David's Diary: Tuesday, July 15, 2003

Dinner With Nowornot in Ekincik Limai

As the date for our return to Canada looms nearer it seems like the time goes by faster and faster. Today, we sailed from Marmaris to Ekincik Limai, a bay to the east. We have been corresponding by email with our friends on the sailboat Nowornot and we hope to meet up with them today. Ekincik Limai is a big bay and we decide to tie up to the convenient dock in the Southeast corner.

Karalee Examines Allen's Fort

I explore ashore for a while and by the time I return Allen has discovered a little grotto in the rocks on the other side of the dock. He spends the afternoon building his own fort. He takes delight in showing Karalee and me what he has built. Both of us enjoy Allen's fort, even if we have to walk a precarious path, stepping from rock to rock, to get to his creation.

Nowornot and Dragonsinger Crew

Steve from Nowornot called me late in the afternoon to say that they are anchored off the Dalyan River and are trying to explore it themselves. The marshy landscape is hard to navigate, but they want to give it a try. The Dragonsinger kids are somewhat disappointed as they had really been looking forward to seeing their friends on Nowornot again and they had hoped Nowornot would arrive earlier.

Nowornot arrives around 7:00. All of the Dragonsinger crew had got cleaned up as we had planned to go out to dinner with everyone from Nowornot. Steve tells us that the restaurant up above the dock we are tied to is considered one of the best in this area of Turkey. Around 8:00 the two families walk up to the restaurant. Deb's Mom Martha is with them and she joins us for dinner.

Rather than a menu, dinner choices are rolled up to the table on a trolley. There is a wide selection and it takes some time to get the children and adults to make their selections. We sit around in the warm evening air making lots of noise as we visit. The kids finish dinner first and the adults send them off to play on Dragonsinger. Karalee and I visit with Steve, Deb, and Martha before paying the bill and walking back down the hill to the dock. The adults take a dinghy and motor out to Nowornot, where I give a photo album to Steve and Deb of our time together. We visit for another hour, then around midnight, we round everyone up and having got the right children on the right boat we send them to bed.