The Start of the Journey West

20th April 2023 - Kas Marina - Yesilkoey, Kalkan (16.6 nautical miles)

After an emotional goodbye in Kas we were on our way, the 2023 season had begun. And what a season it was going to be. In fact there would be no wintering this time. We’d leave the Mediterranean at the end of its season and head straight into the next one in the Caribbean. It all seemed fairly daunting at this point. Even leaving the relative safety of the marina after 7 months gave me pause for thought. Our trip out to Kekova had helped but the weather was not yet settled and after waving goodbye to our friends at 9:15am, we knew we were in for a rough ride to Kalkan. It was only 16nm, three hours, but we would be motoring into 25kn winds.

There was no other option, the anchorages around Kas were not well protected so we needed to get across to Kalkan and tuck in. The wind topped 28kn AWS as we rounded the corner into Yesilkoey, the anchorage across from the resort town of Kalkan. Thankfully we saw on the surface of the water that if we tucked ourselves in close to the coast we would be protected from the swell. There was only one other boat in the anchorage so when we dropped the anchor in 12.5m of water we could put out 65m of chain, no problem. We danced around quite a bit but for the two days that we sat here we were secure. The day after we arrived the chop calmed down enough for us to make the dinghy ride across to the town of Kalkan for a wander round. With its proximity to Kas we really should have come across here before but, apart from that one trip out to the breakfast place up the hill, this was our first visit. Lou and Ray had told us that there was a great Indian restaurant here so we decided to head there for dinner after sampling a few cocktails at a couple of bars along the seafront. It really was a lovely town. The curry was epic too! 

22th April 2023 - Yesilkoey - Huni Hole, nr Gemiler (31.9 nautical miles)

Finally the wind had shifted round from the NW to the SE so it was time to move on. We weighed anchor at 9:30am and, knowing that the wind was going to be fairly light, we had rigged the Code 0 sail ready to go. For two hours we floated along the coast but our SOG steadily dropped and the sail began to flog so the starboard engine came on. We were heading for a little nook near the island of Gemiler. Clare and Zach had told us about this little spot with just enough room for one. Clare had called it a ‘Huni Hole’ so that’s where we were headed. By 1pm the wind had picked up enough for us to sail with the Code 0 again so managed the last 10nm under sail. The anchorage was a U shaped nook which would necessitate long lines ashore. So, on anchorage no2 we were straight back into the thick of things! We had since bought these enormous bright red strops to fling around the sharp rocks instead of our tape which was prone to being cut. Both 75m lines were no longer 75m anymore so these would hopefully be thick enough to withstand the razor sharp rock. Others had used chain but it is heavy and I typically swam out with the lines to shore or would take the paddle board. Lugging chain seemed like a recipe for disaster. 

Well, we didn’t exactly pick the easiest spot to tie off to. Instead of going at the end of the U we had to tie off to one side due to the wind direction. Carl dropped the anchor in 6m of water and, as we moved backwards I flung the paddle board over the side, payed out the long lines and wrestled a strop ready to take to shore. Kneeling down on the paddle board, trying not to get tangled up in the line or drop the strop, I started to paddle to shore. I glanced up to see where I could tie to and all I saw was the surge of the water crashing against sharp rock. The water was deep all the way to the rock so I would have to fling the strop onto the rock, hold one end of the line and get off the board. Then try and tie the painter of the paddle board to something and then, find a rock to put the strop round. That was the plan at least. Unfortunately, as I tried to get off the paddle board without puncturing it on the rock, my fling of the strop was mediocre at best. It didn’t quite make it to shore, slid off the rock and sunk to the bottom, 3m down. Parking that problem for the moment I continued on with the task at hand. I managed to secure the paddle board and grab the long line ready to tie off. But was there a bloody rock suitable? Of course not. I could see nothing viable. As a last resort as I could feel Carl’s impatience growing, I clambered up the hillside to the nearest tree and tied the tape off. That would have to do. Yes, not the done thing in Türkiye but needs must. This whole saga was going on a bit. At least the boat was pinned on one side. I made my way back to the paddleboard and back to the boat to collect the other line and strop. There was definite tension back onboard Rockhopper but I dutifully tried to focus on the job at hand. Thankfully there was a more pronounced rock to wrap the strop round on that side, slightly submerged by the water which wasn’t great, but it would do. Carl raised the anchor a bit and secured us in our spot. I brought the paddle board back to the boat. It was April and the water wasn’t too warm yet. Also, due to the direction of the swell, the little cul de sac that we were in was collecting a bit of flotsam and jetsom from the sea. As Carl gave me an eye roll and stripped down to his boxers to go and retrieve the strop, I winced as I saw a manky flip flop float by. He swam out to the spot where I’d dropped it with his mask and fins and, after a few dives down, he managed to retrieve it. Anyhoo, mission accomplished. After a rocky start (pun intended) we were finally able to enjoy the beautiful spot we had found ourselves in. Carl sent up the drone and took some incredible photos.   

23rd April 2023 - Huni Hole, nr Gemiler - Gemiler (1.26 nautical miles)

Removing the long lines from the ashore at 10am the following morning was considerably easier than putting them in place. Lou and Ray had messaged to say that they were in Gemiler which was just around the corner. One of their favourite spots. A fairly wide and deep channel of water separates the island of Gemiler with the mainland. It is a popular anchorage with boats positioned either attached with long lines to the island or the mainland side. Lou and Ray had opted for the mainland side whereas we scouted a spot on the island side. As we did a bit of a recce we saw close to the shore that there were some foundations from some ancient building jutting out from the shore, about a metre below the surface. We would therefore have to drop the anchor and reverse in but be careful not to go too far back. Thankfully I could see two good rocks to tie the lines to this time so hopefully far less faff this time around. When I say the channel was deep I was not kidding. We dropped the anchor in 24m of water and carefully moved the boat back. Again, I was ready with the paddle board, a strop and the lines. We managed to get the long lines attached to two rocks sufficiently apart and settled in water which was about 7m deep. The stern was only about 2m away from the foundations which I was a tad nervous about. Especially since we had no idea what the anchor was buried in and we had tonnes of chain out. That afternoon we picked up Lou and Ray to head to a little bar across on the mainland. Excuse the grid pattern on the photo - a screenshot rather than a photo!

That afternoon the wind picked up a bit and we ended up over a corner of the foundations. Luckily it was slightly deeper than our 1.3m but we quickly started the engines and took up the anchor a bit to bring us away. 

As with pretty much anywhere in Türkiye there is an ancient story to tell. Gemiler island held the Byzantine ruins of five Greek churches from the 4th and 6th century. It is believed that the original tomb of St Nicholas was within one of these churches. In Turkish, Gemiler translates to the word ‘ships’ so this is the Island of Ships and St Nicholas was a the patron saint of sailors. As we found out a month or so before, his relics were eventually moved to the town of Myra, some three hundred years after his death. At the opposite end of the island to where we were there was a dock and a few gullets conveying tourists to the site. The following morning we opted to try and join the trail from where we were. There was not really anywhere appropriate to leave the dinghy, the rocks were too sharp so Carl set about creating a pulley system to convey us on the paddle board across, then move the paddle board back to the boat and away from the rocks until it was needed again. It worked a treat. We had to bash our way up through some prickly bushes to get up to the path but we eventually found it and had a wander through the ancient ruins. Beautiful! The views from the top of the island were spectacular. We also realised that we had bypassed a ticket kiosk. Ah well. 

It was also a great spot to people watch, or more rather, boat watch. Anywhere in the world we have gone we always see a Bali cat going full throttle, bows out of the water, dragging something out the back. This time it was fenders and their dinghy!

25th April 2023 - Gemiler - Fethiye (15.5 nautical miles)

Our destination the following day was Fethiye. We had been there before with Ian, Liz, Fay and Derek on our way to Kas the previous year. We had liked the place quite a bit and had put it on our list to go back on our way out. The wind was due to pick up a bit over the next few days so it was a good place to shelter. We did look at staying at the Yacht Classic marina that we had tied up to last year but, as with all the prices in Türkiye, they had practically doubled so we decided to anchor out. Our friends Clare and Zach were there so it was an opportunity to catch up with them again. We hadn’t seen them since they left Kas in early April. As with all anchorages we do our research beforehand. Fethiye is a bit complicated. There is a lovely natural harbour created by the promontory that juts out from the mainland. It is a busy anchorage with several marked areas where you can anchor and areas where you are not allowed to. It seemed that the places where you were supposedly allowed to were close to the shore where gullets would lay out 300m of chain and not be too bothered if they just came and went whether you were in their way or not. We opted for a more central spot but by the time we had settled the boat was clearly not in the designated area. Nor were several other boats around us to be fair. We had heard that the Turkish coast guard might not tell you that you were in the wrong place, simply fine you and you would find out when you came to check out of the country. The boating world has many of these scare stories about. In fact, we looked over to see Clare and Zach’s boat SV Champagne in an area which according to our research was in a no go area as it was too close to the coast guard station. They had been there for a week with the coast guard boat going back and forth on many occasions with nothing said. Later we would find out that, shortly after Zach had just painted the deck of his boat, they approached and told them that they would have to leave immediately. After a week of driving by saying nothing. Anyway, that was later. We decided our spot was fine as there was weather coming our way and we preferred to be in an area with plenty of space. We were close enough anyway. 

This would have been the place that we got our super duper medical done but alas, the residency card had not come through and if you wanted to do it as a non-resident it was triple the price. £1300 was simply not something we felt like spending so we decided against it. Maybe we should have bit the bullet and done it as the tests were fairly comprehensive which would have been great to get a check up ahead of our Atlantic crossing. But, we didn’t. We instead spent five days waiting out weather, drinking cocktails with friends, old and new, and having a good time.  

30th April 2023 - Fethiye - Atbuku Koyu, Goçek (11.7 nautical miles)

We had bypassed Goçek completely on our way to Kas the previous year so we were looking forward to exploring the area in a bit more detail. At 10:30am we started to raise the anchor from the bay in Fethiye with some difficultly as the wind and the mud had glued the anchor to the floor. We had identified this lovely little nook to anchor in, again with lines to shore. It really was a Turkish thing. We managed a short sail with the code 0 across to our destination, arriving at said nook around 12:30pm. From our vantage point there were already a few boats in there so we opted for the scaredy cat approach and tied up on the opposite bank to the one we wanted to be in, on the outer edge. I spent a fair amount of time wandering along the shore line trying to find a rock that was attached to something. Everything that looked ok was loose. And then the cross wind picked up. We had space around us but it wasn’t ideal. The following morning we saw a few boats leave and took the opportunity to move in and secure a spot. We anchored in 26m with 86m of chain out by the time we positioned ourselves close to shore. To our port side was an enormous 78ft power cat. It was an idyllic spot. Tree lined shores and peaceful water. At least it was until a tender from a large super yacht appeared with a small boy and his bodyguard messing about on a foil board. His glamorous mum looked on from the boat. Mind you, it gave us something to watch and hey, it wasn’t a jet ski so all good!

The following morning we took the dinghy across to the town of Goçek. It was a good 2.5nm but it wasn’t too choppy. A few reviews of the town had not been kind but as usual with these things, it was subjective. We really liked it. We also found a shop selling Weetabix and Sriracha sauce (albeit at an exorbitant price) which was a novelty. We had an early dinner out there and zoomed back to the boat in the late afternoon.

The following morning our mission was to organise a pump out. We were on day 14 which was the penultimate day required by Turkish law to show that you had sought to pump out your holding tanks. Obviously we can’t go 15 days without emptying our tanks as we flush through quite a bit of water to keep the pipes clean so we had been dumping it out to sea like every other country allows but here, you had to show the certificate so we called a number to arrange for a pump out boat to come. I was not entirely sure that I was successful in getting one arranged but as luck would have it the massive power cat next to us had arranged one and we just waved them down that evening. He came along side, hooked up his hose and wrote down a random number of litres on his bit of paper which was uploaded to the ‘system’ so job done. 

Lou and Ray had been at another bay in Goçek up to this point but had decided to join us in our bay. There was plenty of space next to us so they came in and we helped them with their lines. What’s more, Aquarela were on the move so Jon and Sharon would be joining us too. They weren’t overly thrilled with line ashore anchoring but we assured them that we would help them out so they came in between us and we tied them off to some rocks. The Tremendous Trio were back together again! What could possibly go wrong! In fact we were reasonably sensible this time round, we made a chilli and had everyone round for dinner. No crazy dancing this time.

4th May 2023 - Atbuku Koyu - Kizilkuyruk Koyu (aka North whale tail bay) (8.16 nautical miles)

Both Greylag and Aquarela weren’t doing the same sort of miles as we were this season having opted to winter in Tunisia this year so were on a slower schedule to us. As we left them the following morning at 9:30am we waved a somewhat teary goodbye, just in case we wouldn’t catch them again. Our destination was just outside the Goçek sailing area, in a bay called Buyukaga Koyu. In fact this bay was also called Whale Tail bay as it and its neighbour, Kizilkuyruk Koyu resembled the shape. Coming round the corner it appeared that Buyukaga already had some boats in it but Kizilkuruk (I’ll now call in North Whale Tail bay as it is much easier to type) was empty. We motored into this gorgeous bay and I could already see a post to tie one line to, presumably installed by one of the tourist gullets, and a decent rock to attach to on the other side. Inbetween the two was a sweet little pebble beach. We dropped the anchor in 11m of water and paid out 60m of chain. After attaching the lines we effectively cornered off this little beach, all to ourselves. It was (and still is) one of our favourite spots in Türkiye. We were totally on our own. At least for the first night anyway.

Aquarela and Greylag were still in the bay. Lou and Ray had gone into town to do some shopping. Little did we know the chaos that we had left behind. At midday, a squall came through and the wind picked up to a massive 50kn funnelling through that little bay and Aquarela started to drag. So did the cat next to them. A nightmare scenario when you are attached to shore. To make matters worse one of their long lines got caught round the prop so it was a frantic 20 mins. Thankfully the larger powercat was still there and had their dinghy in the water so helped them both out. Luckily for Lou and Ray, Greylag stayed put. We hadn’t seen any of it where were were so were amazed at what had happened 8nm up the coast. 

The following morning the forecast was for 25kn so we were planning on staying put on the boat. As the morning wore on the forecasted wind did not appear and as we stared out to sea all we could see were boats motoring past. So sod it, we decided to go for a walk. We took the dinghy round to the other half of the whale tail and tied it to shore. There was a path up to…you guessed it, some ruins on the hill. After our first full season in the Med we had both agreed on one simple fact. We thoroughly enjoyed getting off the boat and exploring. Too many times we had been too afraid to leave the boat for fear of the anchor dragging whilst we weren’t there. We made a pact with one another to either put the boat in a marina or accept the risk and leave it at anchor. Either way, we wanted to explore more of the land rather than just stare at it from the cockpit. Today was that day. We went for a wonderful walk, got some great photos and felt so much better for doing it. By the time we got back to the boat it was still there, nothing had happened, all was good.

The wind did start to pick up a bit and we thought it prudent to fling our our spare anchor off to the side and tie it off at midships to alleviate some of the sideways pressure on the hull. Always a worry when you are attached to the shore. By the late afternoon it had died away and we decided to have a bbq on our little private beach. The beach actually was the end point of a gorge that ran back up into the hill. As we explored the gorge we picked up some driftwood to make a bonfire with later on. We collected quite a bit in the end. Once the wood was laid we went back to the boat to collect our chairs, grab a few beers and prepare our meal. We had a little gas stove so cooked up some chicken fajitas on the beach. Once the meal was finished Carl lit the bonfire. What a lovely night, with Rockhopper just off shore in front of us. Perfect. 

6th May 2023 - Kizilkuyruk Koyu (aka North whale tail bay) - Ekincik (25.5 nautical miles)

We had 25nm to do so at 8am we retrieved the kedge anchor, untied the shore lines and weighed anchor. Sad to say goodbye to our favourite spot in Türkiye. Our destination was Ekincik, a fairly large bay with not much around but for its proximity to the Dalyan river. A must do according to friends who had done it before. With not enough wind we motored through a pretty rolly sea to get to the bay, anchoring in 6m at round midday. A slight swell rolled through the bay but it wasn’t too bad. After making sure that we were staying put we ventured into town. At the little marina where we tied our dinghy to a guy approached us to offer his services in taking us up the river the following day. His name was Hido and he would come collect us from our boat the next morning. As we were the only ones on the trip it was €150 for the two of us which was steep but it was for a good 6hrs out and we really wanted to do it. Remember our motto, get out and do stuff so we were embracing it. After arranging that we went in search of dinner. The heavens opened whilst we sat there having our dinner necessitating a couple of table moves under the awning of the restaurant. We hoped we hadn’t just forked out €150 to spend the day in a boat getting soaked. Hido had told us the weather would be better tomorrow but I strongly suspect he would have said anything to get us to commit.

The next morning the sun rose and it looked like we were in luck. Apparently you could take your own dinghy up there but the entrance is really shallow in places and if you do make it in, there is every opportunity to get lost in the various pathways through the reeds on your way up to the town. It also seemed like we would be taking away from the living that they guys make from it so it seemed a bit churlish to do it ourselves without learning about the area along the way from our guide. I still smarted a bit from the local guide at Ephesus who chastised me for using a guide book whilst wandering around rather than paying for a guide. “You come all this way and you don’t learn anything!” 

Anyhoo, at 9am Hido picked us up in a big wooden boat, which could have seated 15 people, and took us towards the river. First he took us to see some caves, a quick pitstop on the way - click click with the camera. We then entered the shallow, fast flowing water of the river mouth, glad we had someone who knew what he was doing. The mouth of the river is a protected area for the endangered species of the loggerhead sea turtle. The nesting area is protected by various international animal protection agencies and it wasn’t long before we saw a few of the adults popping up to say hello. It was truly stunning scenary with reeds either side of the river and mountains surrounding us. Very peaceful. An hour into the journey Hido dropped us off at a dock so that we could walk to the ancient site of Kaunos, a 10th century BC sea port, now 8km from the sea. Referred to by Herodotus, first ruled by the Persians, then the Greeks, then Romans with its eventual decline in the 620s AD. I loved all this stuff! The site was peaceful, only one other couple wondering around. It’s hard to imagine the bustling sea port it had once been. By 11:30am we were back on the river towards the town of Dalyan, a tourist hotspot which even our non-sailing friends had heard of. We could see why. The river meandered around houses with wooden jetties protruding from the shore. Boats similar to ours were docked on either side of the river next to local fishing boats. Before we got to the main town, Hido steered us to a place that sold blue crabs. He pointed them out to us in a giant tank outside before showing into the shop where we could purchase some crab meat for dinner. Pretty soon we were back in the boat heading up the river with Lycian tombs carved into the walls of rock surrounding us. Closer to the main town the houses became hotels along the river and got a bit more swanky, some with dockside loungers and a pool, still with brightly coloured boats moored against the dock. We’d found the resort bit. Around lunchtime Hido steered us to the dock of the La Boheme restaurant which had a lovely terrace over the water. He insisted this was the best restaurant in town but we were under no obligation to eat there. We decided to have a wander through the town and do our usual beer stop. The town was quite picturesque and we heard more than a few English accents dotted about. In the end we decided to head back to La Boheme for lunch as it did look nice. The service and the food were excellent. Hido didn’t rush us at all, he sat back chatting to the guys from the restaurant, it was up to us when we wanted to leave which was great. When we got back into the boat he asked whether we wanted to go up to Lake Koycegiz to have a look. We wouldn’t be going far into it but it was surrounded by mountains and fairly spectacular so we opted to pay a bit extra and do it. Mmm, it was spectacular but then so was everywhere else so not sure it was work the extra €20 but in for a penny, in for a Euro! Soon after we turned around and headed back the way we came, just soaking up the sights on the way back. 

By 4:20pm we were back onboard Rockhopper having had a thoroughly enjoyable day. We were treated to a lovely sunset too.   

8th May 2023 - Ekincik - Cliffs of Amos (21.7 nautical miles) 

It was Lou’s birthday the following day so we decided to reconvene with the crew of Greylag and Aquarela at a bay called the Cliffs of Amos. A very grand title indeed for a special day. It was just outside the bay of Marmaris, just down from the town of Turunç. Lou and Ray had been there before the previous year and said that the little restaurant there was very friendly, had access to a pool and served good food. There is a military zone between the bays of Ekincik and Marmaris which we had seen on the charts the previous day but Hido had told us that if we left early enough and got through it by 8am it would be fine. It was quite a detour so we thought we’d give it a go and so weighed anchor at 6am. Aquarela had been in a bay just along from us so weren’t far behind. Alas, within about two miles of entering the military zone we were called up on the radio and told to get out of it. In fact as we came round the corner we saw a large warship in the centre of the zone and were told to stay at least 2 miles away from it. We made a beeline for the edge of the zone. Aquarela had been taking a similar course to us but after hearing us on the radio followed suit.

Ah well, it was an early start for nothing but once you’re up, you’re up so we arrived at the anchorage at 9:45am having motored the whole way. We found a little sandy spot and anchored in 5m. Not far behind us Aquarela came into the bay and anchored up, followed by Greylag. The Tremendous Trio were back together again. That evening we had a few cocktails at the Pebble Beach Restaurant before we all went back to our respective boats for dinner. For us, tonight was Blue Crab Spaghetti! Our purchase from the Dalyan tour. Not quite my thing but Carl loved it and I did give it a go. 

As it was Lou’s birthday in the morning we arranged to meet for breakfast and then go for a walk up to the remains of the ancient Greek city of Amos on the cliffs above us. And so the following morning, whilst not quite as early as we all had planned (given the cocktails the night before) we had our breakfast and walked up the hillside. It was a bit too hot and steep for Dill, Lou and Ray’s little Jack Russell, so he stayed behind on Greylag. We got some great drone shots of the boats in the bay and us on our walk. That evening we met again for Lou’s birthday meal. We had all dressed up a bit and Sharon had even got Lou a gift. Feeling a tad embarrassed we managed to redeem ourselves by offering a paddle boarding experience for Lou the following morning. Of course we would have lent it to her anyway but you know what I mean!

10th May 2023 - Cliffs of Amos - Loryma Restaurant, Bozukkale (27.3 nautical miles)

Every time we parted from these lovely people it could have been the last time we saw them for a long while so we did another farewell round of messages. We had to be off as we had arranged to meet up with Neil and Kirsten (SV Seaduction). They were the ones that were next to us on the hard in Kas boatyard. We had last seen them briefly at Kas marina when they had come through just shortly before we left in April. The previous year we had gone to Ali Baba’s restaurant in Bozukkale (the one where we had to tie up to the rickety wooden dock, extremely close to the rocks); this year we decided to meet Neil and Kirsten at a different restaurant in the same bay. By the time we’d had coffee with Ray and Lou and she’d had her paddle-board session, we weighed anchor at 12:30pm. It was a 27nm trip so by the time we came up into the Bozukkale bay it was 5:30pm. Seaduction was already stern to on the restaurant dock so we spun round and tied up next to them. The lazy lines were at slightly weird intervals along the dock which didn’t quite work for us as a cat but we managed to get tied off, roughly parallel to the dock. Once the boat was sorted we quickly got ourselves ready and went for dinner with Neil and Kirsten. Great to see them again and hear about their plans. As with all sailing plans, they are written in the sand at low tide. Neil and Kirsten, an Aussie and a Kiwi, were always planning on taking their boat back home to Australia. Originally they were going to cross the Atlantic on the Viking Rally in January (a smaller rally than the ARC which we were doing in November), but they had been debating shipping their boat to Indonesia rather than taking the much longer option to sailing it themselves. Looking into it, Kirsten reasoned that it wasn’t actually that much cheaper to sail it yourself. It all depended on where you wanted to sail and the time you had. It was an interesting perspective but we’d hoped that they would change their minds because we wanted to catch up with them in the Caribbean. It was a lovely evening in a beautiful setting. We were feeling quite blessed with the friends that we had made in our time in the Med at this point.  

11th May 2023 - Bozakale - Badalena Bay (aka Rockela Beach), Bozborun (18.2 nautical miles)

Unfortunately Seaduction was travelling the other way to us. With plans not entirely fixed they still only needed to get to Las Palmas in Gran Canaria for the Atlantic crossing in January, if they chose to do it, as opposed to us needed to be there by November. We also had decided to park the boat for the month of August in Tunisia to go and see Carl’s son and family in Canada so we had quite a few miles to do. Neil and Kirsten were going to spend a bit more time in Türkiye before heading west. So, at 9am we slipped the lines and waved farewell to the good ship Seaduction. Jon and Sharon onboard Aquarela had told us they were heading to Bozburun which was only 18nm along the coast so we opted to head up that way. Once out of the bay we hoisted the main, unfurled the jib and tacked our way up the channel between the Greek island of Symi and the Turkish coastline. Now Aquarela have freely admitted they they are not the biggest fans of taking long lines ashore. However, on our way to Bozburun they mentioned that they had found this beautiful spot opposite the town, next to a sweet little beach and had tied to the shore. They said there was plenty of room for us next to them and that it was pretty sheltered from the winds which would be blowing for a few days from the west. There would be a northerly and southerly component to that westerly wind but where they were should be fairly protected. I was a tad nervous about taking lines ashore when there were forecasted 20kn winds but we would be tucked in close to the hillside, largely being blown off so hopefully it would be ok. We came round the corner at 12:30pm and spotted Aquarela. Lining up next to them we dropped the hook in 12m of water and payed out 65m of chain. Thankfully Jon and Sharon hopped in the dinghy to help us tied off our lines to some rocks on the shore. It certainly makes it easier when you have a buddy boat already in. 

Unfortunately the weather didn’t play ball for beers on the beach that evening so we stayed onboard.  

The next day the wind picked up and whilst we had hoped to be blown off the shore, there were pretty big crosswind gusts that put a lot of strain on one of the lines to shore. We did our usual and threw out our kedge anchor sideways to the boat to take some strain from the sidewind but we did feel nervous about that one line. If it snapped we would be straight on Aquarela. We made the decision to tie another line as a back up. As I didn’t fancy manhandling a paddle-board in 25kn gusts I took one for the team and swam to shore with the line. Whilst the air temperature was pretty warm the sea temperature wasn’t quite balmy enough to go for a dip. Lou had been good at swimming in the cold water but I was waiting for at least 20degC. However, needs must on this occasion. At least we would have a backup line if the one under strain gave way. Sometimes it really is all about peace of mind. 

[Looking back at some WhatsApp messages at the time: “I was going to do some blogging but I can’t concentrate in this so I have been watching West Wing episodes instead” Now you can understand why I am a year behind in my blogs.]

The morning of the 13th dawned and thankfully the wind had let up sufficiently for Carl and I to make a break for the town to pick up some supplies….and maybe a beer and some calamari at Osman’s Palace, a famous spot amongst cruisers. 

It was finally time to have our beach beers so we arranged to meet up with Jon and Sharon on the little beach behind us at 3:30pm. The sun would have just popped behind the hillside so it would be cooler. It was a little pebble beach, with a log to sit on and, randomly, a little rickety table made out of planks of driftwood, nailed together. It looked like it had been there a fair while.

It started out so well...

After a few beers were sunk we debated about the wisdom of lighting a fire on the beach. We went off to collect a few twigs and before we knew it, Jon had dismantled the little table and we had proper fuel for the fire. Well, fuel for the fire, just not fuel to start the fire. At this point we were a few beers/wines in, with some nibbles to soak up the booze and Jon was raiding his dinghy’s fuel tank for some accelerant. He dowsed the wood with the petrol and then set it alight. Thinking back on it now I have no idea how a) Jon kept his eyebrows and b) we avoided the Turkish coastguard patrol. After blazing about 10 ft tall and giving us all a tan it eventually calmed down to a crackling fire. With the nibbles (aka dinner) long since gone, we finished off the wine and the beer and sang along to our favourite songs. When it was finally time to go back to our boats, I can only say that it was a struggle. As Carl gave Sharon a big hug they lost their footing in the water and fell over, both in fits of giggles. It was only after we (somehow) got the dinghy back to the boat I saw that Carl’s leg was scraped and bleeding. Luckily he couldn’t feel a bloody thing. Yet another one of those occasions where anything could have happened to the boat and we wouldn’t have been able to do a thing. Funny how it always seemed to be with Jon and Sharon…

This finally was our last evening with Jon and Sharon. Until we meet again...

14th May 2023 - Badalena Bay, Bozborun - Datça (20.9 nautical miles)

The next morning at 9am ( do not ask me how we managed it), I paddled to shore, unhooked the lines and we raised the anchor. Jon and Sharon came out onto their bow to wave us off. We were certainly going to miss those guys. Our livers might not, but we would.

There wasn’t much wind so we motored the 20nm to get to Datça. By 1pm we were back where our Turkish adventure started seven months ago. Given that we had cracking hangovers and that we wanted to get an early start to get to Knidos the following day there was not much to report here.

15th May 2023 - Datça - Knidos (22 nautical miles)

Knidos would be our penultimate stop before leaving Türkiye. A 4th century BC Greek settlement perched on the end of the Datça peninsula, it wasn’t to be missed. If we got in early enough we would be able to anchor in the circular bay, surround by hillsides covered in olive, almond and fruit trees as well as a fairly well preserved amphitheatre. Or, if we were extremely lucky, we would be able to tie up to the restaurant dock in the middle of bay. We therefore left at 7:45am to get round to Knidos before lunchtime. We managed an hour or so of sailing but eventually put the port engine on and headed towards the bay. We were in luck! There was a large motor yacht anchored off but the restaurant dock was completely free. It was another wooden, crooked affair but we thought we’d give it a go. Getting the fenders and lines sorted we hopefully looked up towards the restaurant to see if someone was available to take our lines. After a few minutes someone reluctantly started to head down the dock. Initially we felt like they didn’t quite want us to be there (maybe too early in the season?), but once he took our lines he was very friendly and told us that the restaurant and bar were open. We were going to position ourselves right on the end of the pier as we were going to be leaving early the next morning but he seemed to drag us down a good 7m from the end. Thinking he might know something we didn’t we just tied up where he told us to. It was a long pier anyway. Later on as the dock filled up with other boats, some of which were telling us to shift on down towards the shore we dragged ourselves forward a bit instead. 

It was a beautiful spot, an archeological site surrounding an ancient harbour with Rockhopper tied up in the middle of it. We simply need to walk down the jetty, have a quick beer at the restaurant and make our reservation for the evening, then we were right there, strolling through history. On the opposite side to our little harbour was another one, housing the Knidos Marina. Strictly for small fishing boats as it was very shallow, these days anyway. For several hours we wandered round the site, Temple of Dionysus, Temple of Aphrodite, the amphitheatre, all with Rockhopper the only yacht in the bay and us, practically the only people on the site. By the time we got back to the restaurant a few more boats had started to come in. We opted to sit on the boat for a bit to help others with lines, fend off some credit card skippers and, as mentioned before, move our boat up a bit as we clearly were taking up too much room. By sunset the dock was rammed. It was a lovely evening at the restaurant and more lively that we though it would be at 1pm that afternoon. 

16th May 2023 - Knidos - Bodrum (24.9 nautical miles) 

As promised to everyone who’d told us to shuffle down the previous evening, we left the dock early at 7:30am. It would be 25nm to Bodrum where we would be checking out of the country. We needed to get there early because we needed to pick up some fuel and hand our boat papers over to the agents who would be handling our exit from the country. We would also then have some time to see the sights of Bodrum before checking out the following day. There were some nerves. The day we would check out would be day 15 of our pump out clock, the absolute limit. We obviously still had some trepidation that our whole residency/tourist visa shenanigans had kept us legal, and of course there was alway the potential for a random fine if we’d anchored in the wrong spot or whatever. Still, there is always something to worry about and once we had fuelled, dropped off the boat papers and anchored we had one last ancient Turkish city to explore before leaving Türkiye. We were excited to get back into Greece and start the journey west but also sad to leave a country that we had truly loved spending time in. The history, the culture, the people and that dramatic coastline with some of the best anchorages we have encountered. 

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