Six Degrees?

It's been interesting discovering the connectedness of people living on the sea. Cruisers tend to meet and re-meet in strange and interesting ways. Here's some examples.

Gemiler Island and bay

When we first chartered a boat in Turkey, to 'sanity check' our idea of living afloat here, we looked up a chartering site called 'Southern Cross Blue Yachting'. Not only because of the name, but they also had the cheapest charter boat rates we could find in Turkey. It turned out that the owner of that company, Dave Stanley, was an Australian (hence Southern Cross) who used to live near Ballina, where we used to sail. First co-incidence.

View from Gemiler

When we became interested in Pavlov, we called Dave (who lives in Bodrum, close to Fethiye) to have a look at Pavlov for us. We wanted some confirmation that she was a good boat before flying half way around the world to look at her. Dave obliged, and drove down from Bodrum to look at the boat. For company, he took an American sailor who was also searching to buy another boat. His boat had burned to the water just after he arrived in the Mediterranean after crossing from the USA.

Burial tomb

Almost one year later, when we were in Orhaniye, at the weekly markets, we met an American woman who told us about their boat burning down. We kind of made the connections, realizing that Jennifer was the wife of Mathius, the guy who drove down to look at Pavlov. Co-incidence indeed. Mathius and Jennifer have since become friends, currently berthed in Fethiye, and we're travelling to Cappodocia with them.

7th century Church of St Nicholas

Meanwhile, harking back to my previous life as a mathematics teacher, I previously taught with a colleague Chris at Casino High School. Not finished with teaching after retiring from the Australian Department of Education, Chris starting teaching at the Koc school in Istanbul. A further strange co-incidence that we both ended up in Turkey. We invited Chris and his wife Kim down to visit us in Fethiye, and take a short cruise through the 12 Island Bay near Fethiye.

Megan, Chris and Kim

We had a break in the rain, which cleared to 4 gorgeous days of late summer sunshine. We sailed down to Gemiler Bay, a secluded anchorage just before the popular tourist spot, Oludeniz. A small island in that bay has some spectacular ruins of 5th to 7th century churches that were reputed to have been the base of St Nicholas (the real Santa Claus). It was wonderful clambering over this pristine island that was deserted but for us, inspecting surprisingly exciting ruins.

Turkish farming village life

We then travelled down to Kapi Creek, and visited a small Turkish village, where we'd made some friends on a previous visit. This is a small village of a few families, growing olives and homesteading a few goats and sheep. We'd had tea with the Iman previously. The village had one of the smallest mosques I've ever seen.

The mosque is the building on the left

We were welcomed into the village head's home, offered sage tea and some dough ball sweets (It was Biran, a Turkish festival time after Ramadan). We appreciated the hospitality of the village and bought a few handicrafts in exchange (some beadwork and socks).

Hand spinning in the village house

We had a very enjoyable cruise with old aquaintances who became friends. It made me reflect on how we move through relationships in life, and how they move through us. Cruising seems to throw you quickly into new relationships, through mutual co-dependence and shared opportunities, but old relationships can keep coming around, being renewed, and seen in different lights. Lets see what a week in Cappadocia, and a voyage in a hot air balloon will make of our new friendship with Mathius and Jennifer.