We are spending the next two weeks on the Lycian coast of Turkey with some friends, Stuart, Fiona and John and have chartered a sailing yacht out of Fethiye and are sailing it along the coast, stopping at a different anchorage most nights.  Sometimes we will anchor up in a small bay with just one taverna; sometimes on the town quay in a town; sometimes in a marina.  There’s masses of sightseeing in this region, going back to very ancient times which we are very much looking forward to, quite apart from the delights of sailing and being on the water.

We have a Bavaria 44 foot yacht with 3 cabins called Ulla!  We booked it through Seamasters in the UK who were very helpful.  Sailing is not a particularly cheap holiday but sharing the charter as we are doing, makes it very affordable, as well as being a very fun thing to do with friends.   We plan to eat breakfast and lunch on board and dinner out most days.

John is a very experienced sailor, an RYA Instructor and Offshore Yachtmaster who up until very recently had his own boat in the UK and sailed a lot.  Bob, Stuart and I are RYA qualified sailors (Bob is a Coastal Skipper, Stuart and I are Day Skippers) and we  all hold RYA Yachtmaster Theory.   Fi, is a curious and slightly dubious new sailor who we are hoping to convert!  Her previous experience with us was a very wet long weekend off the west coast of Scotland some years ago.  I’m sure this will be better.  Bob and I used to sail nearly every year with the girls, generally in the Mediterranean but on more than one occasion in Scotland.  We have always loved it and have had some really memorable trips.

In fact, Bob and I have sailed this route before but not for about 9 years so it will be interesting to see it again.  We have very fond memories of the last cruise here: idyllic bays, sandy beaches, sunken tombs anchoring below old castles…… Can’t wait!

Today we closed up Villa Rockheart and drove to Ercan airport where we returned the hire car.  We had a flight to Antalya at 1330 with Pegasus.  Only 45 minutes.  It was all very smooth.

We took a taxi from the airport to our hotel, the Crowne Plaza, on the beach.  It cost about £14.  The hotel is very nice and we got it at a super rate 53 euro for the night b&B.  The view from our window of the sea is lovely.   Antalya itself looked a bit charmless.  There is an old town but we didn’t see that.

We had a walk around the grounds and ate dinner in the hotel.  A pretty good buffet for a shade under a tenner each.