3. Beyond Fethiye Bay                    

 

1.  30 June. Boynuz Buku

We were supposed to meet Jeff and Lesley in Goçek but complications of Esper breaking down and going to Boynuz Buku and the chance of them to share a taxi meant we diverted to this lovely bay. It's big enough to free anchor, has a nice muddy bottom for good holding, a jetty with free spring water and a very friendly restaurant. When J&L arrived, we had a couple of beers and a meal ashore.

The following day we made the big trip up to Goçek for beer supplies and the following day back to Boynuz Buku and the 6 or so Yat Marin boats to top up with water before heading east.

2. 3 July to Kaş. 55nm

A long day motoring. we had a forecast of 10-15 knots of wind from the NW but other than a brief period of motor sailing, it was an uneventful motoring day. We anchored in Bayindir Limani to the SE of Kaş beside a little beach with a restaurant jetty and some rock tombs. Apart from the attack of wasps at dusk and dawn, it was a very peaceful spot. Across the bay is the Greek island of Meyisti or Kastellorizon. The population is now about 200 (down from the 20,000 or so at the turn of 20th century), but apparently there are around 600 or so military and police who use the island to keep an eye on Turkey and the SE Med. It seems ridiculous that the islands are Greek when they are so close to Turkey. History, eh?

3. 4 July. to Kale Koy, Kekova Roads 16nm

On the way to Kale Koy we had some very light breezes from astern tempted us to try out the cruising chute for the first time. it's all packed away in a nice bag with a snuffer on the end. However we were to be a bit disappointed as it turned out to be a spinnaker - not what we had expected. We're not sure that we want a spinnaker and will try to find a cruising chute over the winter. You never know, someone may want to do a swap.

We moored up at Hassan Roma's where we had gone with J&L last autumn in the hire car. We all donned our red 'Hassan' t-shirts and were greeted by Hassan, Aylia and the kids. We plonked ourselves down with a beer in the welcome shade at the restaurant. They have a large photo board at the back and there are pictures of J&L with all their kids and partners from a previous visit along with a picture of us all in our red t-shirts last year.

The restaurants here are not cheap, but the food is amazing and vast quantities. we had fish for 4 and ended up having it for lunch 2 days running afterwards from the 'doggy bag' of left-overs.

4. Sunday 6 July. to Gokkoya 5nm.

We tried to do a water trip of the sunken city that lies on the west side of Kekova Adasi (Island) in the Roads. The authorities are very strict about swimming and diving over it - ie it is forbidden, you can't even get in the water behind your boat to look into the water to see the walls below. Unfortunately the water was too rippled from the wind to be able to see anything below. The best way is on a trip boat with a glass bottom. We motored up to the eastern end of Kekova to the much isled area of Gokkoya to the anchorage. What a lovely spot! and we soon jumped into the water and equally quickly we were gasping at the temperature - it was distinctly chilly! Apparently there are freshwater springs in the area - doing a very good job of maintaining a very 'refreshing' temperature.

We had heard others had been here but found it too noisy. the nightclub on the main central island has been closed down and the only noise comes from the taverna, trip boats (normally passing through) or from gulets who anchor next to you and play homogenous turkish pop music till all hours. We've been lucky and not come across too many of these, one time we did, we shone the spot light at them as retaliation which soon got their attention. we were slightly worried about having our lines cut and that sort of thing, but nothing happened.

5. Monday 7 July. Round Kekova Adasi 20nm

The next day we did our own version of 'Round the Island' - no racing, only us as entrants and a swim/lunch stop along the way. We sailed virtually all the way around Kekova island, at last showing Jeff and Lesley what our new boat is capable of. we had good winds from all quarters, we even had to tuck a reef into the main.

6. Tuesday 8 July. Kastelorizon. 15nm

We went back to Hassan's for a final night of gorging ourselves on their lovely food before leaving for Kastelorizon or Myisti, depending on your preference. This is the Greek island 3 miles off the town of Kaş in the SW of Turkey. Motoring into the harbour you are immediately faced with the contrast between Turkey and this little Greek harbour architecturally. Turkey is mostly new developments, Kastelorizon is Genoese/Venetian, multi-couloured and old. Even if its new, it looks old. There isn't much there but a few tavernas and a couple of shops, but its history is very enthralling. We ate at a little bistro behind the quay run by an australian family (who were amazed we had managed to get past the taverna owners on the quay who are quite demanding). They had just suffered a power cut and apologised profusely for the delays. we weren't in a hurry and told them so many times, no problem, take your time... Other than finding out why the dominant accent here is that aussie twang and not greek, we also found out that there is a short film on the history of Kastelirizon in the museum each day, or maybe its in the old mosque at 11am, but it could be 10 or even 12. The next day we went to the mosque and looked over the old photos and remnants and then sweated our way up the steps to the museum. We asked where and when the film show was - oh, its at the mosque.' Funny, we've just come from there and there was no sign nor indication of any impending film show, but back down the steps we trekked. We found a few people kind of loitering but there was nothing else. at 10.59 59 seconds a bloke who was sat in the corner, came to life, pushed a few buttons on a computer and hey presto, a film was shown projected onto the wall of the mosque! It was quite understandable how no-one might be sure when or where it was.

But it was a very interesting film. at the turn of the 19th to 20th century Kastelorizon had been a bustling port with a population of 20,000 or so - completely incomprehensible now. But the shipping merchants failed to take on the advent of steam and the trading ships left, making most of the population unemployed. many emigrated to Australia. An earthquake in 1926 destroyed many homes and further damage in WW2 by the Italians, French and British virtually destroyed what was left. Now the descendants of the emigrants are returning to rebuild and repair old homes - hence all the aussie accents. the official population is something like 200 now - not including all the military staff manning the underground listening stations, of course.

If you've ever been to Malta, you will have been told by everyone to go and see 'The Malta Experience', which is a truly dreadful bit of self-publicity and completely ignores the 'Don Mintoff Years' when Malta's only ally was Libya. This little film, in the Mosque at 11am (not Mondays), is a little gem of information in a little gem of a place. Highly recommended.

7. Friday. Fethiye.

After 2 days in the enchanted isle, we left to get J&L back to Goçek for the airport. We departed at 6am to some very odd clouds and sea. There was what looked like fog behind us over Kekova, there was already some wind and the sky had a pink-ish tinge (red sky in the morning and all that). We had not managed to check the weather while in KAstelorizon but had seen nothing before that to worry us. If it got bad, we could stop off at Kalkan. The early wind soon died and left us motoring west. By Kalkan the fog had gone and sky was clear. We had tried to get a weather forecast on the VHF, but the reception was unclear and all i heard was 'NW squark, very soon squark'. In hind sight the clues were all there - only one other cruising boat out and that going hell for leather with the washing still out and no gulets. we did not see one all the way to Fethiye. But we motored all the way, passed the notorious Seven Capes again. yawn yawn, all trying to find the scrap of shade created by the mainsail. hot hot hot.  Once into Fethiye Bay, we even decided we should have a swim stop to cool off before we anchored in the bay by the marina which is too dirty to swim in. So a quick stop at Red Island. As we were weighing anchor we noticed the sky was getting very black behind Fethiye, so we thought we should hot foot it back. As we rounded the island into the bay, we could see the streets of Fethiye smoking with rain - at first we thought it really was smoke. We just managed to get the anchor down before the big gusts hit us although it was already very windy. we just prayed the anchor was going to hold. Its quite muddy here, so it should be ok, but sometimes you hit a bad spot or judge it wrong and end up too close to other boats. anyway, we held and miraculously we had no rain, even though it was pelting down less than half a mile away. We watched the lightning crackle and the thunder rumble over head for about 3 hours before we finally felt able to go ashore. But the outboard didn't work and trying to paddle the dinghy with 4 in a choppy sea was not easy.