Time to move on ... Oct 2008

30 Sep - 02 Oct 2008

***Digital cameras have so many uses, always a good idea to take a photo first so you know how to put it all back together again!!!***Our anchorage at Serce - onshore for a morning walk with the cows, its a while since we have woken up to the cows mooing***

We now have 10 days before our friend Lesley arrives from England for a week, so we have many discussions as to whether we stay in Fethiye Bay or move on to anchorages new. First we need to address our power problem. Over the last few weeks our batteries have been dying after 4 years of active service. We are now down to just 50% and struggling so it is time to invest in some new ones. Gocek has a good selection of chandeliers and we found "Blue Yachting" to be very helpful, competitive and they spoke good English. After delivering Mark and batteries by scooter down to the dinghy dock and removing our old batteries we then had the fun job of getting them back to Balvenie and onboard without getting them wet. Of course the sea breeze had kicked in by then, but we did it, eventually. Skipper spent the rest of the afternoon wiring them all up, while Admiral finally hard wired in our hot water cylinder we installed in Finike. By the end of the afternoon we were all wired up and made the big decision to move on the following day. A last trip ashore to get a few provisions, phonecard, and a delicious pide at "Gocek Pide". We have been in and around this general area for a couple of months now, we are sad to say goodbye.

We left early the following morning for our longest day sail since the Red Sea, just on 50 miles. It is a good idea to try and get around Kurdoglu Burnu (the bottom of Skopea Liman) before the sea breeze kicks in as it gets somewhat confused at the cape. The winds were light to begin and we motored sailed most of the way across, ending up bashing into 25knots on the nose before entering the very enclosed and sheltered anchorage at Serce on the southern tip of the peninsular west of Marmaris. When we came through the gap into the anchorage we were met by two rival restaurant owners in dinghies offering mooring buoys for the night. We explained that we wanted to eat onboard and the one from the northern end of the bay (which looked more sheltered) was happy to have us anyway so we slowly made our way up and they gave us the end buoy in 4meters, shallow - but enough. I quickly tied on the buoy then went ashore with stern lines to secure us there while skipper held station.

About 15 minutes later a couple of dinghies came by selling wares and as one was leaving he called that we were not attached to the mooring buoy any longer. Thinking of course that the buoy line had parted, and while getting a long enough line to take in the dinghy to reattach, we were doubting whether we should be on a mooring. This doubt was cast aside when Skipper realised the line wasn't attached to the cleat on Balvenie any longer, whoops. Admiral has been fired from the job of attaching lines!!!!!, personally I think someone must have come along and undid it (yeah right). Anyway, no harm done and we had a very peaceful night and awoke to the sounds of cows mooing. We had a good walk ashore to stretch our legs then let the lines go and motored in very calm water around to Greece, time for pork chops!!!!
Anchorage info:
Serce - Mooring buoy at 36 35.05N 28 02.89E each restauarant had about 8 buoys which took up most of the room in the bay, probably able to find somewhere to anchor with stern line though if necessary.