Just a short update before we leave Turkey.



We have had a couple of days in the area just out of Gocek. It is really busy in all of the anchorages as this is an extended public holiday period here to mark the end of Ramadan.

We spent a night at one of our favourite places tucked into the corner of a small bay - Kucuk Kuyruk. (see drone video). Just us and two catamarans including Let's Dance from Sydney. We had planned a second night there but the wind came up and was blowing into the bay. Late in the afternoon our anchor which had been holding fine started dragging. This rapidly made our stay there untenable so we had to make a quick exit. We had 3 ropes running back to the rocks ashore and were able to retrieve one of them. The other two we had to cast off to make our quick exit. Fortunately our Australian neighbours offered to retrieve our ropes and hold them until the next day. We ended up motoring back to Gocek bay to anchor for the night as at that time of day it was too hard to find another safe place. The next morning, we went back and picked up our lines - a big thank you to Michael and Marita on Let's Dance.

The next morning after collecting our lines, we headed to Wall Bay. The bay is named because of the remains of a high wall on the southern side. This is a stunning location with turquoise water surrounded by high rocky hills. We tied up to the jetty of the restaurant, which is a very popular place. The deal is that the jetty berth is free but you must dine in the restaurant. There is no road into this bay so all food in the restaurant must come by boat. We estimated that there were over 100 people attending the restaurant for dinner, not to mention a constant stream of boats arriving for take-aways. We had a great meal of hummus, calamari, pide and a rocket and cheese salad, washed down with a bottle of wine. Wine can be quite expensive at some of these restaurants, a bottle purchased in the supermarket at Gocek for less than $20A can sell for $40-60A. I suppose we are contributing to the infrastructure of the jetties and water supply etc.

In this area it is always easy to stock up on supplies as there are several supermarket boats trading in the area with all the essentials, such as bread, fruit and vegetables, gas bottles and ice-creams (well perhaps not so essential!). Each day they do the rounds of the area, tying up to the local restaurant jetties. (see the video)

In the few days we have been here we have seen quite a change in who is out and about since our last visit in 2019. There are less foreign boats around (yet?) but a lot of locally owned as well as charter boats. There are lots of catamarans, some quite large and a lot of very large motor yachts. Many of these have paid crew aboard and the trend is to have the biggest flashiest tender, some are almost as big as SCII. Apparently, you need at least 700 HP of outboard engines to pick up your evening take away meal from the local restaurant!

Today we do the check-out formalities for Turkey and early tomorrow morning we for leave for the 5 to 6 hour sail to Rhodes, Greece.