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Satellite View
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Large Scale Chart View
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Satellite View
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Large Scale Chart View
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Detail Chart View
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Satellite View
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L'ame Libra as a Radar Antenna & Screen
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Dakare as the Jolly Green Giant & Madam Butterfly
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Matlana's Mosque
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Metlana's Tomb
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Museum vases
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Fine Gold Book Illustrations
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It was a cold Day!!!
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Whirling Dervish Dancers
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Thanksgiving Day by Doug on Mindemoya
The Thanksgiving Day holiday began as a feast of thanksgiving in the American colonies almost four hundred years ago. In 1620, more than 100 pilgrims sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to settle in the New World. This marks the very first Atlantic Rally For Cruisers. The Pilgrims were at odds with the Church of England and wanted to separate from it. They had also heard that, other than fish and chips, American fast food restaurants served better food than traditional British cooking. The Pilgrims settled in what is now the state of Massachusetts. They would have settled in New York but the Dutch wanted too much rent. Their first winter in the New World was difficult. They had arrived too late to grow many crops, and without fresh food, half the colony died from disease. The following spring, the Indians taught them how to grow corn and other crops, and how to hunt and fish and how to lose money gambling at Indian owned casinos.
That fall, bountiful crops of corn, barley, beans, and pumpkins were harvested. The colonists had much to be thankful for, so a feast was prepared. They invited the local Indians who brought deer to roast with the turkeys and other wild game that was provided by the colonists. The feast was planned to thank the Indians, for without their help, the Pilgrims would not have survived. Without a doubt, the Indians continue to regret this act of generosity.
The first Thanksgiving Day in Canada was observed to celebrate the recovery of the Prince of Wales (later King Edward the VII) from a serious illness and to imitate their American neighbors. After much trial and error, the observance of Thanksgiving was set to a date early in October. This was done so that the Canadians could be ahead of the United States in at least one area beside the production of softwood lumber and number of hockey arenas.
England, formerly Great Britain, has established July 4 as a kind of Thanksgiving Day. July Fourth is called Independence Day in the former North American colonies, exclusive of Canada. On that day, the English give solemn thanks for finally being rid of those who never learned to speak the language correctly, and who do not know how to score Cricket.
The Indians do not celebrate Thanksgiving Day. Despite introducing the Immigrants to tobacco, they are not dying in sufficient numbers to allow the Indians to recover their lost land. The immigrants, for their part, have introduced alcohol, cholesterol, assorted carcinogens, and other slow acting poisons into the Indian diet. In terms of chemical warfare, it is still a standoff.
The symbols of Thanksgiving are: turkey, corn, pumpkins, and cranberry sauce, overeating, bicarbonate of soda, and leftover stuffing.
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Dakare's Season's Greetings to All
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Dakare's Holiday Season in Marmaris - 2004
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Seasons Greetings Marmaris, Turkey
December 2004
Merhaba from Marmaris, Turkey! It's December here in the resort town of Marmaris, Turkey on the southwest coast on the south Aegean Sea. We arrived in Marmaris in late October.
Our winter in Barcelona went quickly. It was filled with friends visiting and exploring the city of Barcelona. We rented a caravan in March and toured Tuscany, Italy and Provence, France. When we got back in April, it was time to do Spring maintenance chores on Dakare.
 We left Barcelona on June 1 bound for the Balearic Islands. There, we met up with friends (Jerry & Nancy on L'ame Libra) with whom we buddy boated all the way to Turkey. We stopped in Sardinia, the Aeolian Islands (which are located just north of Sicily) and Sicily. On Vulcano in the Aeolian's, we hiked up to the top of the extinct volcano and from there we could see the eruptions on the island of Stromboli. It was declared off limits to us because it was so active and unpredictable. That was not to be the end of volcano adventures. In Sicily, we based ourselves in Messina and rented a car to explore the island and in doing so, we climbed up Mt. Etna that was fantastic. The best part of it was taking a 4 wheel drive to the top. It really beats hiking on the ash and rock. Also in Sicily, we visited the town of Taormina (of Cary Grant fame) perched on a rocky bluff overlooking the Ionian Sea, the cliffs were covered with bougainvillea flowers - absolutely gorgeous. We passed through the Straits of Messina, known for the unusually designed sword fishing boats that ply the sea there and its nasty winds (we experienced over 55 knots.) We made only a few stops in Italy, sailing past the toe and the heel of Italy to Brindisi on Italy's east coast. There, we stocked up on Italian wine, cheese and food and enjoyed the free harbor side slip and all the interesting activity in the harbor. From Brindisi, it was an easy overnight sail to Lastovo, Croatia. We spent most of our summer in Croatia on the Adriatic Sea from Dubrovnik (Cinderella town) to Split (with Diocletian's Palace) and finally on to Pula (which has one of the best preserved Roman amphitheatres.) Croatia's coastline and islands are a cruisers paradise with beautiful water, good anchorages and friendly people, though the language could use a few more vowels. We traveled inland in search of Karen's relatives and we believe we found a connection in the small town of Dresnik Grad. Inland Croatia was a patchwork of farms, vineyards, rolling hills, waterfalls and castles.
We sailed over to Venice, Italy for two weeks of sightseeing and eating. Given our late departure from the Adriatic, it was critical to get quickly to Greece before the seasonal wind change. Luck was with us and we had a great passage. While going through Greece we stopped in Galaxidi, where we visited Delphi by car. We went thru the Corinth Canal and into the Aegean Sea and visited the Dodecanese and the Cyclades islands before reaching Turkey.
Best wishes for the New Year ~ Peace and love,
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 Santa's going to give Karen a BIG Surprise!
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Murat and Sevim
Despite the language barriers, we were both able to make progress. The pinao teacher, Murat and his wife Sevim joined us one night aboard Dakare for dinner. We fed them an Italian meal of Lasagna. When I told Murat what it was that we were having a few days earlier, he didn't understand what Lasagna was and thought that he had never had it before. When on board and the meal was presented, he recognized it immediately. Below can be found 2 musical pieces, the second is an original work of Murat's:
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Another 90 day visa for Turkey is about to expire so its time for another "pork run" to Greece! This allows us to leave Turkey then reenter for another 90 days ( and 55 euros for visas and 90euros for ferry tickets..not a cheap day out!) As it is winter there are only two ferries a week to Rhodos so we tried to plan for a good day as on bad days the small 100 seat 2 car winter ferry doesn't run!
We planned well as the storms of the previous 3 days cleared and with 5 other yachties in similar circumstances we left Marmaris at 9am with blue sky! We had a relatively flat crossing although a few non yachtie passengers didn't think so and lost it in the loo and we arrived in Rhodos with just under 3hrs to shop and eat lunch! At a fast trot we headed for the closest large supermarket empty troillies in hand!
We quickly emptied the store of pork sausages, sandwich meats (boiled ham, smoked ham, proscuitto etc), Italian coffee, English cookies, 5kilo packages of salted peanuts, bacon, Dutch cheeses, oreos etc! Over $200 later with 2 shopping trollies full we headed for a quick outddoor pita gyros lunch at the old fishmarket. Fortunately this area also housed a butcher and we were able to add fresh cut pork chops and a pork roast to our now overflowing trollies! While some of the items we bought are available in Turkey they would be at twice the cost! Most items aren't available as they are EU items and not imported (such as the Italian Lavazza coffee a staple of life to us).
A quick march back to the ferry arriving just in the nick of time to catch the only ferry back to Turkey! On board we were entertained (as were a number of other passengers nearby) by tales from a fellow yachtie Dan who had gone off alone in Rhodes in an effort to find a chandlerly. His wife had come with us shopping. Dan who had taken his bike had just after parting from our group and his wife had broken his bike. He hailed a cab and went off to a bicycle repair shop only at the shop realize he didn't have any money. Convincing the taxi driver to pay for his bike repair he then had the taxis take him to a bank machine. He then realized he never uses machines so he couldn't remember his pin number! Going inside he tried to get money only to realize not only no pin no but no passport (his wife had his passport). He eventually found a sympathetic bank manager who agreed to give him some cash when he produced a small photccopy of his passport. As we sat on the boat laughing over his experiences his wife asked about the 60 euros she had put in his pants pocket before leaving? A short search and the intact 60 euros was found. She had told him about the 60 euros before he went off on his own and he had replied YES DEAR but OF COURSE HAD NOT LISTENED TO HER TELLING HIM!! In the course of telling the story I noticed something had fallen out of his pocket. A few minutes later he complained to his wife about the lousy telephone case she had given him as he lamented about the loss of his phone also during the day! The phone was soon found in the shopping bag of another passenger that was sitting beside him. This was the item I had noticed fall out!
On arriving back in Turtkey we stocked up of whiskey in Duty Free. Yes in Turkey you go through Duty Free on entering (or leaving ). It is more reasonable as you have a shorter distance home to carry the items. Greece had a Duty Free on exiting but everything cost more!
We had a fun but expensive day out! However we will be enjoying our Pork Run over the next two months as we slowly eat all our lovely goodies!!
Jean
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And the rains came tumbling down!! Its been at least a week and the thunderstorms and power outages continue as the laundry pile gets larger!! We had the only clear day for our "Pork Run"to Rhodes , Greece!! The good part is we have been able to get lots of computer work done as we hide inside our boats sheltered from the rain.
Thurs night we ventured out to our weekly Quiz Night with our Brtitish brethern. As we were about to leave the hail storm started and we were treated to a snowball err hailball fight! We slipped and slid home as the hail came tumbling down! We watched the Turks slip sliding along, you don't see this weather here very often!!
The power goes out often here for varying amounts of time and we are so happy we have our Canadian diesel fireplace aboard as without it we would freeze (our other heater is a shorepowered portable electric heater).
Our fresh pork supply is now consumed (the chops and tenderloin were a treat) so its back to fresh lamb, chicken and beef! Not really a hardship ! Frozen pork is available at "Porkies" at twice the price and half as good so we will wait another 90 days! We still have many packaged pork sausage dinners in the fridge and Greek sausages are very good, so not to worry!!
We are sitting here watching satellite tv (another Turkish purchase) at 200 euros for a complete assembly a deal. More importantly the Turks pirate the satellite codes (actually they get the codes from the internet from Pols that break the codes) so we are able to enjoy certain "coded"stations until the codes are changed. Its quite a game!! However we do get CNN, British Prime, British World, EuroNews etc so it keeps us current on world events as newspapers are harder to come by. My favorite The Sunday Times is over $10 if you can find it!! I do miss Greece and being in the EU for many reasons (including cheaper and better wine)!
All that aside we enjoy Turkey and wouldn't have missed it for the world!! To have toured the Med and missed Turkey and the Middle East would have been to have missed the contrast between the christian and moslem cultures, a fascinating experience. It would also been to have missed so much of the history of christianity!
So we persevere here in the rain just another of lifes little experiences!! Besides the sun is out again (at least for a while)!!!! Time to tend my olives which are marinating in kilo jars outside under the cover! Another Turkish treat!!
Ciao Jean
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Millions of sheep, goats, cows and
camels across Turkey will be slaughtered
beginning Thursday the 20th of January
in celebration of Sacrifice festival.
You may have seen herds of sheep in the
streets lately, which is a sign of the
upcoming religious festival "Euduf-I-
Adha" known as the festival of Sacrifice
or in Turkish, "KURBAN BAYRAMI".
The festival of sacrifice starts on the
20th January and lasts 4 days. The lunar
calendar determines the religious dates,
which accounts for why the festivals are
observed 10 to 11 days earlier each
year.
Eed (short for Eedu-1-Adha) means
recurring happiness or festivity, a day of
peace and thanksgiving, a day of
forgiveness and moral victory, a day of
good harvest and remarkable
achievements, and a day of festive
remembrance.
The hajj, a pilgrimage to the holy sites in
Saudi Arabia, is also done during this
time of the year. The climax of hajj is
marked by offering a sacrifice to
celebrate completion of this devotional
course and fed to the poor. The sacrifice
is only a symbol. Its not the meat or
blood that's intended to please God, but
the expression of thankfulness and the
affirmation of faith.
In Islamic tradition this historic event
started when the prophet Abraham was
ordered to prepare his son Ishmael as a
sacrifice, an order which Abraham and
his son unquestioningly obeyed. But
Ishmael's life was spared and ransomed
by Aram. The offering of the sacrifice has
become an annual celebration to
commemorate the occasion and thank
God for his favors.
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In Turkey, sheep are generally sacrificed,
the sacrificed animal should be at least
one year old and healthy. While wuealthy
people can sacrifice more than one
animal, up to seven people can get
together to sacrifice a cow or a camel.
Sheep are sacrificed everywhere: in the
garden, driveway, backyards, streets and
even balconies. But the new law requires
that this can be carried out only in
certain designated areas.
On the first day of the festival, everyone
wakes up early to make their final
preparations. Male family members go
to the mosque to perform the special
"Bayram Namazi" festival prayer. Female
members of the family clean the house.
The actual sacrifice begins after the men
return home from the mosque. The head
of the family is expected to perform the
sacrifice, but a butcher can also be
authorized by the head of the family.
The animal is given water and salt, its
eyes are wrapped with a clean rag and its
face turned to Mecca. The head of the
family recites verses from the Holy Koran
the Muslim holy book and cuts the
animal's throat.
The meat is divided into 3 portions. One
is given to the poor, one to neighbors
and relatives and the third is kept for the
household.
The skin of the sacrificed animals is
donated to the Turkish Aviation
Association. The income earned from the
skins is shared with the Turkish Red
Crescent, Children Protection Association
and other social foundations. Traditional
Bayram visits take place after finishing
the sacrificing.
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