samthefound
New Member
Pushing this out in case it’s useful to anyone similar! This was August 2017.
My starting point before this bareboat charter was maybe 30 days coastal cruising (plus an lot of of lake cruising days), a day-skipper certificate (practical and theory), and a VHF certificate. I had also done a day sail on a catamaran in the UK, which was a useful starting point for this. And I had done med stern mooring around Gibraltar and Ceuta before, which also helped. Biggest boat sailed prior to this was a Bavaria 36.
I was travelling with my family (my wife plus two daughters of 12 & 15). They had done some occasional day sails with me but weren’t terribly drawn to sailing. So to increase the chances of them wanting to do it more than once in my lifetime, I booked a Moorings 3900 catamaran. Keeping it on the flat, with lots of space and privacy, plus a generator and air-conditioning. This was expensive and I certainly didn’t love the the boat, but from a practical perspective this worked out really well, and I’d make the same choice again. The Moorings base (also the Sunsail base) in Fethiye had some newer and larger cats (“please please please!” said my daughters), but I took what I thought I could manage. This was a three-cabin boat rather than the four-cabin version, which gave us an extra-large heads/shower cubicle in the starboard hull. Everyone liked that.
There is a rumour that this Fethiye Moorings/Sunsail operation is closing down at the end of this season. Sad face. The base crew were low-key (which I liked) but helpful. There was a small delay on paperwork because the base manager hadn’t had sight of a copy of my ICC - apparently the UK team should have asked me for it beforehand, but hadn’t.
The small marina where Moorings/Sunsail are based is against the Yacht Classic hotel. We we dined on the first and last night overlooking the boats, as well as staying a night at the end. Good food, good location.
Day one, from Fethiye to Cleopatra’s baths, which took quite a few rather choppy hours. We quickly discovered that the tender hanging from the davits had a lot of lateral swing to it. We nearly lost a paddle off it before securing the dinghy with one of the mooring lines, as the boat didn’t have any other handy lengths of spare rope.
Our first anchoring with stern mooring was a farce, entirely due to my lack of experience. I had read up endlessly, but we were clearly a bit of a liability here until a further couple of days had passed.
With my coastal experience mostly being in the Hebrides, the mental block for me was getting over the deep anchoring depth, compared to the length of anchoring chain we had. The hills along this coast for the most part drop sheer into the water. Then there’s a brief shelf of 5-10 metres deep just near the shore - about a boat’s length out. Then once you get a 2 to 3 boat lengths out, you’re easily in 30-40 metres. And we only had 50 metres of chain. So you learn to ignore that a little: grit your teeth, start a few lengths out, drop a respectable length and back towards the shore. The anchor bites on the underwater slope, pretty deep, with the chain pulling uphill. Then if you get it right and snub the chain at the right time, the boat will jerk to a halt a boat length off the rocks. Or half a length. Or less. But you can fix that later.
Then it is the tension on your stern lines to the shore that hold the anchor in. Moorings (& Sunsail) provided two 50-metre floating lines for this. In some places there are handy metal bollards on the shore, and in other places you have to improvise and tie onto rocks. While getting these sorted we generally kept one engine in tickover reverse to keep the boat in a temporary balance (and kept the rope away from the prop). On this first night, I stalled the outboard before I got to the shore, then found that one of the paddles was broken, and generally looked pretty helpless. I was rescued by a kindly ice-cream delivery man who helped us tie up. And then we bought a lot of ice-cream over the following 24 hours.
I got out on deck in the night to check the lines, but we didn’t move much. The following day our departure was fine, as both mooring points had been smooth posts, and we were close enough that we had wrapped the lines for an easy slip.
Day 2 we headed out on a long stretch northwest to Ekincik - but we didn’t make it. The wind was around 22 knots - which was OK - but the swell and the chop made the boat motion ‘interesting’ for my novice crew, so instead we headed into a small bay halfway into the journey. This was not a recommended anchorage as some swell crept in - but actually we all decided we liked the spot a lot by the time we left. That evening the neighbouring gulet helped us with our shore lines, and in the morning we had a relaxing breakfast in the restaurant on the beach. And we saw turtles! A beautiful spot.
Day 3 we headed back towards Fethiye bay, to stop in a relatively quiet anchorage facing into the bay, below a path up to the ruins of Lydae (my eldest and I went for a pleasant walk up the hill to the ruins). At this anchorage, I just swam the shore lines across (who needs a dinghy?). This really did seem to be what everyone else was doing. The sea was warm and it was so much quicker and easier. Although, while tying the first line, I put my hand firmly onto a spiky sea-urchin, so I wore my sailing gloves for the second line. I swam out again the following morning to retrieve the lines, and managed to swim back before the wind blew the boat askew.
Day 4 we headed out to an anchorage near Gemiler Adasi. The local restaurant offered us a mooring (provided we dined), which we took. We caught some flak off the restaurant owner as we had paused to ‘discuss options’ first (very important in our family), by dropping the anchor in the bay, but far too close to their mooring chains for comfort. I won’t make that mistake again.
It was comforting to me to be on a ‘normal’ swing mooring, in a bay that also had comfortable anchoring depths. My daughters on the other hand now said it was ‘just wrong’ that the view kept changing as the wind shift. The restaurant was great.
Day 5 we went on a tour past Olu Deniz, which we passed up, as we were now thoroughly spoiled by less populated spots. Then onto Butterfly valley, which was spectacular. This shelves off close to the beach and is good anchorage (no shore lines) as a lunch stop. It’s a bit open to the prevailing wind for anything more than lunch, but it feels like it would be OK for a night, at a pinch.
We found out quickly that our first spot on the left of the bay looking inland (the north end) is entirely the wrong spot. Once the tourist day-trip boats come haring in towards the beach it became like a supermarket parking lot, so after a panicky leap back in the dinghy from the shore we relocated the boat to the opposite end of the beach and had a comfy swim. We were anchored in 6-10 metres (10 when we dropped, 6 by the time the boat pulled up short nearer the beach). And we saw an enormous turtle.
On the way out, off towards our night-time anchorage, I managed to get the sails up and put us on a good beam reach for a couple of hours without the family really noticing any deck work was going on. So the 3900 works for me on that basis: apart from the halyards at the mast, everything else ends up reachable from the helm station without leaving the wheel. The family helped when they wanted to, and it was also fine when they didn’t.
Our anchorage that evening was in Cold Water bay. Excellent stuff. By this point I was pretty confident with the “leaping off the back of the boat with the shore lines” thing, and I was irritated by an ice-cream vendor who insisted on taking the line for me (“no thank you - I’m actually enjoying doing this myself”). He then claimed angrily that I had definitely asked for his help (in exchange for ice-cream purchases). To keep the peace, I bought ice-creams anyway once I was done. The most expensive ice-creams in the world. If you’re followed into an anchorage, check the expectations.
Day 6 - we got up early by our standards and motored back to the Moorings base. Coming in, the morning tourist boat exodus out of Fethiye was remarkable for sheer quantity (as well random colregs). Back on the pontoon, about four Moorings team members helped us tie up, which was great. We had gone over the marina plan on the way in - jobs for everyone - but it was all for the most part redundant. One of the base team boarded us with the lazy line (stepping across from a neighbouring boat) even before we had even got the stern lines sorted.
Checkout at the base was good, quick, painless.
Some other stats for you:
In a week, we used about half the diesel on the boat. We only had a couple of spare litres of petrol for the 5HP outboard, but it was more than enough. We used half the gas for the stove and had to change bottles once. For fresh water, we used about half the tanks on the boat. We took a lot of drinking water separately - consuming about one 10-litre flagon a day between the four of us. The two holding tanks on the boat didn’t need emptying during the week.
All week we made about 5-6 knots when under sail in 6-12 knots wind, and about the same motoring (at 2.5k rpm). Generally pretty mild, afternoon winds only.
The boat was I think built around 2011/2012, but she was in good condition. Sails good. I did find that with the topping lift slack and no main, the boom scrapes and bangs on the hard cockpit roof, which seemed odd. Lots of storage, including a hiding space for the 4 suitcases we were travelling with.
Things I was glad I brought:
Things I’d consider bringing next time:
All in all - a great week. My family discussed at the end how they’d like a future trip to go, so I think it all worked out. My eldest in particular would like a longer trip with a little more adventure!
My starting point before this bareboat charter was maybe 30 days coastal cruising (plus an lot of of lake cruising days), a day-skipper certificate (practical and theory), and a VHF certificate. I had also done a day sail on a catamaran in the UK, which was a useful starting point for this. And I had done med stern mooring around Gibraltar and Ceuta before, which also helped. Biggest boat sailed prior to this was a Bavaria 36.
I was travelling with my family (my wife plus two daughters of 12 & 15). They had done some occasional day sails with me but weren’t terribly drawn to sailing. So to increase the chances of them wanting to do it more than once in my lifetime, I booked a Moorings 3900 catamaran. Keeping it on the flat, with lots of space and privacy, plus a generator and air-conditioning. This was expensive and I certainly didn’t love the the boat, but from a practical perspective this worked out really well, and I’d make the same choice again. The Moorings base (also the Sunsail base) in Fethiye had some newer and larger cats (“please please please!” said my daughters), but I took what I thought I could manage. This was a three-cabin boat rather than the four-cabin version, which gave us an extra-large heads/shower cubicle in the starboard hull. Everyone liked that.
There is a rumour that this Fethiye Moorings/Sunsail operation is closing down at the end of this season. Sad face. The base crew were low-key (which I liked) but helpful. There was a small delay on paperwork because the base manager hadn’t had sight of a copy of my ICC - apparently the UK team should have asked me for it beforehand, but hadn’t.
The small marina where Moorings/Sunsail are based is against the Yacht Classic hotel. We we dined on the first and last night overlooking the boats, as well as staying a night at the end. Good food, good location.
Day one, from Fethiye to Cleopatra’s baths, which took quite a few rather choppy hours. We quickly discovered that the tender hanging from the davits had a lot of lateral swing to it. We nearly lost a paddle off it before securing the dinghy with one of the mooring lines, as the boat didn’t have any other handy lengths of spare rope.
Our first anchoring with stern mooring was a farce, entirely due to my lack of experience. I had read up endlessly, but we were clearly a bit of a liability here until a further couple of days had passed.
With my coastal experience mostly being in the Hebrides, the mental block for me was getting over the deep anchoring depth, compared to the length of anchoring chain we had. The hills along this coast for the most part drop sheer into the water. Then there’s a brief shelf of 5-10 metres deep just near the shore - about a boat’s length out. Then once you get a 2 to 3 boat lengths out, you’re easily in 30-40 metres. And we only had 50 metres of chain. So you learn to ignore that a little: grit your teeth, start a few lengths out, drop a respectable length and back towards the shore. The anchor bites on the underwater slope, pretty deep, with the chain pulling uphill. Then if you get it right and snub the chain at the right time, the boat will jerk to a halt a boat length off the rocks. Or half a length. Or less. But you can fix that later.
Then it is the tension on your stern lines to the shore that hold the anchor in. Moorings (& Sunsail) provided two 50-metre floating lines for this. In some places there are handy metal bollards on the shore, and in other places you have to improvise and tie onto rocks. While getting these sorted we generally kept one engine in tickover reverse to keep the boat in a temporary balance (and kept the rope away from the prop). On this first night, I stalled the outboard before I got to the shore, then found that one of the paddles was broken, and generally looked pretty helpless. I was rescued by a kindly ice-cream delivery man who helped us tie up. And then we bought a lot of ice-cream over the following 24 hours.
I got out on deck in the night to check the lines, but we didn’t move much. The following day our departure was fine, as both mooring points had been smooth posts, and we were close enough that we had wrapped the lines for an easy slip.
Day 2 we headed out on a long stretch northwest to Ekincik - but we didn’t make it. The wind was around 22 knots - which was OK - but the swell and the chop made the boat motion ‘interesting’ for my novice crew, so instead we headed into a small bay halfway into the journey. This was not a recommended anchorage as some swell crept in - but actually we all decided we liked the spot a lot by the time we left. That evening the neighbouring gulet helped us with our shore lines, and in the morning we had a relaxing breakfast in the restaurant on the beach. And we saw turtles! A beautiful spot.
Day 3 we headed back towards Fethiye bay, to stop in a relatively quiet anchorage facing into the bay, below a path up to the ruins of Lydae (my eldest and I went for a pleasant walk up the hill to the ruins). At this anchorage, I just swam the shore lines across (who needs a dinghy?). This really did seem to be what everyone else was doing. The sea was warm and it was so much quicker and easier. Although, while tying the first line, I put my hand firmly onto a spiky sea-urchin, so I wore my sailing gloves for the second line. I swam out again the following morning to retrieve the lines, and managed to swim back before the wind blew the boat askew.
Day 4 we headed out to an anchorage near Gemiler Adasi. The local restaurant offered us a mooring (provided we dined), which we took. We caught some flak off the restaurant owner as we had paused to ‘discuss options’ first (very important in our family), by dropping the anchor in the bay, but far too close to their mooring chains for comfort. I won’t make that mistake again.
It was comforting to me to be on a ‘normal’ swing mooring, in a bay that also had comfortable anchoring depths. My daughters on the other hand now said it was ‘just wrong’ that the view kept changing as the wind shift. The restaurant was great.
Day 5 we went on a tour past Olu Deniz, which we passed up, as we were now thoroughly spoiled by less populated spots. Then onto Butterfly valley, which was spectacular. This shelves off close to the beach and is good anchorage (no shore lines) as a lunch stop. It’s a bit open to the prevailing wind for anything more than lunch, but it feels like it would be OK for a night, at a pinch.
We found out quickly that our first spot on the left of the bay looking inland (the north end) is entirely the wrong spot. Once the tourist day-trip boats come haring in towards the beach it became like a supermarket parking lot, so after a panicky leap back in the dinghy from the shore we relocated the boat to the opposite end of the beach and had a comfy swim. We were anchored in 6-10 metres (10 when we dropped, 6 by the time the boat pulled up short nearer the beach). And we saw an enormous turtle.
On the way out, off towards our night-time anchorage, I managed to get the sails up and put us on a good beam reach for a couple of hours without the family really noticing any deck work was going on. So the 3900 works for me on that basis: apart from the halyards at the mast, everything else ends up reachable from the helm station without leaving the wheel. The family helped when they wanted to, and it was also fine when they didn’t.
Our anchorage that evening was in Cold Water bay. Excellent stuff. By this point I was pretty confident with the “leaping off the back of the boat with the shore lines” thing, and I was irritated by an ice-cream vendor who insisted on taking the line for me (“no thank you - I’m actually enjoying doing this myself”). He then claimed angrily that I had definitely asked for his help (in exchange for ice-cream purchases). To keep the peace, I bought ice-creams anyway once I was done. The most expensive ice-creams in the world. If you’re followed into an anchorage, check the expectations.
Day 6 - we got up early by our standards and motored back to the Moorings base. Coming in, the morning tourist boat exodus out of Fethiye was remarkable for sheer quantity (as well random colregs). Back on the pontoon, about four Moorings team members helped us tie up, which was great. We had gone over the marina plan on the way in - jobs for everyone - but it was all for the most part redundant. One of the base team boarded us with the lazy line (stepping across from a neighbouring boat) even before we had even got the stern lines sorted.
Checkout at the base was good, quick, painless.
Some other stats for you:
In a week, we used about half the diesel on the boat. We only had a couple of spare litres of petrol for the 5HP outboard, but it was more than enough. We used half the gas for the stove and had to change bottles once. For fresh water, we used about half the tanks on the boat. We took a lot of drinking water separately - consuming about one 10-litre flagon a day between the four of us. The two holding tanks on the boat didn’t need emptying during the week.
All week we made about 5-6 knots when under sail in 6-12 knots wind, and about the same motoring (at 2.5k rpm). Generally pretty mild, afternoon winds only.
The boat was I think built around 2011/2012, but she was in good condition. Sails good. I did find that with the topping lift slack and no main, the boom scrapes and bangs on the hard cockpit roof, which seemed odd. Lots of storage, including a hiding space for the 4 suitcases we were travelling with.
Things I was glad I brought:
- My sailing gloves, plus an extra pair for the family
- My Nikon Coolshot (for settling arguments about whether we’re moored too close/far from something)
- Pilot book (there was also a good alternative one on the boat, but I’d already thumbed mine a lot in preparation)
Things I’d consider bringing next time:
- 10 metres of 8mm rope for all those little things. Otherwise it was the three provided mooring lines or nothing.
- Cable for plugging phone audio jack into stereo! Teenagers need music.
- USB lighter-socket adapter.
- Maybe a couple of self-inflating life jackets (only fat buoyancy aids on board)
All in all - a great week. My family discussed at the end how they’d like a future trip to go, so I think it all worked out. My eldest in particular would like a longer trip with a little more adventure!
.
