The last 80 miles to Finike
Friday 15th July...
Linda - Finally we made our decision to head down the coast 50 miles to Kas. There's nothing much in between Gocek/Fethiye and Kas, just a dodgy anchorage or two, hence our non stop journey to Kas. By the way it's pronounced 'cash'.
Once again, it was a horrible rolly ride with the swell, which apparantly is ever present here. Not so horrible as the previous trip though from Marmaris to Gocek. I was shocked that Dean didn't complain about it, well maybe only once today. It was a pretty boring 8 hour trip, with a little nice scenery at some points and also a really big cave.
The really big cave
Just passed in between two islands south of Kalkan
The approach to Kas
On arrival we headed straight to the pump out station, and whilst we were at it topped up with diesel. We had to wait as there was a boat already there, and when he finished a big motor yacht tried to push in infront of us! How rude, don't they know who we are. Fortunately the fuel berth man told him that we were first and he had to go away and wait. Ha, serves him right.
Once we were sorted we got a berth for two nights in the marina. I felt like I had been transported into another universe. We haven't been in a marina this year. How mad is that? It looks like a nice place, tomorrow we'll do some exploring.
Saturday 16th July...
Linda - And exploring we did...walking into the town took about 15 minutes. It's a very lovely town with a harbour (which is where all the gullets are, and not in our marina thankfully). Lots and lots of shops, restaurants, and bistros. We looked around a couple of times then found a nice restaurant (at the second attempt). The first one we went to was under some trees and very miniscule creatures kept dropping onto the tablecloth (how disgusting), so we left before ordering thankfully. But the town was really nice, just our kind of thing. Dean even found (and bought) a bottle of his favourite Bowmore whisky. Bonus!
Alongside the marina on the way to town
Thesee just sticking out in the row
The boatyard was almost empty
Lots of lazing cats and dogs about
Flags out for the latest Turkish bank holiday yesterday.
Democracy and National Solidarity Day.
More bunting and me
Their hero Kemal Ataturk
Gorgeous streets in town
And signs too.... Cat's meow?? Alan & Yasi??
Shot Bar
The town harbour
Lovely scenery
Sunday 17th July...Linda - Aha! we have moved on. We have arranged to start our annual berth contract at Finike. It's in the same marina chain as Kas which meant we had the last two nights free. They did offer 3 nights at first but when we said we were entitled to free berthing on our contract somehow they only had two nights available.... hmm.
And so, we left Kas marina at 10am, for just less than a 20 mile hop to Kekova. Kekova seems to be a bit of a jewel in the crown, it's almost a small inland sea, which means NO SWELL yippee! But first we had to pass inside a number of islands off Kas, one of which is intriguingly GREEK. No kidding. It's called Kastellorizo, and is the most easterly of the Greek Dodecanese islands, being some 68 nautical miles east of Rhodes. Apparantly, Kastellorizo has been in the hands of nearly all of the numerous Empires over the centuries. To see more info about Kastellorizo copy and paste the following link...
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kastellorizo
Looking over to the island of Kastellorizo
En route to Kekova there is a bit of a short cut channel north of Ic Ada Adasi and the mainland, and it was difficult to spot until close up.
The shortcut somewhere along here
Now starting to appear
Easy peasy now we see it
Looking back through the shortcut channel
Our destination is specifically known as Kekova Roads (Kekova being the main big island protecting everything else). Once inside we turned left and anchored at the west end in an anchorage called Sicak Koyu.
The afternoon has been quite windy so we stayed on the boat and chilled out. At one point we were sitting there chatting and suddenly I noticed a boat dragging past us. It was the only other boat in the anchorage, a blue Beneteau Oceanis 50 just like Thesee. We had seen the owner go ashore in his dinghy, so Dean got out his fog horn and started blowing it in the direction of the shoreside restaurants to alert the owner. It's been a long time since we used the fog horn. I would say the last time was back in 2018 when we navigated the Chenal du Four in France. Dean tells me the fog horn canister is so old he bought it when he had his previous boat and in fact the price on it is 25 Francs!! Even before euros were invented! Anyway, it did the trick and a guy on shore got in his dinghy and went to retrieve his dragging boat, just in time we think as it was moving pretty quickly. So once again, we avert another Turkish disaster.
Arriving in Kekova Roads, looks very nice indeed
The dragging boat going past us
The fog horn
Monday 18th July...Linda - We've been getting up quite early, around 7am. After breakfast we offloaded the dinghy and went for a spin around the locality, checking out prospective anchorages. One of the anchorages has a river running into it, but the north wind was blowing right down it making for slightly choppy waters. The water here is a lovely blue colour, very clean, but not very clear. This means I've not been tempted to swim yet. There has been a good breeze blowing all day which keeps us cool, without that I would have to cool off in the water. Today's high temperature was 34.5 degrees. Not quite as hot as the UK apparantly 😄.
Looking into the river mouth
Stunning rocks and caves
9.30am and we were finished doing our anchorages reccie. A quick coffee on board Thesee, then we got our trainers out and went ashore for walkies. There are two bar type places here, and as we approached we were beckoned over by both owners to land on their pontoons. The one we chose was called Aperlai Restaurant. We had found out that there was a 30 minute walk along the Lycian Way from here to an ancient underwater village called Aperlai. So off we went, walking was soooooo hot even though it was completely flat, but no shade at all. I could feel the backs of my legs burning so we sheltered a couple of times under the odd tree. It wasn't long until we got there. Sadly, nothing much to see apart from a number of ancient sarcophagi, extraordinarily some in the water, been there since before water levels rose.
Copy and paste this link for more info...
https://www.kulturportali.gov.tr/turkiye/antalya/gezilecekyer/aperlai
Aperlai's claim to fame is that they invented the dye for Royal Purple colour. Wow!
See this link..
https://www.dragoman-turkey.com/en/blog-en/adventuring-to-aperlai-the-city-of-royal-purple/
The bar where we left the dinghy
The Lycian Way.... before the unsheltered bits!
Arrival at the ancient village
First sight of a sarcophagus in the water
More here
The lucky ones still on dry land
Water's edge
Aptly named house
Back at the bar for a large glass of Fanta
We were back before midday, had some lunch, and Dean spent some time repairing a number of leaks in the paddleboard.
Tuesday 19th July...
Linda - Two days and nights spent in the anchorage at Sicak Koyu. It's a beautiful spot but there's more to see, so we took Thesee a couple of miles into the lagoon which has even more protection. We are now anchored just outside the village called Kaleucagiz. We did anchor a little further into the west of the lagoon, but the holding wasn't very good and we think we started to drag slowly during the afternoon winds, so we moved.
Running the generator to top up the batteries after two days
Kaleucagiz
As always, Dean finds something to do. Today he used some old material (which he found by the bins in Licata) to make a sunshade for the centre opening of the sprayhood. It's great to have it open as it allows the wind to come right through into the cockpit, but at the same time the sun shines directly down the companionway and makes the saloon very hot. Now with Dean's new shady cover we have best of both worlds.
The new sunshade taking shape
Here's Dean fitting the finished product.
It's amazing, and so simple.
We only have a few days left until we will arrive in Finike marina, so it was a good day to try BBQ'ing steak on the Cobb. Dean's been wanting to try cooking steaks on the griddle attachment for AGES. Today he finally got his wish, and WOW just how good does this dinner look??
Super Duper
The chef checking his work 😀
Wednesday 20th July...
Linda - 'Twas a super calm morning to wake up to. As nice as it was, unfortunately we could see all the dirty water in great detail. It was very strange because the surface water was gently flowing, yet about one inch below the surface the water was completely still. Really odd. Nice photos though.
Port side view
Starboard side view
We went ashore early, and was surprised how nice it was. As we went into the small harbour looking for somewhere to leave the dinghy, we were beckoned over to land at Hassan's restaurant. 'Mr Hassan' told us where everything was, even where to leave our rubbish. So we had a walkabout for about half an hour then returned to the restaurant for a very tasty glass of fresh orange juice.
A swing chair at one of the bars
Lucky charm tree
Turtle
More tombs
Quite a few actually
Cave tombs I presume
A lovely little village
Named steps
Back at Hassan's restaurant
Yes, a lovely little place it was, but the water in the harbour was quite disgusting and I don't think I would like to eat dinner next to it. Still, 'Mrs Hassan' gave us a sprig of mint from her flower box as we left.
The serenity of the morning was quickly erased from my memory when at 2pm I found myself in Mid Atlantic! What the hell! It must have been blowing 25 knots constant and the waves were breaking in this (always flat as a pancake we've been told) lagoon. This went on for four hours, during which time we amused ourselves by...
1. Watching day tripper boats returning early and trying to berth.
2. Local boats leaving the pontoons and coming out to anchor as it was safer out here (apparantly).
3. Yachties returning from shore in their dinghy and attempting to get onto their boat and re-anchor.
Thesee's anchor held solid as a rock, which meant we just had to sit tight (and hope the dinghy didn't flip over)..... it didn't.
One of our neighbours during the blow
Thursday 21st July...Linda - ATTENTION TFs. Lots of photos from our morning out at Kalekoy! It was only a 1 mile dinghy ride away from Thesee, and it was LOVELY 😀.
Arrival at yet another 'Mr Hassan's quay' and his Best Kitchen
Quays everywhere
A lovely setting
And lovely tablecloths....yes I know it's fish but I still like them
Following the steps up to the castle
Plenty of signs
Looking back down we could see people paddling
No chance of getting lost
Dean looking for a present for me
Erm, not quite THE Titanic
Fabulously decorated restaurants everywhere
Nearly there
At the entrance, a mere £1.25 each entrance fee
Looking down across to Kekova Island
Can't stop taking photos
Keep climbing
More views over Kekova Roads and out to sea
Looking inland to the lagoon. Thesee just out of view.
The restaurant quays, and extraordinary place
Dean recording a video for Gavin
Me on the canon
Even a tiny ampitheatre here
The 'I am here' cafe
Well preserved sarcophagus in the middle of the shallow bay
After our fabulous morning adventure we went back to Thesee and moved the boat just two miles to a small bay about 1 mile east of Kalekoy. The water was beautiful for swimming. We are tied to shore and throughout the day lots of tripper boats came and went. Tonight we are all alone.
Friday 22nd July...
Linda - Early morning we dinghy'd along the coast checking out the bays and also an area called Smuggler's Cove. Well it's actually Smuggler's Inn but there are a lot of enclosed bays etc behind some islands. We went back to Thesee, raised the anchor, and set off for Smuggler's Cove. When we arrived we chose our spot (sheltered from the afternoon winds, or so we thought) and tied to shore.
Can you spot Thesee anchored in last night's bay?
Here he is close up
At Smuggler's Cove all was well for a couple of hours. By 2.30pm our anchorage was surrounded by day tripper boats and the wind was picking up. We thought we had calculated the wind direction perfectly so that the wind would be on the stern, but of course the wind thought differently and was on the beam. Dean thought our anchor was dragging slightly. He tried to dive it to check, it was only 4 metres depth but the water was very cloudy so he couldn't tell. But one tug on the anchor line told him that something was not right.
To be safe we thought we should move. There was one day tripper boat that was close to our anchor line and we were going to ask him to move, but no soon as we had brought the paddleboard on deck things quickly became much worse and we were beginning to drift backwards and sideways towards the shore in the windy gusts.
We started the engine and Dean went off to release the yellow shore lines. As he released the second line we were getting very close to the rocks on shore. I tried to bow thrust to starboard but accidentally pressed the anchor down button which released more chain out and brought us even closer to the rocks. Somehow I realised what I had done and took some chain in again, and as our lines were free I could now motor forward, giving a big gush of water out of the back and stirring up all of the sea bed!
Our new friends on Kailani were near to us also anchored to stern. We must have been quite a sight. The day tripper boat decided to make a quick exit. Dean got back to the boat in the dinghy, and then started taking up anchor chain, by this time it was all in a higgledy piggeldy shape on the sea bed. Finally the anchor was up and safely stowed and we were out of danger. We then moved just a short way and anchored freely, safe and sound. It was then we realised our cockpit was a real untidy mess with the yellow shore lines strewn all over the place, as I had pulled them in from the shore. It all happened so quickly, it's a good job we were on the boat otherwise we would have a damaged boat tonight for sure.
Messy yellow shore lines everywhere
...and here too
Not long afterwards, our friends on Kailani decided they didn't want to go through the same, so decided to move too. We are both now anchored safely, and they invited us for drinks tonight. They have the same boat as us.... a Beneteau Oceanis 50 😀.
Saturday 23rd July...
Linda - Destination completed! Yes indeed, today we travelled the last 15 miles (motoring of course, as usual) and are now tied up in Finike marina. As we approached the marina we called them up on the VHF radio. They asked us to wait outside (seems normal here) to await permission to enter. 30 minutes later we were still waiting! Dean called again, it was obvious that they had forgotten about us! Not a good first impression to give.
The marinero came to us in his dinghy and was very apologetic. He asked us how many days we wanted to stay and was surprised when we were said we were here for 12 months. You think they would have been a bit more knowledgeable, especially as we sent an email yesterday advising our arrival and requesting our berth to be ready for us.
This morning in Smuggler's Cove
...and again
Approaching Finike
Entrance to the marina
We spot Ant and Cindy awaiting our arrival...
and filming us
The next blog post will be called 'The start of our Finike adventure'
