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2008 EMYR
Schedule
Wednesday, May 14th, Alanya, Turkey
We
are underway again on our way to our ninth port with the
EMYR. There is so much going on that I need to
update more frequently, but finding the time to do so is
difficult.
Juliana's leg is healing very well. Dr. Dave
removed the three big vertical stitches last night.
The bottom of the cut, which would have been the initial
entry point of the metal rod, is still a little tender
so we are going to leave the 28 spiral stitches in for
another day or two.
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We
attended our first formal rally dinner in Kemer on
Monday night. Tables for ten were set along the
seaside just outside the marina, in front of the Turkiz
Otel. The night was one of the warmest we have had
so far.
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Cocktails were followed by a delicious four course meal.
We sat the kids at their own table, much to the delight
of both the kids and the parents.
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Dancing began early in the evening and continued until
midnight, interrupted only by a few speeches and the
flag ceremony. Each nation represented in the
rally nominates a flag bearer to carry the colors during
a short presentation on stage. It's pretty
impressive to see the flags of nineteen countries waving
overhead. Out of a total of 265, the British are
the best represented with 71 crew, followed by the
Americans with 56. Germany, the Netherlands and
Switzerland each have 19 participants in this year's
rally. French, Turkish and Spanish crew make up
another 41 members. Our New Zealand friends have
nine countrymen here, as do the Australians. The
remaining 23 participants hail from nine different
countries. It is a very diverse and interesting
crowd.
Signing up for the tours is one way to ensure that you
get to meet more of these people. We've seen five
ancient cities since Ephesus; Caunos, Myra, Arykanda,
Limyra and Phasellis. These sights are really
amazing, left to mother nature for over a thousand years
and just recently opened up for tourism. You are
left to climb and explore, finding your own way around
the fallen stones and shrubbery.
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The coast of Turkey is really the place to come if you
want to see ancient Greek and Roman cities.
Arykanda was particularly impressive, reminding me of
Delphi, perched high up in the mountains with
spectacular views below and above. The
amphitheater looks practically new, yet has not been
reconstructed at all.
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Just when you think you have seen it all, you find
another path to follow, leading you to the agora
(commercial marketplace). Above it all sits the
stadium where athletic competitions were held.
Tucked around the corner in what must have been a
residence, two thousand year old mosaics lie exposed to
the elements.
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It
would have been nice to have a guide to reconstruct the
city out of the columns and stone formations that we
saw, but we did our best by reading the signs that were
posted in key locations.
Sometimes our tours include a notable lunch.
Pulling off the mountain road we climbed out of the
minibuses to find a feast of salads, hot loaves of
bread, cheese and fresh trout and french fries laid out
for us beside a gurgling stream.
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Traveling along the south central coast of Turkey, the
beautiful rock tombs of ancient Lycia are found
everywhere, carved into the soft limestone cliffs
typical of this area . Built between 450BC and
about 200BC, some remain in amazingly good condition,
although any treasures that might have been buried with
the deceased have long since been stolen.
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We
spent three nights in Kemer, the middle point of the
rally. We had a day of games and presentations the
morning after our formal dinner. The fleet is
divided into 6 groups of 13 or 14 boats. These
groups fielded teams in such competitions as a
wheelbarrow race, an egg toss and a tug of war.
Being sailors, the organizers devised a new game which
entailed feeding a continuous line and shackle through
the clothing of eight team members. The first to
string their whole team together wins.
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The dark blue team, Group 6, which Zia belongs to,
didn't do so well overall. We ended the
competition tied for last place.
We
have ten more stops to make and ten more formal dinners.
It appears they added one in Alanya, our next stop.
We are all watching the situation in Lebanon very
closely. We aren't scheduled to be there until the
31st so the organizers won't make any decisions for a
little while. They have excellent contacts with
locals on the ground and certainly won't proceed if it
is at all dangerous. Our fallback position is
another jaunt over to Northern Cyprus instead.
We
eagerly await Larson and Gav's arrival late tomorrow
night. It should make these next five weeks that
much more fun for us. I'm hoping that our good
luck in finding internet connections stays with us
throughout the trip, but I cannot guarantee that.
I will write more often and post when I can. I
just don't want to forget any of the details of this
experience. It has been remarkable.
Next Entry
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Many thanks to our friend Craig Homenko for his assistance in setting up the website.
We also would like
to thank our buddy Scott Brunner who has been kind
enough to host the website on his server.
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