daily boat life in winter in Turkey

Given the frequency and severity of winter storms - at times it’s like living in a wind tunnel or under a water/hail spigot -  we’ve joined the majority of other Med cruisers in holing up for a few months until the weather improves.  And given the dearth of cruising kids in the Med -  a product of Somali pirates cutting off the flow of families from Australia/New Zealand and “the crisis”, our kids are thrilled to be in a marina with a few other families.  Between us, we have ten kids ages three to 15, from Australia, Russia, Slovenia, Switzerland and the US. 

Like the other families, our kids do homework every morning Monday - Saturday, then spend afternoons between boats and playing in the marina.  Miraculously, there’s a professional musician and sax player in the marina, so every 4 or 5 days Hugo has a saxophone lesson and Maggie a recorder lesson, with concerts on Sundays.   Maggie has inspired the other girls to learn to knit, and with yarn so beautiful and inexpensive, I’ve found I actually have the patience to try it again as well.  Marmaris is also a great place for boat work – I’ll never want to move back into our house after all our cushion and canvas work is finished.  And just outside the marina is a large environmentally and archeologically protected island with beautiful dirt roads winding through it…perfect for hiking and running.  It’s truly a combination of the best of all my former running trails:  the flora of my favorite California Bay Area running trails but without all the people and the elevation challenges of my favorite Juneau Alaska running trails but without the rain.   All that running builds up an appetite, so I’ve been subjecting the family to my attempts at Turkish cooking…bulgur wheat and red lentils, swiss chard and spinach, pomegranate sauce and red pepper paste…the kids can’t wait to get home and have fries and chicken wings at Mr. Henry’s!

So while the transition to a sedentary lifestyle isn’t easy for some of us (ie me), we’re making the most of it, knowing it won’t last long - later this month we meet friends from Alaska for a two week trip around Turkey, and in late January we head to Egpyt for a couple of weeks. 



View of our marina from the nearby island







My hat-knitting experiments...Goldilocks would be proud...

...either too big or too small.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Maggie leans into the wind in front of

the winter storm wave barricades



Boat kids on a hike to a nearby cave, it filled with their echoes

of "Frere Jacques" in five languages