Temperatures

Boating has been a bit hit and miss, as some days we are getting really high winds and others none at all. However, on the odd occasion, we do get winds that are just right, so we take full advantage of those days. On Thursday we did manage to get out and we had a really good day.

We set off not really with anything in mind, no journey plan, just to sail, but we ended up in a little bay round a village called Zongulduk. It was a lovely little bay and we were able to sail to within feet of a sandy beach. We dropped anchor and enjoyed a very relaxing swim, and just chilled for about an hour. We didn't struggle so much this time trying to get back into the boat. We had made some adjustments to the ladder and also we think we're probably getting the hang of it. There's definitely a technique. We motored out of the bay. We could have sailed but it would have involved an awful lot of tacking, so we chose the lazy way out. By the time we got out, the wind speed had risen, which made for an interesting struggle home .... way out of Sue's comfort zone, but unless she was going to swim for it, she had to stick with it. More power to her elbow, she did!!

Surprisingly, it isn't crowded at all here at the moment. Usually the beaches and town are wall to wall people in July and August. We think that the Turkish elections have had something to do with that. We did expect a rush back to the coast after Sunday's voting, but so far it hasn't materialised. As it's been so peaceful, we're thinking of writing to Mr Erdogan and asking him if he would hold elections every year in July. The "pro-muslim" AKP party were returned with a big majority, so we will have to wait and see how that will affect us. It is said they will continue to push us down the road of radical faith, backed by Iran and Saudi, but their ambitions to become part of the EU may put a brake on that.

We were shocked to read about a little girl who was swept away from the beach at Lowestoft, which is close to our old UK home . The rescue services found her about an hour later, she was still alive but later died in hospital of hypothermia. The report said that the sea temperature was only 11'C. That was lower than the sea temperature here in January. With that in mind, yesterday (Friday), we took the digital thermometer down to our jetty, and took a reading. The sea temperature here at the moment is 27'C (80'F) which is a full 5' higher than this time last year. A bar of soap and shampoo and you could have a bath.

Today is Saturday, so as usual we made the pilgrimage to buy fruit and veg. The temperatures have dropped to the mid-forties, but in the airless confines of the crowded market, it seems worse. We just bought what we had to, and came back home via the post-office to collect our snail-mail.