Merhaba,

   It’s hard to believe it’s Labor Day Weekend.  Really early this year.  Here the early mornings between 5 am and 7:30 am are getting cooler.  Yes we are up that early, well at least by 5:45 anyway.  Today we were up early to meet new friends Rick and Mary for a hike.  Lots of fun as you’ll read.  They are new friends.  So are Zarah and Lee who you will be in future emails and also Gwen.  We met Gwen last year and she’s a big part of the reason we are at Netsel this year.  She organizes things to do.  We’re going on a Gwen day trip this Thursday.  We are saying good-bye (at least for now) to Bill and Judy and Betty and David.  Here are some farewell photos for them.

Ru

Old Friends, New Friends

Bill and Judy on SV BeBe

Bill and Judy with us for dinner at Pineapple Restaurant at Netsel Marina

Bill and Judy had extra dock line. We needed new dock line. They treated us to dock line and we treated them to dinner.  Bill and Judy had come to Marmaris Yacht Marine with family visitors but are now about to leave to go off cruising until their winter berth is available October 1. They have chosen to spend the winter in Fethiye rather than Marmaris. December they spend at home in Texas, but I expect, as Fethiye is really not so far from here that we will see them in the new year here in Turkey.

My wonderful poached salmon with capers and some kind of light white creamy dressing.

Randal had his usual bon filet pepper steak. (He’s now determined to concoct his own pepper sauce, whole cream and all.) Bill had 4 cheese pasta with spinach that he and Judy reviewed as “wonderful.” Judy had grouper with vegetables, very healthy and good, but she liked the 4 cheese pasta better. It was a lovely meal; good friends and good food.

Betty and David Motor-Sailor Sundance

We’d met way back in Malaysia several times and had recently caught up with Betty and David in Israel. After leaving Israel they had been cruising the coasts of Turkey and Greece and had come to Marmaris for boat parts and to collect some mail. A short term marina stay, especially during the summer costs a ridiculous amount of money so they were anchored out. When they came to town they would tie up along side us and then we’d all go off shopping for boat parts or fun stuff and then have lunch at Aciktim. These photos were the day before they left to cruise back along the coast east toward Finike where they will leave their boat while they spend the winter in Melbourne, FL. Their last day in Marmaris they had loaded up at the Thursday Market and then the Liquor Store which had a really good price for white wine.

After some farewell hugs, Betty climbs off DoraMac into their dinghy.

It‘s a tad tricky, but you learn to do these things.

They’d taken a taxi back to the marina and so their stuff was on the dock waiting to be loaded into their dinghy. Cruisers are partial to wine as you can see from the photo.

Loading it all in.

They have the best dinghy with a steering wheel and roomy to hold enough fruit, veggies, olives, bread and  wine for a few weeks anyway.

Betty was my shopping buddy. One day I talked her into going off to Turunc, two towns over along the coast. We could take a water taxi for 10TL or the dolmus for 6 TL. I wanted to take the dolmus as I remembered the ride on our motorbike was quite nice over the mountain. So we bypassed the taxi and went to the dolmus stop. We waited and waited, and it was hot, and finally one came along and it was full! Next one would be in 30 minutes but it too might be full. So we walked back to the water taxi stand and all of the Turunc boats were gone. We were sent down to ask other water taxis but they wouldn’t go until they had at least 4 passengers and who knew how long that would take. By then it was almost 11 am so we decided to give up and just explore more of Marmaris and save Turunc for some other time. That was Tuesday. Monday we’d all gone on a frustrating adventure to retrieve their mail. As Betty and David had no real address in Marmaris, they’d asked if they could use our address here at the marina. (Getting mail around the world can be tricky!) Of course we agreed. Problem is when the mail finally showed up some of it was their prescription medicines so the package was held up in customs. The Turkish Post Office brought a notice to our boat just as Randal and I were getting back from grocery shopping last Saturday. We took the notice but had no clue where to retrieve the package so I ran and caught the Postal truck and the driver said "Port, Customs."  As there was a cruise ship in that day, the bridge to the “Port” was open so we could walk over easily. We were sent from one office to the next and finally got to customs which was closed on the weekend. It would reopen Monday morning. So Monday Betty and Jack came to the boat and, again, a cruise ship was in port so Randal and David walked over the bridge to customs only to be told the following. Turkish customs requires that the name on the prescriptions and the mail recipient be the same person. Customs said that the Post Office had the package but wouldn’t release the meds to either Randal or David. But the rest of the package was mail and that they could go collect that at the post office. So we all traipsed over to the Post Office planning to collect the mail and then eat at Aciktim just nearby. Turns out we needed the "customs post office"  but the lady handling the packages couldn’t tell us how to get there or show us on the map. Luckily Doğan, one of our Aciktim friends, knew where it was. And I’d actually walked near there on one of my ‘around Marmaris’ walks so had a vague idea. So off we went. And it was hot! Finally we get there about 1 pm and it’s closed with no hours posted. But other folks arrived too so the guy inside had to tell us all when to come back at 1:30 when it would reopen.  Too hot and too long for us to wait. So not to waste the trip and walked back in the direction of Carrefour, a French grocery chain and then the Import Shop. We’d no luck at either of those places but did discover the liquor store across the street had pretty cheap white wine. By then it was almost 1:30 so we walked back to the Post Office and collected the mail we could collect and, AND PAY THE IMPORT HANDLING FEE!!!!! The meds were left behind. Hopefully they can be used for something, but probably they will just be trashed. Thankfully they weren’t irreplaceable, (local drugs would work) so it was only a waste of money, time and quite frustrating. THE GOOD NEWS WAS….WE FOUND A SOURCE FOR REASONABLY PRICED WINE and Sundance went off with two cases as you can see loaded on their dinghy.

New friends, Californians Mary and Rick on sailing vessel Orca.

Rick and Mary like to hike so today we went off looking for a trail up the mountains that they’d sort of heard about. And then sort of read about on the Internet. We met at their boat at 7 am to get the cool of the morning. We had a lot of fun but didn’t find the right path and sort of ended up in the dump. Actually it wasn’t “sort of;” we definitely ended up at the dump.

It started out well enough with us walking out from the marina and then turning onto a road that would lead us to a dirt path that would lead us up the mountain and some nice vistas. And it started out that way. We had to walk past the dump but then soon found a dirt path starting up into the woods. We had to cross some streams, but even that was ok. Everything was fine until it just ended at what looked like some kind of overflow dam.

Mary looking off to see if there were any options across the waterway. Nope.

Rick and Randal waiting to discuss Plan B.

Plan B didn’t pan out nor C or D….and we followed a very narrow dirt path that just sort of ended just behind the dump so we took it down the hill and walked through the dump. These men were just about to dump an old red couch and other junk as we came along in their way. This can’t be the only dump as there was no food or stuff, just big junk and a fenced in area of old, discarded motorbikes! You can see the hill behind we were hoping to climb.

Back in town having coffee.

As we were drinking our coffee a local man came along and offered to take our photo. I gave him my camera and hoped for the best as he was having a hard time balancing himself never mind the camera. But he spoke fluent English and said he spoke 5 languages which makes him ahead of me by 4. And it’s a rather nice photo. We recovered enough from our outing this morning to plan another for tomorrow on a path I’d found earlier but didn’t want to go alone. It’s pretty far from the dump so we won’t end up there again, hopefully.

Randal’s apple pie

Randal makes great pie filling but so far the crusts are not so perfected. And somehow he ended up with enough dough for 2 pies. From this photo you can see we drink tea, wine, and use our slow cooker, thank you Carol Carino! After these pies we need lots of hikes in the woods.