In case you are starting to think it is all fun and games… …we did have a difficult day. We headed to Yacht Classic in Fethiye for a couple of days on September 19. It was a lovely change of scenery; but, we ended up there longer than planned waiting out a couple of days of unfavourable weather. Finally on the 23rd we looked at the weather and decided the wind had moderated enough for us to make the short trip to Gemiler Adasi. Turns out we were too optimistic. The sea had a couple of days to build and was very confused and uncomfortable. And the wind was still gusting over 30 knots. We made it around to Gemiler Adasi with the cutter sail to provide some stability and Roger at the helm. Doug and I held it together; but, we were not comfortable to say the least. Once there we had to wait a bit for the gusts to subside before we could anchor and get our stern lines tied to the Island. Then we celebrated with a swim. That is the one picture I have for the whole day.

Unfortunately, that was not to be the end of our challenges. The wind shifted during the evening. We ended up starboard side to big winds and gusts over 30 knots. We stood watch over our anchor and lines until about 02:00 when we decided we were being pushed too close to the rocks at our stern. We made an attempt to reanchor further out; but, it was no use with the heavy winds. We left the anchorage and spent the rest of the night in the bay jogging back and forth. At daybreak we went back to retrieve our lines, found a comfortable anchoring spot near the beach and went to bed for a few hours. More on our adventures at Gemiler Adasi to come.