Turkey Tips

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harryb1

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Hi All

Off to Turkey next week on a 2 week charter out of Fethiye, will probably turn south on leaving Fethiye Bay-just wondered if anyone had some good tips for nice anchorages, good restaurants, must see places, and generally sailing in Turkey. We may try and get North of the bay too, and to the islands round Gocek.

I might not get back to this post except to read before I go but any info greatly appreciated.
 
We went sailing to Gocek summer of 2006(was working on a project in Ankara at the time).

random Tips

*Göcek is a nice town. Put the boat in Port Göcek (most luxurious shower building éver), walk along the seafront to the town. Have dinner in a seafront restaurant.
*Our pilot book was in german
*Had a bit of problem with the restaurant owner in Göbün bay, he was very frisky with the ladies. Besides, the food wasn't that great.
*We made it as far as Iztusu beach. Nice beach, turtles hatch (at night when you are not allowed on the beach), you can take a boat up the Dalyan river to watch the roman ruins.
*When at Iztusu beach, ancher off in Ekincik bay. Better ground and the wind will be W at night anyway.
*As you leave Fetiye bay, watch for strong winds at the headlands. It might be relaxed in the bay, but sporty conditions on sea. Be prepared.
*Nice anchorage: 36.544608N 29.055493E (Google earth, so in decimal, sry). *Anchorage is a bit tricky. The sea shelves off steeply. So you reverse ridiciously close to the shore, drop anchor at 15 meters away from shore, in 25m depth. Then send a swimmer ashore to tie off to a tree. Put tree rope on a winch and winch everything tight. A boat with a genny that runs a freezer box will come and sell you ice cream.
*Otherwise you moor at the restaurant pontoons, med style. If you moor at a pontoon, you are supposed to eat there.
*Restaurants, cafes, all 10% tip. 10% tip for everything, except taxis.
*All supermarkets will deliver to the boat/marina.
*It will be incredebly hot. Buy lots of water. Drink lots of water. Hold the alcohol until after sunset. I'm not kidding.
*Best restaurant with mooring: 36.61336N 29.055226E
*Eat balik Tuzdu (bahluhk tuhzduh): fresh fish in a crust of salt. Only works with big fish, though.
*Visit the Butterfly Valley, after the tourists have gone (after 1800h). 36.614185N 29.067778.
 
Rod Heikells Turkish Waters Pilot useful for anchorages etc. Your craft should have a copy or similar.
Kalkan a nice longish sail (if theres any wind)
kebab hospital ace spot in Gocek. (everyone to there own etc. etc.)

Enjoy. We're going in October again. (via Topyacht)
 
Gocek and Fethiye are the nicest places I've sailed, with good strong winds sometimes. I'm hoping to go back there in September. There's an excellent hammam in Gocek that's well worth putting a couple of hours aside for too. Please tell us about your trip when you get back, and have a wonderful time.
 
Much good advice in the posts above, but I would not put the boat into Port Gocek, as it is very expensive, and I use Skopea Marina when visiting Gocek.
My top tip is to buy "The Bay Express" for 12 lire. It lists all the restaurants with jetties, mooring bouys, etc. and will give you some good ideas of places to visit. There are some good ones in the bays around Skopea Limani.
 
Quote "Best restaurant with mooring: 36.61336N 29.055226E"

I presume you are using degrees and decimals, which I translate as 36 degrees 36 minutes 48 seconds North and 29 degrees 03 minutes 19 seconds East.
I do not have my charts here, but Chart Navigator software on my PC puts this position inland to the south west of Fethiye.
Could you please explain where this restaurant is.
 
You are in for a magic time. I would definitely visit the following: Karacaoren, the bay is nice and the restaurant is great fun. The owner may serenade you with his violin. You may decide that you wished he hadn't, but it is great fun, and the food is excellent:-) The holding is not phenomenal, but there are moorings for free.

Kalkan is wonderful, fabulous, exquisite but you may or may not want to go that far. You have the time so give it some thought.

The entire of Scopea Limani (within the Gulf of Fethiye) is stunning. Keep that for you return journey, but certainly allow at least 3 days for exploring. The various bay: Wall Bay, Tomb Bay, Deep Water Bay etc each deserve a night. There are others but memory fades:-(

"My Marina" in Ekincik will always be one of my favourite places. The first time we visited, in 2003, the marina was made of rickety sticks. It is now a fine marina where they provide berthage, water, electricity and rubbish disposal for free, once you dine in the restaurant. That is well worth doing, esp as you can travel up on a funicular railway. also the first time we visited, we asked where we could buy some fresh vegetables. The guy we were talking to asked for a list of what we wanted, and proceeded to go to the village of Ekincik to get the lot. In short, that summed up our first experience of cruising in Turkey. We could not believe the service and politeness we experienced. We were there again last year (and in Skopea Limani) and would go back tomorrow if time and opportunity permitted.

One night, in Skopea Limani (I can't remember which bay) one of our party asked the waiter for milk for his coffee. The waiter said that they did not have milk...20 mins later he turns up at the table and said he went up the hill to his grandmother's goat farm, milked one of the goats and bob's your uncle. We invited him to join us in a glass of wine. He takes off and returns two minutes later with two bottles. Let it be said we had a great night.

Have a great holiday


P.S. Do the Dalyan day trip to Caunos while in Ekincik, it's the most convenient place to go from and you can hire a private boat to take you. It's a lovely day out: even if touristy, it's nice to see who was there before you: Greeks, Romans the world and his mother have invaded the place and left wonderful mementos. Yeah, I like the place and I know while the Greeks and Romans etc were visiting that they did dastardly things: I'm Irish we know about that sort of thing:-)




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That puts it in a little bay to the west of the peninsula that shelters Fethiye bay, and south east of Sahin Br. I must admit that I have never looked in that bay, and did not know there was a restaurant there.
On the Maptech charts your position is actually south of the bay about a quarter mile inland, though this could be due to the charts for the area being based on very old surveys and not to WGS84 but European Datum 1950. Several times in Turkey I have been in harbour and the chartplotter has shown the boat position as being on land, but not generally more than about 100 metres wrong. Nearly all the charts are actually based on Admiral Beaufort's 19th Century survey of the Turkish coast, and only my latest locally produced chart packs are to WGS84.
 
Thank you all so much, just the sort of info I was after. Haven't had a lot of time to think about this yet-had a wedding to plan which went much better than we could have hoped, and it now looks like we going to have an excellent honeymoon!!

Thanks again

Harry.
 
Lucky you!

We've had two x two week flotillas and one week bare boat in this area of Turkey in the last three years, but in September, booked through Setsail (an excellent Company) We've recently returned from two weeks in the Sporades with them.

Our favourite overnight stops in Turkey (from Fethiye) are:-

Karacaoren (36-32'29.96"N 29-03'05.31"E) Moor to buoy with line ashore.
Cold Water Bay (36-33'48.87"N 29-04'55.81"E.) as above. Restaurant up the hill.

Going West.
Sarsala (36=39'28.35N 28-51'11.82E) Our favourite. The staff at the restaurant are very friendly. The phosphorescence in the water at night is amazing.
Asi Koyu (not shown on chart or in Heikell) (36-43'21.07"N 38-38.54.92"E) Reverse in to west of small island, pick up buoy and line ashore
Kumlu Buku (36-44'41.15"N 28-16'28,93"E)
Serce Liman (36-35'06.12"N 28-02'56.93"E) Captain Nemo's Restaurant. (Bob's place) "Bob" comes out in his dinghy and helps you moor and takes your line ashore. He is an amazing character and he has so many stories to tell.
Dirsek (36-40'8"N 27-58'7"E)
Sailors Paradise (36-41'52.88"N 28-00'30.98E) Beautiful. Nice showers.

Obviously, most of these places are quite a long way west from Fethiye. Personally, I wouldn't bother to go into Gocek if you are starting from Fethiye, which is a much nicer town. If you want to go south to Kalkan or Kas, you might have trouble sailing north on the return if the prevailing northerly winds are strong. Our friends who have sailed down there have motored back starting out at about 5.30 a.m.

I agree with the previous comments about the heat and buying enough drinking water. There are not many places off the beaten track to fill your tanks with water. Bottled water is almost always available from the restaurants and bread is also available, although it is quite expensive and looks like a victoria sandwich cake!

The sailing in Skopea Liman is very good but down at the southern end of the bay, the winds fluke around alarmingly. If you do want to go further west, I suggest that you do that first and explore the bays of Skopea Liman on your return.

If you go into Marmaris, it is the hottest place I have ever been in to although the showers in the marina are superb. If you need a supermarket, walk into town and on the main street off the seafront is a HUGE supermarket on two stories which sells everything from groceries to bikes and they will also deliver to your boat!

Hope you get this before you go. Have a great holiday and let us know how you got on.
 
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