Grace Notes

The only remaining task was to pack up our home by 5pm Thursday evening. It was a big job as we have accumulated a lot of stuff over the last 8 months. There are big items, like the spare sails, bikes, towels and bed linen to consider, as well as smaller but very important spares and tools. It was hard to throw things away as most items have some kind of memory attached to them. Phil was definitely in charge of organising the storage on the boat. He made everything fit and ensured that it all stays as dry as possible. Stef and Mark from Sail in Turkey were really helpful in finding solutions and sympathetic to our alternately quiet and then stressed moods. They have offered Phil's chilli plants a good home, where they can join a small family of other chillies and peppers. By Thursday lunchtime it was all done and so a final boozy meal helped to see us through to departure time.

We went out for a short 4 day trip, leaving Marmaris on Saturday 15th and arriving back on Tues 18th. The weather on Saturday was still beautiful, and we enjoyed a very hot lunch stop on our way out, which turned out to be my last swim of the whole trip. The weather however, did not last and by mooring up time on Sunday it was raining heavily, a situation that continued through to Monday lunchtime. After that it did clear up but with a very strong and very cold wind. The short trip was reasonably eventful as we had another disturbed night on Saturday night. We had decided to free swing in quite a small bay and the wind when it arrived was not from the expected direction, so manoeuvring by moonlight was required. On Sunday we caught our second fish of the whole journey. We make a reasonable team, as I get freaked out by killing it but am fine on the gutting, where as Phil is fine with the killing and not very happy about the chopping. So all in all we get there. We had a beaut...

We arrived in Turkey on Wednesday 12th October. It has taken us since the 9th April to deliver the boat here, a particularly long schedule, which has been more about cruising than getting anywhere very fast. It was good to finally meet the owners of Sail in Turkey, and find that they really did want to have Grace on their fleet. We have been over the boat with them, and they seem reasonably pleased with her condition and were not even too freaked out about the fridge. It has all gone really well and really smoothly so far. We have unfortunately, booked our return flights and so now have a definite schedule for our return to the UK. We are therefore on our final jobs list, of which storage, seems to be the key sticking point so far. Although I am sure we will work it all out. Marmaris has made a good first impression. It is a big place with, the good, the pretty, the bad and the ugly, all there for us to navigate depending which kind of mood we are in. The bay itself is ve...

This seems so long ago, but with limited internet access in Turkey it has taken a while to get up to speed. So the weekend I am referring to was the 8th and 9th October. We were aware that the storm was coming and chose Pedi on Simi to see out the event. The forecast was for Force 8 from the south blowing up on the Saturday, with respite on the Sunday, and blowing up again on the Monday, and finally blowing itself out by Tuesday morning. In preparation we laid our 20kg Rocna and 20kg Delta in tandem and pointing south the direction the wind should have come from. I snorkelled them to ensure they were both in, and our only concern on retiring to bed on Saturday night, was that we seemed a little close to the end of the short quay when we swung around. So we picked 5 meters of chain up and went to bed. At 2.45am we were woken by the noise of the wind, which had finally arrived. The whole bay was up as yacht after yacht began to drag their anchor. Some only needed to re-ancho...

Making the most of our last week we spent two nights in Tilos, one at anchor and one on the quay, enjoying every last second of the sun and warm weather. The second morning we went running and ran up the steepest hill yet. Well done us. We then moved down to Khalki which was beautiful. The architecture is Venetian and so the place looks like Fiscardo, but much quieter, with only a few tavernas and a lazy rather than fashionable feel. However it is no place to be in a blow as the floating pontoon provided for visiting yachts offers very little protection from wind or swell. Last stop Simi and then into Marmaris.

We spent two nights on the lovely volcanic island of Nisiros. The main event was our trip around the island on a hired moped. The first thing to note is that, whilst Phil was driving and I was pillion, there were no accidents. We had a thorough briefing of where to go and how to get there from the moped hire man at Eagles Nest, who was from the island and had a lot of really good local knowledge. We started with a volcanic sauna in a natural cave up in the hills and then went down into the crater from there. The whole crater takes up the entire centre of the island, but within this there are two smaller craters. We were able to walk right up to the edge of the smaller and most recent one to erupt, and right down into the larger older one. It was an amazing experience to be in the crater of a volcano. It feels a lot like being in a Star Trek episode, especially as the rocks are all pumice and so weigh nothing, making them feel strangely like polystyrene rocks . The colours of...

After dropping off Pam and Brian we decided to stay for a few days in Kardamena on Kos. The place has a reputation with some yachties for being loud and full of package holiday makers, and whilst it is true that you can get a full English breakfast at any time of day here, we liked the place. The first night we spent drinking shots in the bar just behind the boat. The company was good and the night ended with chips and curry sauce. The next day was spent feeling a little worse for wear and doing jobs very slowly. We did plan to leave the following morning, but this was just as the weather forecast was predicting a force 8 to blow through, so we decided to stay put. This meant that we could finish all our jobs, go running twice, including a 9.25km trip, and eat in a lovely place we had spotted on the way to the supermarket. The wind arrived, but we were really sheltered and spent a very peaceful night. All in all we really enjoyed our time in Kardamena.