The sailing vacation that never left the dock

Fishing behind our boat in Serce Limani

We returned from Selimiye to Marmaris, with an overnight stop at anchor in lovely Serce Limani.  I think this might be my favorite anchorage on this coast.  We always anchor just inside the entrance on the left, never venturing to the far right end where there are moorings for a restaurant (or 2?).  We enjoy being anchored and are not at all into the 'eat dinner ashore' routine that is typical of people cruising the Med.  There is evidence ashore that a restaurant might someday be opened at the west end of the bay where we like to anchor.  But as of this year, it is still uninhabited and isolated and exactly how we like it.

Underway to Marmaris in dead calm.  No wind and very hot
in the cockpit.  Sun was on deck so we put up the
mainsail so they could lay in the shade & catch breeze
created as we motored.

On the way around the tip of the mainland peninsula a charter boat motoring under sail and filled with French guests did a sudden tack just as we turned to go behind them.  We instantly did a rapid turn back to our original course as the French women screamed and yelled and made obscene gestures at us.  Really?  Is that necessary?  How crude!  They were the stand-on vessel (crossing from our starboard side).  We were supposed to give way to them and that is exactly what we did.  Why the heck they tacked to a collision course with us when they should have continued straight boggles my mind. Have they not read the international Rules of the Road for navigation?

Saw this motor yacht in Serce Limani.  Think they
would trade even?  This should be our next boat.
We will eventually get too old to sail.

Ahh, but as the saying goes:  what goes around, comes around.  After they tacked and we returned to our original course, they passed less than 100 yards beyond our stern.  The fishing line we were trailing played out extremely rapidly and hard.....right to the end of the line and right off the reel.  Goodbye to the new smaller lure we were trying out for the first time.  Guess these smart sailors didn't notice that big rod & reel mounted on the side of our cockpit with the fishing line trailing in the water.  And this is the 'comes around' part ----- we are positive that very long fishing line wrapped around their prop.  Serves them right!  Shouldn't act like that!

Practicing knots during calm sailing

A perfect square knot on his first attempt!

Less than a quarter-mile further on we noticed something white floating in the water ahead.  Bill steered toward it and turned the helm over to me and picked up the telescoping pole.  We treated this like a man overboard drill.   I approached it slowly; he couldn't grab it with the hook; I circled back around; on the second pass he grabbed it with the hook and pulled it up on deck.  A nice sized fender!  

And a less-than-perfect spaghetti-line mess on
her attempt to tie a square knot

Looked new.  Okay; I'll take the loss of a small fishing lure and 350 feet of fishing line in exchange for a new fender any day!  Fender this size = about $100 or higher, depending on purchase location.  Small fishing lure and line = about $20.  This is the second fender we have recovered from the sea since the grandkids arrived on 19 June.  We would return them to their rightful owners but have no way of knowing who that might be or where.  I'm certain these were lost off charter boats because we see the charter boats sailing every day with fenders hanging down in the water.  The drag of the water causes the lines to become untied and the fenders are lost.  Hope the charter companies are collecting lost article damages from these not-so-intelligent charter customers.

While anchored in Serce Limani late that afternoon I watched a local man in a skiff go shooting out of the pass suddenly.  A short time later he returned trailing a dinghy covered in burgundy chaps.   It looked from a distance like a very nice dinghy and not very old.  He obviously had seen it floating free on the sea and had salvaged it.  Whoever lost it must not have put 2 and 2 together regarding where the lost dinghy might have floated off to when it became untied from their sailing boat.  Because no one showed up in Serce Limani looking for their lost dinghy during the 36 hours we were anchored there.

After a single night in Serce we motored to Marmaris and anchored outside Yat Marin.  The next morning, 1 August, we moved into the marina to ready the boat for arriving family guests.  After much discussion with our son and daughter-in-law, it was decided to just stay at Yat Marin for the duration of their stay.  The weather was still very hot and several people just could not take the heat.  It would not have been pleasant out at anchor without shore power to run the air-conditioners.  The marina has a lovely large pool to enjoy daily.  Aaron and Lynn took a day-tour to Ephesus while we baby-sat.  Another day they took Elisabeth and Zach on a Jeep Safari Tour while 3-yr-old Damien stayed with us on the boat.  Another day they rented a car and drove to Fethiye and up to Saklikent Gorge and some ancient ruins nearby.
Info on Saklikent Gorge

Bonaire 2007--6th birthday

Turkey 2012--11th birthday
Grown a bit, hasn't she!

On Sunday, 12 August, Elisabeth celebrated her 11th birthday.  She has celebrated many birthdays aboard S/V BeBe: Bonaire 2007; Australia 2009; Malaysia 2010; Greece 2011; and now Turkey 2012.  It has almost become a tradition to celebrate her birthday with her grandparents in some distant place on this planet.  She hopes to continue this tradition next summer and celebrate her 12th birthday in Croatia (or, more likely, Venice).  

BeBe's 11th birthday

Belly Dancing BeBe

Since she was in Turkey this year, it seemed appropriate that she receive a belly dancer's costume as her gift from the grandparents.  Her parents managed to find her the 'iPillow' she wanted.  She saw this eye shaped pillow in the gift shop in Knidos and wanted to buy it.  She said that her parents have iPhones; she wanted an iPillow.  But the gift shop was closed and we left the next day before the shop reopened.  We have been looking for one of these pillows ever since and never found one.  Score for Mom and Dad when they did the Ephesus day tour.  Guess these pillows are only sold in the historical ruin sites gift shops.  Glad she got that pillow she wanted so badly.  Zachary has also been with us each time that Elisabeth has celebrated her birthday aboard S/V BeBe, so he is just as seasoned a traveler as she.  Unfortunately for him, his birthday falls in a month during the school year so he cannot celebrate on the boat.

Damien just turned 3.  Has a new nickname: Bacon Boy,
because that about the only thing he would eat while
visiting this trip.  Good thing I stocked up with a freezer
full when in south Cyprus

Very, very early on Monday, 13 August, Aaron, Lynn, Damien, Elisabeth and Zachary said goodbye and flew to Istanbul for a few days before continuing on home to Texas.  After a couple of weeks with 7 people living in our boat (mostly closed up with the A/C running), it seems awfully quiet with just the 2 of us again.   I spent all day cleaning, doing laundry, and stowing all the mattress pads and bed linens away.   Then each morning for the rest of the week we took the 09:00 ferry from the marina to Marmaris town and delivered various projects to the small shop that recently made our new bimini cover.  We are paid through the end of the month at Yat Marin.  Might as well make good use of the good boat related businesses located in Marmaris.