Life as a Beginning Cruiser

We have been living on board Songster for about a week now.  We are nestled stern on to Charlie dock at the marina squeezed, in the Mediterranean fashion of docking, between yachts from Turkey, Germany, England, US, Sweden, Australia and New Zealand.  Life is pretty busy at the marina in October as all the yacht owners are preparing their boats for winter storage.  Sails are being taken down and folded, lines and halyards washed in Salt-away, dried and stored and the always present maintenance, upgrades and repair work being undertaken.

Everyday huge cranes lift out yachts, put them in a cradle and carry them to the large parking lot called ‘the hard’.  About 1000 yachts will spend the winter months on the hard at Marmaris.  Some of the mega motor yachts even have an instant garage built around them.  

Small yacht coming out of the water

Large yacht being moved around

Yachts on the hard

This whole structure goes up in a day – wooden framework, plastic covering, vents and a doorway

While we are slowly familiarising ourselves with Songster and her systems, we are also meeting other yachties and learning the rhythms of marina life.  There is the daily radio net at 9 am where other yachties across the Marmaris area get in touch with each other, hear the weather forecast, make announcements of events, ask for help or advice and offer ‘treasures of the bilge’ – items for sale or give away.  There is the 10 am water taxi across the harbour into town for shopping and errands to the chandlers.  

Not a bad view on the way to the shops

When errands are complete, a dolmus (mini-bus) running every 20 minutes can be taken back to the marina.  Then from 12 – 2 pm the canteen is open for workers and resident yachties for an inexpensive (7 TKL ~ $A3.50) lunch.  The meals and setting are a bit like school dinners but they serve very tasty Turkish food while a rather scrappy looking cockatoo squawks in the background.  

Canteen cockatoo

The rest of the afternoon is spent chipping away at the always growing ‘to do’ list until sundowner time when people sit in their cockpits, have a drink and nibbles and talk about the latest project, where to get the best price on supplies, where the best anchorages are, who is sailing where and general tales of past cruising experiences.  Then it is early to bed so we can rise early the next morning to continue another day chipping away at the ‘to do’ list.
 

I have labelled us as cruisers but really we are novice live aboards for now. It is doubtful we will have ourselves and Songster ready to go sailing out on the water (but maybe some motoring?) before we must leave Turkey in early November.  Still this lifestyle has its moments; watching the small school of fry swim between the boats through the crystal clear water, learning and more learning on our journey to become self-sufficient sailors, growing more and more limber climbing up and down the companionway, making new friends and watching the moon rise the hills around the bay while sipping a Turkish wine in the cockpit.

Full moon over Marmaris marina