As I write this, it is Christmas Eve 2021 and we are soon off to sing Christmas carols with the community here at Finike marina at 4pm.
I want to take a homemade chocolate slice with me to share, but I haven’t bought the ingredients and have yet to make the slice. This morning, we had to empty our forward sail locker that we discovered had sprung a leak and everything inside was soaking after the recent heavy rain. So we’ve dragged everything up on deck, I’ve wiped the sail locker dry … there were huge drops of water hanging from the ceiling. And we’ve put a fan heater into the locker to air it out. It’s a nice sunny day today with a light breeze so hopefully everything will be dry enough to put back this afternoon.
Of course, all of that means that I’m time poor – it’s 1pm already and I need to give the chocolate hedgehog slice time to set after making it. A friend of mine has just said that I do manage to take on a lot! I guess I do. Well I have my regular weekly work commitments which are time dependent and which do take a fair amount of my time.
But now all of a sudden, it’s the festive season and I want to take something to our gathering, because I love giving. But (and here’s where I can make a rod for my own back) I can’t just buy it can I? I have to make something. (I ended up making a no bake chocolate
But I love to create because it’s more meaningful (and fun). So maybe my friend is right. Something to meditate on.
Anyway, I hope you’ll forgive me if I keep this blog short.
A wonderful time with friends at Hassan’s restaurant
We returned to Üçağız from Gökkaya and I spent the day finishing editing the next video to hand to Baz so that he could upload it before we went for dinner with Michel, Canan and Louis later that evening. They were exploring the Gökkaya area and would anchor near us in the afternoon.
Evening came and we got dolled up and dinghied over to Michel’s charter boat for one or two sundowners. Then it was over to Üçağız town to Hassan’s restaurant where we enjoyed a wonderful fish meal not dimmed in any way by the fact that the town had a power outage for about fifteen minutes just after we arrived! It was wonderful spending time with our good friends – and meeting Michel’s son Louis. We are so very grateful that we met them the first time we wintered in Kaş town harbour.
In this week’s video, you’ll see the warm welcome Hassan and his daughter gave us. You can also enjoy the pretty sunset colours on our way to Hassan’s, and the beautiful town and yacht lights against the blue-black nights sky as we made our way back home.
A line of kayaks and no sign of the distressed turtle
Michel, Canan and Louis left the following day as they had to head back to Fethiye to return their charter boat.
As soon as they left, we upped anchor and returned to Gökkaya because we wanted to check out the sea cave and Smuggler’s Inn there.
As we headed back to Gökkaya, we had to thread through a line of kayaks that were strung across the channel. There was one solitary guy who was trailing at the back of the line and he looked as if he was paddling for all he was worth so we wouldn’t hit him! By the time we reached the line, he was well over to our port side and we were able to safely pass behind him.
Also along the way we kept looking out for a distressed turtle. We’d seen it on the previous day’s passage and it hadn’t been able to dive. Baz had asked Hassan if there was a sea turtle rescue unit in the area as we weren’t sure if we were allowed to touch the wildlife.
Unfortunately there wasn’t anyone who could help and our hearts went out to the large turtle who we’d seen constantly trying to dive but not making it below the surface. Poor little thing. We didn’t see it that morning, so we hoped that perhaps a gullet captain had perhaps assisted it.
We’d be interested to know what the laws are about touching wildlife in Turkey if they are in distress.
Exploring a Sea Cave
We were soon anchored at Gökkaya and on advice from Michel, Canan and Louise, headed out on Dee our dinghy to have a look at the sea cave. You can see it on the south eastern approach into the Gökkaya area.
We had to wait our turn as two day tripper boats got to the cave before us, but it was well worth visiting. We could hear the high pitched squeaks of micro bats echoing around the cave, which was larger than we’d expected.
If you’d like to see what I’ve just written about, then check out this week’s video here. ** LINK ** https://youtu.be/9vTq7xllUs4
Next week, we check out the eclectic Smuggler’s Inn, and then make our two hours further east, to Finike Setur Marina which would be our home base for the next thirteen months.
Until then, I wish you health, wealth, courage and a healthy dose of wisdom, as you take the actions to bring your dreams to life.
Link to Aannsha’s next blog
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