Last Days in Turkey

Our time in Turkey was slowly drawing to a close – we anchored just north of Orhaniye in what appeared to be a lovely bay at Küyü Bükü, but turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. The holding was soft mud and rocks so not great, and we were swarmed by wasps! The boys took great delight in chasing them with the fly swatters we had bought – then we got biting flies!  They all disappeared by sunset fortunately, but it wasn’t very pleasant.

The weather can be very fickle, and particularly when it blows a good deal more strongly than forecast.  We had a long day the next day as we made our way to Knidos, wishing to visit the ruins at the anchorage there.  We arrived in the late afternoon as the winds were gusting to 27knots from the NNW, so while the anchorage was somewhat protected from the wind (no fetch/waves) there is only a small spit of land between the anchorage and the open water on the other side so every bit of that wind was funneling straight through.  We attempted to anchor several times but there were already boats in there and it was rather shallow so we were limited in what we could do.  In the end, we gave in and went over to tie up to the long pier, willing to pay the price for a secure night.  Ironically there was a UK-flagged boat already on the pier on the side to which we wanted to tie, and as we approached, the ‘nice’ lady asked if we would mind tying up to the front of their boat so we wouldn’t spoil their view.  We obliged but holding our breath as the bottom was only centimetres below Bisou’s keel in that position!  We were gratified later as a large French sailboat came in about 20 minutes after we did and promptly tied up behind the British boat, well and truly blocking their view!  Once we had tied up securely, we went ashore to visit the ruins of Knidos before it closed for the evening.  Once a prosperous port town, the ruins are extensive and great fun to walk around with good views over the harbour.  We enjoyed exploring and then came back to the restaurant at the end of the pier for our dinner (that ended up being the payment for our spot on the pier).  The wind continued to blow all night, so we were happy to be safely tied to the pier rather than being at anchor in patchy holding.

View of the harbour at Knidos from the top of the hill above the ruins

The amphitheatre at Knidos

 The next morning we departed early in an effort to avoid strong winds off the northern cape, but it was still gusty at 7am.  We motored north towards Bodrum to have a look at the anchorage to the east of the citadel, but the forecast winds were not favouring us staying there so we decided to anchor at a nearby bay to the west of Bodrum, Aspat Köyü.  We anchored in about 5m of gravel/sand mixture in between patches of weed and had good holding.  Ashore was a resort (but not very busy) with a creek, so I took the kayak to explore.  It was a quiet place with a few people around (still windy) but the creek was lovely – eventually it got too shallow for even my kayak so I turned around.  At the resort I saw a cow wandering around the grounds!  The wind continued to blow all afternoon so we just relaxed, swam and lazed for the day.

Our anchorage at Aspat Köyü

 We had already made plans to get out of Turkey within the next couple of days and more wind was coming, so in order to facilitate our exit from Turkey we planned to stay at D-Marin Turgutreis.  For some unknown reason, the Turkish marinas were more than twice as expensive as their Greek counterparts – prime example being Turgutreis – we paid EUR 150 for one night on the end of a pontoon (alongside) here, while the next day at Kos, also alongside, we paid EUR 60 per night.  Admittedly the Turgutreis marina was very nice with all sorts of bells and whistles, but we used no water or electricity and it was hard to justify that much more money.  There is a small bay just to the south of the marina in which it is possible to anchor (in favourable winds), and had we known, we would have stayed there.  However, we did take advantage of being safely tied up in the marina to take a dolmuş into Bodrum (TL 5 per person, 45 minutes) and spend the afternoon exploring the fabulous castle and museum.  Well worth a visit!  On our last night in Turkey we enjoyed a delicious wood-fired pizza at a nearby Italian restaurant (just behind the marina)!

The Foley Family at Bodrum Castle

The view over the anchorage from Bodrum Castle

The ever-present Turkish coastguard (especially when Greece is so close by)

Although our passage the next day was to be a mere 6nm, the wind was forecast to blow fairly strongly and we wanted to leave early.  I had asked the local agent if we could check out the night before but that was vetoed; I then asked if we could check out early the next morning, but apparently the immigration and customs people were only going to be in the office around 10am when the local ferry went across to Kos and we could check out afterwards. In addition, our boat was required to be at the customs quay (ferry wharf) to clear out (likewise to clear in).  Fortunately we were the only ones clearing out/in the next day and so it was not too chaotic – also the winds were light at the time we needed to move from our place on the pontoon so no dramas – we heard a few other stories from other yachties who jostled for space on the ferry wharf to clear in/out!

The whole procedure took only 20 minutes and we were on our way to Greece (Kos)!