LOG
From Oman to Turkey

 

 

 

May 30, 2011

We spent 3 months in total in Oman. This was much longer than we expected, we had expected the shipping to take place in early May, however there were a number of factors which delayed the shipping to late May. We had placed a contract with Dockwise, however they cannot use their own ships to go through the Red Sea and had to contract for a suitable ship with a large shipping company who went bust. Dockwise had to renegotiate with a different company to get a suitable ship to be able to handle all 20 yachts. As Dockwise are just contracting for one of the cargoes on the ship they are not in control of it's schedule and these ships have to take advantage of any cargoes available on their proposed routes.

We made the best of our time in Oman however as we were effectively stuck there it was a bit difficult to keep up the spirits some of the time. Mark & Chrissy on Blue Magic were wonderful in arranging lots of entertainment events and this helped hugely.

We were very glad to finally see the ship arrive in Salalah and then had a very busy time arranging for all the boats to be safely loaded on to the Palmerton. Each yacht needed at least 4 people on board to handle the slings and make sure no damage was done so this needed everyone to be available to help where needed. As usual the group did pretty well in pulling together to get the job done and it went very well, with no delays caused. (Shipping Pictures)
 

July 30, 2011

Once the ship left Salalah we travelled up to Muscat in the bus, with Pete from Fai Tira, and then flew to Istanbul. We stayed in Istanbul for 4 nights and had a great time there. The old town has some spectacular buildings and it has a really good atmosphere. We did the tourist thing, including a trip up the Bosphorus. (Istanbul Pictures)

We then travelled in the Ferry and Train down the Ismir and visited famous ruins at Ephesus.

We arrived in Marmaris a couple of days before the ship was due and booked into an apartment for a week to give us time to get the boat ready for cruising again. The Palmerton arrived on time and we had the exciting job of getting our boat unloaded and into the Marmaris Yacht marina. (Unloading Pictures)
 

We stayed in the marina for 4 days and then had 4 weeks cruising the coast around Marmaris and reminding ourselves what sailing was about. This proved to be a really good decision and we really enjoyed ourselves. (Turkey Cruising Pictures)

We had decided that the shipping delays made it too late for us to take the boat back to Scotland this year and still be able to experience Mediterranean cruising, so we are keeping the boat in Marmaris for the next year.

 

This page was last modified on:
November 14th, 2011