A Few Days in Marmaris - Tara Goes Blue

There are two marinas to stay at in Marmaris: Netsel – downtown, nice amenities, 87 Euros a night; and Marmaris Yacht Marine – big boat-yard, outside of town, 25 Euros a night. Since we were there for a week we chose Yacht Marine and saved the 400 Euros – which we promptly put into Tara.

Over the winter we had a number of maintenance issues crop up and if you ever want to get something done to a boat, Marmaris is the place to go. So … we got a new GPS antenna setup – repairing our GPS, had some stainless tubes made for the fridge, purchased a new battery, repaired the furler, took the jib in and had the leech line repaired - -and at the same time had a new dodger and bimini made and had the steering wheels recovered in new leather. The guys at Sharp Marine did very quick work – a 2 day turnaround for all four items, and at what we think was a competitive price – and the stuff looks great. Tara has pretty much shed here ‘charter boat’ look and is a proper yacht.

Not only that, we had some fun in Marmaris just hanging out for a couple of days. We even went bowling which was fun! Much more reasonable than Israel (where it was almost $10 per game per peson). Would have liked to play some tennis but not enough time and the marina is a 15 minute bus ride out of town so not very convenient.

Checking out of Turkey is a bit of a process, so we took the boat to the fuel dock at Netsel, came back and collected our papers and were cleared to depart Turkey. What a great place to go, we’ll need to come back one day. It offers wilderness cruising like we have in BC with warm, clear and clean water. Definitely a plus, and I think the shoulder seasons of May-June and September-November are the nicest times to go.