Thursday 9th August 2012 Gocek Marina

For the past couple of weeks there has been a heat wave in Eastern Europe and the temperatures have been over 40 degrees most days. Today was no exception at 43 degrees. There was very little relief in the evenings with temperatures only slightly cooler at around 28 to 30 degrees. We have remained in the marina to get some quotes for work on the boat over winter as we are considering leaving the Tangaroa in Gocek. Also having power and water has given us the opportunity to do washing, cleaning and run the air conditioner to escape from the heat. The only thing we miss is our regular swimming as in marinas you usually cannot trust the cleaness of the water!! We find it is too hot to cook aboard the boat in this weather, even with the barbeque outside. Venturing out for dinner is always pleasant and surprisingly quite inexpensive compared to Australia at the moment. We have been very fortunate having an excellent exchange rate to the Euro in Greece and now to the Turkish Lire. The food here in Turkey is very fresh with a lot of salads, fish, meat and the traditional Mezes, which are very tasty at the start of a meal. The people are quite health conscious and take pride in thier cuisine. For the past 3 weeks it has been Ramadan and it is hard to believe how in the searing heat people are not able to eat or even drink anything from sunrise to sunset. Turkey is stunningly beautiful with friendly helpful and welcoming people and we intent to spend some more time here next year if possible. The Gocek area is really wonderful and there are so many amazing bays to visit here. We have our dear friends Don and Susie arriving in a month and we hope to bring them here to enjoy the experience of the area.