Sailing around the azure blue waters of the Turkish coast on a beautiful 43 foot yacht with great friends turned out to be one of the highlights of our year. Grant and Maria flew down from London and Ness and Lou hopped across from the Greek isles to join us on our adventure. Whilst there were no major sailing mishaps, there were plenty of “learning experiences” for the crew (anchoring in high winds, crazy French skippers, ripped and jammed sails) that only added a bit of spice to otherwise very relaxing days and nights.
Our first night out was spent eating Turkish Mezze and succulent seafood at a tiny shack of a restaurant on the remote ferry jetty at Kormen we had moored at for the night. The local proprietor immediately took us under his wing (4 giggling girls after a couple of gins or vodkas may have helped) and “Tasim” ensured Ness in particular received excellent service. This had followed a fast sail across the bay with a strong breeze pushing us quickly toward our lunch time destination of an uninhabited cove with crystal clear waters.
Heading west the next morning we sailed slowly for a few hours, occasionally taking turns to drag behind the yacht off a long rope, until we reached Buygk Cati for lunch. Motoring in the afternoon we found a secluded cove for the night and anchored with no sign of any yachts or people around us. Early drinks, a great steak and a controversial game of 500 ensued. The next morning we renamed the little bay to “Stinger Cove” as we were relentlessly pursued by bees, dragonflys and wasps every time we jumped into the water. But just 15 minutes away we found another deserted and idyllic cove for more swimming and lunch of Grant’s famous Spanish tortilla and some local lamb kofta.
Another leisurely afternoon sail and we arrived at “Eastern Creek” (quite different from Sydney’s) behind a small archipelago called Yedi Adalari (Seven Islands). Grant mixed cocktails for us and pretty soon the iPod DJ challenge was on and before dark there was dancing on the deck. More drinks and fantastic tuna pasta whipped up the boys lead to a “Carbo-coma” that brought the music, dancing and singing to an end (probably much to the relief of the nearby boats).
Continuing our sail west on Wednesday morning we stopped off at a small island for a breakfast dip before sailing through to a very sheltered but popular inlet of Kargilibak for lunch. The afternoon breeze was really picking up so we headed into the very protected Sogut . Turned out to be a good decision not only because we were not exposed to the Force 9 gales that smashed up some other yachts but we also got to meet a charming old Turk, “Harry”, who organised to take us to a local restaurant. As we wandered across the abandoned soccer field, through the back of the deserted resort and into a very obscure part of town it occurred to us that “Harry” may not have been innocently lingering on the wharf as we’d pulled in .... but the food was great, Ness made another good friend and we had a ball with our new mates John and Barbara who also had joined from the neighbouring yacht.
Thursday’s first stop was Castle Island to check out the ancient ruins, aquamarine water and the white sands of Cleopatra’s beach. From there it was a long work into the wind for 5 hours as we started making our way back to Cokertime for an overnight stop on the way to Bodrum. Sure enough we were able to very quickly meet some local restauranteurs and after plenty of drinks, local seafood and a smoke from the communal sheesha pipe there was more dancing to be had. The locals loved it and got in on the act as well with one enthusiastic lady chasing unwilling participants around the restaurant until they succumbed.
A large tear in our headsail meant that we had to motor back to Bodrum on Friday. We managed a stop off for lunch at a sheltered bay of Pabu with some of the clearest water we’d seen all week and enjoyed feeding fish with rock hard stale bread from the back of the yacht. Everybody had enjoyed an amazing time and to say we were very relaxed is a major understatement. We considered ourselves very lucky to be able to have enjoyed the adventure with such great friends and the only disappointment was that we didn’t have more time.
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