Kos to Marmaris
15 September 2011 | Marmaris
Tony
Marmaris Yacht Marine 15/09/2011
We left Kos harbour and headed up the Gokova Korfezi, the long, much indented Gulf of Kos. The Pilot book promises lots of great anchorages, wonderful scenery and ancient ruins everywhere. Our first stop was a peaceful bay on the north coast by Cokertme called Kargil Limani. This was really just an overnight stop on our way up to the head of the Gulf. The next day we completed the trip and moored on a private jetty in Sogut run by Gokova Yacht Marine. The jetty leads onto a lovely cove which has the Global Sailing School base run by one of Turkey's most celebrated sailing families, a small hotel, restaurant, shop and ablution block. The facilities were great and the water clear and inviting (the whole area is now a nature reserve) except for the hundreds of large yellow/brown jellyfish! No we didn't swim!! We ate aboard and enjoyed a peaceful night. Next day we motored a short distance to Castle and Snake Islands. These two small Islands are covered in ruins dating from as early as 1000 BC. There are the site of ancient Kedreai and then later occupied by the Romans in 129 BC. There is a small beach on the west coast known as Cleopatra's Beach. She is believed to have taken up residence on the island and one of her many extravagances was to have galleys of sand shipped from the North of Africa to create the beach for her lover, Antony to sunbathe on! Experts argue but many say the sand is not local and is indeed typical of African sand.
After exploring the island we left for Degirmen Buku, a bay of many coves with pine covered slopes right to the waters edge. We checked out English Cove, so named because the Special Boat Service used it as a base during the second world war. We then went around to Okluk, a narrow cove with 3 tavernas on one side. We picked the busiest looking one and picked up a lazyline and went stern to the jetty. The tavena has a nice waterside shaded eating area, a small shop and clean ablutions block. Water and power are there to use on the jetty. The jellyfish were even thicker here! We berthed next to Rick on Tangerine, a Kiwi we had met in Marmaris Yat Marin last year. 2 along from him was a Turkish flagged launch and we got chatting to them during the day. Emne and Bagum are from Istanbul and we ended up having a nice dinner and evening with them. Bagum is expecting their first child in January. They have kindly invited us to visit them in Istanbul when we next pass through there.
We left Okluk richer for the experience and sailed around to Seven Islands. We tucked in to a lovely bay and the first mate swam a line ashore to tie us stern into the beach. A large crab resting in the shallows seemed destined for the dinner table until it fought back when Mady prodded it with a stick.
The water (and weather) here in Turkey is noticably warmer than out in the Greek islands and we seemed to have escaped the jellyfish so we spent the afternoon snorkling and lazing in these idyllic surroudings. We were dissappointed to see the amount of rubbish ashore. It is a sad inditement on our fellow boaties. Charterers are to blame for most of it we believe.
We had an early start the next day as we had a long sail planned. We emerged from the cove narrowly missing running the yacht into a cliff face which seemed to have jumped out in front of us while the skipper wasn't paying attention! Reverse gear was applied rather forcefully and we pulled up short of the cliff by a good couple of meters!!! That was lucky said the skipper, grinning. The first mate couldn't see the light side of the incident and just glared. A chastened and now completely alert skipper swung us around to our correct course. Luck was not with us for long however as the wind was up early too and was right on the nose for the first 4 hours. As we rounded the end of the peninsula we flung up the sails in anticipation of a little payback for the hard beat only to have the wind die completely before we were sheeted in! We furled the sails back up grumpily and motored on. Such is sailing in Turkey.
In the end we did get in a couple of hours sail and arrived in Ova Buku in better spirits. The skipper had stopped here on his way to pick Mike and Gordon up from Bodrum and liked it. We went stern to the jetty and paid the 25 TL fee ($26) incl power and water. The jetty is not run by a taverna, hence the fee, but you are not obliged to eat ashore. Next day we sailed to Bozburun where we have been several times. We tied up in the small town basin as we had some formalities to take care of ashore. We ate aboard and had a peaceful night. We are stopping a jetties often as you can see and this is because we haven't replaced our stolen dinghy and outboard opting to delay this until the beginning of next season. The next morning we motored out through the pretty channel outside Bozburun, passing 'Goat' Bay that both Mike & Gordon and Leanne and Gerri will remember as one of our favourites. We were headed for home (our Turkish home in Marmaris Marina) and instead of doing it in 2 jumps we did the whole 35 to 40 miles and pulled into the marina in the late afternoon.
We had some wind from behind and broad reached and gull-winged our way down most of the coast. We took on a couple of Beneteau 43 charter yachts and trounced them (amateurs!).
Well that was 2 days ago. We have enjoyed being back in the marina with all its facilities and went to dinner last night to celebrate the skipper's birthday (actually today). Steak with bluecheese sauce, yum! We ran into Elio from Crapun who we last saw in Naxos and invited him to join us for dinner. As I write we are making ready to leave again and head south to Gocek, Fethiye and beyond. We will cruise with our mates Greg and Julia on Mojo who join us in a weeks time and will try to get down to Kekova Rds and Kas before heading back here for the final time on about 20th October.
Its mid September but the water and weather are still beautiful but the Meltemi is down and we are looking forward to our last month in the Med this year.
Go the AllBlacks!!!