Two More Days in Turkey

Two very different anchorages along the coast
[Kyle]There wasn’t a whole lot going on over the next couple of days. Having run out of Aegean Sea to the east, our course followed the Turkish coast southwards. With the Meltemi behind us, we had easy sailing. Our first anchorage after St Nikolo was at Çukurcuk. On the chart, it looked like it would be pretty interesting, but once we got there, it was pretty dull; just a low marshland interrupted by half finished construction and a parking lot. The good thing was that the bottom was good uniform sand over the whole deserted bay, which allowed us enough room to sail on and off the anchor.

For day two, we crossed the Güllük Bay to Yalikavak on the other side. Once again, we had big mountains as a backdrop. This was to be our last night in Turkey so we put into a marina in the hopes of going into town and finding something Turkish to experience.

At the office, the man took our paperwork and helpfully filled out the Marina contract for us, all I had to do was sign the printed copy. I checked over the information and noticed he’d listed the address as Delaware (!!!). Well I never. I guess Delaware covers 95% of the ‘American’ boats here. Then they charged us €60 for the night (ouch) making it the most expensive marina we’ve stayed in since Monaco, that put a sour taste in our mouths. We were going to make a point of using all the water and showers we needed without guilt at that price.



Yalikavak - we think that fancy brass contraption is a coffee machine
We took a walk into town searching for an inexpensive restaurant recommended by Lonely planet as a true Turkish eating establishment not to be missed. We ordered 3 of the items from its 4 food item menu. The food was OK, but nothing special, and we regretted walking by all the nice smells and sights of food we’d passed by on the way to seek out this particular restaurant. After eating we continued to walk around the waterfront shops but it was clear the town was mostly occupied with and for foreign tourists; there did not seem to be much of a Turkish experience to be had on the main drag.

The one thing I did like was that all the water front bars seemed to have very comfy seating with chairs and couches filled with overstuffed cushions. We meandered around until we got board of it and returned to the boat feeling let down and ripped off. The place was nice but just too up-scale and sanitized for us to really relax and enjoy it (one web site describes it as the St Tropez of Turkey). It would have been much nicer to visit when it was just a fishing and sponge diving port of old.

Yalikavak is also the furthest East that Footprint is going to be for a very long time. It is time for us to turn and head (generally) west to return to our home port of Portland Oregon.



More Yalikavak
[Maryanne]There was actually a whole lot more of interest to Yalikavak than Kyle mentions, but I think the price of the dock just unnecessarily soured the taste of it. That and the continued presence of the biting flies for the last 2 days. Looking back on the pictures alone it is clear that there is plenty to appreciate here... Next time we'd simply anchor in the bay and avoid the silly marina charge.

Throughout Turkey we have seen the nazar (or lucky eye), a symbol to ward of the Evil Eye; it’s everywhere (embedded in side-walks, hanging in cars, in jewellery and as table decorations). We both find it beautiful and each of us managed to pick up some nazar jewellery to remind ourselves of Turkey as we head away, back off to Greece again.