Finike to Fethiye

Gokkaya Limani

Northwest Creek

After leaving Finike, we had a nice gentle voyage to Gokkaya Limani. The wind was even kind enough to allow some sailing. Gokkaya turned out to be a lovely isolated spot with lots of small islands, clear water, no development and a nice little cave to visit. NW creek was such a pleasant anchorage that we stayed for two nights. Even the gulets and tripper boats mostly don't come in so for once were in the company of yachts of our own size. A lot of fresh water flows into the creek so there is 10cm of icy cold fresh water on top of the toasty warm salt water. Maybe that's what keeps the tripper boats and their tourists away - but we found it wonderfully refreshing! There is a small river to explore by dinghy and some ruins to explore on foot.

Cave on SE shore of main island

The only slight brush with tourism was that each night, a tripper boat turned up at dusk to have a fairly low key disco until between 11.00 & 12.00. The first night wasn't too bad - with a big bonfire, mainly Turkish music and dancing round the fire. The second night though was some kind of Karaoke. I ended up shining our 1,000,000 Candle spotlight on them for 3 minutes until, to my relief, they got the message and shut up.

Ucagiz

Necropolis

Next stop was Kekova Roads. This is a large area of sea, completely sheltered by islands. Although there are over 50 tripper boats based on the new pontoon at Ucagiz, there was enough space for all of us. We anchored in the lagoon for a couple of days. Ucagiz is a pretty little village, still relatively unspoiled. There are several mini-markets and a fruit stall. The large numbers of tourists arrive on coaches, are herded onto their allotted boat, whisked round the sights then herded back onto their coach. They make relatively little impact on the village in the process. There is a fascinating necropolis just to the east of the village with huge sarcophagi to pore over. It is completely free and unregulated and very few people seem to go there. We wandered and scrambled around for an hour or so, speculating wildly on what it all meant. Well worth a visit.

While we were in the lagoon, we got an urgent message, via the CA, from Rod and Lu Heikel who needed a check done on the position of the cardinal buoy just off Kale Koy. We were only three miles away so we went round in the morning with a GPS and hand-bearing compass. I checked it out using the dinghy while L kept Rosa safe. It's nice to be able to give a little back after all the excellent information and fun we've had from their Pilot Books.

The man of Iron

At the Western end of the lagoon, the water forks in two. If you follow a bearing of 30 degrees from the tip of the peninsula that divides the two arms, on the north shore, is a spring. It is ice cold and apparently only a man of iron can stay in it for 5 minutes. Well, your friend and humble narrator made it.

We went on to the bay east of Woodhouse bay to see another spring which is said to be delicious. We stopped in amazing surroundings with huge grey cliffs either side of us and took the dinghy, loaded up with water bottles, up the small shallow river at the head. We found the spring but it was guarded by a large number of huge yellow wasps which were obviously gathering scarce fresh water to keep their nest cool. Sadly, your Iron man turned out to be made of putty - and we decided to beat a strategic retreat. Woodhouse bay being too crowded with Gulets and Tripper boats, we anchored in Polemos Buku and had a quiet couple of days before moving on West.

Paraglider landing on Kas Quay. Rosa to the left

Next stop was Kas. We intended to use this as a safe haven for Rosa while we visited Kastellorizon by ferry. This is the most eastern point of Greece, being 72 miles East of Rhodes. We could see the place, get some duty-free Gin, and renew our Turkish Visas. Unfortunately, it turns out to be anything-but a safe harbour. Huge Gulets are inter-mingled with yachts and the two sides of the harbour are so close that it is almost certain that anchors will be tangled and dredged up. Our chain was lifted on the first morning by a huge steel diving boat. If the boat was unattended, there is no telling what damage would be done. Shopping was good so we re-provisioned and the town itself is charming - well worth a visit. The quay area has been cleared and is used as a landing place for tandem para-sailers - very spectacular!

While in Kas, we heard about new Turkish Visa rules which seem very restrictive. This final straw and We've decided to leave Turkey permanently on August 9th when our visas run out and will kiss the ground in Greece when we arrive.

On the day we left Kas, we had to wait until 12.00 when the Gulet that had laid its chain over our anchor left. This wasn't really problem as we had planned just a short hop to Kemmer. The cove in the North West was very pleasant and we had a good peaceful night, enlivened by drinks with Peter and Aggie, an Australian couple who we met in Kas.

Next day, we did the 6 hour hop to the fringes of the Fethiye/Gocek area and moored in Gemiler Adasi. The main anchoring place behind the islet was completely choked with gulets and tripper boats so we anchored in the Western Cove. Rod Heikel says that this is a calm-weather haven only. We couldn't see why from the chart - but as we had calm weather, we gave it a try. For some reason the swell manages to turn around 180 degrees and get into the bay. It must be reflecting off the Islet or the other side. So yet again - Rod is right. With a big swell it would have been very unpleasant! At dusk, a cloud of wasps surrounded the boat. Lindsay got stung and we retreated down below to be rocked and rolled all night. Not our best anchorage ever!

Today we motored and sailed around into Fethiye. At first, it seems to be packed and/or expensive. Our first choice, Pacariz Buku, now has a large no-anchoring sign at the mouth. We eventually found a nice empty anchorage off Fethiye Adasi - a small island with lots of huge villas on it. Hopefully nobody will turn up to make us go away! Tomorrow we explore the market and town.