The Turquoise Coast and James Bond

Along the Lycian Way in Turkey.  Below us is Butterfly Valley on the Aegean Sea.

This is how we look to people passing by on the docks at the marinas where we stay.

A Hamam or Turkish bath.  We lay on a hot marble slab and this guy scrubs us with hot water and soap bubbles.

How much can you load on a scooter and drive down a marina dock? 

Just a typical breakfast at anchor in Turkey!

We took a fast ferry to Rhodes, Greece for the day with our friends Tim and Deb.  It was a pretty rough ride and just about everyone on the ferry used little white bags (but not captain Steve of course!).

This is our marina in Fethiye, Turkey.

In 1923 Turkey decided to repopulate the Greeks in this village and pretty much everywhere in Turkey back to Greece.  The once flourishing town became a ghost town and no one lives here now, even though the setting is spectacular.

This is a little cafe in the old section of Rhodes with our friends Tim and Deb.

As per many (?) requests, Captain Steve's new haircut!

The James Bond movie Skyfall was filmed onboard this magnificent yacht in Fethiye, Turkey.  I think you can just see Daniel Craig (who resembles Captain Steve we have been told).

Typical vista along the Lycian Way in Turkey.  We managed to drive quite a ways on the trail that is actually a jeep road in places.

Maria getting a nice mud bath in the thermal hot springs near Dalyan, Turkey.

Maria found her oregano in Rhodes, Greece!!!

Just a nice bay on the way down the Turquoise coast of Turkey.

Closeup of the rock tombs near Dalyan, Turkey (Lycian tombs).

 Enjoying sitting in the warmth of our cockpit on Aspen.  Springtime finally arrived!

This is a typical dinner in Turkey.  The bread is very light and airy and the salads are all so fresh!

Tim scaling the rocks with our stern line.  He swam to shore with the line and now has to climb up to the nice tree way above his head and attach the line there.

 The end result of Tim's work.  We are nice and secure to the tree and floating in the turquoise water of Turkey.

The story-

We sailed east from Marmaris (it is really south but the coast curves to the east so we call it east here) with some stops along the Turquoise Coast of Turkey.  Our friends Tim and Deb joined us for this sail down the coast and next to the steep mountains that tumble into the sea.  The water is spectacularly clean with a light blue color and that is why it is called the Turquoise Coast.  There is very little plankton in the waters here so there is not a lot of sea life, including sea birds and fish because of this lack of nutrients.  That is what gives the water the turquoise color.

We thought that a 6 hour sail was pretty easy but we forgot that our guests are not used to the sea yet.  So it was kind of a long sail for them but at least the weather cooperated and we had a nice sail with the wind.

Our first anchorage was in a beautiful small bay called Kucuk Kuyruk.  It is very deep close to shore so the anchoring drill was this:

1. Drop your anchor in 40 feet of water, close to the cliffs

2. Back the boat up until the stern nearly touches the cliff face

3. Have a member of the crew jump into the water with a line from the boat and swim the line ashore

4. Climb up the smallest 30 foot cliff to a tree or a rock and tie the line to it

5. Climb back down the rock face, jump into the water and swim back to Aspen

We're glad we had guests because, of course, the captain and admiral could not possibly leave the boat and that is what crew are for!

The bays are all very steep and there are not a lot of places you can even hike, unfortunately.  This is the land of the Lycians who lived in this most inhospitable place.  If you remember we visited near here with our car but being on the water was a very nice change.

The weather is starting to warm up nicely so the nights are cool and the days are full of sunshine and warm breezes.

Right now we are in a marina in Fethiye, waiting on some engine repairs.  It seems that our transmission doesn't like to go into forward without a lot of coaxing so we thought it was wise to get it fixed by a professional!

The new James Bond movie Skyfall is being filmed here in our marina.  These James Bond movies seem to follow us around the globe.  We have seen them filmed in the Bahamas, Panama and now here in Turkey.  Scenes from this latest movie include a very large classic Italian sailboat that they chartered for the movie.  Captain Steve was walking down the dock one evening and one of the film crew commented that they were looking for a look-alike for Daniel Craig but too bad the shooting was over for the day.  Captain Steve now has a big head, Maria thinks.

Sail on, sail on and sail safe Aspen…