This time we were given boarding passes and told to board the plane and seat row 6. To our surprise this found this in Business Class where we were handed champagne as soon as we were seated and Amy was putting on her complementary socks and blindfold. I was a bit skeptical thinking that at any minute we were going to be asked to leave our seats as a paying customer had arrived. But our luck held and the airplanes doors shut.

I have not been in first class or business class in years, and have to give Delta credit as having super pimped out seats. The seats are fully electrical and lay flat. There is so much leg room that you cannot reach your magazine in the seat in front you without standing up. And each seat has its own flat screen TV where we watched movies, cable TV series, and played video games while we were being served fine wines and eating fine cuisine. There was so much going on that we did not sleep for the whole 12 hours. After we told our stewardess that we had not been home in 3 years she kept bringing on the wine.

Much too soon we landed at JFK, New York to find our flight to Indianapolis had been canceled and that there would not be another flight for 24 hours. We found the closest flight that would get us to Indianapolis was going to Columbus, Ohio. We soon had the last 2 seats on that flight. We were a bit late leaving as when we boarded the plane it was completely dark and the pilot was next to the ladder exlpaining that the guy who was supposed to plug the plane into power had never shown up. So there was no power to the plane.

After we found our seats in the darkness the pilot came by saying that the guy who had the machine that helps to start the engine had never arrived so he had no idea when he would be able to start the engines. An hour later, with the engines running, we were on our way to Columbus, Ohio.

We landed at ten, we grabbed our bags and hopped into the first taxi we saw. That took us to the Greyhound Station. If you have never rode Greyhound before, I have to say it’s a far cry from being in the Business Class in Delta. Welcome to America! Most of the people at the Greyhound station at midnight are an "interesting" group. We were quickly approached by a woman who claimed not to be a prostitute and needed $25.00. Entering the station you encounter all kinds of interesting people with all kinds of problems whom have no problem walking up to you and telling you what they are upset with.

Two hours later our bus for for Indianapolis showed up. We got on board, along with our with our diverse crowd. 45 minutes later the driver came aboard and asked if anyone knew how to get to Indianapolis.

Three hours later, at 4 am, we arrived to the bus station in Indianapolis where Pat and Shannon (Amy’s Mom and Sister) were waiting for us. They took us to Pat’s house where we are presently living for the next 3 weeks till we figure out how we are getting home to Sandpiper.

‘Team Sandpiper’ will be in Carmel Indianapolis for the next 3 weeks visiting friends and family. Stay tuned for more…

Tom and Amy

Coming to America!!!!!!!

Thats Right! Early tomorrow morning Team Sandpiper is flying to Istanbul to hopefully catch a standby flight back to America!! We have not been back for 3 years since leaving on our big trip west. This would not have been possible without a huge help from our good friend Sam Vercillo in Utah. We had just given up on the possibility of coming home as airline tickets from here are super expensive with the rising cost of fuel. But if all goes well and we are able to get on a flight then we will be in the states eating Taco Bell on Tuesday! If you have the chance, then come see us at Pat's house (Amy's Mom).
On our way!!
Tom and Amy

Life in Fethiye….

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

If you have been following Sandpiper you will know that we have been moving fast for the last 4 months. We are now marina living, living large using as much power as we want, showers whenever we want, and bars and restaurants just a short stroll away.

Our days go something like this: we bought 2 really cool old-school communist issue bicycles before we left Egypt so we would have transportation here in the Med. Buying the bikes in Egypt is a story in itself, but the day we arrived after unloading the bikes mine had a flat tire. Flat tire? No problem! The communists supply an air pumps with every bike. We hooked up the supplied pump and started pumping. On the second stroke the pump snapped off right at the tire valve ensuring that there was no way to fill the tire even if you had a good tire pump. Big surprise for a Chinese bike.

So we pushed it through town trying to find a bicycle repair shop. After pushing the bike through town during the hottest part of the day, we found one on the other side of town. It was a very small bike repair shop run by a man and his 2 sons. He changed out the faulty valve, and since the the other valves were so bad, we decided to replace the valves in all 4 tires on both our bikes. And he even sold us a new bike pump.

After a cup of tea with the shop owner and his sons we were on our way, thinking that we had just resolved any future problems. The next morning we walked to where we keep our bikes locked up and discovered to our horror that my bike's tire was flat once again. I took our brand new bike pump and was quite happy when I was able to pump the tire back up to pressure with a few strokes. It wasn’t 5 minutes later and it was flat once again… so again in the heat of the middle of the day.

I pushed my bike through town and agreed to meet Amy at the bike shop so she would not have to walk her bike along with me. I got to the bike shop and was wondering where Amy. Then she showed up all sweaty after pushing her bike through town too! Her bike chain kept falling off. Because her back tire was bent of alignment, the chain kept falling off. So one more bike to fix.

The guy at the bike shop, who is now a great friend of ours, looked at my rear tire and showed me where the inner tube had broken at the valve. He told me that I needed a new one. He sent his son to find a new inner tube while we sat in front of his shop. 30 minutes later the son arrived with my new inner tube that was going to fix all our problems. So with my new inner tube keeping air in my rear tire we peddled away, ringing our bicycle bells, and waving goodbye to the bike shop owner after we had just paid him many dollars to get us back on the road.

From the bike shop we peddled ¼ mile away to the great market that Fethyie has twice a week and loaded up with all kinds of great fruits and veggies. Upon returning to where our bikes were locked up there was a man sitting 5 feet from the bike. He told us “Two minutes ago your tire exploded!!” He was a bit shaken. We think it blew up quite loudly while he was eating his lunch right next to the bikes.

This new inner tube was less than an hour old and blew up while it was just sitting there all by it self! So once again we pushed our bikes back to the bike repairman that we had just given a lot of money to and showed him the rear tire. He said in broken English "Your tire and inner tube is ruined and will cost you many dollars to fix." What choice do we have? Once again his son takes off returning 30 minutes later with a new tire and inner tube that was installed quickly. So after many dollars we are back to not pushing our bikes through town with flat tires.

And if you are wondering what “Team Sandpiper” does all day, this is it…………..

Tom

Oh Snip...Fethiye, Turkey

Med Moored at Ece Marina
Fethiye
Lycian Coast
Turkey
Mediterranean
36'37.4N/29'06.1E

Oh snip! That’s what happened to me last Friday. I had pointed to a few photos thinking this would help with the language barrier. But I think the photos got turned around or something because what I got wasn’t what I had pointed to. But luckily it’s just hair and will grow back.

I had scooped out the salon last week with a mani/pedi, and all seemed good. I did notice that, unlike back home where most stylists are women, they are all men here. The women seem to stick with the beauty end of the parlor.

I needed to have my eyebrows trimmed up too as I hate to pluck. But I do occasionally wax on the boat, but they never look as good. So I tried it out before the haircut and was slowly tormented with the painful experiencing of much plucking and then threading. If you haven’t heard of threading, it is a hair removal method done with just that, thread. I'm not actually sure how it works, but it hurts! On the plus side my eyebrows haven’t looked this good in years. So just like sailing, you forget the painful parts quickly and focus on the positive. It’s always an experience and never a dull moment.

On a lighter subject, we have really been enjoying ourselves around Fethiye, home for the month. We have been able to crash our friend's neighbor’s hotel pool three times now. We have become tasting experts at the local cheap eats of Donar Kebab, our favorite being served at the ‘Corner Park’. The twice-weekly markets are incredible and we have been making smoothies in the morning and big fresh salads at night.

We have been enjoying our Egyptian bikes too, when they are not getting fixed, and exploring town looking for the cheapest beers.

I’ve been working on a few small excursions for us next week which, including a trip to Butterfly Valley where we sleep in a tree house. Also, a hike part of the famous Lycian Way, and to cool ourselves off in waterfalls.

If you want to send us a hello we would love hearing from you!

Ece Marina
S/V Sandpiper
1 Karagozler Mevkii
48300 Fethiye Mugla
Turkey

More later,
Amy and Tom

S/V My Chance

Alim Sür (also spellef Aglim) and his wife Hattaya (also known as Kian) have been featured in the Turkish news media for their 5-year circumnavigation of the globe in their catamaran S/V My Chance. They are from Turkey and they just arrived back home. Here are some links to some of the news about their home coming. These articles are in Turkish, but you should still check them out. Enjoy!

From Xtra! Magazine
From Deniz Haber (Turkish Maritime News)
From Wapedia (sort of a Turkish Who's Who Wiki)

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

Oludeniz, Turkey

Anchored at Oludeniz (Yorngun Koyu)
The Lycian Coast
Turkey
Mediterranean
36'32.8/29'06.6E

Team Sandpiper grabbed an early start this morning at 5am for a 20 mile motor in flat seas with no wind. Sandpiper is presently anchored with her stern tied off to the cliffs just 15 feet behind us. It is very deep here. We just barely have the hook set in 60 feet of water before it drops off into infinity.

Upon arrival we were greeted by Achmed in a small boat. He is this bay's ice cream man. He has a small ice chest full of treats for those willing to pay his fees. He took a big liking to the first mate, promising to take her to his own "private beach" if she would just jump in the boat with him. He stopped by all day long asking where the nice lady was.

Sandpiper is also once again right in the middle of all different types of charter boats. This small cove is right at the entrance to a lagoon that used to be open to boats for anchoring. But in 1983 it was closed off due to pollution that the boats were causing in an area that is a popular for swimming.

As soon as Sandpiper was secured Team Sandpiper jumped into the water swimming around all the charter boats. Then we swam over to the beach by the lagoon. Little did we know that this was a national park. As we swam into the park there are no signs on the beach stating this fact. 10 minutes after wading ashore we were kicked out and told to swim back to our boat because we had not paid our entry fee into the park. We were then escorted back to the water to swim back. The weird part was they never offered to take money from us to pay for the park entry. They just asked to leave. Anyway the 10 minutes ashore was long enough to walk over and see the lagoon and walk among all the tourists in beach chairs. Check this out on the Google Maps and you should be able to see tourists laying out on the beach

This area is very mountainous with peaks that raise straight up from the water. This is also a very popular area for skydivers, hang gliders, para sailors, para gliders, motorized paragliders, and even a small dinghy flying around with wings and a propeller. Just about every activity that you can do in the air is being done as I type. If I pop my head outside and look I will see people falling out of the sky all over the place.

Sandpiper's current plans are to spend the evening enjoying this peaceful anchorage. Then in the morning we will motor 15 miles west to the next bay to anchor Sandpiper off the town of Fethiye.

S/V Shiraz and S/V My Chance are moored in marinas there and this will be a stopping point for us until we figure our what is our next plan here in the Med.

More when in Fethiye.
Tom and Amy

Yesilkoy Liman

Anchored at Yesilkoy Liman
Yali Liman Bay
The Lycian Coast
Turkey
Mediterranean
36'15.6/29'22.1E

We left Kas Harbor this morning at 9am and motored west 15 miles to a small bay where we are currently anchored, surrounded by charter boats.

When we had arrived at Kas, we had only planned on staying for a few days in order to clear into Turkey before moving on. But because we arrived on a Saturday, the only office open was the harbor master.

Clearing into Turkey is a bit of a runabout. It goes like this... After paying the harbor master USD$80.00 for our cruising permit, we then had to go to a doctor. For what reason? We have no idea. He just stamped our form and filled out a bunch of ledgers. We then had to walk across town to the passport police where we got our 3 month visa to stay in Turkey. But before our passports were stamped, we had to walk back into town to get 30 Euros to pay for the stamps because the passport police will not take Turkish money. So we trudged back through town to the bank to find we were number 20 in line.

After we finally got our Euros, it was back uphill to pay for our visas. Once we had these in hand, it was back into town to visit the customs officer who looked at our passports and then said everything looked great. Then it was back to the harbor masters office where we had to pay another $8 dollars, for we have no idea, and he stamped our papers and said everything looked great. Then we had to walk back over to customs where he took a copy of all our stamped papers. Now we are officially in Turkey!

By this time it was late Monday and we had enjoyed being is Kas so much we decided to stay for a few more days. Kas harbor is very small and busy with charter boats entering and leaving the harbor. They are all Med moored to the concrete walls of the harbor. If one has never had the pleasure of a Med moor, it works like this. You drop your anchor off the bow in the middle of the harbor. Then back your stern up to the concrete walls in the harbor and secure your stern as close as you can, all the while trying not to hit the boats next to you.

Some of the larger skippered charter sailboats are over a hundred feet long and are so big they have to back all the way into the harbor from the harbor's entrance because there is not enough room for them to turn around once inside. Even better, when the harbor looks full, one these huge boats will come backing in at full throttle while separating the boats on their sides while they force their way in.

Most all the boats from the Med are used to this. So they have fancy ramps they can drop off their stern to walk ashore. No such luck on Sandpiper. We have so much stuff sticking off the stern that when we are backed in, we can't get ashore. So we take an easier way. We drop a stern anchor in the middle of the harbor and then bow in to the wall. That way we can jump on and off the bowsprit. We end up being the only boat facing this way. But it is nice because when stern in, people on shore are standing only a feet away from us.

The people in Kas are very nice. Once we got Sandpiper bowed in we were greeted by Ishmal who owns Smiley's restaurant that is right on the harbor. When I asked him where we needed to go to check into Turkey, he put me on the back of his motorcycle we buzzed through town, showing me where all the offices were. Twice we had loaves of bread left on our bow, from whom we never found out. And every day we had new neighbors on each side us.

Sandpiper is a bit of a novelty in Kas as the majority of the boats in the harbor are either large skippered charter boats or smaller boats, Sandpiper's size, that people rent for a weeks cruise down the coast. Most of these boats are all brand new, so old Sandpiper never really fits in. People would ask "How old is your boat? And you sailed THAT boat all the way from America?" And so on and so on.

We did meet some really nice people that were on the boats next to us. One night we ended up on our neighbor's boat. They were a group of older German and Swiss men who were all CEO's of major corporations. It is funny who you meet cruising as we end up hanging out with people who back in the real work would never invite us over. For example, this group of CEO's who plied us full of Swiss chocolate and whiskey. One of the men was 87 years old and having a great time. Then even took a video of us to show their friends back home these crazy Americans they had just met.

There are many great things to do in Kas with all its shops, restaurants, and bars. We spent 2 days in beach chairs having beers delivered to us while we cooled off by jumping off the cliffs into the sea. The Mediterranean Sea is cold!! The best part of hanging out on the beach chairs is that every afternoon there is "cake time". At cake time the waiters walk around giving everyone cake and ice cream. How can anyone not like cake time?

After we arrived where we are presently anchored, the after we got the anchor secured, we jumped into the clear cool waters and snorkeled around. We scrubbed Sandpiper's waterline and propeller.

Shortly after we arrived we were surrounded by charter day trip boats and other charter sailboats. We have no idea why, but the boats here all drop their anchors and then back right up to the shoreline. Then someone swims ashore and ties off the stern to land. The bay we are in is not small, and it is possible to anchor anywhere around us. So we are not sure why these boats like to do this. We are not really a fan of having our stern right up on the shoreline overnight. This is because if the weather turns bad and we had to get out of the anchorage in a hurry, then there would be no way to get your stern lines free without leaving them behind. As usual, Sandpiper is doing her own thing.

Our current plans are to leave at 5am tomorrow for a 21 mile run west up the coast. The winds on this coast are usually always from the northwest, calm in the mornings, then picking up in the afternoon. So we are hoping to have the hook set before noon tomorrow.

More from the West
Tom and Amy

Kas, Turkey

Med Moored(bow in) at Kas Harbor
Kas
Turkey
Mediterranean
(click on the photo to see how small we are...)
36'11.8N/29'38.4E

Happy Father's Day!

We made it!!!! We arrived to Kas, Turkey yesterday afternoon and are currently squeezed, bow in, in the town's quay amongst many charter boats. The trip here was uneventful which we were looking forward to after the last few passages. The 200+ nautical miles from Cyprus was flat calm with little to no wind so we motored the majority of the way. If you thought fuel was expensive back home you'll be shocked when I tell you that we will expect to pay anywhere from $8-$12 a gallon throughout the Med. With 200 gallon tanks on board Sandpiper, the less motoring we do the better.

Our last few miles before entering Kas harbor we were greeted by the lovely scenery of the Turkish mountains. It's never quite how we picture it in our minds and this time around it's actually nicer than what we had thought. The town of Kas is set at the base of the mountains, closely resembling a small ski village with the cobbelstone back allies filled with all sorts of artisan shops. We tried to do the right thing by checking in, but most of the authorities were closed for the weekend. So we will stay until Monday when we can get it all straightened out.

We have a new Turkish cell where we can receive incoming calls and text messages too, +90-5547230628.

Looking forward to hearing from you

Amy and Tom