I WAS THE ONLY SAILOR ON OUR FAMILY CHARTER AND IT HAD TO GO WELL

Crystal waters, cliff tombs and sunken outboards lain Willis wanted to ensure plain sailing for his family’s first charter around Turkey's Lycian Coast

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We’ve just touched down at Dalaman airport, Southern Turkey and it’s June 2024. It’s our first time bareboat chartering as a family and we’ve chosen a four-day trip around the western extent of Turkey’s Lycian Coast.

I’m a bag of nervous excitement, having spent the entire four-hour flight from the UK poring over the details of hand scribbled notes I’ve made on photocopied pages taken from the Turkish Waters and Cyprus Pilot by Rod and Lu Heikell. I’ve also checked and re-checked the five-day forecast for Fethiye a dozen times in the last couple of days, paranoid an unseasonal weather bomb might materialise within the next few days. So far so good though. The forecast paints an idyllic picture; no rain, 30-plus degrees Celsius every day, and gusts ranging from 8-15 knots. So why am I so anxious?

As a self-confessed novice Day Skipper this will be the first time I’ve taken my wife Rachel and our two young sons, Noah (12) and Oliver (10). It’s also the culmination of a good couple of years of me lobbying for this to happen. Hence, I’m working double shift to make sure things go as smoothly as they can.