Our First Leg, the Datca Peninsular, on our way to Marmaris to meet Steven!

On the 20th June, a little later in the season than normal, we arrived in Seaclusion’s winter home Oren, to find her all safe and sound, thankfully. Aside from sending a diver down to clean off her prop, it took only 2 whistle-stop days to get ready, all set and provisioned to depart Oren, heading south to meet Steven who was set to meet us in Marmaris on the 27th.

Our first dinner on board, still in Oren, paddle-board, bits & pieces all tied down ready to leave at the crack of dawn the following day!

So finally on the 23rd, we were on the water again, under engine for the first few hours as it was way to early in the morning for the wind to show its face!

That however didn’t last very long, and if we were hoping for a gentle re-introduction to sailing this year, we were very much mistaken. As we headed towards the top of the Datca Peninsular, the winds got up to a very healthy 24 knots, certainly sufficient to test our Genoa sail under reefing!  After 45 NMs, we finally put into the bay of Palamut, dropped our anchor hoping for a less rolly-polly night than we had had there the year before! We had hoped to get to Mesudiye, 5NM’s further on, but given the winds and we were rather tired at this point, we played it safe. We were in luck, the winds dropped, the sea dropped and a peaceful night was enjoyed!

The following morning, we soon realised that we had forgotten the instant coffee, not being able to use our Nespresso machine under battery power alone, so itching to get the paddleboard out, Chantal volunteered to paddle to the town. With her phone and money safely tucked into her waterproof bag, just in case 8 months of no paddle-boarding meant a dunk in the sea, she went off and safely made it ashore bearing a thankfully dry jar of coffee!

Palamut

The following day we had a very genteel motor around the corner to Mesudiye and were rather relieved we made the decision we did yesterday, as our pilot book is rather out of date, the sheltered quay that used to be there having long gone and replaced with one on the outside of the breakwater. It would have been a horrible mooring in the winds the day before, but as it happens on this day, it was fabulous!

Mesudiye

The following day, we headed further east along the Datca Peninsular to Datca itself, having missed it last year completely. Datca is  a pleasant sleepy little spot despite the considerable number of boats that stop here, it had far more character than we expected. We will let the pictures do the talking from our amble around the town both during the afternoon and later in the evening when we went out for a bite to eat.

Datca by Night

On the move again, we motor sailed 21NM towards Marmaris, the strong winds having deserted us and stopped in a wonderful and relatively empty anchorage called Serce Limani, where we actually managed the whole drop anchor with a long line ashore thing with no mishap, but then there was no cross wind to contend with this time! We spent a wonderful afternoon chilling on board, followed by a nice bottle of plonk and a plate full of lamb chops and salad, did we tell you last year how fantastic the lamb here is in Turkey?

Serce Limani

Finally the day of Steven’s arrival was upon us, so we left early and headed around the corner to Marmaris, and Netsel Marina to meet the lad and start our adventures with him for which you will have to wait until the next chapter!

Arrival in Marmaris Bay

27th June 2019