Saturday, August 10, 2013
Fethiye (anchor in harbor)
36 37.48'N: 29 05.97'E

It was only a short 13 mile sail from the Twelve Islands bay to the buzzling resort town of Fethiye. We didn't need water (Dave runs our watermaker on board) or electricity (solar panels more than keep up with our electric usage) so we declined to go to the huge marina there and just anchor in the large harbor. Even close to shore the depths were about 40 feet so we just planned to put out most of our anchor rode. The anchor didn't set on our first try and we pulled up tons of goopy mud. The second try held well and we were in a good spot, swinging free. Secure that our anchor was holding, we dinghied ashore and explored the harbor front of the town, complete with an ancient theater being excavated right on the main street, a 16th century Turkish bathhouse and Lycian rock tombs on the cliffs above the town. We picked up some provisions at the supermarket, and returned to our boat around 4 pm.

In the early evening around 6 pm, we heard some shouting and saw a man waving on the Turkish Coast Guard cutter tied up on shore. It finally dawned on us that he was waving at us so we turned on channel 16 on the VHF to hear him call: "This is the Turkish Coast Guard, calling Purrrfect." After a brief radio "chat", he told us our boat was anchored in the Coast Guard "emergency response" area. We of course prepared to up anchor and move, although we were frustrated since there was nothing in any of our charts (electronic or paper or pilot book) showing the Coast Guard area.

So once again we started the anchoring process about 200 yards away, and our first attempt once again found the anchor slipping. It was now about 7:30 pm and we were getting tired of this drill. Luckily the second attempt FINALLY held after an initial slip. The worst part of the anchor drill in the Fethiye harbor was the goopy mud on the chain and anchor which was like black cement. It took another hour to clean up the deck and ourselves after this second anchor attempt.

The next morning before leaving the Fethiye anchorage, we took a quick dinghy trip to the shore at the head of the bay where we spotted some large wooden gullets being built. Remember that we had missed the commercial boat building in Bozburun last week, so we were delighted to find large boats in various stages of development right on the shore in large "hangars". Since it was Sunday, there was no work being done but we roamed around the very large boat building hangars admiring the beautiful wood lines of the boats. While it was interesting, we wondered who could possibly think that there was a need for any more gullets. Turkey already has too many!

We left Fethiye anchorage around 8 am and had a leisurely motor sail down the coast 13 miles to a harbor with many lovely anchorages, Gemiler Adasi. Nearby is the very popular resort attraction called Blue Lagoon or Olu Deniz. We read in our Pilot Book that in order to protect the lagoon, large boats could no longer enter but dinghies were OK. So we found an anchorage about 2 miles away (with the usual two long lines ashore to rocks) and after getting settled in, we took the long dinghy ride over to the Blue Lagoon. Unfortunately the lagoon is now closed to ALL motor boats including dinghies. We could have gone into the Lagoon in our kayak but the 2 mile trip in the dinghy from where we were anchored was quite rough and bumpy as it was. All in all it was disappointing but the beach of the lagoon was JAMMED with tons of tourists, and frankly the lagoon didn't look peaceful at all. So instead we took a nice kayak tour of the anchorages near to us.

Bees once again attacked us while preparing dinner. Dave was barbequing some salmon and had quite a task to keep the grill going and the bees at bay. Nothing we have tried seemed to deter the bees and we just have to wait for sundown for them to leave!