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November 28, 2009

Hi everyone, We hope you had a great Thanksgiving. Al and I and another American couple Steve and Pam were the evening coordinators. We had about 60 people as an Israeli boat came in on Thursday, some Turkish boaters came and two couples from Holland. Burak, our new marina manager and his wife came too. The highlight of our evening was when Helmet and Harry served up L'Orange the duck. After the staff parade through the dining room with three roasted turkey's with sparklers flaring out came two cruisers, Helmut and Harry in chef coats and hats pushing a covered serving cart. It was decorated with flowers and sparklers too. "Now what is this we all wondered..." This had never happened before plus at first we didn't recognize Harry while Helmet was talking. Helmet went on how this was also the Harvest Festival in Switzerland and turkey wasn't the traditional fare. Then they flipped open the cart and there posed L'Orange (Harry's pet duck he got as a chick for Easter) so proud t o be the center of attention. Great laugh by all. People had been threatening to cook up L'Orange all Fall. We had great fun dancing and our Line Dancing Group performed four dances:-) Next week on Tues. The Quartet is here again and on Friday we go to the first Symphony concert for the season. We are having friends for dinner tonight and I made Aunt Connie's Apple Crisp for dessert. We fly home on Dec. 9 so only a short while to have a bunch more fun in the sun. Can't wait to get home to below zero temperatures and snow. "NOT" But we do look forward to the kids and grandkids, friends and family. Can't believe it's the first Sunday of Advent. Love and God Bless Sally and Al

November 23, 2009

Hi everyone, Happy Thanksgiving Week. We had great weather this past week. Lots of sunshine and no rain. This week's forecast is for more of the same:-) We got some varnishing done and some more sewing projects. The Kemer Quartet, oboe, flute, viola, and cello played for us at the Navigator on Tuesday. It's always such a treat to have them come here to us and the marina pays for it. We're busy with activities, tennis lessons, Keep Fit and line dancing for Sal, biking and our Sunday hikes. Saturday we went to the opera again this time it was Rigoletto. It's amazing how they keep on singing their arias as the wrestle on a table top or lie dying on the floor. Yesterday we had another beautiful hike in the mountains. It was a bit longer than usual 15 km but a gorgeous hike. Tomorrow Al and I are going with a few others on another hike near Finike taking us around a headland we've sailed by many times. It's about 20 km and keeping a faster pace without the other 15 people along we
should be able to do it in 7-8 hours. We're leaving the marina a t 6 AM so we can get an early start on the trail. I'm planning the American Thanksgiving with another American again this year. We gather nature and decorate the Navigator on Wed. Then Thursday we give a little program, have a traditional Turkey dinner made by the Navigator according to our specifications followed by dancing. It should be a fun day. Hope this finds all of you well, and busy with your own Thanksgiving preparations. Love and God Bless Sally and Al

November 15, 2009

Hi everyone, Happy Sunday. We had a busy weekend in Kemer. Friday we went to LaLuna restaurant for steak dinner with friends. Yesterday afternoon we went to the Opera Tosca in Antalya. What a deal...a ticket is 10 YTL ($7)and the bus is 12 TYL. Great performance and of course everyone dies in the end. We came back to an Italian lasagne dinner at the Navigator. A perfect compliment to a wonderful performance. Today we hiked a gorgeous trail a short bus ride from Kemer to a trout restaurant for lunch. It was a sunny, blue blue sky day in the mountains so an exhilarating day. We walked along a river bed,rock hopped across a stream, followed canyon and passed many small waterfalls. It doesn't get better than this. Love and God Bless Sally and Al

November 8, 2009

Hi everyone,
We had a nice week back in Kemer. It's been fun sharing summer adventures. Each day more friends arrive but I expect soon most will be here. People tend to come and go all winter as they make home visits. Boat projects are coming along. We have three of our sails down and put away. The jib is a bit more cumbersome and we need to take it ashore to rinse the salt out before drying and storing for the winter. The last couple of days we've been tracking down a holding tank leak. A not so fun job but hopefully we can put the boat back together again tomorrow and start storing things in the V berth for the winter. We also got the dingy cleaned, deflated and rolled up for the winter. We dumped the anchor chain into the water and cleaned our filthy smelly anchor locker too. Of course it's not all work and no play. We played tennis with friends on Friday and will start lessons again next week. Yesterday we went a bike ride shopping for some things we needed aboard. Today we went on a gorgeous local walk in the mountains behind the marina. Fantastic views of Kemer and the marina. Some autumn flowers including heather and autumn crocus. Tonight is movie night and DVD exchange so we'll grab a pizza at the Navigator. Hope everyone had a nice weekend. Love and God Bless Sally and Al

November 3, 2009

Hi everyone,
We are back "home" in Kemer Turkiz Marina, Kemer Turkey. We arrived Sunday afternoon just before the rain started so perfect timing. Unfortunately the second 30 nm of our trip was right on the nose. So we motored with the main up for some stability. It was our German tennis friend Harry's wife's birthday so it was a lively night at the Navigator Restaurant. Harry entertained everyone with his little accordion (lots of German drinking songs)We saw many old friends and met some new. Yesterday we went to market. There is nothing like the produce at the Turkish markets. We have to be careful not to buy too much. Today we did a few boat projects. Al ran a new wire for the engine kill switch and we can now turn off the engine without going below and lifting the floor boards. Once again we found old bad wiring to be the cause of our problem. We're expecting big winds and storms tomorrow so we have indoor projects planned. By Thursday the weather will become clear and mid 70's so we'
ll begin outside projects. I want to wash the salt off the haul before we put the dingy away and we have sails to take down and clean before storing them for the winter. Glad to be back in Kemer. We have excellent internet so we can Skype. We'll use both emails while here. If you want to send attachments you must use momdad@artemis-pribyl.com. We have our tickets for Christmas. We'll fly to Chicago Dec. 9 and back to Turkey Feb. 16. Love and God Bless Sally and Al