The last time we wrote, neither of us had a broken bone.

But I digress, let’s talk about what happened before that. We left Kaş for Göcek on April 17. We chose Göcek because one of the marinas there had the charts of Europe that we needed for our chart plotter.

We spent the first night on the way to Göcek near Gemiler Island. We’d had to pump out our black water and get diesel in Kaş so we didn’t get an early start and wanted to travel fewer nm that day as a result. Gemiler Island was the perfect distance. It was a very picturesque trip. We saw the mountain I’d walked off of into the air the previous day, among several other beautiful views of the shoreline.

We picked up a mooring ball at no charge. . . provided we ate at the restaurant on shore. We’d read mixed reviews of the restaurant but we decided to try it to get the free mooring. Turns out the food was not good and too pricey. We probably should have anchored in a nearby bay instead, but all is well in the end. Here is a picture of the restaurant from our boat.

We’d planned to take the dinghy to the island the next day, but the marina contacted us in the morning and told us that the charts were ready to be picked up that afternoon. So, we just sailed around the island and took some pictures (which, in the end, was just as good as going there I think). Here is a short history of the island from Wikipedia:

“The Byzantine ruins of five Greek churches built between the fourth and sixth centuries AD remain on the island, along with a 350 meters (1,150 ft) processional walkway. Other remains from the same period include around forty other ecclesiastical buildings and over fifty Christian tombs. One of the churches was cut directly from the rock at the island’s highest point, and is located at the far western end of the processional walkway. It is possible that the Island was used by Christian pilgrims enroute to the Holy Lands.

Modern archaeologists believe that the island may be the location of St. Nicholas‘ original tomb. The traditional Turkish name for the island is Gemiler Adası, meaning “Island of Boats,” which may be a reference to St. Nicholas’s role as the patron saint of sailors; the island was also referred to as St. Nicholas Island by seafarers in the medieval period. Archaeologists believe he was interred in the rock-hewn church following his death in 326. His relics remained there until the 650s, when the island was abandoned as it was threatened by an Arab fleet. They were then moved to the town of Myra some 25 miles (40 km) to the east.”

Here are a couple of pictures of the very small island. You can easily see some of the ruins:

. . . . and we are on our way to Göcek. As per usual, I took pictures of our short journey from our mooring spot to our anchorage in Göcek.

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Our plan for today was to view a couple of beaches on the way to Ölüdeniz Beach then go paragliding. Well, I was going paragliding. Michael was going to take pictures and cheer me on. 🙂

We saw this along the way so stopped to enjoy the view and take a couple of pictures.

Snow on the mountains!

This is Butterfly Valley. Beautiful!! We considered visiting it by sailboat later in our trip, but we don’t think we will make it after all. I am glad we got to see it from up top. You can’t hike down to it.

Our next stop was Hanuman Paragliding on Ölüdeniz Beach. Ölüdeniz Beach is a big, beautiful, and popular beach, and the perfect location for paragliding. Hanuman Paragliding is a trustworthy company. I highly recommend them. If you have an opportunity to select a pilot for tandem paragliding, I recommend my pilot, Törehan Şimşek. He was great – he even let me take control of the chute for a bit,

When we arrived, we were told that we were going to take off from the 1200 meter point because it was too windy for the highest point of 1960 meters. Oh well!

The drive up the mountain to the launching point was a twisty-turny experience. The driver must have driven this road hundreds of times because he drove quite fast (did I mention there are no guardrails?), even on the switchbacks. I am glad I took my motion sickness pills that morning; without them, I would have been pretty carsick by the time we got to the jumping off point.

We saw the top of a chairlift as we were making our way up the mountain, so they clearly ski this mountain.

When we finally stopped, we were told that we were taking off from the 1960 meter point after all. Yay!

A little background: I’ve jumped out of perfectly good airplanes 48 times, so I know what to expect from that. I did not, however, know what to expect from walking off a cliff with an already-open chute over my head. Törehan told me that I should walk when he told me to walk and run when he told me to run. He also told me not to sit down (there is a comfy seat for the passenger) until he told me to. I asked him how fast I should run (is this a sprint?) but I don’t remember what he said. In the end, it didn’t matter, because I think I took maybe two steps before we were airborne. It was pretty windy.

Here are some pictures from the top before we took off.

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As per usual, I had spent a fair amount of time researching what to do in the part of Türkiye we would be visiting. One adventure that presented itself repeatedly was Saklikent Canyon. I had written it off at one point because one post indicated that the water would be too high and too cold (from the melting snow from the mountains) in April. Happily, and luckily, I put it back on the To Do list!! It was amazing!!

First, the water was pretty much freezing! It was the kind of cold where your feet go numb so you no longer care how cold it is. The water also got quite deep: mid thigh at the highest point (although that is probably because the rapids made the water run up my thigh – it was probably just knee deep). Second, any good Colorado gal has hiked in the Big Thompson River (or some other river) when it was high, fast, and cold due to snow melt, so she knows what it is like for her feet and lower limbs to go numb. Right, my fellow Coloradoans?!

Saklikent Gorge, also known as Hidden City, is about 18 kilometers long and 300 meters deep. It is the longest canyon in Türkiye and one of the deepest in the world. The hike we took (out and back) is four km total.

Okay, let’s just start with this entrance sign. There are two comical things. I understand why one wouldn’t consume alcohol while traipsing through the water, but . . . nuts? What do they have against nuts? And, I don’t know how one would enter the canyon “from a hard hat” unless they are the size of Ant-Man (when he is, you know, ant-sized). I love these signs!

“Girisi” means entrance, so this was our starting point.

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There is one way for us to get into town: by dinghy then foot. This is completely cool with us since we actually have a dinghy now. Oh how we are enjoying that!

But first, let’s remember why we are even here. We’d planned to go directly to the Greek Dodecanese islands after we left Cyprus, but Michael did what he often does: he chatted with a stranger he met at the marina. When telling this gentleman of our plans, the gentleman suggested that we visit Kaş, Türkiye first. Because we are open to new ideas and don’t have a really strict schedule, we did some research. After about an hour’s worth of study, we decided that it was an excellent idea to visit Türkiye before Greece!

So, here we are. We shared a couple of pictures of the anchorage in the previous post, but since it is so pretty, we are sharing some more.

The clouds!

This Colorado gal loves, loves, loves seeing mountains!

We also have great views of the sunset and a portion of Kaş at night from our boat.

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We left Cyprus on Good Friday and arrived in Türkiye on Easter Sunday. The GRIBs correctly predicted the winds, so the trip was uneventful. Whew! What a way to spend the Easter weekend!

We are now in the Kaş marina anchorage. A berth in the marina would have cost about $170/day so we said, “no thank you.” This means that we need to revisit our plans. We’d expected to be in a marina for at least a part of our visit so that we could take a four-day road trip. That’s not going to happen now.

Let us first say something about the work we got done at the Limassol Marina. It was lightning fast! We were astonished and grateful. 🙂 The Raymarine dude replaced two navigation instrument displays and installed a triducer. The Yanmar folks emptied and cleaned our fuel tanks, cleaned our fuel/water separators (for both engines and the generator), replaced the serpentine belts on both engines, and replaced the water pump belt on the starboard engine. It wasn’t cheap (at all!) but everything needed to be done and was done quickly. We also hired a diver to check our props and propellers. (We are certified divers but we don’t have a tank on board. Must get one.) We hired the diver for a couple of reasons. First, Michael had cut yet more plastic from the props and wanted to make sure that it had all been removed. Second, we’d been hearing a weird sound from the rudders and wanted to make sure that nothing was amiss. There wasn’t.

Here are a few pictures of the work we had done at Limassol. We’ll start with the fuel tanks. First, they attach a hose to the bottom of the fuel tank. You can see a nozzle toward the bottom of the tank in the middle:

Next, they put the hose through the portlight and attach it to a pump.

This little pump (the black thing in the middle with two hoses attached to it) moves the fuel from the tank to a big barrel in the back of their truck.

They emptied the starboard tank, then we used the fuel transfer pump to move the fuel from the port tank to the starboard tank. When they were done, there was no more fuel left on Seahike.

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We’re back! April Fools pulled a fast one on us. That, or I jinxed us again by saying over and over how much we LOVE Cyprus. She called us back!

What actually happened is that we were headed to Turkey – we left at 12:40 a.m. on April Fools Day. After motoring for about 18 hours, the RPMs on our starboard engine dropped. When we went to check it out we smelled smoke coming from the engine. We turned off the engine and decided to go back to Cyprus. We would rather have professionals look at the engine than try to fix it ourselves. And we don’t want to head to Turkey, Greece, Albania, Montenegro, Italy, and Tunisia with only one working engine. We don’t have a great deal of trust in either engine at this point. 🙂

This seems to be our curse. I think we’ve had more engine problems in four months than we should (well, maybe “should” isn’t the right word) in four years. Although, we are wondering this time if dirty fuel tanks might be involved. . .

Rather than return to Ayia Napa, which is at the east end of Cyprus, we contacted Limassol Marina to see if we could stay there. It was closer to our (then) current location and also closer to Turkey (in the big scheme of things). We were happy when they said it was okay. We got to the marina at 5:00 a.m. yesterday, went to sleep again, then checked in with Customs and Immigration a few hours later.

I took a walk around the marina and nearby area yesterday morning while Captain Michael took a nap. This place is amazing! There are numerous restaurants and bars, and even a Cigar Lounge. (You might recall that Michael and I share a cigar or two every year.) There are showers for the yachters (we’ve already used them), and a gym and spa. I might – wait for it – get a pedicure!

In addition, no more than 10 minutes after we moved to our temporary berth yesterday, Kathy from the U.K. (I don’t think that is her official name) came by to welcome us. She introduced us to the owner of the boat she was a guest on, Brian from Britain (ditto, but how alliterative). Brian told us that he had a friend staying at the marina who could give us the name of a good diesel engine mechanic. A women who works at the marina also told us she would contact folks who could work on our engine problem.

So, that’s where we are now. We considered flying to Turkey in case we don’t have time to sail there, but the cost of the flight alone is pretty prohibitive given that we are now spending more money on a marina, mechanics, and coffee and pastries at the coffee shop (!).

p.s. I wrote most of this yesterday. As of this moment (12:06 p.m. on April 3), a mechanic is looking at the engine and the fuel. Michael also arranged to have someone look at one of our Raymarine instrument displays that just started acting up before we left Cyprus the first time, and he has already come and gone. He will have two new instruments (we are replacing two since one is simply old and will likely fail soon, given our luck <grin>) for us within three days.

Everything works out for the better in the end. Stay calm and carry on!

In the meantime, here are some pictures of the marina and surrounding area.

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