Marmaris for the winter

Cadiz is now at Marmaris Yacht Marina, a large marina with a large number of berths, both floating and hard stand. We will leave her for the winter, departing soon for Australia and returning some time in March/April [tbd]. The marina is an amazing self contained community on the bayside not far from Marmaris town. It has a bar, restaurant,gym, library, radio station, wireless internet and so on. With its multinational residents, including quite a few Australians it is a fun place to be. Many yachties will live aboard here for the duration, the alternative for Europeans being much colder and wetter. Stand by for more in the new year.

Gocek

At anchor in the bay at Gocek. Due to gross roaming charges we have had to give up using the Greek wireless modem and are now dependent on free wireless cafes etc. This means that our primary means of access to weather forecasts is now unavailable but, since we are due in Marmaris to prepare the yacht for the winter break in a few days, this is not so important.

Cadiz

Some photos of Cadiz interior.

Finike to Fethiye

We are now at Fethiye, having had a leasurely passage from Finike via kekova Roads where we visited more ancient ruins including those of a partially sunken city. We were able to snorkel over the remains of buildings and streets. Thence to Kas [pronounced cash] where we enjoyed a fascinating street party to mark the end of the season and Republic Day.

Return to Turkey

After a great sail from Larnaca in Cyprus, Cadiz is now at Finike in Turkey. We were fortunate to have cooperative winds for a change, and averaged about 7 kts for the 230 nm passage, with the wind on the starboard quarter at about 18-20 kts for much of the journey.

Finike lies on a bay surrounded by high mountains, part of the mighty Taurus chain and from here we will wander west towards Marmaris.

Today we discovered the most amazing market in the centre of town with literally hundreds of stalls; akin to moving Coles, K Mart & Big W into the streets. The quality of the fresh fruit and vegies is wonderful, so different from our own so called supermarkets in Oz.

The crew remain happy and well, though now getting used to cooler weather as the season changes.

More of Israel

The next thing we noticed was the high degree of security being enforced throughout the country. Even McDonalds along with every cafe, restaurant, hotel, marina, bus & railway station has an armed guard, and we became used to having backpacks searched and to seeing guns being toted by teenagers in military uniforms.

Our first visit was to Jerusalem, an exciting city, and to the old walled city where we saw the western [wailing] wall and the temple mount, with its golden dome and Al Aqusa mosque; very sobering to witness the activities there in what is the crucible of much of the world`s woes.

We later visited Haifa and toured to the Dead Sea and the mountain of Masada where around a thousand Jewish zealots martyred themselves rather than surrender to the beseiging Romans.

Cadiz is now again at Larnaca in Cyprus enroute to Turkey.

Tel Aviv

We now find ourselves in Tel Aviv marina, right in the centre of this big, bold, vibrant and exciting city. Border security was pretty impressive; radio contact with the Israeli Navy 40 nm from the coast, then Haifa Radio both wanting very detailed info of the yacht and crew. Then we were instructed arrive at a specific time, met by a patrol boat with all guns aimed at Cadiz and at the marina were met by a security team who searched the yacht from top to bottom, and took swabs of the surfaces in all compartments. After that we were allowed to go ashore to border control who checked our passports and searched computers for what seemed a long time before declaring us OK.

The first thing we noticed was the cost of living; very expensive by Australian standards, and the affluance of the city`s inhabitants.

Now for the tourist stuff. More later.