Thurs - Friday, August 8 – 9 , 2013
Twelve Islands, Skopea Limani
36 38.42’N: 28 51.93’E

The very large bay which was our destination contains more than a dozen different coves and anchorages. When we arrived about 1 pm, we found most of the coves very crowded and the anchorages VERY DEEP, which makes it difficult to anchor with sufficient scope with so many boats nearby. Ironically, we finally found a spot in 22 Fathom Cove (which means 132 Feet Deep Cove!) which was “only” 45 feet deep. We dropped all the anchor chain and rode we had and backed down near the shore to take TWO lines ashore. This location turned out to be lovely even though there were about 25 other boats in this cove alone, many of whom were anchored much deeper than us. Boats here have an enormous amount of anchor chain. Some of the gullet tour boats that we observed anchoring set out over 600 feet of chain, starting on one side of the anchorage and backing down all the way to the other side.

In the afternoon, we noticed a small boat at the head of the bay with a restaurant sign. We went to explore by dinghy and discovered that the owners had a camp on shore in which they made fresh bread and served dinner to boaters. They had goats and a turkey and wood burning ovens. They did have electricity, although we were not sure what generated the power for it. We also found two trash containers on the edge of shallow water surrounded by high fences to keep out the goats for boaters to deposit trash bags. It was the first time we have ever taken our trash bags to a special shoreside trash dumpster.

The Pilot Book and user comments on our Navionics IPad charts noted that some of the deep coves had mooring cans for boaters to use for free. We didn’t find any mooring cans in 22 Fathom Cove but that evening when we took a dinghy cruise around to other coves, we discovered a few such red mooring cans being used by other boats. So the next morning, we had planned to move 3.5 miles north to another cove which sounded interesting and while enroute Dave’s eagle eyes spotted a red mooring can unoccupied near the beach of the cove named “Deep Bay”. As we motored quickly toward this can, we checked the depth in this bay, and it was over 150 feet deep, until just as we neared the mooring can where it was only about 40 feet. The Turkish Authorities want to restrict anchoring in these coves to preserve the environment but there are very few mooring cans, so everyone just anchors anyway wherever. The authorities also don’t want lines ashore to be tied to trees to prevent damaging the trees, so they have installed substantial concrete bollards in some places along the shoreline. There really doesn’t seem to be any well thought out plan as to where these bollards are, however, so it is hit and miss as to their usefulness.

Anyway, we successfully picked up the red mooring can by using our grappling hook (purchased in the Ionian Islands) and it worked much better than a boat hook for this purpose. The mooring can was far enough from shore and from other cans, so we just attached our two bow lines and were able to “swing free”, moving with the breeze all afternoon and night, making for comfortable and safe sleeping.

Our dinghy tour that evening took us one bay north to explore a fish painting on a rock and some of those same Lycian rock tombs. We declined to climb the steep rocky cliff to get a close view of the tombs. While touring around this cove (called Tomb Bay), we saw an Amel cruising boat with a US flag. Now, strangely enough here in Turkey, there are MANY US flagged vessels, all registered to Delaware to reduce taxes here in Turkey (so we understand). However, this vessel said St Thomas USVI so we called out to the man on deck who turned out to really BE from the US (actually Houston Texas but they registered the boat in St Thomas where they bought it.) Bill and his wife, Judy, invited us aboard for cocktails and we enjoyed a lovely hour learning about their sails of the past 7 years, through the Panama Canal to Easter Island through the Pacific and into New Zealand. Just like the women from Holland, Bill and Judy had also shipped their boat thru the Suez Canal to avoid the Somali pirates. Best of all, Bill gave us the name of an economical (read $13) good Turkish red wine!