Kekova Roads

September 13 - 15

We got up at 6:30 AM the following morning as we had a 65 nautical mile sailing day down to Kekova Roads. We decided to make it a longer day so that our last sailing day into Finike would be less than 20 nautical miles.

I was so proud of myself, we pulled away from the dock and stowed all of the fenders. I got the main sail jack lines pulled back (these are lines that when up allow the main sail to be dropped without a person helping it to flake), all of the jib and code zero sheets all prepped, and the main sheets ready. Once we raised our main sail, I even remembered to pull the jack lines back into place (we always forget to do this). After all of this there was NO wind. Oh well, we made really good time and got to see some flying fish along the way. If you have never seen a flying fish, they are sight to behold. At first you think it is a small birds but then realize that birds aren’t silver and usually don’t submerge into waves.

As we were motoring I noticed that we had more stow aways. This time we had a stink bug and another dragonfly.

stow away number 1

stow away number 2

We arrived into Kekova Roads at 5:00 PM and tried our first choice spot at Pölemos Bükü. There were 2 sail boats and a power boat anchored. We tried to anchor in 13 meters of water and we didn’t have adequate swing room or chain scope so up came the anchor. We headed over to check out another Tersane Bay but it was much smaller than what the pictures showed. Our last choice was another dock situated in Kale Köy.

The winds picked up just as we were trying to dock and it took some very tricky maneuvering to dock. We actually came in moving diagonally into the slip. Once tied up we had a lovely view of the castle ruins towering above us. Also, nestled into the side of the hill were many homes. We hung out for a bit before heading to the restaurant for dinner. We were happy that the food was much better and more reasonable (190 TL which included a bottle of white wine).

first view of Kale Köy

view from the boat

tomb

my beautiful girls

Shaun was so tired at the table that he was falling asleep. He took Jordan at 8:30 PM and went to bed. Paige and I sat and chatted while she was doodling until 9:30 PM. The castle flood lights had been put on and the view up to it was stunning. We had already decided that we would walk up to it in the morning.

nighttime view

We woke up the following morning and ate our breakfast. As we were leaving the boat we noticed a school of fish seeking sanctuary under our boat.

school of fish finding shelter under our boat

It was a Monday, a school day so our hike was going to be part of the girls PE. As we started walking up towards the castle we realized that the woman who had directed us to the castle was also our local tour guide. She was also carrying a basket of head scarves and was wanting us to purchase them. She introduced herself as Amida. Along our hike up the stairs she pointed out basil plants, oregano plants, carib trees, the tomb of someone special to that place, and a 1000 year old olive tree.

Amida, Shaun and the girls

1000 year old olive tree

castle wall

heading to the entrance

view down to the docks

interesting wall

view up to the top of the castle

Shaun filming

our floating home

sarcophagi

pretty view down

stairs to the top of the castle

more sarcophagi

Jordan on the cannon

She walked all the way up to the castle entrance where we were surprised with a fee. We didn’t have our wallet with us and Shaun was about to go back down to the boat when Amida offered to pay for our entry and we could pay her back. Off we went up into the castle. Off to the right along the hilltop were many sarcophagi that were spectacular. As we entered into the castle we were very near a wasp nest. These are not your every day wasps. These buggers were on steroids and angry that we were near their homes. We ran down the stairs with 3-4 chasing us. They finally left us in peace and we headed back down to repay Amida and buy something from her shop. The girls and I decided on head scarfs. The girls chose bandana style and I chose a head scarf style.

Amida and myself trying on the headscarf

We made it back to our boat and started our prep for our departure. We were wanting to anchor in Tersane Bay, but when we arrived it was already jammed with day trip boats. We tried to anchor out but the floor was rock and our anchor would not grab. 2 day trip boats existed and we went in only to be told that big vessels are not allowed. This is untrue, the day trippers want the space for themselves and not private vessels. Off we went to our second choice of Woodhouse Bay. As we were motoring in we spotted a sea turtle surfacing until it dove down out of sight.

We dropped our anchor and stern tied in a lovely part of the bay. The steroid wasps were also present and were really checking us out. At first we were not liking them but soon they left and only came back periodically to check us out. 

I had tied a large loop with a bowline and Shaun swam the stern line to shore to secure us from swinging. As he got closer to the shore the water got colder and colder. He spotted a cold water spring entering into the bay right behind us. We then snugged up the anchor to make sure the stern line held.

We then all jumped into the water for a swim. There were hot and cold spots all around us keeping us on our toes. The water seemed blurry with the mixture of fresh and salt water mixing together - so strange to experience. 

We noticed the stern line loop was slowly inching its way off the rock until it popped off completely and the boat swung into the wind. We left it like that until another gullet headed into the bay. To be courteous we decided to put the stern line on properly. We dropped the dinghy and Shaun rowed it over to a better rock and tied us on.

Throughout our stay in the bay we spotted the sea turtle surfacing, a shaggy black goat, bats and several fish. One particular flat fish liked to take shelter under a step of our boarding ladder, it was quite funny.

We woke up to a beautiful morning, had breakfast and had a last swim before leaving Woodhouse Bay at 12:00 PM on the final leg to Finike.

chilling in the water before our departure

swimming back to the boat

Jordan and her new flippers

ready to climb out

Woodhouse Bay

Woodhouse Bay

Woodhouse Bay

Woodhouse Bay

We had light winds from behind and were able to run down wind. It took us longer but was much more peaceful.

Follow our video adventures on the following youtube channel:

s/v Element video adventures

West of Gocek

September 12 - 13

Left Fethiye for an anchorage area 2 hours away just west of Gocek.

On our way we passed a gullet with a fellow standing out the end of his long passerelle. I couldn't help snap a picture. It seemed so funny. I was aldo able to take a couple of pictures of Paige and her new haircut.

just hanging out on the end of the passerelle enroute to the next destination

captain Shaun at the helm looking relaxed

During the day I was able to snap some pictures of the girls. Really I was just trying to get a shot of Paige with her new haircut.

trying to capture a picture of Paige and her new hair cut

sisters

When we arrived into the anchorages each bay we motored by was jam packed and we ended up in Tersane Cr. Bay. We attempted our first EVER stern tie. We dropped our anchor and Shaun controlled the boat with the engines while I dropped the dinghy with Paige. I maned the helm while Shaun took the stern lines to the bollards on land. Once this was complete we cracked a beer. We hadn't realized how far we drifted over while tying the first line and we ended up too close to the gullet next door. We eased our port stern line to blow over away from the other boat which worked out perfectly. However, once they left we were being blown by 20 knots of wind as they were our shield. Not long after I noticed that we were slowly getting closer to another boat on our starboard side. Our anchor was dragging.  Off we went in bit of a panic to get our stern lines detached and our boat moved. Shaun was at the helm and I hopped into the dinghy and hand over handed to the bollard. I managed to hop out of the dinghy without falling in and untied the first line, hopped back in the dinghy and pulled myself back to the boat by the stern line. I moved over to the port side and repeated the exercise and managed to make it back to the boat unscathed. Paige was at the windless pulling up the anchor. We ended up side tying at the dock which cost us a meal (it happened to be an expensive meal). After everything was said and done we were happier to have had all this happen in daylight and not the middle of the night. During this whole event we also saw our first ice cream boat selling cool treats.

first attempt at stern tying

VERY expensive ice cream delivery boat

Tersane Cr. Bay is beautiful, it has many ruins. Stunning views. There are many cows, goats, dogs and chickens. How the dock/restaurant works is that the dock is free but you must have a meal at their restaurant. The menu had chicken, local goat, meat balls, fish and calamari. In this case it was a set price of 65 TL for adults and 40 TL for children plus drinks. I chose fish, the girls had chicken rice and fries and Shaun had calamari. The food was nothing to write home about especially for 211 TL.

swimming off the boat at the dock

livestock near the ruins

restaurant

resident ducks

more ruins

As we were sitting at the boat after dinner we could hear the plethora of goats with their bells bleating and moving around. After the sun set we were able to see the beautiful stars. We headed to bed and poor Shaun woke up with terrible indigestion and heartburn from the food. Too much grease. I luckily had gone to bed at 9:30 and was able to get in a few hours of peaceful sleep before his disruptions.

Follow our video adventures on the following youtube channel:

s/v Element video adventures

Fethiye

September 8 - September 12 morning

We had a great sail from Marmaris to Fethiye. The winds were between 4-12 knots. We also had a really neat stow away!

our stow away

view from the starboard helm

Paige engulfed in her novel before the hair cut

great wind speed

view from port helm seat

nice sail shape

We were very happy to see some wildlife. In this case it was flying fish. These are the funniest creatures, every time I see them I think they are small birds until they submerge themselves in a wave. If you get a chance to see flying fish they will make you smile.

Once we arrived into the bay where Ece Marina was located we called into marina (the company that hit our boat is based here and they wanted to take a look at the damage). The marina told us to wait, so we maneuvered around the bay for 30 minutes and then said unanimously “forget this” and we went and dropped the anchor in the bay.

After we drooped our anchor in the bay and were hanging out I was looking out at the water and saw something. I yelled to Shaun and the girls thinking that it was a seal. Shaun came up and took a look and said that it was a sea turtle. It was a very big leather back sea turtle coming up for air. Second turtle we had seen. The other was in Finike. This was the first turtle we had seen while on the boat.

first sea turtle sighting

We decided to drop the dinghy and head into the dinghy dock and into town. Shaun started the outboard up and we both noticed that it was not running 100%. In fact Shaun had the throttle wide open it was sputtering. We think that it could be fuel leak, spark plug or old gas.

We walked through the marina, along the main street and walked into the Bazaar. Shaun wanted a turkish shave and we both remembered we had seem a barber/shave shop in a square. As we meandered we came upon a fish market where you buy the fish and can take it to your choice of restaurants that surround the market and for 8 TL = $3.20 CAD they will prepare the food and serve salad and garlic bread. It was a great concept. We didn’t get chance to experience it so do not know what the seafood prices were.

memorial for the pilot Fethi Bey where the city name Fethiye comes from

We finally came across the shaving place and Shaun was able to get a shave while we sat and waited hoping that a waiter would come and ask if we needed anything. No such luck. The table in front of us had 2 young boys and an older girl. The older daughter loved Jordan. After Shaun had his shave he managed to get us some tea. As I was waiting for Paige to finish her tea Shaun went into a linen/blanket shop that we had seen on our previous visit so he disappeared inside. I found him looking at winter blankets. We finally decided upon a black, silver and red design with a lot of Turkish designs. Tulips, ottoman signature, china design (squares), tree of life and the evil eye. (picture to follow when it is unpacked for winter).

post shave massage

The following day Shaun had a phone call from the company that hit our boat and he proceeded to explain that the marina people made us wait and never did come so we went back and anchored. Less than 5 minutes later we had a radio call from the marina asking when we would be available to come into the marina. He told them 10-15 minutes. Off we went getting our anchor pulled up and disrupting the school work. We headed over to the marina opening to wait around another 15 minutes. Shaun was so upset that we went back over to anchor again.

We went into town later that day to have access to internet and also to let the company know that we would be dealing with their insurance company as the marina is incompetent. This lit a fire under someones behind because we then had a spot arranged for the following morning.

We finally got into the marina the following morning. Before we docked the boat for the fibreglass work we were able to have our black water tank sucked out. We headed out to H dock on the outside of the marina and got ourselves docked and ready for the repair to be completed. We were happy to be plugged into shore power to charge our batteries and electronics.

Later that day we headed back into town to get Paige’s hair cut (so lovely to see her face but there were many tears involved) and I got my toes done for 20 TL = $7.00 CAD woohoo! I left the colour up to Jordan and ended up with bright yellow, just like her attitude.

Paige was NOT happy about the hair cut. She has had a bit of a poor attitude lately along with a staph infection on her head. We said that if her attitude and hygiene didn’t improve we would have her hair cut to a manageable length, her shoulders. She would not let me photograph her.

Shaun and I walked into the marina for a drink and by 10:30 PM I was exhausted so on the way back Shaun headed into town as he wasn’t tired yet. He ended up staying out until 2:30 AM. I was very glad I decided to go to bed.

The next day Paige and I went birthday shopping for Jordan as her birthday was coming up. We bought her new nail polish, activity books, a tracing sheet and some hair accessories. While Paige and I were doing this Shaun was shopping for roller blades with Jordan. This was to be her main gift. Later that evening we also purchased a red Turkey shirt as she loves the Turkish flag.

During our shopping excursion we went back to the linen/blanket shop and bought a beautiful scarf to send back home. It had beautiful patterns and colours. The patterns have the following meanings: paisley = almond design, rams horn = protection and security, ottoman medallion design, tree of life = long in paradise, nomadic tent pattern along the edges. After we purchased the gift I needed to send it at the local Ptt (post office). We headed over and went inside to find out what was needed to send a small package. The fellow at the front door directed us to a stationary shop 100 meters down the road so I could purchase an envelope. While we were in the store we found the envelope along with several other items that included wrapping paper, a cork board for Paige’s room, push pins and some very unique detailed colouring books. The store owner was very helpful. 

With our purchases in hand we went back to the Ptt. Paige decided to wait outside and look at her newly purchased book. I went inside and got into the correct line. The line was growing and there was only 1 lady servicing 2 departments. Of course there were several line jumpers which is quite common in Turkey……. It took ages but I was able to send the package registered mail for 9.50 TL = $3.80 CAD.

On our way back along the waterfront we saw 2 ladies taking pictures of something, I asked what and they pointed out a huge leatherback sea turtle (it must have been 100 years old). I think it is the one we saw in the bay the first day we were at anchor. Paige then spotted a second smaller turtle swimming in the same area. They both liked to swim under the fishing boats. Once we arrived back at the marina and were walking down the dock we spotted a big school of larger fish that actually looked like a dark mass in the water. It was crazy.

Later that evening Shaun and I went back into town after the kids went to bed to lounge lane. Instead of bars playing obnoxiously loud music these are smaller places with quaint tables to sit at. We played back gammon and chilled until far too late even though we were leaving that day for an anchorage 2-3 hours away.

Follow our video adventures on the following youtube channel:

s/v Element video adventures