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We left Port Sevento early and motored over to the island of Kastellorizo – the last Greek island opposite Kas. We walked the island exploring the nooks and cranies. Sybaris arrived with their guests. We did a little shopping (mainly pork products) and had dinner with Sybaris and learned a great deal of the Greek locals feelings regarding the economic situation. It is a truly quiet island that has many visitors that are Greeks who have emigrated to Australia and elsewhere and come back to the family home.

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What a fantastic day. With the guidelines from Darren we started out early with Elly and Per and drove by Kapusta Beach where the Saklikent Canyon ends and then visited Letoon , Xanthos (both historical Lycian sights). Letoon had temples dedicated to Leto and her two sons Apollo and Artemis. Xanthos, on the other hand, was the largest city of the Lycia nation and large remains have been excavated including an amphitheatre. It was also the town where the citizens jumped into the river from the cliffs to avoid being captured.

It would also seem that this area is the tomato growing area and there were kilometres of plastic warehouses and all the roads were filled with tractors filled with tomatoes. Even the air was filled with the smell of fresh tomatoes.

We then continued on to the entrance of the Saklikent Canyon where we had a lunch before braving the cold water. Svein and Per were brave and crossed the torrent to wander up into the canyon whilst Elly sat at the water’s edge with her feet in the water.

From here we finished the tour with a trip to the Yaka National Park whilst passing through ruins of Tlos the old Lycian capital and stopped at a fantastic restaurant/hotel. Here there were waterfalls everywhere and tree houses had been built for people to relax in whilst eating and drinking. The bar even had trout swimming through it. A fantastic end to a very rewarding day. We returned to Kas to return the car and after a quick session on internet and a light snack we went back to the boat.

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Stopped for the night in an idyllic bay in Bestas Limani. Originally only boat in the small bay but later on we were joined by  two others for company.Thee is a  fresh water spring in bay. George helped us with the line ashore. The only inconvenience was the boats selling ice creams, bread, pastries and pancakes that came by and were very insistent. Their goods very expensive.

We left the bay early with George handling the line ashore. We motored out of the bay and then had a light tail wind so we hoisted the spinnaker. We sailed under spinnaker for 3 hours but our speed dropped so much that if we had continued it would have taken 26 hours to reach Kas! Svein was eventually persuaded to start the engine and we reached the anchorage outside the new Kas Marina at 17.20. We discovered that anchored beside us was Sybaris who had just dropped off guests. As it was St. Hansen (the longest day in the calendar) they invited us over for a typical Swedish dinner.

We took the dinghy to get ashore and took the bus into Kas town. After a pedicure and a few other bits and bops the girls met up with the boys and Tom Erik our Norwegian friend who now lives in Kas and who we had not seen since he left Port Napoleon in 2008. Elly and Caryn did the town whilst the boys went back to the boats. After several hours and a few purchases including a much needed pair of swimming trunks for Svein we went back to the boat to get ready for dinner in town. We met up with Tom Erick and his friends Mark and Darren. Darren was mine of information and helped us plan our tour of the local sights. We picked up the hire car and returned to the boat ready for our adventure the next day.

After our visit of the cultural Kas we arrived at market day. Elly and Caryn visited the market and stocked up on fruit and vegetables. Caryn also bought some scarves for the family in Norway. She made a strawberry cheesecake for dinner with Sybaris and tried her hand at sun drying tomatoes on deck. With the price of tomatoes at 50 cents a kilo it is a pity not to try but we must wait and see how the experiment turns out. Cary  took a deserved swim afterwards. Svein visited Tom Erik’s new boat and returned to ours for drinks. As our dinner finished quite late we decided not to visit the concert in the harbour. 

Time to leave the anchorage outside Kas Marina and motor to Port Sevento opposite Kas harbour. A truly lovely spot with beach and jetty. We filled with water and washed the deck down at last then spent afternoon on the beach just like a holidaymaker.

Whilst Sybaris left with their guests we decided to stay another day here as it was so peaceful. Svein got out the sewing machine and made a cover for the new outboard. #whilst we were having lunch we saw several calamari swimming round the beach area. We preferred to swim from the boat. Svein took the dinghy into Kas town to get bread and post the cards that had accumulated. It Took him just over 6 minutes to do the journey. Whilst we were at the jetty we were ticked off by an off duty coastguard that our Turkish courtesy flag had to be changed! We are not the only people who have had this experience and it is true that all the Turkish flags on the boats or buildings are always in pristine condition.

We went ashore to get the required hoses for the toilet as they fill up with limescale very quickly. A nasty job waiting for Svein particularly as the temperatures are rising quickly. Svein took our shopping back to the boat whilst Caryn waited at the restaurant. This took some time as the outboard (which was nearly 20 years old) decided to die on him on the return journey so he had to row ashore. We took the decision to buy a new Tohatsu outboard. We got a very good price and if all goes well we should be able to get the VAT back (along with that of our other purchases) when we leave Turkey. Hopefully the bank balance will not look so gloomy in the end but we have managed to invest wisely whilst here. We treated ourselves to a delicious fish lunch at half the price of our fateful dinner and then back to the boat to cool down (temperatures nearing 40 on the water).

We stayin in Gocek an extra day in order to visit the market. It was certainly worth the effort and we managed to buy goodies for Svein to take back to Norway. We also  got  the washing done. Svein installed the new toilet hose and we returned to town in the evening to enjoy another fish dinner. Bed early for both of us for once.

We left Gocek early and headed east on our way to Kas. Pictures

Laerke went into harbour for 24r hours. We left bay heading for Kardinga Limnia. We tested the stay sail and sailed down to bay. We arrived but had to re anchor 3 times because of winds that came from all directions. We then had some amusement watching some charter boats anchoring. We enjoyed a good chicken dinner cooked on our Cobb before settling down for the night.

Both of us were up very early and we were ready to leave anchorage at -7h30 after collecting the line ashore and checking the engine oil. We had a scare on the way out of the bay with smoke coming from the engine. Svein had forgotten to put back the oil filler cap!!! We hoisted the sails and sailed all morning until we reached the new anchorage outside the beach of Eknicik. Good winds all day. We took the  dinghy ashore and chose the restaurant with the most people in front where we had a superb lunch of fresh fish – probably our best meal in Turkey so far. We spoke to “Bird” our waiter about visiting the Dalyan river and Turtle beach and he organised everything. We were to report to the restaurant the next day at 09h15. We returned to the boat to swim and rest. As we were rolling quite a bit we  put out a back anchor.  Our English neighbour did the same thing and we went over to speak to them as we were curious about their flag. They gave us the explanation. We went back to shore in the evening when Svein tried a water pipe (nargile).

Our day on the Dalyan river is covered in a separate write-up.

We returned ashore in the dinghy to say goodbye to Turcus (Bird). After storing the dinghy and bringing up the stern anchor we brought up the main anchor and motored out of the bay. Once out of the bay we raised sails and managed to sail for one hour before a wind change. After a short time with the engine the wind enabled us to hoist the spinnaker that we sailed by for several hours until we rounded Kurdoglu head taking us into the bay of Gocek. We anchored for the night in Kizilkuyruk a beautifully safe anchorage with clear water to bathe in. Crazy Dreams was anchored beside us so they came aboard and had a drink whilst we got the information on the different places to stop at further down the coast.

Crazy Dreams left for Marmaris and we decided to stay another day in the anchorage as we are in no hurry. Svein worked on the engine start system so that we can now start with the key and not just the button. He also installed a roller on the pushpit for the line ashore as it was rubbing the teak deck very badly.

We left Kizilkuyruk bay mid morning and as we were heading north we saw Sybaris. We came alongisde to say hello and then continued on our way. We went into Skopea Limani and explored some of the bays before deciding to anchor in Seagull Bay.  We spent the day on board swimming and chilling out and in the evening went ashore and had a BBQ on the beach.

The next day after breakfast took the line from ashore and stored the dinghy. We motored up to thennext bay in just under 2 hours and visited others on the way.  We anchored freely in Boyuz Buku just before lunch. A quiet bay with fresh water entering so marshland around. Impressive restaurant with jetty but unfortunately the same cannot be said of the food there. Very expensive and not good.

After a good night we left the bay early to ensure good anchorage in Gocek. We saw dolphins playing in the water. The journey took one hour and we anchored in 5 m near Skopea Marina. Pictures