Turkey, here we come

October 1983/June 1984

After the hustle and bustle of Rhodes the quite and calm of Marmaris was almost eerie.  Gone were the crowds, the hawkers and the hoards of tourists.  It was just too quiet but the peace was welcome and we spent a few days trying to get acclimatized to the Turkish way of life.  One thing we noticed right off the bat was that it was a lot cheaper, a lunch of pizza buns and a round of Pepsis came to just over $2, now that is a bargin.
Next we made a visit to Fethiye, at that time we were the only cruising yacht and had the city to ourselves.  The beautiful bay of Oludeniz is nearby and it was just closed to boats in an attempt to preserve the pristine waters so we were not able to anchor in the bay.
Then onward to Kastelorizo (Greek) and Kas with its leaning lighthouse, followed by Finike.

It was getting late in the season and we were getting a bit concerned about winter storms, alread the mountains to the north wee showing a mantle of snow.  It was time to find somewhere to tuck into for the winter.  Cyprus came highly recommended and so we struck off for Larnaca.

This proved to be an excellent choice for not only is there a good marina (which luckily had space for us) but there is a long history of English visitors, going back to the Knights of St. John.  More recently of course, it has been the UN separating the warring factions of the Greeks vs the Turks.

All in all we spent about 6 months in Cyprus.  Jackie was lucky to get a job teaching at the British base, Kirsten got to go to school, something we had promised her, and Christian and Leif did odd jobs on the boat and managed to pick up a couple of paid positions.  We had Christmas in the marina and received many cards and presents from our families overseas.  It was a great time and an experience the children will remember forever.

The winter passed quickly as we were busy trying to cram as much as we could into our lives.  We rented a car and did a day trip around the Greek portion of the island.  From the palm trees on the coast to the snow in the Troodos Mountains where they were skiing!  We saw Aphrodite's Pool, Makario's tomb, lace making on the streets, remote monastaries and great scenery.
While in Larnaca we met Bill and Mona from New Zealand, Bill designed and built his boat, and they sailed her to Cyprus and eventually they made their way round the world back to New Zealand.  It was with them that we crossed over to the Turkish side and hired a car for a tour of the north.  Again the towns were a complete change from the Greek side.  It was quiet, no rushing about but one got the impression that things were not as prosperous as there appeared to be little commerce.