Underwater Wildlife

So we finally left our summer berth in Marmaris Yacht Marina and beat into a light southerly wind out between the islands in the bay of Marmaris. We were in no particular hurry and had no definite destination in mind but just enjoyed getting into the way of handling the sail controls and re-learning the ways of the boat.

As we slowly beat out into the main channel the wind increased a bit and Summertime was going along very nicely.

I had a look at the options for a night stop and identified a well sheltered bay just to the West of the bay of Marmaris.

We made our entrance and spotted some restaurant pontoons to moor to.

As we got our lines ashore a very fit, lean and wiry chap who looked facially to be in his seventies sprung aboard and ran forward to help M with the bow line.

The young chap in his twenties I handed the stern lines to identified the other as his Dad. It can be difficult to guess ages out here. A life in the sunshine undoubtedly takes its toll on the skin, so people can facially look older than they are. However the healthy lifestyle and associated exercise can keep peoples bodies in good condition into later life. This chap certainly had a physique a 20 year old would be proud of.

It was then I realised we had been here many years before on flotilla, and that this was Ciftlik and Mehmet’s Place. The young chap said that Uncle Mehmet was now “tired”, and that he ran the place. In the early 2000s the only restaurant in the bay had been Mehmet’s but now there were several others.

The pontoons are configured so there is a large lagoon area between them and the shore. I remember the flotilla kids being organised into teams to play water sports in this area including dinghy battles, where the object was to burst a balloon on the opponents transom using a pin mounted on a foam whacker. Great fun that the parents could not resist getting in on.

Loryma Restaurant -recommended

We had a quiet evening in Ciftlik and set off again mid morning the next day. The plan was to head West while the prevailing Westerlies were relatively light as they were forecast to increase over the next period of time, making Westerly progress more arduous. The wind was steadfastly in the West. However it was not quite strong enough to make beating into it viable. This is the most frustrating circumstance as sailing and progress are mutually exclusive. If the wind was stronger, say 15 knots, then a long tack with decent boat speed is feasible however in light adverse winds there are really no options other than to motor. So the iron topsail got a good workout of 20km into a 10 knot headwind.

I got the impression that our boat speed was somewhat less that I was used to. Perhaps this was just illusory but we definitely seemed a bit pedestrian.

Anyway we made progress steadily and entered our destination bay of Bozuk Buku at the end of the Marmaris peninsula.

 We moored up uneventfully at the Loryma restaurant pontoon. We had previously enjoyed a night here with excellent live music as part of the restaurant, and again we were superbly entertained by a very good girl singer/guitarist. A good meal too.

Damn Tubeworm

The next morning I went over the side with mask and snorkel and scraper. There was a moderate amount of tube-worm and slime on the hull from it having stood idle for 2 months and I was not having this slow us down.

Causing a feeding frenzy

As I started scraping the tube worm off the port side of the hull, the local small fish population flooded in and started feeding frenetically. All their birthdays had come at once. And then some bigger fish arrived and started darting about. I then saw something I don’t think I had witnessed before, a larger fish took a small fish right in front of me – it was quite shocking in a strange way.

I was now the instigator and centre of a proper feeding frenzy. It then occurred to me that this could develop further …….and I am not the top predator in this sea. So I beat a hasty retreat and decided to leave cleaning the starboard side for another day.

Leatherback or Loggerhead?

Shortly after, just as we were preparing to leave a large head suddenly appeared above the water not far from the boat. a great big sea turtle! He seemed completely non-plussed by our presence so in we went to swim with him. M got out our new waterproof camera that I got for my Christmas present last year for it's first  subaqaua adventure. I have to say the pictures she got justify both the arm and the leg she spent on it.

Whiteback or Dunderhead

The plan, such as it was, was to explore a few bays around the East end of the Hisaronu Korfezi, the gulf lying on the South side of the Datca peninsula. We sailed up past the Greek island of Simi and round into the gulf. We first nosed into a bay called Dirsek. I had remembered this as a remote isolated bay with a single rickety pontoon. However the whole bay was taken up with large motor yachts anchored around the edges. My anticipation of splendid isolation was clearly not going to be realised here so we moved on.

Perfect anchorage

A couple of bays further into the gulf was Selimiye. Again I remembered this as a small unassuming village, and indeed it is described as such in our (out of date) pilot book. However it had been developed quite considerably and was very busy. We explored around what appeared to be the anchorage but it was very deep. Several yachts were anchored in 23m of water, which is way too deep in my book. We did not really fancy this spot either so we moved on. On the North side of the gulf tucked up in the corner is a small pair of bays called Kuyula Buku. We saw from afar that there were a couple of boats anchored there so went over to explore. This turned out to be the perfect anchorage, good holding, right depth, pretty, no wasps or mosquitoes and tranquil. So we spent the next two days there!