From Cacik to Fondue

Cruisenews is a little out of sync by two continents and a few thousand miles. However that is OK because while we have done quite a bit of traveling in a short time by plane, car and train, Cénou has not moved, tucked amongst some two thousand five hundred boats in Marmaris, Turkey.

Our arrival in Turkey was the learning experience that every new country brings, coupled with the hectic pace of preparing the boat for haul out and the winter. Adding to the intensity of the experience was the firing of the entire marina office staff by Nezlie, the head of the office, just as we were pulling in. Never mind that the place was also trying to digest doubling in size since last spring. With two thousand five hundred boats in and out of the water, Marmaris Yacht Marine is vying to become the largest marina in the Mediterranean (although it still needs to double in size to beat the French marina of Antibes). So, you can imagine the mess in organization when only one person in the office knows what is going on.

We had no idea about the office turmoil as we pulled in. The new office staff received us with as much smiling as possible but Nezlie was all intensity and not much smiling. When she told me we were getting hauled out within four hours, instead of five days later, as agreed via phone, I told her I was not ready. She scoffed and we quickly set ourselves on a reciprocal course like two ships in the fog of culture. I worked like a maniac for four hours but my mouth was full of words as I wrestled the 130 pound mainsail, the jib and the screecher and hustled to get the mast ready to be un-stepped. Rike's back precluded her helping and the work was simply too physical for the girls, although they did help with what ever they could do.

The haul-out went without any problems even if some more tension arose between me and Nezlie over the launch date. In the end it all ended with a truce and me giving Nezlie flowers to make amends after she decided to abide by the launch date on the contract. Clearly we sailed in at the wrong time and the cultural as well as language gap made things yet more complicated.

Again, the handicap of "landing" somewhere without a sense of what is going on can put us in a tight spot, so we were fortunate to find a French organization in Marmaris called Nokta. Their business, which is member based, is to help cruisers negotiate the plethora of boat services in Marmaris as well as assisting in communication and legal matters. Aside from French, they speak Turkish, English and German. Cecile, at Nokta is the one who explained the turmoil we had just blithely stepped into.

So that episode brought closure to a long cruising season and we left Turkey eager to see more. Marmaris, is a tourist enclave, as such we hope to launch by the agreed date so that we have sometime to spend in Turkey before heading to Egypt. However, our space in the Med Rally, which escorts boats from Turkey to Egypt, is not a sure thing as we are number 8 in the waiting list. 

Plenty has been going on in our minds and in our lives since Cénou's keels met Turkish soil. We moved back into our small apartment in les Diablerets, Switzerland, we flew to the US for a whirlwind stay during which we saw too few people too few times, and flew back to our little apartment to crack open school books again.

Our stay in Charlottesville was many things to us and none of them were bad. It was great to see that we still have friends and a community to go back to. It was even more wonderful to see how quickly, seamlessly in fact, Anouck and Céline reconnected with their friends and it brought home to all four of us that it is time to head back. Luckily for us we do have a place to get back to because Corinne and Olivier have been taking good care of our house. So we decided to make the trip back across the Atlantic in December of 2008, about one year from now. 

Prior to our trip to the US we debated what we wanted to do, whether we were ready to head back or whether we should spend another year out. We even toyed, me more than anyone, with taking Cénou down the Red Sea, but ultimately the pull of home has been greater. In sum, we have not cut our ties, nor did we ever plan to, and perhaps that has defined our entire trip. We have always had a plan to come back, to have Anouck and Céline re-enter the school system and see them and ourselves with our friends. 

The next year will be a busy one with some nine thousand miles to cover and long distances to cross. We will stay with our crew of four for most of it, but we are considering at this point what we want to do for the stretch across the Atlantic in terms of crew.

In sum we are doing well and happy to be stopped for a while, enjoying what ever bad weather gets thrown at the mountains from the comfort of not having to be in it, although the temptation of wind and swirling snow is always hard to resist.

Happy Holidays to everyone. . .

Claude, Rike, Anouck and Céline