In our weekly round up of the local news a British child dies rafting, a tragic fire at sea, the 'English Friends' to perform at an all star event and more.

British Child Dies Rafting

Twelve members of the Potter family from Wales were all enjoying a holiday when things went tragically wrong.

White water rafting on the Dalaman River ended when a boat capsized, 9-year-old Cerys was killed, and her 12-year-old brother Marcus was injured.

The local Jandarma are now investigating the incident.

Tragic Fire at Sea

Another boating tragedy this week when a gulet operated by Alesta Yachting, en route from Marmaris to Fethiye with 18 Spanish/Portuguese passengers on board, along with 5 crew, caught fire close to Fethiye.

The local coastguard boat swiftly responded to messages for help, whilst everyone on board jumped into the sea.

One of the passengers could not be found and three more suffered burns in the incident.

All the rescued passengers have now flown home.

Another Boat Fire

On Saturday morning a 14 metre motor cruiser called Ceylin caught fire in Turunc Bay near Fethiye.

The passengers and crew abandoned the boat and were rescued by the Coast Guard.

However, as the fire engulfed the boat it slipped its mooring and drifted towards the wooded bay threatening a forest fire.

A fire helicopter attended the scene and put out the fire.

Boat Waste Project Completed Early

If you’ve been cursing the road works taking place down near the Kordon you can relax, they’re finished.

What’s more they were part of the initiative to provide waste disposal facilities for the day boats and the waste tanks are now working.

The Mayor of Fethiye, on a tour of the completed project, praised FESKI (the Council’s water and sewage wing) for managing to complete the project in a mere 11 days rather than the 15 days that had been allocated.

He also rightly pointed out that the Council have provided waste tanks, so now it is up to the boat owners to use them, rather than pump their waste out into the open sea.

Diver Delight

And another item on boats.

The Fethiye Kaymakam is going to sink a boat to act as an underwater attraction, and thus hopefully help develop the local scuba diving industry.

At the moment no date has been given for this initiative and given the number of official bodies involved, plus the local propensity for things to happen later rather sooner, we aren’t holding our breath.

All Star Performances

The British ex-pats who perform Turkish folk songs and dances as the ‘Ingiliz Yarenler’ (‘English Friends’) are on the road again.

At the end of the week they headed east to perform at the Anamur Music Festival, following which they were going all the way to Taşköpru near the Black Sea where they appear on the same bill as Tarkan as part of the local Garlic Festival – another festival missed by the academic who claimed to have compiled the definitive list of Turkish fruit and vegetable events.

Watch out for the enterprising British songsters on Turkish TV.

Hot in the City

And finally as we all swelter in the high summer heat, spare a thought for people in Marmaris where 49 degrees was recorded one day last week.