24 July 2020 – Alanya Turkey
We are in TURKEY, a transcontinental Eurasian country bordered by Greece and Bulgaria, the Black Sea, Georgia, Armenia, the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan and Iran, Iraq, Syria the Mediterranean Sea; and west by the Aegean Sea. Approximately 70 to 80 percent of the country’s citizens identify as Turkish, while Kurds are the largest minority, at between 15 to 20 percent of the population.
At various points in its history, the region has been inhabited by diverse civilizations including the Anatolian peoples, Assyrians, Greeks, Thracians, Phrygians, Urartians, and Armenians. There is A LOT of history here. During the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent – the Ottoman Empire encompassed much of Southeast Europe, West Asia and North Africa and it became a world power.
The Turkish War of Independence, initiated by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and his comrades against the occupying Allied Powers, resulted in the abolition of the sultanate and the establishment of the Republic of Turkey on 29 October 1923, with Atatürk as its first president. Atatürk enacted numerous reforms, many of which incorporated various aspects of Western thought, philosophy and customs into the new form of Turkish government. For example, under Atatürk, the Ottoman Turkish script was replaced by the Latin-based new Turkish alphabet (nearly the same as the English alphabet we use today). Turkey is a member of the UN, NATO, the IMF, and the World Bank.
Accession negotiations with the European Union started in 2005, but were stalled in 2018 and suspended in 2019. Why? I have two suggestions: possibly because President Recep Erdoğan has introduced measures to tighten “freedom of the press”, measures that increase the influence of Islam; and the refusal of the government to admit to the genocide against its own people of Armenian, Assyrian and Pontic Greek origin – during WWI. In short, Turkey applied for EU membership, everything I’ve seen so far resembles any other EU member country bordering on the Mediterranean Sea – but that application has been stalled for 15 years.
The population of Turkey is about 85 million and they have a GDP that puts them in 19th place in the world. Consequently, they are a member of the G20, an influential group for international cooperation on the most important aspects of the international economic and financial agenda. This group includes 19 countries, and the EU: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, France, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States.
We went paragliding for the first time on 8 July – right here in Alanya, and landed walking distance from the marina.
The weather was fantastic, and the views were spectacular. We couldn’t turn this event down at only $30USD per flight and $10USD per video (some bargaining was involved). I had to do some serious editing to chop down the video material down from about 40 minutes to only 2.5 minutes. This video is very authentic in representing our experience, with the exception of the take off. The take off slope was very, very steep – not at all represented in the video.
Another surprise was that since we were the first foreign cruisers to arrive in Alanya, we became an object of some interest and were interviewed by a TV station from Antalya and subsequently our story appeared on Turkish television, and maybe elsewhere. This is the link to the magazine, and this is the link to the video – of course its all in Turkish, except for the video interview.
Like everywhere else we travel to, we always seek out the local market and have become accustomed to going there every Friday. It is much like any other market, but I will point out that it is very clean, and the prices are clearly marked at the stalls. Of course, once we enter the market area, we have to “mask up”.
Today, we stopped at a little park just outside the market, waiting for our bus. The brilliant sunshine is creating havoc with my photos, often over exposing them.
Last week, when we went to the market with Eric and Pam on Pied-a-Mer III, we stopped at a local fast-food restaurant for local food.
Today, I also noticed this little friendly cat with some unusual, but beautiful patterns in her fur.
We’ve been busy with boat maintenance and repairs. Our sails have been sent to a sailmaker in Marmaris for work. We have two big projects in mind this year, and they both require the boat to be hauled. We will have the bottom sandblasted and painted “again”. This was last done in NZ, a mere four years ago. Unfortunately, we were not present for a lot of the work, and although it looked superficially fine on the outside, underneath – it is not good. In NZ, the yard insisted on doing “wet sandblasting” following strict environmental laws, but this is never a good idea for a steel hull. Also, they simply did not apply enough epoxy “primer” before painting on the Coppercoat.
Sadly, after only two years, the result was rust leaching through the paint, and over $25K in wasted money. The second big job will be removing the deck Treadmaster and repainting the decks. To that end, I have started on the tedious job of removing this excellent but aged deck non-slip material.
So far, I’ve probably removed about 20% of the Treadmaster, but its a tedious and dirty job – particularly in the heat. I’ve tried an oscillating tool (with a scraper and a cutter blade), a planer and a grinder – one after the other.
To be honest, the best result is with a hammer and chisel, but it is also the most tiring!
Yesterday, we took a couple hours away from the boat and visited the Alanya Castle, only a 10 minute scooter ride from our marina. This castle, first constructed in 1220, was built on the remnants of earlier Byzantine era and Roman era fortifications. The castle is located 250 metres high on a rocky peninsula and the wall which surrounds it is 6.5 kilometres long and includes some remains of 140 towers.
