Travels in Turkey: Exploring Fethiye and Göçek Korfezi (Part 2)

We weighed anchor in the early afternoon and headed south to Tersane Creek, a delightful anchorage that we visited several times in the coming two months.

Tersane Creek is an almost fully-enclosed little bay on an island that seems to be owned, and definitely inhabited by just one family.  They raise goats and sheep, a few cows and also run a delightful tavern.  There is the standard pontoon which apparently is usually full of charter boats, but this year we were fortunate in that the majority of Western tourists stayed away.  This was not so fortunate for the locals who rely on the tourist dollars, but it meant much less crowded anchorages for us!   We did not moor up to the pontoon but anchored and tied our stern to a couple of bollards on the west side – it was relatively quiet with only a couple of other boats.  Dinner was ashore that evening as we wanted to see what the food was like – most of these restaurants have a fixed price menu per person (TL 60 which is about AUD $30 – expensive for Turkey) not including drinks but including a starter, a main and salad.  I had the slow-cooked  lamb while Tad enjoyed his usual fresh calamari.  The starters were a kind of mezze with three or four dishes of dips and salads, and the salad was fresh from their garden!  We had to have a beer with the meal (!) which of course raised the price considerably as alcohol is heavily taxed in Turkey and 500mL of beer costs about AUD $8 (in Greece it varies between AUD $3.50 and $5.00 for the same thing).  The food was delicious and plentiful and the fresh-baked local bread from their wood-fired oven was so yummy that we bought more the next morning.

Tersane Creek - one of our favourite anchorages

The family-owned and run restaurant in Tersane Creek

The wood fired oven which produced delicious bread each morning

It was a delightful place and so we stayed a second night before deciding to venture further afield in this marvelous gulf.

Our next anchorage in the Göçek Korfezi was Cave Cove – we motored around to some of the other locations but the wind had picked up a bit, and the anchorages we had thought to stop in were too crowded for our liking.  This was not really a cove, but a small beach, protected from the prevailing wind, and a large cliff to one side with a cave about 10m up from the water.  As usual, we Med-moored, tying one side of Bisou to a rock and the other to a bollard.  As we swam that afternoon, turtles came for a visit and I was able to photograph and video them as they swam and grazed.  Such beautiful, gentle creatures, it makes me feel sad when I see one injured or dead due to boat propellers.

The cave at Cave Bay

 We were enjoying a peaceful evening when there was a grating sound and we noticed that the line tied to the rock was slack in the water.  The wind had shifted to our side and picked up in force.  I jumped in the water and swam ashore to investigate, only to discover that the rock I had thought was embedded in the shore was actually just a boulder sitting on the sand.  It was a considerable size but Bisou’s weight had shifted it loose and the rope needed re-tying.  There was nothing else to tie to so I had to tie to the only tree on shore (in this area and Turkey in general, you are not supposed to tie to trees as so many have been damaged by boats).  We hoped that no one would come past before we were able to weigh anchor the next day and move on.

While raising the anchor the next day, the windlass shut down again with only 5m to go.  We had hoped that the problem had been fixed, but clearly it had not.  We were headed to Fethiye that day to collect Tad’s younger son, Patrick, who was due in that evening on the ferry from Rhodes and hoped that we wouldn’t have problems with anchoring.  In the end, we decided to moor at Yacht Classic Hotel which was a treat!  The pontoon was full of charter boats (which were not being chartered) but we managed to squeeze ourselves alongside in a nice spot.    The fee for a night at this pontoon was either EUR 88 (about AUD $125) per night or TL 80 plus dinner (about AUD $40 plus dinner).  We chose the former after looking at the menu, which, while delicious, was not cheap.  The hotel allows pontoon users to enjoy the use of their pool and lovely bathroom facilities which was a treat.  We also availed ourselves of the laundry service (at additional but reasonable charge). 

Yacht Classic Hotel in Fethiye

One of the possible contributing factors to our anchor windlass problem was the fact that the rubber roller over which the chain slid to enter the anchor locker, was deteriorating.  It was no longer rolling and had developed a deep ridge in which the chain was catching.  We decided to go in search of a replacement, and after enquiring at a couple of chandleries, found that there was an industrial area in Fethiye where you could get almost anything manufactured.  So, we jumped on the appropriate ‘dolmuş’ (shared minibus) and headed to the indicated area.  Once there, we did not have a clear idea of where we needed to find the man who would be able to assist us, but we did have a hand-drawn map made by one of the chandlery employees and after showing a few people the item we wanted made, we were led to the correct place.  The people here were so friendly and helpful (when they weren’t trying to rip you off!).  We found the person who could make us the roller and in fact Tad purchased two for a very reasonable amount.  Meanwhile, concerned that we would be late for the ferry on which Patrick was arriving, I took a dolmuş back into town while Tad waited for his two rollers to be made.  In the end, the ferry was quite late and Tad made it back just as Patrick was walking to the terminal.  After loading his gear onto the boat and having a swim at the hotel, we walked into town for a bite to eat before an early night.

Patrick arriving on the ferry from Rhodes

The hydrofoil ferry from Rhodes to Fethiye

Some good friends who have spent a great deal of time cruising the Turkish coastline recommended that we try and visit a spectacular gorge while in this part of Turkey and so we made enquiries as to how we might get there.  We discovered that we could take a dolmuş’ to Saklikent Gorge from the main terminal in Fethiye for just AUD $5.50 per person for an hour’s drive.  It was fabulous racing through the countryside in a local mode of transportation (no air conditioning of course, and it was hot!) and we arrived safely at the Gorge, a major attraction for both Turks and foreigners alike.  In fact there is even accommodation out there in basic rooms, but it is in the middle of nowhere so I am not sure why you would want to stay out there.  The water that flows from the gorge is icy since it originates high in the mountains behind the area, but they have created a unique experience with table and benches, half in the water, where you can sit with your meal (a canteen-style restaurant with fish and chips or gözleme (a kind of flatbread with cheese and spinach) and a drink.  After a quick lunch we bought our tickets to walk up the gorge – the first part which is not difficult, is a suspended bridge along the cliff face, above the rushing water.  Some people choose to come down the water on inner tubes but after feeling the temperature of the water, in spite of the heat of the day, none of us was tempted!  We walked along the cliff face to the ‘island’ where there was another kiosk and lots of people. We could see people walking further up the gorge (where there was little water) and began to walk in that direction when we were accosted by a man who decided that he was to be our guide.  In the end, we were glad we had him as he assisted us greatly in knowing where to go as well as helping us over some of the more challenging rocks and pools along the way.  It was only 1km to the head of the gorge (as far as you can reasonably walk/climb/swim) but it took us about an hour to get there.  It was quite stunning to see the high cliffs on either side of the gorge; some huge boulders jammed up above as well as other detritus – in the winter, the water level is about 10m above ground level and the rapids carry all kinds of stuff down from the mountain.  We had barely a trickle of water, which wasn’t cold so even when we had to wade through water up to our chests, it was refreshing rather than uncomfortable.

The Saklikent Gorge 

Wading through frigid water to reach the Gorge walk

Enjoying a bite to eat on the banks of the river

By the time we arrived back at the boat later on in the afternoon, we had time for a swim in the pool before dining at the hotel restaurant that evening – we decided to treat ourselves!  It was delicious and worth every penny.  Later, Tad and Patrick watched Manchester United  play a game on the pool bar television while yours truly went to bed!

The next day we went back to Göçek Korfezi, and spent the next three nights anchored in various lovely bays (including one night back at Tersane Creek).   Disappointingly, we started to have problems with the anchor windlass motor again – we had heard from the windlass representative in Istanbul (finally) and he suggested that we contact “Blue Yacht”, a company that would be able to assist us.  Once again, we anchored in Göçek, in the bay, and the electrician announced that we needed our motor overhauled as well as a new breaker (which might have been malfunctioning).  We showed the electrician that the brushes had just been replaced and he laughed saying that the original ones still had plenty of wear on them (typical!).  He announced that he would return first thing in the morning (by this time it was 5pm) to remove our windlass motor and bring a replacement breaker for the overload switch.  We treated ourselves to a meal ashore that night and the next morning waited for a call from the electrician (or rather his translator from the same office).  We waited all morning for a call and finally we called him only to be told that the electrician had never shown up for work that morning and that they were concerned.  We were concerned as well as we were waiting for work to be done!  Meanwhile, Tad went ashore and sourced a replacement breaker switch and decided that he would install that so that there would be one less thing to have to pay an electrician for.  By 4pm, still no electrician, so we weighed anchor and decided to go elsewhere while we waited to hear from “Blue Yacht” company again.

Travels in Turkey: Exploring Fethiye and Göçek Korfezi (Part 1)

I had been watching the weather forecast (as I do!) on PredictWind and they were forecasting some strong winds in the area for later in the week and so we decided to spend the next day sailing and motoring around the area to find a good place to ‘hide’ should the weather prove inclement.  Looking for shelter from a northwesterly (the prevailing afternoon winds in this area come from the south to southwest, while the morning light winds are generally from the east) proved challenging and we headed over towards Fethiye to see what we could find.  We thought the bay and beach area of Battikaya Bükü would work until we tried to anchor there – after three attempts at getting our anchor to hold (and hauling up gross quantities of weed and pine needles, and soft mud) we gave up and motored over to Fethiye Adasi, a small island in the mouth of the entrance to Fethiye.  It was peaceful and a good place to stay the night with good holding in 10m of water. 

Now it was time to start exploring what we had been told was one of the loveliest areas of the south coast of Turkey, the Göçek Korfezi or the body of water around and south of Göçek.  This is a fairly large area with many lovely bays and inlets as well as several islands around which you can anchor or moor stern-to.  This is also a protected area and, according to the pilot guide (and some yachties) the authorities are quite strict on how long you can stay in any one area as well as disposal of rubbish and sewage.  The restricted areas (supposedly no anchoring) seemed to be non-existent while we were there (from the point of view that we never saw any maritime authority surveying the area or patrolling for offenders), but that is not to say they were not there somewhere.  In speaking with the locals, I was told that the coast guard ‘watch’ from a distance, out of sight, through their binoculars, and then pounce on you when you least suspect it!  Having also heard a couple of nightmare stories from Australian yachties who were heavily fined for not having their holding tanks pumped out often enough (a totally subjective viewpoint in spite of evidence by our friends to the contrary), we decided to play it safe while in Turkey and had our tanks pumped out every two weeks like clockwork (whether they needed it or not!).  In this particular area (and a couple of other large bays eg. Marmaris) where there are many inlets and the nearest pump out station is fairly distant, there are pump out boats that will come to you and remove your waste either for free or a small fee.  You simply call them up and they come out!  Great service and pretty essential if you plan to stay in the area for any length of time as you are absolutely not permitted to empty your holding tanks anywhere in Turkish waters (see Blue Card blog).

Our first visit was to Yassica Adalari, towards the middle of the island – we moored stern-to and tied to a couple of bollards.  Our anchor was dropped in about 22m of water, barely 40m out from the shore, but the sea floor rises steeply around here so you don’t need to have as much scope as you would in shallower, less steep ocean floor.  We found a nice little cove, mostly protected from the prevailing wind (which really only rises in the afternoon and not strong), and enjoyed a relatively quiet afternoon and evening.  I say, ‘relatively’ as there are always the Turkish ‘gulets’ (large wooden sailboats – picture pirate-type vessels) full of either local or foreign tourists, ploughing through anchorages with music blaring, to disgorge tens of passengers into the water for a short time and then zoom off again.  Because there are a few narrow and shallow passages around this particular island, it was not too bad. 

One of the nice things about this area is that there are plenty of rubbish bins everywhere that seem to be emptied regularly – this no doubt helps the reduce the rubbish in the water and on land (as well as providing a convenient place for yachties to leave their rubbish) but we did worry a little about rats.  Fortunately we had purchased rat guards and used them diligently whenever tethered to land in any way.

Another charming feature of this area is the supermarket boats – there are three altogether including Migros, Carrefour and some other no-name brand.  These are fairly large motor vessels which come out almost daily in the late afternoon, honk  their horn to alert their presence and wait for yachties to race out in their dinghies.  We went aboard the Migros boat a couple of times – the fresh produce wasn’t great, but good choice of other items and the prices the same as in town.  Wonderfully convenient for those who shy away from going into town too frequently.  The supermarket boats take credit cards and even had an ATM on board!

One of the many supermarket boats

Yet another spectacular anchorage

In addition to the supermarket boats, there were also local vendors of gözleme, sarongs and t-shirts, bread and pastries and ice creams.  Tad made the error of buying a couple of ice creams one day when he found out that they cost AUD $5 apiece!  The young man justified the cost by saying that the fuel for his motor boat was expensive!

As the distances are not great between anchorages and we were interested to see what Göçek had to offer.  There is a great anchorage area at the head of the bay with shallow water, sand bottom but usually fairly crowded.  The prevailing afternoon winds put you onto  a lee shore, but the holding is so good and the winds rarely more than 20 knots so it’s not really a concern.  There are three or four marinas, but the quoted cost for our catamaran was obscene so we did not even consider it – and there was really no need in any case as even if we could not anchor in the bay, we could anchor fairly close by and dinghy into the town quay for a visit if necessary.

Göçek is a fairly unique town by Turkish standards – at least from what we could see based on the numerous other places in Turkey that we visited.  It’s almost as though it was constructed for the tourism/yachting industry.  It’s modern, clean, tidy and consists almost entirely of restaurants, shops, chandleries, charter companies and a few supermarkets (advertising provisioning services) and fresh fruit and veggie vendors.  Upmarket shops with upmarket prices but cute nonetheless and this was not our last visit to the town.  We bought a few fresh produce items and looked in the shops but did not linger.  It was time to head to our next anchorage in this fascinating area.

One of the many forecasting programmes I had been using forecast some stronger northerly winds for the next day and so we decided to seek out appropriate shelter.  We entered Boynuz Bükü to find a lovely bay with a number of inlets.  We dropped our anchor in an inlet close to the restaurant at the head of the bay in very shallow water but were fortunate enough to have an even better anchorage open up when a boat left a nearby inlet.  We were able to tuck ourselves nicely into this inlet, so while there was room for another boat, it was not ideal unless a fairly small monohull.  The water was clear and warm, the breeze light (the strong northerlies never eventuated) and we ended up ‘camping’ here for 3 nights – heavenly!

Delicious kebabs from the "Kebab Hospital" in Göçek 

By this time about two weeks had passed and it was time to ‘pump out’ our holding tanks.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, they are the tanks which hold ‘black water’ or essentially the sewage from the toilets.  Normally, we would store this in the holding tanks and then, when a decent distance off shore, dump it in the ocean.  We are careful to only allow what has passed through our digestive tracts to enter the toilet and holding tanks – the toilet paper and any other waste is disposed of in plastic garbage bags in the appropriate rubbish bins ashore.  In Turkey, any dumping of ‘black’ or even ‘gray’ water (the latter is from showers, washing dishes, etc.) within Turkish waters is forbidden and they are particularly strict in the ‘protected’ zone of the Göçek Korfezi.  For this reason, when you check in to Turkey, you purchase a Blue Card – it’s a credit card-sized plastic magnetic card which electronically records every time you pump out and how much has been pumped out.  By regularly going through this process you theoretically satisfy the coast guard and the authorities and avoid being fined.  The theory of this whole process is admirable – the practicality is somewhat ridiculous.  There are hundreds, if not thousands of Turkish gulets (see previous) ferrying hundreds of thousands of people everyday on day trips as well as longer stays, who never go near the pump out stations simply because there are not enough of them.  This is a rule which targets yachties and motor cruisers only.  Now pumping out is not expensive – we never paid more than TL 25 (about AUD $13) and only did it every couple of weeks.  The ridiculous thing was that we usually ‘dumped’ our holding tanks when offshore (and hopefully out of sight of any coast guards) and just filled our tanks with seawater to be pumped out – the other ridiculous thing was that the total volume of our holding tanks is about 140L but we registered anything from 220L to 120L when we pumped out at various locations!

So we headed into Göçek and Club Marine for our pump out – there was a bit of a queue as it was a Sunday and a few boats were either headed out or headed back.  The queue was not for the pumping out but for fuel which was on the same pier, and of course the two boats in front of us were large motor cruisers with huge fuel tanks!  Nevertheless, we finally completed our pump out and headed back into Göçek for provisioning and to try and find a mechanic as we had been having problems with our anchor windlass.

The deep water and the length of anchor chain we were using seemed to be tripping the anchor windlass overload, and we would suddently lose power in the middle of raising the anchor.  In very little or no wind, with no boats around, this was not a problem but we didn’t feel comfortable continuing on with it like this.  We tried to contact both our F-P agent as well as the company that manufactures the windlass to see if it would be a warranty issue, but had very little luck with that (nothing happens quickly when you want answers on a warranty issue!).  So we decided to find a mechanic that would take a look and hopefully be able to fix it.

We did find a mechanic who duly removed the windlass and took it back to his shop to be ‘fixed’ and promised to return the next day to reinstall it, so we stayed the night at anchor in the bay and enjoyed a tasty meal ashore.  In spite of the proximity to the shore and restaurants we passed a quiet night (fortunately

Göçek is not a party town) anchored in the bay.  The next morning, our friendly mechanic showed up with our windlass, cleaned and with new ‘brushes’ which apparently needed replacing – he did provide us with the old ones to demonstrate that his work was indeed necessary, and after re-installing the apparatus, we played at raising and lowering the anchor repeatedly without problem.  Admittedly the depth at this stage was only 3m but we did let out practically 50m of chain to see if the windlass would struggle but it did not.  We then got the shock of our lives when he happily announced that the bill was EUR 200 for the ‘brushes’ and EUR 200 for the labour!  Needless to say there was no way we were going to pay that – labour costs in Turkey are not that high and we looked up the cost of the ‘brushes’ online and they would have been a maximum of EUR 100.  We were also rather cross as the windlass was still under warranty and we were unable to reach either our F-P agent OR a windlass representative in Turkey that might have assisted us.  In the end, we agreed to EUR 100 total (which was still probably more than what we should have paid) and told the mechanic that Tad would have to go ashore to the ATM to get the funds as we did not carry that kind of money aboard.  I also gave the mechanic a couple of little souvenir gifts from Australia which appeared to appease the glum face he had when we told him we wouldn’t give him any more money.

Travels in Turkey Part 3 (Continuing South)

The weather cooperating with our plans to head southward, we woke early to get underway while the seas were calm.  Motor sailing the whole way, with the genoa out we reached Fethiye Korfezi (the bay of Fethiye) about 4 hours later.  On viewing the first little bay we came to, we decided it would be perfect for our first night in the area – because it was rather narrow and there were already a few boats med-moored to the rocks on one side, we went in as close as we dared (beside another smaller catamaran) and did the same.  The bay was called Kizilkuyruk Köyü. The water was clear and warm and as soon as we jumped in for a swim and a snorkel, we saw a large turtle – it was the first of many we would see along the Turkish coastline, much to our delight!

Although one of the ‘dreaded’ Turkish gulets came in and anchored beside us late in the day, they were not noisy (thank goodness) and we had a peaceful night.

We didn’t move very far the next day as the weather remained calm, so we motored just 2nm north to the next bay called Küçük Kuyruk.  There were only two other boats in here and we anchored stern-to the end with our bows facing the entrance to the bay – this was fortuitous as we later discovered the prevailing wind came nose-on and so we were well-situated.  This was another lovely and quiet bay with lots of turtle watching during the afternoon and early the next morning.

Our quiet anchorage

Tad having a dip in the clear warm water

At this point it might do well to advise people coming to Turkey how the majority of boats are required to moor themselves – of course if there is room and holding is adequate, hanging off the pick is ideal.  In many cases, however, this is not possible and one is required to ‘med-moor’ (ie. Drop the anchor and back into the shore, taking a line (or two in the case of catamarans) ashore and tying these to something secure.  Many parts of Turkey (particularly Göçek Korfezi) strongly object to tying to trees (obviously too many boats have pulled them out in strong winds) so you are limited to the rocks, or in some places, bollards which have been placed there for yachts.  The other thing to note is that these anchorages are often quite deep – where you need to drop your anchor can be 25m plus, so by the time you back into your ‘parking spot’ you have put out a fair bit of chain.  Because we have such a shallow draught (1.1m) we can back into places fairly close to shore, but we saw plenty of monohulls tethered at some distance from shore which doesn’t work if you are in a narrow bay.

A Turkish 'gulet' anchored nearby