Category: Turkey

Twenty Years ago today: 27 June 1998

Twenty Years Ago, Today, Saturday, June 27, 1998: Marmaris, Turkey

LOGS: Laundry, swimming, drinks at night. Purchased small Turkish silk carpet $US500.

CHASING SUNSETS: p221-2, “Marmaris. …the carpet shops. The carpet vendor who broke down our impenetrable “no thank you” wall, was a man with Turkish parents, who was born and raised in England, who was getting out of the carpet business, and who’s opening offer was for a stack of fifty or so carpets for $US10,000. Our actual purchase was a more modest single silk carpet.

Turkey

Carole: For some reason this is not in CHASING SUNSETS – but should be: That silk carpet – we did not buy it right away. Laurie and I left the shop; had coffee in a restaurant overlooking the harbor, and discussed if we really wanted or needed it. We had not bought much on the trip and decided to buy this. I remember it as being very pretty – a medium blue with some flowers on the edge with a white background around them. I do not remember exactly what it looked like because I have not seen it in almost twenty years!! As we remember, we brought the carpet home with us that Christmas and stored it in a closet in my mother’s house where we were storing some other items. It was not there when we unpacked the closet four years later. Were we mistaken? Did we really leave it on the boat? We have torn DS apart dozens of times looking for it. Years later when we sold my mother’s house, we looked everywhere for it. The whereabouts of the expensive small 2×3 foot carpet is still a mystery.

Twenty Years Ago Today: 26 June 1998

Twenty Years Ago, Today, Friday, June 26, 1998: Marmaris, Turkey

LOG: Fixed fuel pump leak. Entered waypoints, loaded dinghy. Departed 1430 for Marmaris. 25-30 knot head winds entire way – arrived Marmaris 1830.

CHASING SUNSETS: p 221-2, “MARMARIS. A huge marina and two miles of shoulder-to-shoulder restaurants lining the waterfront made up the total town, except for the carpet shops.

Carole: My relatives loved this place with its shops and restaurants and partied well into the night. We had gotten used to our 8:00 bedtime, but were perfect hosts and stayed up with them – sometimes. Their reactions made us realize how we had changed over the years, now preferring the simple pleasures of life on board to the frenzy of the land.”

Twenty Years Ago, Wednesday, May 1, 1996: Anaho, Marquessas 

Twenty Years Ago, Wednesday, May 1, 1996: Anaho, Marquessas
LOG: Another reef walk; snorkeling.
CHASING SUNSETS: p 42,  Ryan (age 8) “‘Dad gave me our fish spear and I was picking around in the tide pools when I saw a flash of green behind a rock. It was a five-pound parrot fish. I jabbed it with the spear, which bounced off the big scales, but the fish jumped out of the pool onto the coral and I speared it. Everyone was amazed. It was only later when I told how I really caught it.’

Taking the dinghy back through the passage in the reef, we noticed a man knee-deep in water catching fish on the incoming tide, killing each with a quick bite just behind the eyes. As we watched, fascinated, he caught a small octopus, dispatched it in the same fashion and held it out to us. He seemed surprised when we turned it down, but we had just spent the low tide walking on the reef and watching the octopi scuttle in and out of their holes. Who eats the floor show?”