Return to Finike for the Winter: Then Malta & Sweden by air

Our trip south has been marked with meeting more wonderful people, cruisers and locals, with too many stories which have to wait for another time. The best part was that the northerlies were now behind us, and we looked forward to sailing south. The reality was that as soon as we reached Bodrum and September, it seemed that the wind tap was switched off, and we had a glorious month in the Bodrum – Datcha – Marmaris area, visiting numerous bays, villages and sites, with some truly spectacular anchorages. We crossed over to the very pretty Greek island of Simi to stock up on bacon, salami and pork products generally, and then also called into Rhodes to stock up on wine for the winter months.

We spend another wonderful fortnight in the Fethiye area, visiting Gocek and many of the inland sites: incredibly beautiful (pictures tell their own stores), ruins, gorges, caves, beaches, and of course the very scenic bays in the very protected large Fethiye-Gocek area. I loved Fethiye and the market on Tuesdays is truly great!

Our slower passage seemed to coincide with that of many boats heading towards their designated winter marinas – at this time of the year there seemed to be not so many charter boats. We now understood why those Europeans who keep their boats in Turkey/Greece choose to cruise in May-June and then again in September-October… it’s great sailing weather without the blustery meltemi which this year seemed to be permanently in gale force mode throughout August!

Towards mid October, the signs for seasonal change were becoming more obvious with more cloud and some occasional rain… time to head back to Finike! We watched the weather more carefully, and made our way south still swimming every day, and enjoying balmy weather and we got to Finike in the last week of October – just in time before the first good winter storm.

We had a very busy two weeks taking down sails, washing them and generally packing all the boat up, clearing everything removable on deck! The good thing about the storm was that we had a chance to check out the mooring lines under stress, so we were happy to leave the boat to go and visit rellies (relatives, to you non Aussies) in Malta and Sweden – and a good thing we did, as they have had some nasty weather systems go through since.

We took the bus to Antalya and then flew to Istanbul for a few days where we stayed with friends we met in Alacati. The best part was that we were very well briefed on how to make the best of our short time there to visit the many wonderfully historical sites. Istanbul is beautifullll… and we took in a ferry down through the Bosphorus every day to get to the old parts of town. It has always been a dream of mine to visit the Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque and the Topkapi Palace! And whilst some places can be an anticlimax, we felt nothing but awe and history all around us…..

Malta was great fun, and incredibly green after the first rains, which was great, as we usually visited in summer when the island tends to go very barren, especially as everything is in limestone. It was great catching up with family and friends, and we had some lovely surprises along the way like catching up with an old school friend whom I had not seen for some 35years!! The highlight was our rendezvous with Mark and Bridget whom we had not seen for over two years since their wedding before we left Perth. Together with my mum and dad we all rediscovered my parents’ old haunts.

Mum and dad looked very well for their age, with my mum still having her great sense of fun and ‘naughtiness’ as she related stories from her growing up years, dating dad. They are really looking forward to us sailing into Malta next year. The stay was topped when we learnt that my sister’s restaurant (Ta’ Marija) won best restaurant for the 4th consecutive year!!

We are now in Stockholm, visiting Bjorn’s family.

Wow, the forecast was for a cold winter, but really, in all the years we have been chasing white Christmases whilst the kids were growing up, we have never had such a snow storm as we had over the past few days… I recall it was like this on my very first visit and silly me offered to go clear up the path and driveway from snow! Needless to say, I let Bjorn do the work this time round (see photos!!!)

Today as I write this, the sun is out and really dazzling with all the snow around. It’s good to have snow cover as it means that it never gets really dark at night with a permanent ‘lume’ from the pristine snow.

Well that’s enough prattling from us ‘up here’.

A really great Xmas and a terrific New Year to you and yours.