We’ve now been 3 months in Turkey and what a journey of discovery this has been.
In a nutshell, for those who find a long email tedious, we sailed up the coast from Finike to Cesme where we caught up with Annika and Jesper AND the meltemi, and started heading (read ‘flying’) south from mid August.
We are now just south of Bodrum, much calmer winds and heading back slowly towards Finike, our first landfall in Turkey and home for the winter to be, by the end of October. I hope to have all the photos up on Picasa as they tell their own story. Website is http://picasaweb.google.com/SV.Mischief
First of all, let me start with our encounter of Turkish people. We have met friendly
people everywhere, some more than others. And after our Egypt experience, where every act of ‘kindness’ so often turned out to be simply a claim for ‘baksheesh’, we were very wary of ‘friendliness’.
The Turks, especially those away from the tourist areas, are something else. Nowhere in our trip so far have we met the generosity of spirit, from simply wanting to know the way to somewhere, where people will go so much out of their way to help – including phoning a friend or relative who can speak English to help us out… almost embarrassing at times… There is also that genuine enjoyment of simply talking to you, someone from somewhere else with different experiences, and a carpet seller will invite you to have some ‘chai’ (tea) and a chat, even when you explain that you are not in the market for a carpet! (And no, not even a mention, after we sip our tea accompanied by a pleasant conversation about life in general).
We remember our favourite places by the wonderful people we met there.
Sailing in Turkey is essentially exploring deep bays separated by big headlands, that all seem to have a Greek island at the end of them, forming a wind tunnel between the two. From Finike we sailed up to Kekova Roads and caught up with cruising friends on Circe who gave us some wonderful information about where to go and what to see along the Turkish coast. Kekova has some wonderful anchorages all strewn with sarcophagai and ruins, including an underwater city where land sank after an earthquake some 1500 years ago. It was a rare treat to take the dinghy for a slow drift over old ruins, the occasional amphora and other sunken relics..JPG)
We then sailed to the wonderful enclosed harbour and town of Fethiye via Kas and Kalkan. Fethiye bay was the first indication of how popular cruising has become in Turkey…. Sailing boats in all directions!!
A few more anchorages and we were in Marmaris bay – an unbelievable sailing mecca, but also a start of the anchorages where you have to compete with the local gullets, an old local boat design now mainly used for day-tripping tourists - and their sometimes crazy boat handling! We again caught up with Dreamcatcher, as we had on some previous anchorages, and waved them farewell as they left to cruise the Greek islands.
We headed along the coast to a small fjord like anchorage called Bozuk Buku where Bjorn and I celebrated 30 wedded years at a small restaurant ashore – an appropriately beautiful spot for a swim and a visit to the ancient ruins of Loryma on top of the hill overlooking the bay we were in. And the very local fish meal prepared by the fisher family we had was more than sumptuous and suitable for the occasion, with a special fruit dessert for the occasion.
We skipped the whole Bodrum bay area that comes next to save for the return trip, as our primary concern was to make as much headway north before the dreaded meltemi arrived.
We headed to the quaint town of Datca and then on to the ancient harbour of Knidos, sailing past within a couple of miles of a number of Greek islands including Rhodos and Simi. At Knidos, we went ashore to explore the incredible remains of this ancient city with two harbours at each end of the peninsula. Knidos was one of the six cities of the Dorian hexapolis, and the remains show how large and well organised the city was, with two theatres, a number of temples, the agora… the setting and site are quite impressive.
Another overnight stop at Akyarlar, a bay west of Bodrum, we headed to Gumusluk, on the Agean side of the Bodrum peninsula, where we intended to start cruising northwards at a more leisurely pace.
We had a wonderful week here, and then with the right weather window for going north, we headed to Gulluk Korfezi to explore all the coves and bays there over the next 10 days or so. The area is very pretty but somewhat marred by the many fish farms around here which made the water in some of the bays abit murky. We still managed some wonderful anchorages like the one at Asin Limani (limani is the Turkish term for harbour/port) where the remains of the ancient city of Iassos, including the watchtower and the ancient breakwater still stand.
With some strong northerlies forecast, we decided to stop over at an enclosed bay called Talianaki, east of Altinkum. We were disappointed to find that the holiday village ashore was deserted, and the beach visited only by a number of locals, and a stream of tourist engorged gullets during the day. We did spot a small beach concession on one side of the entrance and went to explore this. To our delight, we found that this was a swimming beach for a number of holiday homes tucked away totally out of sight. Walking through the village in search of a mini market for some fresh bread, we met Mine and Gokhan (& son Bora) who startled us by their perfect English… they live in America and were home visiting…
Through them we met – and adopted – the whole family… We would go ashore every day to get away from the strong winds, and spend the afternoon playing scrabble, dominoes or watching the locals play OKEY (a form of gin rummy) or – to Bjorn’s disappointment – discussing politics with Mine’s uncle with Mine and her cousin Aycan translating!!! We had a ball.
We were joined here briefly by our American friends on Interlude (we crossed the Indian Ocean at the same time and shared the ‘job’ of cruising net controllers), and we had a wonderful couple of evenings, which included being treated to a guitar session by Katie and Kurt on their magnificent boat – a 74ft Deerfoot (now that’s cruising in style).
We made it up to Alacati, south of Cesme, for our daughter’s visit. We had a wonderful 3 weeks here, glad to be in a marina with winds clocking 40 knots whilst we watched Annika and Jesper race in the windsurfing world cup. We also managed to go cruising for a few days when the wind relented, travel inland to Cesme, Ismir and down to Kusadasi and the unforgettable Ephesus, and even take a ferry across to the lovely Greek island of Samos for 2 days.
More in our next newsletter when we get to Finike. Love to you all and keep those emails coming.
In a nutshell, for those who find a long email tedious, we sailed up the coast from Finike to Cesme where we caught up with Annika and Jesper AND the meltemi, and started heading (read ‘flying’) south from mid August.
We are now just south of Bodrum, much calmer winds and heading back slowly towards Finike, our first landfall in Turkey and home for the winter to be, by the end of October. I hope to have all the photos up on Picasa as they tell their own story. Website is http://picasaweb.google.com/SV.Mischief
First of all, let me start with our encounter of Turkish people. We have met friendly
people everywhere, some more than others. And after our Egypt experience, where every act of ‘kindness’ so often turned out to be simply a claim for ‘baksheesh’, we were very wary of ‘friendliness’.The Turks, especially those away from the tourist areas, are something else. Nowhere in our trip so far have we met the generosity of spirit, from simply wanting to know the way to somewhere, where people will go so much out of their way to help – including phoning a friend or relative who can speak English to help us out… almost embarrassing at times… There is also that genuine enjoyment of simply talking to you, someone from somewhere else with different experiences, and a carpet seller will invite you to have some ‘chai’ (tea) and a chat, even when you explain that you are not in the market for a carpet! (And no, not even a mention, after we sip our tea accompanied by a pleasant conversation about life in general).
We remember our favourite places by the wonderful people we met there.
Sailing in Turkey is essentially exploring deep bays separated by big headlands, that all seem to have a Greek island at the end of them, forming a wind tunnel between the two. From Finike we sailed up to Kekova Roads and caught up with cruising friends on Circe who gave us some wonderful information about where to go and what to see along the Turkish coast. Kekova has some wonderful anchorages all strewn with sarcophagai and ruins, including an underwater city where land sank after an earthquake some 1500 years ago. It was a rare treat to take the dinghy for a slow drift over old ruins, the occasional amphora and other sunken relics.
.JPG)
We then sailed to the wonderful enclosed harbour and town of Fethiye via Kas and Kalkan. Fethiye bay was the first indication of how popular cruising has become in Turkey…. Sailing boats in all directions!!
A few more anchorages and we were in Marmaris bay – an unbelievable sailing mecca, but also a start of the anchorages where you have to compete with the local gullets, an old local boat design now mainly used for day-tripping tourists - and their sometimes crazy boat handling! We again caught up with Dreamcatcher, as we had on some previous anchorages, and waved them farewell as they left to cruise the Greek islands.
We headed along the coast to a small fjord like anchorage called Bozuk Buku where Bjorn and I celebrated 30 wedded years at a small restaurant ashore – an appropriately beautiful spot for a swim and a visit to the ancient ruins of Loryma on top of the hill overlooking the bay we were in. And the very local fish meal prepared by the fisher family we had was more than sumptuous and suitable for the occasion, with a special fruit dessert for the occasion.
We skipped the whole Bodrum bay area that comes next to save for the return trip, as our primary concern was to make as much headway north before the dreaded meltemi arrived.
We headed to the quaint town of Datca and then on to the ancient harbour of Knidos, sailing past within a couple of miles of a number of Greek islands including Rhodos and Simi. At Knidos, we went ashore to explore the incredible remains of this ancient city with two harbours at each end of the peninsula. Knidos was one of the six cities of the Dorian hexapolis, and the remains show how large and well organised the city was, with two theatres, a number of temples, the agora… the setting and site are quite impressive.
Another overnight stop at Akyarlar, a bay west of Bodrum, we headed to Gumusluk, on the Agean side of the Bodrum peninsula, where we intended to start cruising northwards at a more leisurely pace.
We had a wonderful week here, and then with the right weather window for going north, we headed to Gulluk Korfezi to explore all the coves and bays there over the next 10 days or so. The area is very pretty but somewhat marred by the many fish farms around here which made the water in some of the bays abit murky. We still managed some wonderful anchorages like the one at Asin Limani (limani is the Turkish term for harbour/port) where the remains of the ancient city of Iassos, including the watchtower and the ancient breakwater still stand.
With some strong northerlies forecast, we decided to stop over at an enclosed bay called Talianaki, east of Altinkum. We were disappointed to find that the holiday village ashore was deserted, and the beach visited only by a number of locals, and a stream of tourist engorged gullets during the day. We did spot a small beach concession on one side of the entrance and went to explore this. To our delight, we found that this was a swimming beach for a number of holiday homes tucked away totally out of sight. Walking through the village in search of a mini market for some fresh bread, we met Mine and Gokhan (& son Bora) who startled us by their perfect English… they live in America and were home visiting…
Through them we met – and adopted – the whole family… We would go ashore every day to get away from the strong winds, and spend the afternoon playing scrabble, dominoes or watching the locals play OKEY (a form of gin rummy) or – to Bjorn’s disappointment – discussing politics with Mine’s uncle with Mine and her cousin Aycan translating!!! We had a ball.
We were joined here briefly by our American friends on Interlude (we crossed the Indian Ocean at the same time and shared the ‘job’ of cruising net controllers), and we had a wonderful couple of evenings, which included being treated to a guitar session by Katie and Kurt on their magnificent boat – a 74ft Deerfoot (now that’s cruising in style).
We made it up to Alacati, south of Cesme, for our daughter’s visit. We had a wonderful 3 weeks here, glad to be in a marina with winds clocking 40 knots whilst we watched Annika and Jesper race in the windsurfing world cup. We also managed to go cruising for a few days when the wind relented, travel inland to Cesme, Ismir and down to Kusadasi and the unforgettable Ephesus, and even take a ferry across to the lovely Greek island of Samos for 2 days.
More in our next newsletter when we get to Finike. Love to you all and keep those emails coming.
