Well, we were still eating our way through the kilogram of strawberries which Roy had bought at the Saturday Market, so breakfast yesterday was freshly made crumpets with strawberries, bananas, kiwi fruit, honey and yoghurt; an improvised meal to consume some more of the strawberries, which turned out to be a rather tasty meal!
Then, while Roy managed to get his latest release completed on the Anchor Plus application, using our television monitor as a screen, since his laptop screen had completely given up the ghost, Elaine finished work on the video of our Suez Canal transit and passage to Turkey. She had hoped to upload it last night, but an unexpected invite on our return from a late afternoon walk, to join our floating neighbours, Catherine and Gary, for drinks, turned into a night of regaling tales of the high seas over a delicious dinner and more drinks. Although it was a very chilly night, wrapped in cosy blankets, we enjoyed the warmth of their hospitality as new friendships were forged. It was almost midnight by the time we returned to Paw Paw, neither of us realising the lateness of the hour with all the chatter that went on, but we certainly felt worse for wear this morning. Regardless, it was lovely to have been invited over and it was a very enjoyable night.
Roy also walked to the local grocery store earlier in the day and, thankfully, was able to find non-dairy milk for Elaine; something we were starting to run low on since we hadn’t been able to get any after leaving Thailand. Needless to say, he also couldn’t resist purchasing a traditional Turkish pide bread called “Ramazan Pidesi”, a leavened bread shaped into round, flat forms, characterised by its top which is decorated with crisscross patterns or dimples and is sprinkled with nigella and sesame seeds. This was enjoyed for lunch with the local Turkish cheese he’d bought at the market. These fresh quality white cheeses, called "beyaz peynir", are similar to feta and made from sheep, goat or cow's milk depending on the season. While we thoroughly enjoyed the gastronomic delights of Thailand, Turkey is proving to be a strong contender!
Today was a very slow, lazy day, although it was extremely windy for a few hours and we’d had a fresh dusting of snow on the mountains around Finike after a cold front passed over. Elaine slept most of the morning, surfacing around lunchtime after, not only a very late night and battling to get to sleep, but being woken up at around 0300 by a phone call from Keenan, who apologised profusely as he realised the time difference a little too late. Being a little panicked initially at receiving a phone call from him at that time of the night, we were relieved to learn that he was feeling much better and had just wanted to speak to Roy. On top of that, it was Elaine’s weekly Methotrexate day, which is never a good day anyway!
Roy tried to busy himself with tightening docklines, taking a walk to the local grocery store again, uploading a new development environment to his laptop, with no choice but to use the extremely slow marina’s internet connection and considered some improvements to our “passerelle”, given that it was moving around rather precariously with the strong winds; a task, he decided, was better left for another day!
To stave off the brain fog and clear the cobwebs, we decided an afternoon walk was in order and we were delighted to see a huge loggerhead turtle during our wanderings, but neither of us had a camera with us unfortunately. Besides our fury friend, Albert, who visits everyday, we’ve also had dolphins come into the marina, which, of course, we never tire off. We’ll just have to have our cameras to the ready to share these sightings in the future, but we have the memories, nonetheless!
Situated on the Mediterranean coast of the Turkish Riviera, on the southern shore of the Teke Peninsula, the town of Finike is best known for its delicious oranges, the symbol of the town, and they are indeed delicious!
However, research revealed that Finike is actually the ancient town of Phoenix or Phoinix, also formerly called Phineka. Quite ironic really, since we lived in the Phoenix metropolitan area of Arizona until 2014 when we became full-time cruisers and where Keenan and his family still reside.
For centuries Finike was a trading port of the ancient Lycia and is believed to have been named after its founders, the Phoenicians, in the 5th century BC.
The area has been inhabited for much longer, though, evident by archaeological finds near the town of Elmali, indicating that the Teke Peninsula has been settled since 3000 BC, although, on the coast, nothing has been uncovered that dates before 2000 BC.
Apparently trade was first established here by the Persians, who then relinquished Lycia to the armies of Alexander the Great. It stayed vulnerable to forces from Syria, Egypt and Rhodes, until it was brought into the Ancient Roman Empire and the succeeding Byzantines. The “Battle of the Masts” between the Arabian and Byzantine fleets took place near Finike in 654, following which the area was lost to the Seljuk Turks, in the 13th century, who were then succeeded by the Ottoman Empire from 1426.
Today, the local economy depends on agriculture, specifically the oranges and other citrus fruits. It’s a quiet town, where many of the visitors are retired people in search of relaxation, which suits us perfectly!
The old town port is now the Setur Finike Marina, but it also has a small fishing fleet. We subsequently learnt that the unspoilt beaches we walked along a few days ago are an important nesting ground for the loggerhead sea turtles and the rocky parts of the coast are used by the rare Mediterranean monk seal. The rich marine life includes the local speciality fish called the red porgy, as well as grouper, sea bream, sea bass, swordfish and sardines. We’ve yet to have a good look around the fish market, but it’s definitely on our list of things to do.
Being a Saturday, it was also Market Day and, although his body was screaming at him after his hike yesterday, “this little piggy went to market” regardless and returned with his bountiful supply, including so many strawberries, we’ll be eating them until they’re coming out of our ears. Fortunately they’re sweet and juicy.
While Roy was out, Elaine finished uploading our latest videos; a four part series of our Indian Ocean and Red Sea passage. She also managed to get all our latest photographs uploaded to the Gallery.
Afterwards we took a stroll to a different café, Klass Pastanesi, for a coffee and baked delight. It was one we’d spotted on our wanderings, but hadn’t realised their specialty was Turkish pastries and, more importantly, baklava! Needless to say, our eyes were bigger than our stomachs, but it was scrumptious nonetheless!
On our return to the marina, the Bon Voyage party was in full swing for the departure of Oz (Özlem and Ozkan), the friends of Kandiba (Zehra and Hasan) who had greeted us when we first arrived in Finike last week and who were setting off on their circumnavigation today. It was lovely to see family and friends gather to give them a wonderful send off; certainly brought back memories. We wish them fair winds, following seas and a fabulous adventure.
We also had another visit from our little friend, Albert, who belongs to one of our floating neighbours, but really enjoys spending time on Paw Paw. He’s definitely still angling to get inside and with a face like that, he could well succeed!
Our day ended in the best possible way; a video call to Keenan, Brooke and the grandchildren. It felt like we hadn’t “seen” the grandchildren or spoken to Brooke in months and indeed, it had been months. Regardless, everyone was very excited about our upcoming visit, especially William, who knew we’d be there for his birthday; only two years late on our promise, but better late than never! Can’t wait!
Roy was up early to make breakfast and get ready to meet the small group of cruisers who had planned a morning hike.
While he was away, Elaine decided that the best thing she could do for her body, after walking more than 8 Km / 5 miles yesterday, was to do her stretch exercises on the foredeck; it had been months and, needless to say, she was as stiff as a board! She did, however, take a break to chat to our temporary neighbours on our starboard side, who had returned to their yacht from Israel a few days ago and were setting off to enjoy their cruising season in the Mediterranean. Like many of the cruisers here, they were in awe when they learnt that we had sailed from Thailand and had come the “long way round” from the Caribbean.
Afterwards she spent the rest of her morning putting the final touches to our latest video, cataloguing all our latest photographs and getting everything ready to upload to our website. Unfortunately the latter turned into a very time-consuming and frustrating activity as the data connection kept dropping during the day. That meant we started the uploads tonight and will run them overnight. Hopefully we have better success!
When Roy still wasn’t back by 1300, though, having left for his hike at 0900, Elaine started to worry. Fortunately a text message confirmed that the group was fine, but Roy hadn’t realised it was going to be such a marathon hike. By 1345 he was back onboard, having hiked 12 Km / 7.5 miles up the mountains behind Finike, reaching a height of 659 metres / 2162 Ft and back down again, over a period of 4.5 hours. It wasn’t surprising then, that when Elaine mentioned she was going to have an afternoon nap, Roy actually beat her to bed! From the photographs, although it was an exhausting hike over very rocky terrain, the views were magnificent. He hadn’t expected, however, to see so many old tombs and tortoises everywhere. Thanks to Kay, off Mai Tai, for some of the photographs.
Feeling somewhat refreshed after our naps, we enjoyed a chat to Keenan, who was starting to feel better, enough to be outside in the sunshine and getting some fresh air, although still congested.
Our day wrapped up with dinner and a movie, as well as “nursing” our uploads.
First thing this morning we checked on Keenan to see how he was feeling. It was a tad concerning that he complained about his chest hurting when he coughed and that he couldn’t “move very fast”. Fortunately, though, after he’d had a good night’s sleep, when we spoke to him this evening and again tonight, he was starting to feel a little better; thank goodness!
Having decided today was another chore-free day, after a cooked breakfast, which included freshly baked soda bread, we took a walk through the gardens and along the promenade which borders the unspoilt brown sandy beach.
Our walk took us passed a few more garden cafés and down to the second natural canal which flows through the town, where we were delighted to find a few more cafés and restaurants along the banks as well as the rather modern looking public hospital.
Circling back through the town centre we stopped in at Café de Valencia again for a coffee and, of course, another baked delight, before returning to Paw Paw.
After a chat to her folks in Ireland, Elaine then spent her afternoon completing our last video of our Red Sea Passage and hopes to upload it, along with the other videos she completed while we were weather bound in Egypt, over the coming days.
Roy spent his time working on his laptop and managed to get our flatscreen television to function as a screen; at least he’ll be able to get his latest Anchor Plus application build completed and released, following which a new laptop will be required.
Before we knew it, though, it was time to meet Mai Tai (Kay and Lane) on the dock for our dinner outing. Taking the advice of our neighbours we headed off to Atilla Bey Restaurant, which we’d seen earlier in the day during our morning walk and what a fabulous Turkish feast we had, all for the price of $10USD each. Don’t ask us to pronounce or write downs what we ate, but it was absolutely delicious, nonetheless! Unfortunately we only took photographs of the “starters”; we were too busy munching our way through the rest of the meal that we simply forgot. It was our first experience of Turkish cuisine and a wonderful evening in the company of new found friends.
Yesterday morning we were up early to meet our agent in order to complete the application forms required for an upcoming appointment with immigration. However, the passport photographs we had didn’t have the required white background, so, off we trotted to get new ones at a nearby studio. Fortunately it was all rather efficient and we were back onboard in time for a morning coffee.
Elaine then spent sometime collating all the supporting documentation in preparation for the appointment, stripped our beds, removed cushion covers and collected all the towels, following which we dropped off two more bags at the laundry service and collected our ironing. It wasn’t until we got back to Paw Paw that we saw just how beautifully everything had been ironed. At least now we won’t resemble a pair of refugees when we’re out and about.
Roy, on the other hand, spent his time on repairs; fixing our two leaking raw water intakes on both port side heads (aka toilets); something we discovered coming up through the Red Sea, and replacing two of the o-rings on the raw water strainers of the air-conditioning / heating system, which meant we were warm and toasty in the saloon this morning, not just in our cabins.
With all our clothes washed and ironed, Elaine spent some time sorting out her wardrobe, throwing out most of her old t-shirts, normally worn on passage, then, before she could remake the beds, some detail cleaning was needed around and under the mattresses where more sand had accumulated; sand has actually managed to get everywhere, literally! All our detailed cleaning in Thailand was for naught!
Today, after breakfast, while Roy tinkered around with his laptop after it had decided to stop functioning for no apparent reason, Elaine continued her efforts of sorting out our yacht insurance, now that we were in the Mediterranean and had completed our delivery passage from Thailand. She also reconciled our outstanding medical insurance claims and investigated our medical insurance coverage for our time in the US, since the US is specifically excluded as a condition of our international coverage.
By mid-morning, though, she needed a nap, but woke full of beans to find Roy still struggling with his laptop. Ordinarily this wouldn’t be a priority, but his entire development environment for the Anchor Basic and Anchor Plus applications are on it and he was in the middle of creating a new release that had fixed an issue which materialised on the latest Apple operating system release.
Elaine’s task for the afternoon was to consolidate and re-stow all our surplus provisions; we had clearly over provisioned, but, then again, we thought we were heading to South Africa. The upside, of course, is that, other than fresh produce, we won’t be buying too many groceries for the rest of the year.
Still full of energy, she decided to give the saloon / galley area and both companion ways a detailed cleaning, all of which had a thick layer of sand on every unused surface, while Roy disappeared to enjoy a 5 Km exercise walk along the promenade before he too was given a good cleaning! On his return he collected our laundry, disposed of all the garbage which Elaine had accumulated during her cleaning exercise and washed all the exhaust carbon stains off the topsides; an eyesore after all the motoring we’d done.
Slowly, but surely, we were getting our lives back in order!
The bad news of the day surfaced when we chatted to Keenan this morning (his night), who had arrived home sick, only to discover he has contracted COVID-19 and is rather ill with it, although he said he was feeling a little better this evening (his morning). Having dodged this bullet for two years, while continuing to fly all through the pandemic and having a house full of COVID-19 patients on two separate occasions, he gets it now! What bad luck! Wishing him a speedy recovery.
It’s definitely going to take us some time to get used to the European “day”, which starts and ends later. Nobody takes appointments for anything until at least 1100 on any given day, restaurants open much later for dinner and the days are definitely getting longer. We continue to be shocked at noticing the time when it’s already 1900, when it feels like it’s still the middle of the afternoon. The advantage, though, which suits us just fine, is that we’re barely crawling out of bed for breakfast at 0900 and it’s around 1000 before we’ve even started to get ourselves ready for the day. As Roy remarked this morning: “I can’t believe how well I’m sleeping here, all warm and cosy”; makes a fabulous change to sweating profusely, even with the cabin fan set on its highest speed and hoping for the slightest breeze to come through the hatch to help cool you down.
We had an exciting and somewhat eventful day. This morning, while Elaine prepared breakfast, Roy booked all our flights. It’ll be quite the trek around the globe, but worth every penny spent. It certainly helped, though, that we were also able to use most of our 250,000 air-miles we’d collected over the past three years.
After breakfast we dropped off our ironing, then took the short walk into town to the hairdresser. Since we were a little early, we enjoyed a Turkish tea at one of the little cafés. By the time Elaine returned to the café, Roy didn’t recognise her and to be truthful, Elaine was delighted to resemble her old self again! Given that this was her first trip to a hairdressing salon in two years, it certainly was a transformation!
From there we stopped by a local butcher, where we purchased some lamb chops for dinner; something Roy has been craving since we arrived in Turkey.
We then returned to Paw Paw to enjoy some of the delicious fruit we’d bought at the Saturday Market for lunch. It’s fair to say, although we’ve enjoyed delicious fruits in various parts of the world, including recently in Egypt, the strawberries, oranges and pears we’ve had here are so sweet and juicy, it’s difficult not to overindulge.
We both, however, needed another afternoon nap. Even though we’re both sleeping well at night, we’re still requiring a nap, but hopefully that alleviates soon.
Feeling refreshed again, Roy secured the mainsail in the stackpack and Elaine enjoyed a chat to her folks in Ireland to wish them a Happy 61st Wedding Anniversary. It was hard to believe that a year had passed since we had our family Zoom celebration for their Diamond Anniversary. By then it was time to meet our agent to complete the next steps of our immigration process, while enjoying a refreshment in one of the garden restaurants.
Before our day came to a close, though, we bumped into Kay, off Mai Tai, and enjoyed a quick chat before cruisers, Janet and Steve, who’ve lived in South Africa for the past 40 years, stopped by Paw Paw to introduce themselves and say hello. It was another lovely surprise, just a few minutes after we’d commented to each other on how pleasant it was to be back in an active cruising community again.
Being a Sunday, we decided to enjoy a lazy day, free of any chores and, instead, cooked one of our favourite breakfasts; crispy bacon with crumpets and a side of strawberries, bananas and kiwi fruit, before taking a nice long stroll through the town centre. Our lower limbs were eventually starting to feel like legs rather than rubbery spaghetti!
Stumbling upon Café de Valencia, we couldn’t resist stopping in for a non-Turkish coffee, accompanied by a baked delight; a Latte for Elaine, an Americano for Roy and a delicious slice of Tiramisu.
We also found a hairdressing salon, where Elaine was able to make an appointment for tomorrow, a butchery and a grocery store, along with a variety of clothing shops, banks, restaurants, cellphone stores, etc. During our wanderings we stumbled upon the outdoor farming museum, a tribute to Finike’s long history of an agricultural town, which continues today, evident by the wonderful Saturday Market we visited yesterday. It was lovely to see the well maintained old buildings too and people whiling away their Sunday morning in the numerous garden cafés scattered around the waterfront.
It was mid-afternoon by the time we returned to Paw Paw, both too tired to attend the Sunday afternoon barbecue at the marina, but enjoyed a lovely long chat to Justine and Paul in England instead; the two-hour time difference was definitely proving to be far more convenient!
With time and some energy to spare, Elaine then gave Roy a long overdue haircut and packed away our beautifully folded clean laundry, which Roy had collected yesterday; something that only cost us the equivalent of $8.84USD for two large bags. Guess who won’t be doing laundry for the next year! Roy spent his time securing a rope the length of our “passerelle” in an attempt to prevent Elaine from falling into the water when she gets on and off Paw Paw. A trial run proved successful, but time will tell, no doubt!
The most anticipated activity, though, has been investigating flights to see our loved ones. The only hurdle stopping us from hopping on a plane right now is that we have to wait on the completion of our immigration process, but exciting nonetheless!
