Bodrum

I've finally got around to sorting through my photographs. This is the first of the blog entries orignally posted as text only and so I've now added some photos, a map and tried to correct the spelling and syntax errors. Only about 30 other entries to do the same for!

We stayed at Bodrum for 2 nights with the second one being in the marina. That wasn't the original plan as we had intended to stop at a nice anchorage on 6 September, however, some component in my computer frazzled and it would no longer charge the battery. We therefore diverted to Bodrum a day early. With it being the largest town in the area we wanted to buy a new battery charger in the hope that the problem was in the charger and not the computer. As a back-up we arranged with Alex that he would get a new charger and bring it out with him the following evening.

We anchored between the picturesque Bodrum castle and the Halikarnassos night club (Nice laser light show but a shame about the music which went on until 4am). Once ashore and after consulting the tourism information centre, we took a half hour dolmus ride to the outskirts of Bodrum where there was a computer centre. No joy there but we did get directions to the Bodrum Apple store which was about a 20 minute walk from the marina – ho hum! Amazingly, right beside the computer centre was a large chandlery so it wasn't a completely wasted journey because we bought a few bits and pieces for BV that we had been keeping an eye out for. On our way back to Bodrum we got a message from Alex who had been super-efficient and got hold of the charger we needed. Great news! With that sorted we were able to explore some of the back streets of Bodrum finding some excellent bread and a really good fruit and veg shop.

We had booked into the marina for the night of 7 September to make things easy for meeting Alex and Lucy. Despite wearing earplugs it was a disturbed night's sleep with the combination of the loud nightclub music followed by the dawn call to prayer. At least that meant we were awake early to move into the marina! On the way in we took the opportunity to top up the fuel tanks and then were guided into our mooring spot by the marina staff. Nicky settled up with the marina for the mooring fees and dropped off some laundry before we both hiked up to the large supermarket. Laden down with goodies we returned to BV and crammed the fridge and lockers with the resupply of victuals. We got the message that Alex and Lucy were delayed by 4 hours which was a shame but that gave us time to meet Roger Cornish, one of the people we would be sailing in company with later in September.

The Queen Elizabeth cruise liner arriving at Bodrum    

Alex and Lucy finally arrived at 0230 very glad that their flight had not been cancelled. Despite the late arrival and subsequent late bedtime we all slept well; the nightclubs appear to be very quiet on Monday nights! The only bad news was that the new charger did not solve the problem; something inside the computer had failed. We decided that Turkey was not the place to buy a replacement because it would be difficult to get a UK spec machine (ie not with a Turkish keyboard) and I would probably need some help with moving data and software across to the new one which would more easily be accomplished in slow time when we are back in Guernsey in 6 weeks time. A shame as it would severely restrict what I could do in putting photographs onto the blog.

In the morning we moved out of the marina before we incurred an extra night's mooring fees and anchored beside the castle again. Alex and Lucy explore the castle whilst Nicky and I sorted out some e-mails and home admin before visiting the fruit and veg shop again.

Everything from mega hot chillies to huge watermelons and the ripest figs we brought back to BV. We were very pleased but the only issue was finding space to store it all!

We found space for everything in the fridge and the normal lockers except, however, for the watermelon. After a it of lateral thinking we did find that it fitted nicely into the wash-hand basin in one of the heads. Perfect for stopping it from rolling around when we went sailing. Why else do we need 2 heads in BV if not to store watermelons?
 

Bodrum, Turkey