Cruising the Turkish Coast, Part 2, Turkey 2013

The return journey along the Turkish Coast to our winter home in Finike.

2 Oct 2013

There is never a dull moment in the boating life. Today as we were motoring, with the wind on our nose, the 12nm from Symi in Greece towards Bozburun (Turkey) a rather large storm decided to pay us a visit honouring us with rain, lightening and 38 kt wind gusts as a trough went through. At least our decks and rigging received a good wash! Now we are anchored outside the harbour and all is calm again although the wind is piping up again as I write this. 

We have just "checked into Turkey" and will now head back down the Turkish coast towards Finike- our winter home this year.

(Remember to click on the photos to enlarge them)

Bozburun Anchorage. 

Looking towards Bozburun and the harbour.

3 Oct,2013

Weighed anchor at 7am headed for Marmaris. We  managed to use the headsail for a while in fairly wild conditions. Anchored outside Yat Marine near Pupa Hotel. Very windy conditions.

6 Oct, 2013

After a very wild and windy 86nm sail down the Turkish coast from Bozburun to Marmaris and then on to Fethiye we are now safely anchored in Fethiye Bay. We have been sheltering from the near gale conditions for two days now as we wait for our weather window to sail to Finike. Note that we SAILED most of the way instead of motor sailing or just motoring. Yeah!

9 Oct, 2013

Our time  was interesting in Fethiye as we were able to spend some quality time with Judy and Bill Rouse from BeBe during “sundowners” and over a lovely lunch at their favourite local Turkish restaurant  that didn’t cost “an arm and a leg!”

What a delicious meal we had last night at Yacht Classic Hotel in Fethiye with John and  Maggie (Caladore) and Lydia and Neil (Silver Lady). 

After days and days on anchor it was great to be moored at the dock so we could fill our water tanks wash, the salt off Hamamas and wash our hair while having LONG HOT shower. Ahhh Bliss

10 Oct, 2013

Reflections Juliet and David) came into the anchorage at Fethiye yesterday. It was great to see them again after our time in Kalymnos together . They are also heading for Finike. Me thinks Finike might be the "in place" to be this winter as "every man and his dog" seems to be heading that way!

12 Oct, 2013

After leaving Fethiye at 7am in a very rolly sea and no wind we are now anchored at Bayindir Limani (near Kas). I must add that we found the wind after 20nm and had a great downwind sail using the headsail and or the staysail for the next 30 nm. We had to motor for the last 5 nm as the wind dropped completely away. 

Only 2 little hops left and we'll be in Finike Marina, our winter home this year.

13 Oct, 2013

This morning we motored for 16nm (a tiny hop) in no wind to Kekora Roads anchorage. What a magic place it is! 

As we sit in the cockpit in dead calm millpond waters we can see the ancient castle and the day tripper boats plus dozens of kayaks heading towards the Castle.  (See an earlier Post It's a perfect autumn day here today. Paradise!

Approaching Kekova Roads with the Ancient Castle in the background.

One of the Kekova Roads Anchorages

14 Oct, 2013

After 17nm of motoring on smooth water we are now ensconced in Finike Marina.There are lots of folk here we know including a few Australians who came to introduce themselves as soon as we came in. 

It's good to be here but after all the anchoring in beautiful places it seems like "Scottie has beamed us up" and we are on another planet in another galaxy!

Overlooking Finike Marina

Cruising the Turkish Coast, Part 1, Turkey, 2013

Please enjoy our Cruising the Turkish Coast season as recorded on a daily basis on our Facebook Page.

23 July,2013  
Newsflash! Hamamas is on the move! We finally untied those dock lines and did a very bumpy overnight passage across the bay to Ciniviz Limani anchorage in southern Turkey! All systems are working well including Tom and Fran!  We'll be cruising around the southern Turkish coastline and southern Greek Islands for the next couple of months before coming back to Turkey to winter in Finike.

Ciniviz Limani (pm) The wind blew up strongly in the afternoon so we had to do anchor watch until around 10pm. We were not impressed!

24 July,2013 

Raised anchor 7 am and motored around to Finike. We decided to stay in the marina as the weather was unsettled. When we went to pay they had a "campaign on" pay for 3 nights and stay 7 so we decided to do that. 
Guess who we found in the marina? Syliva and Harry from Sunwood are here. They had also had a rough trip across from Alanya. In fact they had to hand steer as their hydrolic steering failed.
While in Finike we caught up with John and Jane from s/y  Lurline (Australian) whom we last saw in Kas in 2011. Also we spent a lovely few hours with Frank and Ellen (s/y Elizabeth) as they were driving on their way back to Alanya after having looked around at a few different marinas. 

We were also surprised to see Monique and Eddie from Panta Ray there as well. They had a rudder problem that needed sorting out before they could continue on to Alanya.

30 July 2013 
Hamamas is on the move once more. After leaving Finike Marina at 6am today we are now anchored in Bayindir Limani- a peaceful bay just a few nm from Kas (on the Turkish coast) and the tiny Greek Is of Kastellorizon. It's fairly busy during the day because of the tripper boats but very peaceful in the evenings.

(Remember to click on the photos to enlarge them)

Leaving  Bayindir Limani

Kas Town Harbour at dawn

31 July, 2013

Well here we are after another 6am start and a long tedious day of motoring with just a touch of motor sailing using our wonderful new headsail anchored in Fethiye Bay just a stones through from where Judy and Bill  (s/y BeBe).  We are going to have a day off tomorrow so we may catch up with them if they are about. (yes we did -had  an enjoyable morning tea with them)

Fethiye bay

2 August 2013 

Another early start today so we could be at our anchorage before the winds became too strong and the seas too sloppy. We are now anchored in a large peaceful bay - Ekincik -31nm from Fethiye. There was much excitement on board as we were able to fly the headsail for a few hours! Mind you we still had the motor ticking over! 

Sunrise Ekincik

3 August, 2013

We've moved on again and even had the head sail out for a while. Now we are anchored stern to with a long line ashore tied to a rock as it was too crowded here in Serce Limani to free anchor. Must say it's easier to free anchor than all this having to take a long line ashore.

Well we were the afternoon's entertainment today as our line ashore floated off the rock while we were having lunch as the winds were up to 18kts so we had hell's own job getting re-attached. We had to use the electric power winch and the bow thruster to bring her round. The British RO and his captain and crew sat on the bow of their big power boat and just WATCHED us. I was so mad I felt like telling them to piss off! It was so embarrassing, We both one another later that we had thought at the time "if that had been an Aussie they wouldn't have hesitated to help us". (Nor would the NZ Canadians, or Yankies) 

Anyhow it's over now . we had to laugh though, later he moved away from us and it too him and his crew a long time to re-anchor in the strong wind!

4 August 2013

We are now anchored at Bosburun having arrived at 10 am. Our overnight was peaceful enough at Serce (17 nm away) However, we were up at 5.30 this morning as we had to retrieve all the shore lines and chain from around the rock, plus take the outboard motor off and sling the dinghy before we could even start raising the anchor! After all that was achieved we set off motoring into bucking bronco seas around a major headland. Fortunately, the seas calmed after a while but we were unable to raise the headsail as the wind was "on our nose" Oh... the "joys of sailing"

Yachts anchored outside Bosburun harbour

Tomorrow we will check out of Turkey and cross over to Symi  in the Greek Islands.