The rite stuff

Marmaris puts on her best Christmas weather

The new Yanmar drives Enki around the bay

Christmas has been and gone for Enki. The lucky girl has a new engine, and during her sea trial earlier this week it  worked like a bought one. That's all I'll say, because if you look at the blog page titled Engine Swap, you'll learn all you want to know, and possibly more, about our Great Engine Experience. Alex has out-done himself, again.

Just because our pillowcases will be empty on Christmas morning doesn't mean we're not throwing ourselves into what passes for Christmas in Marmaris.

What do their parents tell them about Santa?

Food and fashion at the annual pre-Christmas ladies bazaar

His mum did the felt work 

We're eating our way through a dozen of Susan of Bolton's Christmas mince tarts (Susan is an ex-pat who bakes from home). The pastry is very short, and thicker than I'm used to, but I can't fault her fruit mince. A couple of days ago I joined a few friends to make Christmas crackers and crepe paper hats for the Big Day. The crackers won't have any bang (can't bring gunpowder on an aeroplane from the UK) but I'm assured by the mistress of ceremonies, Karen, that the jokes will be really bad.

Jane (left) and Mary on DIY Christmas cracker and hat detail

Gwen makes Sailors Point sparkle 

Last Sunday's potluck dinner at Sailor's Point, presided over by Netsel's Good Fairy Gwen, was just the opener of a veritable whirl of social activities. These include a Christmas Eve barbecue followed by live music at Scorpio Bar (the preferred waterfront hang-out for old salts who have no firm plans to go to sea again) and a full English dinner on Christmas Day at the Missing Link restaurant in Aktas village (hosted by Karen and Paul, a couple of liveaboards who've been waylaid by the hotel business). On Boxing Day there's yet another Christmas lunch proposed by the marina management.

The invitations to this third event were issued only yesterday. We'd all given up hope, there being is a fair bit of disgruntlement towards the marina management over its badly-handled decision to introduce a charge for electricity from January 1, and at a stiff rate too. So will anyone turn up at the Boxing Day do? There is mention on the invitation of "surprise gifts" which might just rally sagging seasonal stamina. This may not strike some of you as exciting, but last year I drew (the gift-giving is run as a kind of lottery) a free hull polish, donated by one of the marina's tenants Guven Marine. Now that put a big smile on the skipper's face.

Christmas cheer to you all then, from a place where headgear sorts the believers from the non-believers in a variety of settings.

Girls outing

Can anyone pull off crepe with panache?