Holiday in the Isles of Scilly

Had we arrived at Penzance, Cornwall 12,000 years earlier we would have been able to walk or perhaps ride a donkey to the Scilly Islands. As it is the good ship Scillonian 111 ferried us the 30 miles ESE across the Western Approaches to the British Isles. By 4000BC Scilly had become the single island of Ennor as sea levels rose by 75 metres as the ice cap retreated north toward the Pole. In the Pubs on the mainland old Cornish fishermen still recount stories of how on a calm day with a still sea you can hear the mournful toll of bells moved by the tide in the steeples of 140 graceful churches of the land of Lyonnesse now lost under the waves. It was not until around 1000AD that the 50 Scilly Islands as we now know them began to arise from the sinking Isle of Ennor. Of these only St Marys, Tresco, St Agnes, St Martins and Bryher are now inhabited.  

Archaeology tells us that the first humans to reach Scilly were the Mesolithic people (8000BC – 4000BC) who moved north from the Mediterranean after the end of the ice age probably following herds of migrating animals as the ice retreated. They were followed by the Neolithic people (4000BC – 2500BC) who shared a common culture with peoples from the Atlantic seaboard from Spain, Brittany, Cornwall, Wales and Ireland. Widespread cultivation of the land, village settlements of small round houses or hut circles occurred during the Bronze Age (2500BC - 700BC). It is evidence of the foundations of these structures in the shallow waters between the existing islands that may have fuelled the fishermen's tales of the lost land of Lyonnesse. The Iron Age (700BC – 400AD) brought more sophisticated civilisation to the Scillies and in its later period when Rome ruled Britain the Celtic status quo and Iron Age culture continued to develop unhindered although there appears to have been frequent contact with Roman trading vessels. The fall of the Roman Empire in Britain heralded a decline in trade and commerce and the Christianity which had spread from Rome was replaced by the altogether different Christian tradition of the Celts from Wales and Ireland. Island life declined dramatically with the gradual rise in sea levels to the extent that around 1000AD the population had diminished to a mere few hundred.

Despite Edward 111 granting the islands to the Black Prince, the first Duke of Cornwall, the islands sank into obscurity for the next 500 years plagued as it was by insecurity and the loss of agricultural land to the rising sea. From Tudor times onward the Scillonians took advantage of the Scilly's strategic position on the newly established commercial shipping routes to North America and Africa by engaging in piracy. Elizabeth 1 ignored this as long as it was to the detriment of the French and Dutch but ultimately the Spanish Armada highlighted the vulnerability of the Islands to attack and in 1593 Elizabeth started to build defences including the Star Castle on St Marys. The staunchly Royalist islanders afforded Prince Charles shelter in the Star Castle during his flight from the Parliamentarians during the English Civil War and, after subjugation by parliament in 1648, reverted to their piratical past by attacking passing merchant ships. At the end of the Civil War Parliament set up defences on the Islands to deter foreign invasion but the Dutch declared war on Scilly; the peace treaty being signed only some 20 years ago!

The Napoleonic Wars disrupted the Scillonian's major industries of smuggling and fishing and by the beginning of the 19^th century and a series of poor harvests thereafter once again heralded the rapid decline of the Islands. I was not until 1831 that prosperity began to return with Augustus Smith leasing the Islands from the Duchy of Cornwall. He instigated proper education for the children and new agricultural practices and the coming of the railway to Penzance in the middle of the 19^th Century bought the first tourists to the Islands and allowed the establishment of a flourishing flower industry.

St Marys, where our ferry landed, is the largest of the Scilly Islands that emerged from the sea and is a halfway house between the mainland and the four 'off islands'. Some off islanders regard St Marys with similar disdain as they do the mainland. Cars and buses speed around the roads of the Island in stark contrast to travel in the off islands where tractors and golf buggies are preferred. The sheltered centre of the Island is mainly cultivated for flowers and in particular winter and early spring daffodils and narcissi which are sent to market in London. Vegetables and early potatoes are also widely cultivated. Prehistoric monuments abound on St Marys as a result of its position on ancient sea routes from the Atlantic seaboard stretching from Portugal and Spain in the south to Ireland and Scotland in the north. The best examples of these late Stone Age/early Bronze Age settlement can be found at Halangy Down.

St Agnes, the smallest of the inhabited islands that has its particular Celtic history and traditions. We had little time to explore although we walked from the sheltered and pretty harbour at Porth Conger through Higher Town passing the 1680 lighthouse, one of the first lighthouses built in Britain but now defunct, and beyond Lower Town for fine views over white sand beaches, Annet, the home of the puffins, the Western Rocks and The Bishop rock and its lighthouse.

The Western Rocks have been a graveyard for shipping for centuries. Hundreds of ships have been wrecked with the loss of thousands of lives. As late as the early 18^th century Navigators could plot their latitude, or position along a north/south line, fairly accurately by reference to the pole star but were unable to establish with any certainty at all their position on an east/west line; their longitude. It was the loss of over 2000 souls in one night alone when part of the British fleet foundered here in 1707 that prompted the Admiralty to set a prize for the first person to find a reliable way of establishing longitude, a prize won by John Harrison with his spring mechanism based chronometer.

The Bishops Rock lighthouse guards the western extent of the rocks. The first structure built with cast iron columns was finished in 1850 only to be washed away by a storm before it was commissioned. A solid tower of Cornish granite replaced it but vertical cracks appeared soon after construction showing that the structure was not equal to the force of the very high waves that battered it making it shake violently, knocking plates off the shelves. In April 1874 waves exceeding 40 metres broke clean over the structure washing away the lantern and flooding the lighthouse nearly drowning the keepers. In 1881 an outer stone structure was built around the existing tower increasing its height and strength. This exists to the present day.

St Martin's is the Scillies north eastern bulwark to the ravages of the North Atlantic and the landscape of the island reflects this with its uncultivated weather beaten north eastern side and fertile sundrenched western slopes running down to the dunes and white sand of the waterfront. The cultivated western side is covered with sheltered flower and vegetable fields and wild Agapanthus, Lily and Hottentot fig grow from every hedgerow and dry stone wall. The flowers harvested here are packed and flown to the mainland and further afield.

Wide eyed and whiskered grey seals pop their heads above the water lounge or with their pups on the beaches of the Eastern Islands just south of St Martin's. Gannets, gulls, shags, cormorants, shearwaters and guillemots fly from rock to water and back and a Peregrine falcon nests on a rock ledge.

Bryher Island can be somewhat bleak being subjected to the full fury of westerly Atlantic storms. The northern end is a plateau of high ground sparsely covered with dwarfed heather. Names such as Hell Bay and Badplace Hill reflect the fury of the storm waves that have travelled as much as 2000 to break clean over Shipman Head. The southern end of the Island is a little less foreboding being protected to some extent by the offlying Norrard rocks with names that conjure up the mystery of these islands such as Gweal and Illiswilgig. We limited our walk to the more cultivated central saddle of the island through The Town and around Timmy's Hill resting at the Hell Bay Hotel for a pot of tea on the terrace overlooking the idyllic sands of Great Par beach, Stinking Porth, Black Rocks and the mighty Atlantic Ocean.

Last but not least the beautiful Island of Tresco, the pearl in the oyster and the Island upon which we stayed in a well equipped and excellently furnished house on the beach with superb views over the water and rocks of Old Grimsby Sound and St Helens Pool to St Martins, Tean, Round Island and the Eastern Islands. This view ranks amongst the best that we have seen in all our travels.

Softly undulating sand dunes covered with marram grass, bell heather and ling and wild flowers just about to burst into a riot of spring beauty dominate the south of Tresco. The panoramas looking seaward across the shallow water, white sand beaches and banks and foreboding rocks are magnificent with St Marys and St Agnes Islands to the south, Bryher and Samson to the west and St Martins and the Eastern isles to the east.

The Great Pool is a haven for geese, swans, egret, curlew and duck and the beaches are alive with the cry of oystercatchers, curlew, dunlin and tern. Within the trees of Abbey Wood and gardens stands Tresco Abbey. Its origins lie in the 12^th century when Henry 1 granted all religious buildings of the northern Scillies to the Benedictine monks of Tavistock Abbey. The present Abbey is the home of the Dorrien–Smith family and descendants of Augustus Smith whose far sighted approach revitalised the depressed and poverty struck islands. The Abbey gardens created in 1834 by Augustus Smith house an extraordinary collection of plants from all over the world that thrive in the warmth and long hours of sunshine that bless the Scilly Islands. There are over 4000 specimens from countries as far away as Mexico, Japan, Australia, South Africa, South America and the Mediterranean including Cacti, Palms, Bamboo, Echium, Agapanthus, Aeonium and King Proteas. There are enchanting artefacts and sculptures including a stone Roman sacrificial altar and the evocative figureheads from wrecked ships that conjure up the Scillies dramatic seafaring past.

The landscape of the north of Tresco is distinctly different from that of the south with its windswept heather and gorse clad hills punctured with stark granite outcrops.  Cromwell's Castle built in the mid 17^th century to protect Tresco Channel and New Grimsby harbour from attack by the Dutch. It replaced King Charles's Castle built on the hill above in the mid 16^th century captured by the Parliamentarians due in the main to the fact that it was poorly sited with the shot falling out of the cannons when angled downward toward forces attacking from sea level!

For the three decades that we have owned a yacht on the south coast of England we have endeavoured to reach the Scillies but have always turned left to Brittany or the Channel islands because of the prevailing head winds. We have sailed past the Islands whilst racing or delivering yachts but finally we have landed upon them, walked around them as expansively as time has allowed and have experienced the incredible forces and delights of nature. We feel a debt of gratitude toward Miggy's mother, Betsy, who by celebrating her 80th birthday on the Islands made this experience possible for us and fifteen others of her close family. We feel privileged to have stayed in these wonderful islands just 25 miles distant, but a world apart from, the English mainland. 

Last of a Finike Winter

We trust that our homecoming at the beginning of March will be greeted with the onset of spring and more settled and warmer weather than we have had here in Finike of late. The local townspeople tell us that they need the rain to bring on the tomatoes and citrus fruit but surely not in the amounts that have poured down upon us since the beginning of the New Year. Wind from the quadrant south to east even if it is blowing hard offshore but not inshore brings with it a significant swell that penetrates the marina giving an uncomfortable motion on Bella. Whilst conditions are not dangerous the movement makes the environment on board inconvenient and somewhat wearing. We do, however, have beautiful, warm, sunny days to compensate for all this.

Our Turkish visas expired during February thereby occasioning a trip from Kaş on the Turkish mainland by ferry to the tiny Greek island of Kastellorizon. It was great to revisit one of our favourite haunts in the Mediterranean made even finer by a superb pork steak for lunch!

To widen our cultural experience we witnessed Camel Wrestling in Demre! This activity is an ancient tradition with origins in the Middle East where nomadic tribes pitched their bulls against one another as a competitive sport. We believe that the contests may have also been used for the practical reason of finding the strongest bull to service the females thus ensuring a strong lineage of working camels. We have no authority to substantiate this however.

Camels used for wrestling in Turkey are of the Tülü variety, a cross breed that are bulkier and longer haired than the slender, long eye lashed cousins that we encountered in the Sahara desert. The camels are decked out in their finery with elaborate wooden saddles and richly embroidered blankets.

The annual contest held in the mating season attracts a huge high spirited but good humoured local crowd, also in their Sunday best, sat cross legged on the ground, standing or perched on their trucks around an unprotected arena. The atmosphere is of the occasion is enhanced by the market and food stalls that surround the field of battle.

The sight of camels wrestling one another would seem to promise some spectacular action but in reality these animals are gentle and prefer the art of persuasion above that of fierce combat and the wrestling is more akin to comedy than blood-sport.

Two bulls are led into the arena and a young cow is paraded around to get them excited as evidenced by streams of viscous milky saliva issuing from the bull's mouth and nostrils. Mostly the two bulls half-heartedly butt each other shoulder to shoulder and lean on the other until one of them gives in and runs away. This is the really exciting bit as the bull will often charge off towards the crowd, with the conquering bull in pursuit, and the spectators scramble hurriedly out of the way. The antics of spectators trying to avoid a thousand kilograms of camel running towards them can lead to pure comedy and the biggest crowd reaction. Miraculously there are few accidents to camel or human. Occasionally two bulls will get down to it and actually try to wrestle one another, feinting in here and there, eventually locking a fore-leg inside the leg of the opposition and leaning on him to topple him over in a dromedary's version of a wrestling fall and pin. Large bets are wagered by owners and spectators alike, though how you tell just which camel won can be difficult to determine; both bulls may run off simultaneously or merely refuse to get involved at all. We hear that the judges award points for style however and the winning camel's owner receives another blanket!

Bella's bottom has been sanded down, primed and painted with three coats of antifoul and her topsides polished and she looks as eager as we are to set off on this season's adventure. We intend to sail west and north along the Turkish coast as far as Ayvalik taking in the Greek islands of the northern Dodecanese and eastern Sporades on the way. We will cross the Aegean to the western Sporades, sail south down the Evvia gulf into the Saronic, transit the Corinth canal and spend the winter in the Ionian Islands.

For those of you who may winter in Finike marina in the future we can say without a shadow of a doubt that those in the yard who were involved in hauling us out of the water, propping us up and launching us were the most professional and careful that we have experienced during our sailing careers over the past 35 years. The hoist strops were tied together and were place exactly in line with the lifting marks on the hull. We were transported gently the few metres to our hard standing and 14 props, each measured and placed precisely symmetrically, were wedged to support us. In the UK we were lucky to get 7! For a euro each the yard will move the props so that the antifouling coats can be complete without leaving patches that have to be painted just before launching only to wash off as soon as the boat goes in the water. The yard even supplied a sturdy steel ladder and proper steel framed wheeled staging.

Our final visit of the winter was to Elmali, a market town 60 km from Finike up in the hills. At an elevation of about 1200m the temperature was 15°C than on the coast. Amongst the bland concrete buildings are scattered beautiful Ottoman houses and there is a covered market that, although smaller than Finike, is full of atmosphere like the town itself which is truly Turkish.

Miggy's artistic skills are coming on apace as can be seen from the watercolour below of a Turkish summer picnic.

We look forward now to seeing family and friends during our stay in the UK from the 5^th March until the 25^th April which will include a week in the Scilly Islands with Miggy's Mum and her close family to celebrate an important birthday.

More Finike Winter Jottings

Forty people of thirteen different nationalities sat down to our traditional English Christmas dinner and enjoyed themselves without exception. Faik, the Komsu Garden restaurateur, his family and his chefs who had learnt so much during the trial run the week before, about which we wrote in the December blog entry, and had prepared so well both in the kitchen and in the dining room that Miggy had less than expected to do although she still had to ensure that the turkey, potatoes and vegetables were neither over or under cooked and make the gravy and the stuffing.

Modern Antalya, our regional capital, with its palm tree lined boulevards is one of Turkey's principle tourist resort and, being only a two hour and £8 return bus ride from Finike, is where we get our culture in the form of opera, ballet and orchestral concerts and where we can shop in superstores for products not readily available in Finike except, of course, pork for which we and most of our fellow liveaboards crave!

On the subject of shopping it is made easy in Turkey as shops tend to be grouped together by their trade or produce much like it has been for millennia in the 'Souks'.

Antalya has been continuously inhabited by the Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Seljuks and the Ottomans since its founding in 159BC by Attalos 11, a Greek king of Pergamum. It is the picturesque old town or Kaleiçi that holds the most interest with its narrow winding streets and wooden balconied houses provided one can shut one's eyes to the inevitable plethora of tourist souvenir shops touting their junk. The 13^th century fluted red brick minaret of the Yilvi Minare Mosque, previously adorned with turquoise tiles has become Antalya's symbol and the Karatay Medrese (theological college) from the same period displays fine Seljuk stone carvings on the portal and mihrap or prayer niche. Much of the old city fortifications still stand and the clock tower, once part of the city walls, marks the upper limit of the original city. A well preserved and renovated and beautifully decorated three arched gate with Corinthian columns was built into the city walls in 134AD in honour of the Emperor Hadrian. The cart tracks through the central arch have been exposed to view.

Despite our previous blog comment about 'old rocks' we still enjoy visiting ancient sites and to add to our collection we trampled around the ruins of the city of Termessos first settled by the Solymians in the first millennium BC. In fact they are the same Anatolian peoples that founded Sagalassos about which we wrote in October last year.

The city flourished in Hellenistic and Roman times and first appeared on history's stage when its formidable natural defences, being on a saddle of ground at 1100 metres between two cliffs, convinced Alexander the Great not to try to take the city in 333BC. Alexander was right; it is a long, steep exhausting climb to the city centre and we didn't even have hostile forces to dissuade us from success!

The buildings of Termessos are not as well preserved as many we have seen apart from the theatre with its fine views over Antalya Bay but the setting is magnificent. Termessos is included in the Güllük Dag National park where wild goats and deer and perhaps the only remaining Anatolian lynx roam.

Winter activities continue with regular Sunday barbeques, quiz nights and weekly talks on practical or historical matters. Recently an Historian gave a talk on the civilisations in the Eastern Mediterranean over the last 5000 years. At the Art Club Miggy has ventured quite successfully methinks into portraiture.

All this carries on in weather that has become quite wet and colder as the snow line lowers on the mountains to the north of us. It is a beautiful scene however and we do still have the warm sunny days in between.

A Finike Winter

Autumn was predominantly sunny with temperatures in the mid twenties or higher but Miggy giving up swimming on the 1^st of December marked the onset of the Finike winter. Although we still have glorious sunny days with temperatures in the low twenties, colder periods with rain and high winds are becoming more common. During a recent spell the wind blew 70 knots and violent thunderstorms heralded ice the size of golf balls falling from on high. The aftermath of the storms filled the water in the marina with tree trunks, branches and vegetation washed from the hillsides by the swollen rivers.

In the town trees were felled by the tempestuous conditions and parks, pavements and roads were littered with fallen leaves and debris. The Turkish people take this in their stride and within hours large gangs of council workers, mainly ladies, had restored the town to its usual clean and orderly state. Similarly in the marina a huge effort over three days by pitchfork wielding marineros transformed the apparently muddy field in which our yachts were floating back into the clear Mediterranean waters that we expect.

The gusto with which these simple tasks were carried out is a mark of the conscientiousness of these delightful and hospitable people and of the efficiency and effectiveness of their institutions and services; the town council even have a town crier, albeit by way of a tannoy system, who broadcasts local interest information throughout Finike. The towns, villages and countryside of and the waters surrounding this vast state are without doubt the cleanest that we have encountered during our travels.

There is an active social programme for those of many nationalities; Brits, Australians, New Zealanders, French, Dutch, Swedes, Danes, Finns, Austrians and Germans; wintering aboard thirty or so yachts. As well as the quiz nights, the 'come rain or shine' Sunday BBQs, an Art Club (Miggy's pastel pictures are superb), keep fit sessions and walks in the surrounding countryside there is some culture with regular trips to Antalya, about two hours away, to watch Opera, Ballet and Orchestral concerts. We have seen the Antalya State Opera performing 'Tosca' and 'Rigoletto' and the Antalya State Symphony Orchestra playing some Sibelius and Mendelssohn all to an extremely high standard.

Bearing in mind that the majority of the Christian world celebrate Christmas Eve we will have an 'International Finger Buffet' that evening where people will bring their traditional national dishes and we will sing carols from the many nations represented accompanied by organ complete with professional organist. On Christmas Day we will be forty people of many nationalities sitting down to a traditional English Christmas dinner in a Turkish restaurant cooked by Turkish chefs with a little help from Miggy. We have had a rehearsal where the 10Kg free range turkey such as we might have had in the UK many years ago was cooked to perfection in the uncontrollable temperatures of the bread/pizza oven. Roast potatoes, brussel sprouts, carrots (parsnips being unavailable), leeks, stuffing and perfect gravy made from the juices of the bird were excellently prepared. We fed a dozen of the

Restaurateurs family who were somewhat bemused, but as always politefully complimentary, having never witnessed such a style of cooking before.

The marina management and staff are very capable, friendly and helpful. The facilities are very good with excellent shower rooms a small supermarket and chandler, a clubroom for social functions and, something we have never encountered before, a pool specifically for washing and drying sails. The marina is just ten minutes walk from the town centre which is one of the reasons for choosing Finike.

In ancient times the Finike was known as Phoenicus and was noted for the export of cedar of Lebanon from the surrounding mountains for building the Ottoman fleet. The ancient town is buried under silt and the modern town itself has little of merit architecturally except a few remaining but generally dilapidated Ottoman houses of the old village. It is a market town with a population of 12,000 that prospers through the export of citrus fruit from the blanket of orchards that covers the valley as well as other agricultural produce.  The orange has become the symbol of the town. The centre has all that we need with a vast Saturday market, principally selling fruit and vegetables, spreading through street after street, a good supermarket, two excellent butchers and a superb baker. Lokantas (cheap local restaurants) are plentiful and the hamam, as well as cleansing, soothes the aches and pains of an ageing body (Neal's that is)!

Finike sits in a fertile valley located at the foot of the Gülmez Dağlari, a long spur of the Taurus Mountains, the peaks of which, including Mount Olympos to the east, rise to over 3000 metres. As well as the stunning scenery of the hinterland the remains of ancient Lycian, Hellenistic and Roman cities are numerous. We wrote about a few of them in our previous blog and will no doubt write about others as we visit them although we are getting somewhat blasé about these piles of old rocks!

There is however one such city that we should mention and that is the 5^th century BC Lycian and later Roman city of Myra. There is little left to see now after the ravages of earthquake and flood but the Lycian rock tombs with their exquisite carvings are the finest that we have seen and the Roman theatre is magnificent. This is another city which St Paul visited during his travels but its greatest attraction at this time of year is that it it is the home of the Church of St Nicholas.

St. Nicholas was born in Patara, 80Km or so from Finike, around 300, became bishop of Myra, and died around 350. Only these basic details are known to history, but legends abound concerning the life of the saint. A much-embellished hagiography was written by in the 10th century. St. Nicholas is said to have been born of wealthy parents and to have travelled to the Holy Land in his youth. He was tortured and imprisoned during the persecutions of Diocletian, and released when Constantine ordered official   toleration of Christians.

Many of the legends of St. Nicholas involve him helping young people and the poor. It is said that he  saved from a life of sin the  three daughters of a poor merchant who were about to be forced into prostitution since they had no marriage dowries by dropping three bags of gold into the merchant's chimney thereby enabling them to wed.

After his death, Nicholas became the patron saint of sailors and seafarers, and many pilgrims came to visit his tomb. Over the centuries, the legends and great popularity of St. Nicholas of Myra led to the Christmastime figure of the bearded man who secretly brings toys to children. He is still known as St. Nick in most of Europe bringing his gifts not on Christmas Day but on December 6^th. In America and, of course, the UK he came to be known as Santa Claus.

The saint was buried in his church at Myra, or Demre as the modern town is now named, a mere 30Km from Finike. Damaged by earthquakes and Arabs the church structure that largely survives today is of the 8th century. In 1087, a group of Italian merchants raided the church, broke open the saint's sarcophagus and took the relics to Bari, Italy, where they were placed in a shrine in the cathedral. The empty tomb of St. Nicholas can be seen in the south aisle of his church in Myra.

So here we are at Christmas with snow on the mountains and Santa Claus so close.

MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Annual Cruising Roundup

Our season has been less frantic than last year having covered a mere 950 miles at an average speed of just under 5 knots. This brings to 6880 the total sea miles covered since we left Lymington in April 2006. Once again the proportion of miles truly sailed was low at 20% reflecting the amount of calms and light winds encountered. On the other hand we were on passage for just 51 days out of the 149 day cruising season which reflects, apart from days spent going nowhere in beautiful anchorages, the amount of time we spent sheltering from the dreaded Meltemi wind in the Aegean Sea.

Notwithstanding the relatively short distance we have journeyed this season we have enjoyed visiting diverse locations including the Ionian Islands off Greek's west coast, the Gulf of Corinth and its canal, Islands in the Aegean Cyclades, some of the Dodecanese archipelago and the Turkish Carian and Lycian coasts.
During April and May vibrant wild spring flowers, orchids included, in myriad variety swathed the hillsides and valleys of the Ionian islands of Lefkas, Odysseus's Ithaca and Cephalonia and the shores and islands, tiny Trizonia in particular, of the Gulf of Corinth. Snow capped mountains and soaring eagles and hawks were the perfect backdrop to the carpet of colour beneath.
As if the mighty but somewhat dilapidated Corinth Canal is an impenetrable barrier, the barren and windswept Cyclades Islands to the east with their typically 'white' villages are in stark contrast to the lush vegetation and colour to the west. The idyllic anchorages of Paros, Kithnos and Levitha and the bustling, yet laid back, town quays such as that at Amorgos are etched in our memories whereas the summer wind, the Meltemi, which may blow for days on end, is etched into our skin!
Of the few islands we have visited in the Dodecanese archipelago so far we were not impressed with Kalimnos or the resort ridden Kos but we adored Symi and believe the small and southernmost island of Greece, Kastellorizon (or Meis) to be one of the most wonderful places into which we have sailed since we left the UK.The much indented shoreline and the pine forested slopes that fringe the water's edge of the superfluity of bays and inlets along the Turkish Carian and Lycian coasts make for the perfect cruising ground. We recall with affection the beautiful anchorages of the southern shores of the Gokova and Hisaronu Gulfs north of Marmaris, the bays of the Skopea Limani in the Fethiye Gulf and those in the Kekova area. Rickety wooden restaurant pontoons come and go depending on their legality or perhaps the whim of local dignitaries can on occasions dominate otherwise lovely anchorages. Town quays vary from those not frequented by Gulets to the resort centres dominated by these craft.
A word about gulets or gulettes, whichever spelling takes your fancy, and their drivers; these vessels are large ships evolved from traditional cargo or fishing vessels. They are built primarily in the vicinity of Istanbul, Bodrum and Marmaris and the Black Sea with cedar frames, pine planking and mahogany superstructure. They are ketch or schooner rigged ships and, although for some the wooden spars are for show alone, most carry sails. Depending on their size, and some are massive, they carry anywhere between eight and twenty people on the 'Blue Voyage' along the coasts of Turkey. Gulets at the top of the market are beautifully maintained craft offering five star service, accommodation and food. Those at the other end of the market do not and there are various levels in between! Gulets are prolific in the extreme and it is fortunate for us yachties that there are so many anchorages along the coast that not all are taken up with the things. As it is there is very little room for yachts on town quays, the space being taken mainly by gulets and day tripper boats. Gulet drivers are, on the whole, skilful at manoeuvring their craft at close quarters. Whilst the majority of gulet captains seem courteous and sensible there is a minority who are belligerent, single minded and uncompromising.
It is always our intention to travel overland and experience the sights and culture of the countries in which we find ourselves. This year has been no exception and before Christmas 2008 we travelled through North West Greece with its stunning Pindos mountain range and Meteora where 10^th to 14^th century monasteries perch precariously on top of sandstone pinnacles. In the Peloponnese we trod where others had trod millennia ago in the ancient cities of Corinth, Mycenae, Olympia and Epidaurus with its outstanding theatre. We visited, amongst other remarkable places, Nafplio, the home of the first parliament of liberated Greece and the Mani with its fortified tower houses vacated by feuding families in a mass exodus to America in the early 20^th century. We rode on the Diakofto rack and pinion railway snaking its way upward, sometimes very steeply, through the Vouraika Gorge.

Delphi, the home of Apollo some three thousand years ago, lies on the foothills of Mount Parnassus to the north west of Corinth and the city of Delos, the religious and political centre of the world at about the same time, stands on a tiny Cycladic island in the Aegean Sea.

Lately our Anatolian Adventure took us to the Lake District, Konya the home of the Whirling Dervishes, the bleak Anatolian Steppe, Cappadocia with its underground cities, early Christian rock churches and 'fairy chimneys' and a few of the numerous ancient sites in the area including Antiocheia-in-Pisidia and Perge with their association with St Paul, Aspendos with its magnificent theatre and the harbour cities of Side and Phaselis.

It is a delight to meet cruising folk of like mind, many of whom have become good friends. We have encountered yachts from 42 different nations this year as far apart as Yemen, Iceland and Vanuatu, many having come through the Red Sea.
The weather has been superb, so good in fact that we found it necessary to fly back to the UK to escape the extreme heat and humidity in late July and August. Miggy started swimming in the Cyclades on the 10^th of May and is still taking to the sea every day here in Finike. Even Neal took to the briny in the heat of September days. Fresh water springs abound in the anchorages along the Turkish coast creating refreshing cool patches within the maximum 28°C sea water. The water is doubly inviting in Turkey being clean and free from the pollution we have experienced in other parts of the Mediterranean; Tunisia and Greece in particular.
Food and eating are one of life's supreme pleasures. Turkey is grows such a variety and quantity of food as to be self sufficient. Fresh fruit and vegetables flourish in the outdoor markets and the excellent grazing on the Anatolian Plain produces top quality meat, except of course pork, and dairy produce. The cuisine does not consist entirely of kebab dishes but is as varied as the Persian, Ottoman and European influences have dictated. Mezes, or appetising starters, are a delight and the 'flat' bread is such a joy as be lucky to survive intact on the walk back from the Baker to the boat! Food, with the exception of fish, is not expensive and eating out is cheap provided one eats in one of the plentiful Lokantas where the locals eat rather than the posh restaurants.This has been an exciting, varied and thoroughly agreeable year which we are continuing to enjoy during our winter break here in Finike. More of that and of our plans for the forthcoming year later in these pages.