We both had a terrible night’s sleep, primarily due to the number of interruptions we had. First was the “passerelle” that kept knocking the back of the transom step and vibrating through Paw Paw as a swell, associated with a southerly wind, crept into the anchorage. We’d barely sorted that out when the mosque started the early morning call to pray. Then after eventually dosing off to sleep again, Elaine’s alarm woke us up; it was her Methotrexate day and she’d totally forgotten. Unfortunately she had inadvertently disturbed Roy too, as she scrambled around the saloon for her medications.

It wasn’t long after that that Roy gave up on sleep altogether and went for his morning exercise walk, while Elaine tried to get back to sleep. When she surfaced again around 0900, it was a beautiful warm, sunny day.

After breakfast, while Roy took a walk to the shop for fresh bread and a few goodies, as well as to pop into the local chandlery for some pipe fittings to complete the repairs of the leak in the starboard hot water tank, Elaine completed our latest video.

By then it was time to get ready to meet our agent for our drive to the immigration office in Kemer, about 50 Km away. The hour journey took us high into the mountains, where we enjoyed the gorgeous scenery, reminding us of the Drakensberg in South Africa and the White Mountains in Arizona, the former due to the height of the mountains and the pass snaking through them, the latter due to the forests of pine trees as far as the eye could see. It was also interesting to see that every flat surface was covered in citrus groves or hot houses, nestled between the mountains.

Soon after entering the town of Kemer, we were escorted to the immigration office, which was extremely busy, to our surprise. Although we were early for our appointments, it was clear we would be waiting long past our appointment time before we were processed. There seemed to be a lot of confusion with a group whose visas had expired and were trying to get an extension. Arguing with the officials was probably not the best way to go about getting help. Running out of patience, the officer informed them they had no choice but to pay the fine and leave the country. Guess that’s the price one pays for overstaying a visa stipulation.

As for us, it was never going to be straightforward. Apparently our medical insurance provider was unacceptable, so we have to arrange specific cover here, obviously at additional expense and there was another fee to pay, in addition to what we had already paid. This, of course, all meant that we were going to have to make a second trip to Kemer in the next day or so to complete the process before we fly out. What a pain!

Thirsty, hungry and dying to go to the loo, we eventually returned to Finike empty handed after a five hour round trip. We should have expected this. No matter how prepared we were, there was always going to be something we didn’t have.

Given our long, drawn out afternoon, we opted to eat out for dinner, returning to Atilla Bey restaurant on the canal, where we enjoyed another Turkish feast, but by 2000 we were back onboard, tucked up in bed, given the chilly wind that had picked up, and watched a movie.