Turkey and it’s not even Christmas
14 October 2018 | Bodrum - 7,464 NM
Sunny and Calm
This part of the Turkish coast is stunning with a mountainous coast and lots of fjord like inlets. Most of them are too deep to anchor easily but Agil Koyu has a small beach at one end and so looked possible for lunch. It was stunning with no road access and surrounded by steep wooded hills. A restaurant had put a pontoon at one end for customers but we managed to anchor in 15m. Too deep for a night stop but fine for lunch and a swim. After we motored around to Bozburun in gusty/no wind around the hills. As we were only doing 9 miles we didn't try to sail! Bozburun is in another stunning fjord nestled under the hills. A truly beautiful setting but as we wound our way around the islands we could see forests of masts before us. How could it be so crowded!? But then we remembered Bozburun is where all the Turkish gullets are built - but so many?! There were hundreds of them. There was room for us in the little harbour which was too small for the gullets but it was right outside of the cafes and as there is a large anchorage outside - we opted for the peaceful option. It was a bit deep and so we opted for lines ashore which got very complicated as we dropped the anchor too soon, ran out of chain then couldn't get close enough to shore - everything that could go wrong did, not our finest mooring hour, but we got there in the end! Such a peaceful night.
The village of Bozburun is lovely too. Not too big or busy, a few nice shops, cafes around the quay and a 'real' village behind. We walked around the streets and found ourselves going uphill and out of town along the coast. The views of the bay were stunning. The road took us down into the next village which was smaller and didn't even have a coffee stop! On the way in we'd seen a huge boat yard and shed which is where we'd assumed the gullets were built but we were really surprised to see them being built in yards/back gardens in the village by hand and by just a couple of men. It was fascinating to see and can't imagine how long it takes! A lovely walk along the sea, eventually finding a coffee stop, took us back to Bozburun and a long lunch at Osman's Place. After a supermarket stop we headed back to Freya and a swim.
We managed to depart from Bozburun with more finesse than we'd arrived and headed for Kargi Koyu, a bay not far from Datça. We're retracing our steps now, to go and visit Dee and Kevin. There was next to no wind but enough to slow us down and not enough to get us moving if we sailed and tacked. Very frustrating! It was a very pretty bay, very quiet and a good night. We spent another night under the ruins of Knidos enjoying another dinner in the restaurant and a drink after with our British neighbours.
We then motored (still no wind!) to Guembet which is the bay next to Bodrum. We struggled to set the anchor pulling up piles of weed but eventually got it to set securely on the 4th attempt by moving to a different part of the bay. We were in a different world watching the jet skis, parasailors and all manor of inflatable toys whizz around us - definitely not a quiet anchorage but interesting all the same. We then had a very peaceful few hours but what we were more worried about was the music from the clubs later! First we could hear music from the bars, not too bad at all, but then DJs started calling partygoers, oh dear, and the music got a bit louder - but amazingly that was it and we slept peacefully to the background beat, zzzzzz.