Salamat Pagi from Indoensia

July 16, 2012. Merhaba from Fethiye, Turkey! At the time of our last update on June 3rd, we had just launched Lazy Bones in Bodrum, Turkey, after eight months on the hard. Last year, while waiting for Lazy Bones to arrive in Greece from Singapore, we had flown into Istanbul and spent a week seeing all the great sights this interesting city has to offer. We then rented a car and drove the coast of Turkey all the way to Fethiye, stopping at all the sights to see along the way, including our favorite ruin of all, Ephesus. Just before launching Lazy Bones this June, we flew to Cappadocia, home of the fairy chimneys. All these trips are covered in previous updates. Our goal this season was to cruise the Turquoise Coast of Turkey from Bodrum heading eastward. We began by motor sailing right after we launched Lazy Bones eight miles north and anchored in Akyarlar, a small bay on the Bodrum peninsula, to test out all our systems. Our water maker pump started leaking, so after a few e-mails and phone calls, we managed to find a Spectra repair dealer who had his technician pick up the pump the next day. While waiting for the pump to be repaired, we took the dolmus (mini-bus) to several harbors further north on the peninsula including Turgutreis, Gumusluk, and Yalikavak, all nice waterfront villages but becoming more touristy, with white Legoland-like houses and hotels springing up on the hillsides. After a few days, the pump was repaired and installed, so we went back to Bodrum and anchored in the bay of Kale Koyu, just east of the castle. We went ashore to find and pay Sadun, the dealer who arranged for the pump to be fixed. He and his wife, Nesli, had just opened Ox Wine and Burger Bar on the waterfront facing the anchorage. We met there to settle the bill and ended up enjoying one of the biggest and best burgers we have ever had, anywhere. It is definitely worth seeking out this restaurant if you are in Bodrum. You won’t be disappointed! Leaving Bodrum for the last time this season (so we thought), we headed east for fifteen miles to Pabuc, a small bay with an exclusive resort ashore. We were enjoying being back in the water and finally cruising the Turquoise Coast of Turkey. Unfortunately, we discovered a serious leak in our shaft seal. Not wanting to sink the boat, we had to motor back to Yat Lift, the boatyard where we had kept Lazy Bones for the winter, and had her hauled out again. Bodrum seemed like a magnet that kept pulling us back. It was kind of like the Hotel California—you can check in, but you can never check out! On June 21st, eleven days later, due to delayed parts, a red tape nightmare, and having checked out of our hotel numerous times thinking we were ready to go, we finally splashed back in the water and were on our way. FYI, if you ever need a boat part shipped into Turkey, order it yourself, have it sent to the closest island in Greece, and go pick it up by ferry. It will be faster, cheaper, and a lot easier. With all the repairs behind us, we set out east again to tour the area known as Gokova Korfezi, a large gulf bordered by the Bodrum and Datca peninsulas, and surrounded by steep hills covered with pine trees. There are many peaceful bays and anchorages only a short distance apart. We anchored at Cokertme Koyu and Akbuk Limani on the northern side, and then Sehir Adalari in the eastern corner of the gulf. Sehir Adalari, also known as Castle Island, is famous for Cleopatra’s Beach. Cleo, in one of her extravagant gestures, is believed to have had galleys of sand shipped in from North Africa to create the beach for her lover, Mark Antony, to sunbathe on. Experts say the sand is probably from Africa and is not to be found anywhere else in Turkey. To protect the precious sand, the beach itself is roped off, but you can go swimming in front of it with hundreds of your closest friends brought in by day tripper boats. The ruins of an amphitheater, church, and other parts of an ancient city are worth the walk beyond the beach. We stopped at two bays on the southern coastline of the gulf, Karaca Sogut and Merincik, then we rounded the cape to the very ancient harbor of Knidos at the far western tip of the Datca peninsula. We anchored in the middle of the pretty blue bay and took the dinghy ashore to see the extensive ruins of this once prosperous Dorian port city dating back to 400 BC. Two theaters, several temples, and an agora (marketplace) are still fairly well preserved. There was a lot of traffic from day tripper boats going in and out of Knidos, so after lunch we motored east to Palamut and had dinner ashore at Serma’s, a French-Turkish restaurant where the food and atmosphere were delightful. Serma herself was at the table next to us, so we enjoyed a nice conversation with her and her friend, Kevin, a charter boat manager. Palamut has a nice beach and a long boardwalk for strolling along the waterfront. We continued east to Datca, a delightful harbor town on the south side of the Datca peninsula. It has long shady boardwalks, lots of shops and restaurants, and is famous for its olives and almonds. We went ashore and took the dolmus to Eski Datca (Old Datca), known for its very old stone houses. We walked around admiring the brilliant bougainvillea draping down from the roofs and had a great lunch at Datca Sofrasi. The mezes (cold appetizers) and lamb casserole were amazing, some of the best. Our next stop was Kurucu Buku, a pretty bay which was home to a huge Turkish resort called Holiday Village, with hundreds of condo units along the shore and into the pine trees. We went ashore and walked their very long waterfront pathways and had some shish kebaps for dinner. We sailed on to Bozburun, a boat-building and fishing port, where we met up with our British friends Jackie and Brian from Songster, whom we have cruised off and on with for the past several years. They had a bottle of wine to give to us from Faruk in Cappadocia that was brought to them by our American friends, Joe and Jackie on Antares, who had stayed with Faruk. We had a fabulous lunch on Songster with their friend, Elizabeth. We all went ashore for a nice fresh fish dinner of sea bream later that evening. The beginning of July brought intense heat, averaging 95 to 100+. We decided to take a break from the heat in Turkey and head over to the Greek island of Symi, only ten miles from Bozburun. We anchored in the harbor of Pethi, only to find that fellow cruisers Joe and Jackie on Antares had just dropped their hook there, too. What a nice surprise! We spent several days having some nice meals together and discussing potential plans for end of season destinations, including Kalamata, Greece, where they will haul out. Together we celebrated the 4th of July with a huge feast ashore of calamari, pastitsio (pasta dish), Greek salad, peppers stuffed with feta, smoked eggplant, giant beans, and plenty of wine and beer. We thought about shooting off a few flare guns for a fireworks show, but didn’t want to end up in a Greek jail after such a great meal. We said goodbye to Antares and headed back to Turkey to continue our journey along the Turquoise Coast. We stopped in Gerbekse and Ciftlik, two nice pine-clad bays, before arriving in Marmaris. We anchored in front of the Pupa Yacht Hotel, close to Marmaris Yacht Marina, which incidentally accommodates about 1,400 boats. Marmaris is a tourist and yacht haven with lots of shops, chandlers (including West Marine), restaurants, charter boats, etc. One of Turkey’s swankiest marinas, Netsel, is located here, loaded with equally swank yachts. Songster was back at Marmaris Yat Marina, so we decided to spend a few days enjoying the nice air conditioned restaurant with them each evening. They had an incredible tenderloin steak dinner for only 18 Turkish Lira (about $10 USD) with a bottle of wine for the same price! Needless to say, we showed up faithfully every night to enjoy the great company, the a/c, and the amazing meal. We also met up with our friends Karen and Tim on Raven from Australia one night. The sun and heat had now become so intense that we had sun shades made in Marmaris for the cockpit, after seeing the material that Songster had used. We were also running our air conditioner at night for two hours to cool down Lazy Bones before going to sleep. During the day we had all our fans going on high speed, blowing around a lot of hot air, literally. We had read that Turkey is very hot in July and August, but we didn’t realize how hot it would actually be. After almost a week in Marmaris, waiting for our sunshades to be finished, we sailed eastward to Ekincik, where we spent the evening and arranged for a private boat to pick us up the next morning to take the Dalyan River Cruise. We had hoped to take a boat with other cruisers so it would be more fun and less expensive (the boat cost 250 lira (about $125 USD), but the tour company claimed nobody else in the anchorage wanted to go on the cruise, which was hard to believe, since it was a very popular tour from this anchorage.

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