Finike again

We are back in Finike with the rally boats. Kaptan and his 2 lads ran around the marina handling the lazy lines and pushing boats into free spaces for a couple of hours and did a really professional job of parking all the rally boats.
Our first task, as the 'locals' was to organise a hike for the afternoon. They all appeared to be serious hikers, so we set off with 10 of us up the hill out of town. All the local kids were shouting and waving, 'Merhaba. My name is ....' then not knowing how to continue. It was lovely and really friendly. Two hikers turned back before we even got to the track. Then we were 8.
We set off up a lovely shaded valley, in the afternoon heat, for a 2 ½ hour climb up, up, up and up the track, then came back down the goat road with gorgeous views over the bay. Everyone agreed it was a worth the view, but it was a really hard climb. Thus we have ensured no-one will ask us to organise a hike again!!
Back at the boat Stuart was immediately besieged by people wanting technical advise. Now I remember why we couldn't get any of our own work done.
In every port there is a rally cocktail party with music and dancing. Apparantly the marinas do not charge the rally for berthing, it is all done to raise awareness of the marinas and promote yachting in these places. They really go to a lot of effort to provide food and drink and music for 200 people in each place as well, even though most of the marinas are well established.
We had a tea party on board for the owners of our favourite restaurant, Mavi Sofra. They brought us presents and were really interested in the boat – it is their dream to go sailing one day.
They don't speak any English so Coneh from one of the Turkish boats came along to help translate. It was the first time we've been able to have a meaningful conversation with them, even though we've spent so many evenings in their restaurant practising our limited Turkish.
Despite the need for an early start, we stayed up drinking with our friends Phil (Lorna Grace) and Sheila and Patrick (SheCat). We'll miss you guys, see you next winter.