Kastellorizon to Finike to Kalkan
Posted at 8:13 AM, Oct. 12, 2008
Well another week has gone by and blogging has been relegated in favour of sailing and exploring - where does the time go? It has not gone on haircuts - on a per capita basis there must be more barbers in Turkey than anywhere else we have visited! According to the signs you get the works - hair, nose, eyebrows, massage etc.
Having spent a couple of very enjoyable days on the Greek island of Kastellorizon we then headed further east for 15 miles or so with a slow beat to windward in light airs to the area known as Kekova Roads. Some guy in a Bavaria 44 motored up to literally 3 or 4 metres off our windward quarter (no acknowledgment of our presence) unfurles his headsail and then set about racing us � given that it was only 5-7 knots of wind, which is hardly a good wind strength for us, and by then we were broad reaching, he managed to get a couple of boat lengths on us over about 3 miles, with a lot of trimming going on by him with what looked like a 150% overlapping headsail. As we turned to go through the passage into Kekova Roads our big mainsail came into its own, as he mostly lost the draw of his headsail, and we dropped him quickly. I think he became an unhappy Frenchman!
Kekova Roads is an area about 6-7 miles long behind the island of Kekova and then with an inner harbour where the small village of Ucagiz is located. This area is pretty interesting and we spent three days here. On the eastern side of the entrance into the inner harbour there is a splendid castle above another small �hamlet� called Kale Koy. See the photo below - we anchored off inside the harbour and walked up to the castle.
Kale Koy with the imposing castle above
Opposite Kale Koy is the ancient city of Simena which was destroyed in an earthquake in the second century AD so much of the remains are 6.5 metres underwater along the foreshore of the island of Kekova and still visible above the waterline also. The Lonely Planet guide says you can swim over the ruins and there are signs ashore that prohibit the use of any equipment? The gullets are pretty much continuously running along the foreshore showing tourists the sights so we dropped Alice and Volker into the water with snorkel, flippers and googles only to get blasted over a loud speaker system from a passing gullet a short time later - at least the Coastguard with their forward machine guns prominently displayed didn't appear over the horizon.
In front of Ucagiz there are three restaurant ramshackle quays for tying up to. The displayed depth is 4 metres and we attempted an entry in a cross wind of about 20 knots. As we ground to a halt in good sticky mud the restaurant guys were still telling me there is 4 metres depth and the best reply I could conjure up is if that is the case why aren't we blowing onto your quay. For any potential visitors I can tell you the depth is at best 2.4 metres.
Pam has been conducting considerable research into Turkish rugs - all world famous and with many different characteristics. Mostly hand made in the inland villages of Turkey - also some great silk carpets as well as woollen carpets all with a range of traditional and less traditional patterns. Then to the colouring process where the range is from natural colours which translate to more expensive carpets as compared with chemical dyes. The upshot of this research is that Pam reckons the carpets at Ucagiz are the cheapest she has seen maybe the end of season deals , who knows? Unfortunately there are no ATM's in Ucagiz and cash is the deal so no purchases were made! Since been rectified at Kas though - see below!
Decision time at Kas
We had a fair bit of wind while at Kekova Roads and spent two nights at anchor, with anchor buddy down, in the inner harbour, while the wind progressively built to 30 knots from the SW to W during the afternoon only to die down shortly after dark to calm still nights. There are a lot of turtles around and we have seen them in the sea and also on land - in one case in an amorous position!
From Kekova we motored another 14 miles eastwards to the country town of Fenike and stayed in the marina their. A pretty uninspiring unattractive town but it gave us a look at a centre that certainly was not tourist orientated. In talking to others on the marina and elsewhere no-one was talking up the further eastwards passage onto Anatalya so we gave that idea away and the next day had a slow sail back to Kekova Roads. This area has many indented bays and coves and given the wind we had earlier in the week we were pretty much confined to anchoring in the inner harbour so this time we got to anchor among a delightful series of coves called Gokkaya Limani. At the head of the cove where we anchored there was a cold water spring that discharged at quite a rate into the cove so when swimming there were patches of quite cold fresh water sitting on top of the seawater.
The lures have done many miles but not a fish to be found as yet. Volker was getting desperate so last night being the occasion of his 25th birthday we cooked fresh (bought) fish on the BBQ, celebrated with a good bottle of French champagne and Pam baked him a chocolate birthday cake (complete with candles) while Alice lured him off the boat for a couple of hours to watch the sunset!
From Kekova Roads we continued our now westerly route to Kas which is the town on the Turkish mainland that looks across to Kastellorizon. Got into the town basin shaped a bit like that at Kalkan with plenty of potential for crossed anchors. We hovered about looking for someone in authority to tell us where to tie up and in the end Ismail who owns Smiley's Restaurant at the end of the quay area came along, very friendly, new plenty of Maori words and took our lines. Two issues here - it is very much first come first served and the harbourmaster simply sits and drinks tea and ignores everyone as Ismail said all he wants is the money not interested in looking at papers. The second point is that there is a chain along the seabed in the middle of the harbour that the tailed lines are run from (that is those that are still there) so if anchoring it is important not to drop to far out as otherwise a EUR100 bill for a diver. For some inexplicable this is not mentioned in the pilot. The next morning we found that Ismail had thrown a couple of loaves of fresh bread into the cockpit for us.
Kas is also a big dive centre as nearby there is a bronze age wreck that was only discovered about 12 years ago with all types of merchandise on board, from a wide variety or places, that belies more recent views on when capitalism really began not to mention the new capitalism (or is it really the new social order with Government agencies buying financial assets?) that I read is emerging with major world powers negotiating bail-outs all over the place. We found Kas to be a pretty good place - carpets now adorn various parts of Savarna, drank some red wine with our German neighbours on the quay until the early hours (thanks Renate and Klaus and hope to see you next year), a gullet departure at 0400 hrs with his anchor under us to get sorted and then the great Friday market when the locals for miles around roll up with everything you can think of and really cheap, fresh produce. Tasting Turkish Delight so frequently that we are experts now! Also a huge array of spices displayed in open baskets.
Spices on display at Kas market
Also plenty of designer clothing, signs proclaiming genuine copy watches etc etc. Plenty of property development going on here and it seems a subdivision is simply a matter of blasting a large quantity of rock out of the hillside and creating building platforms. We did note that as in Kalkan many of the house prices are quoted in pounds. The whole coastline where we have been sailing is very mountainous and barren. It seems very ironic that the peoples of the east crave to get into the EU and the UK to seek a better lifestyle whereas the Poms all want to buy property in warmer climes.
And finally for Shell - atop castle at Kale Koy
(Volker making his yotblog debut!)
So today (Friday 9th) we left Kas this afternoon in a 15-18 knot SW and had a good beat up to a bay opposite to Kalkan where we are now at anchor with three other boats looking across the bay at the lights of Kalkan.
Cheers
Keith