Photo, Sarcophagi at Kale Koy, overlooking Kekova Roads.

Yesterday I delved into lockers to find our winter woolies not worn since leaving home over a year ago. Next Friday we fly back to NZ for 6 weeks of winter weather. Lifting up our mattress to retrieve bags of winter clothes out of the lockers under our bed was enough to produce copious amounts of sweat dripping down my face. The thought of wearing long sleeves, jeans and socks and shoes makes me feel slightly queasy even though I know we will be pleased to be enveloped in their warmth as soon as we arrive in Auckland. Cruisers who are long time Med cruisers say we are fortunate to be missing the July heat.

The summer heat in Turkey is increasing daily. When we first arrived nearly 3 weeks ago, sitting outside for dinner was very pleasant and by dark even a little cool. Then seemingly overnight the heat arrived. We didn't notice the increase too much initially as we were in the Kekova area, lovely anchorages and nice swimming. When we returned to Finike Marina the heat started to take its affects, a midday snooze became quite a good idea! A few days later anchored at Cinevis east of here, the afternoon wind swept a wall of heat off the rocky hills, giving us two choices, retreat inside for a snooze or have a long cool swim. I managed to do both.

Although the heat is energy sapping we have had a busy time since arriving at Finike from Cyprus. We had a few days in the marina washing away the last of the Red Sea dust, exploring the town as well as catching up with cruising friends already here. We then went west along the coast, just 20 miles to the Kekova area, a lovely cruising area with nice anchorages and a smattering of ancient ruins. Our first anchorage, at Ucagiz, was our first experience of anchoring amongst European yachties. We found a place, plenty of swinging room amongst a handful of yachts, no one seemed to glance in our direction. We learnt later that this was a good thing, we had anchored apparently to everyone's satisfaction. Late in the afternoon the wind increased to near 30 knots so we stayed on board to be awarded with an afternoon of entertainment as other yachts came into anchor. The action included arm waving, pacing up and down on deck obviously advising the new comers not to anchor close or near their anchor. On New Zealand anchoring standards there was room for another boat in the middle. It was a matter of wills and confidence as to who gave in, the aggrieved party stood on the bow, hands on hips accompanied by some verbal advice which would eventually see the new arrival up anchor and move. One unfortunate yacht up anchored, motored around a bit then in between the gusts anchored close to another yacht only to suffer the same arm waving etc. This time he stuck to his place even though the aggrieved party went so far as to put his dinghy in the water ready to take the verbal advice closer. The re- anchoring yacht stayed put probably figuring he was the bigger boat so he had some intimidating rights as well. The next afternoon, the same procedure with yachts wanting to anchor within cooee of an already anchored yacht. Two Swedish boats even went as far as waving away yachts who were just passing , rushing up onto the bow like little yapping Terriers , lots of arm waving as to where their anchor was just in case the yacht was thinking of anchoring near them. A few days later we watched with amusement as one of these same yachts had difficulty anchoring in another bay with us, they anchored twice and looked ok to us but no they were only satisfied after the third try and that was with no one arm waving at them. Then they only stayed a short time, the anchoring took nearly as long as they stayed.

Tying up in a harbor is a different story, they don't mind being squashed in, Med mooring meaning you can hear the neighbours' snoring. The Kekova area has plenty of anchorages without going into the expensive harbours, paying between 40 to 80 Euros to hear your neighbors' every movement.
The mornings at Ucagiz were calm so we took the dinghy and skimmed across the bay around some small rocky islands to Kale Koy where we dodged the trinket sellers to climb the ancient steps to the 4th Century BC castle and wander around the sarcophagi overlooking the lovely Kekova Roads. A beautiful place for an eternal view of what now remains of the ancient city of Simena. In the village of Ucagiz we found a carpet seller who told us the story of his love for a girl from Ashburton which didn't work out, he is now happily married to a local woman and has two fine daughters. His shop was full of lovely rugs one of which is now in our procession soon to be a wedding present. It's a shame its not a magic carpet able to zap us home in a twinkle of an eye. Come to think of it..we haven't actually tried!

At Kas we anchored and then dinghied across the bay to visit the harbor and town. We were in search of a new gas bottle or fittings to adapt our system to the Turkey gas system but no luck. We had run out of cooking gas , having forgotten to fill the empty bottle at Finike and finding a gas leak in the lazarette meant no cooking for a few days or returning to Finike early. We decided we had enough cold food on board for a couple of days and a good excuse for a meal out at Kas. On the way back to Finike we called into Karaloz, "just for a look". The little fjord like bay was lovely, not a restaurant or house in sight, after a short discussion we agreed we could make do without a cup of tea for another day so we dropped the anchor and tied back to a small pine tree on the shore. We were soon swimming in crystal clear water. By mid afternoon a couple of gulets were tied up near us, one with holidaying young kiwis aboard. By early evening there were just three boats left tied to the shore enjoying the peace and watching hawks hovering and hunting over the rocky hills.

One of local wild goats trotted along the rocks and stood expectantly by our stern. Goats eat anything, right, not this one, we tried lettuce, one sniff no tasting, next try was orange skin, same result. We had some stale bread once he spotted that I thought he was going to jump into the dinghy. I was able to feed him the bread by hand, once it was all gone we moved away quickly incase he really did decide to hop in the dinghy.
The next morning we were really starting to miss our morning cuppa so we reluctantly untied and did the last 15 miles back to the marina, the power was connected in record time and the electric jug was soon boiling. A couple of days later, gas bottle filled and some new gas line installed we were talking about going out of the marina again for a few days, but which way east or west? A radio conversation with Largo Star on their way from Cyprus decided us, they were just anchoring at Cinevis 28 miles east of us near the ancient city of Olympus. So east it was, we met them there late afternoon, although half way we thought perhaps it wasn't a good idea as a strong head wind slowed us. Our effort was rewarded with a lovely anchorage for 2 nights and we even found a place to watch the All Whites draw their first world cup game.

We are now back in the marina, sorting clothes, eating up the last bits of food in the fridge, getting Tuatara shipshape to leave for the 6 weeks we are back in NZ.
Not sure when I will write the next blog, may be not for a few weeks so see you then.