On the trip into Turkey Bob said the Gocek inlet was like ‘coming home’. This is where we started with chartering Sunsail yachts. My first sailing experience was on ‘Moon River’ a 36 foot yacht. Gurmeet and Dipi joined us for half of the week, that was in 2009. Since then I’ve sailed 1716 nautical miles including my Day Tripper course on the Clyde Estuary. This trip so far is 1062 nm from Kalamata and it’s not finished yet. The sense of achievement cannot be denied in sailing but I am often very tired. Holidays of two weeks are fine but longer means that all my clothes are dirty and full of salt until we reach a shower on-shore. My hair becomes clogged with salt even if I rinse it out after a swim. Another milestone has been that after over two and a half thousand miles at sea I can let go of my ‘noodle’ float. I am now swimming without it, although Bob is holding it in case I flounder, lose confidence and need to grab it.

   We sailed to Ekincik missing out all the bays which are so well-known to us – Kapi Creek, 22 Fathom Cove, Wall Bay, Ruin Bay, Tersane Creek,Deep Bay, Tomb Bay and a new place to anchor which is on the larger bay coming out of Ruin Bay where we an extremely kind and well-mannered young Turk told us that it was busy because it was the end of Ramadan and then swam over to Peperuka, jumped aboard and helped us tie our line ashore. I declared to Bob that it must be Eid and sure enough a new moon appeared – I took a photo. That was on the trip down. We had good winds towards Ekincik, passing the bay near Dalaman where there were dinghy sailors who came out as far as we were. Brave.