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Our first close encounter with a gulet was in about 2002 in the bay of Gokova, when one such vessel reversed hard-astern towards a “gap” on a timber pontoon, between two yachts; ours being one of them. The gap clearly wasn’t wide enough, but Turkish skipper thought otherwise. There was plenty of space outside either of the moored yachts, but skipper wanted to get his paying guests as close to the restaurant as possible. And that was where the “space” was. A few gesticulation

There we were, leaving Leros Marina to sail to Kos to check out of Greece. Well, when I say sail, I mean motor. Conditions were calm, and we chugged along quite happily, and by 14:30, we were anchored up in Mandraki harbour, the old town quay for Kos. It is usually packed with large day-tripper boats, pretending to be the ‘Black Pearl’ from the ‘ Pirates of the Caribbean ’ , complete with a gruesome statue on the bow. Richard once counted six boats all called the ‘Black Pearl

From the land of the myriad, skinny, begging cats, hanging around dinner tables, we have crossed into the land of the large, lethargic dogs, lying-around half-asleep in various thoroughfares and doorways. Having said that, when I went up-to on our first morning in Datca, there were dirty cat’s paw prints all over the white deck. The coils of ropes under the sprayhood were thickly-covered in cat hair. It had clearly had a warm and comfortable night aboard, before vacating befo

Apparently, the term “ muscle memory ” appeared in the English lexicon between 1885 and 1890, although I must admit I wasn’t aware of it until I was an adult. It refers to the brain’s ability to perform repetitive tasks with little or no conscious effort. Examples include riding a bike, or playing a musical. Interestingly, the examples don’t include commissioning Missy Bear, despite the fact that this is the sixth time that we (or at least Richard) have done this. By commissi

The Datca peninsular We were not in Greece for long. We launched Missy Bear on the afternoon of the same day we arrived by car ferry (Saturday). And had checked out of Kos six days later on the Thursday. It’s always nice to climb the steps up into the boat on the hard, open the companionway doors, and step inside and find her the way you left her, clean and fresh. And it’s always a relief to reconnect the batteries, switch them on at the isolator, and find they have kept a go