Kas to The Kekova Roads

A late start, not too far to go, we got the schooling out of the way, provisioned and scrubbed the boat, topped up the water and at 2:00 pm on Friday the 7th November, we cast off in a growing easterly wind and headed around to the new Kas Marina to test the Blue card, our poo tanks now full after 5 days in Kas.

Turns out that there is no need for a technician, the blue card works like a bank card, the pump out station like an ATM only instead of receiving cash, your donating poo. 279 Liters of it to be precise.

In wintering skies, the easterly grew to an uncomfortable 20 knot head wind and even though we were fairly protected, beating directly into the wind is never much fun, everybody having to dress appropriately...


The first stop was Asar Buku an inlet in which lies the ruins of the ancient city and port of Aperlaie now partially underwater.

The days shortening dramatically now and even though we anchored in the inlet at 5:30pm it was already getting dark. We were however treated to the most amazing sunset, smartly followed by a full moon on a crystal clear night turning the white volcanic rocks along the shoreline silver and electric blue.

Although the anchor bit, we needed to tie a long line from the starboard cleat to keep the boat off the rocks on the other side of this tiny inlet we had chosen in an attempt to get out of the wind. There was no other choice of anchorage and it was too late to move.

Al, Summer and I dived on the anchor the next morning. It had wedged itself into the only place it could have, so we checked the line ashore before heading off on an excursion in the dingy. The wind was still howling so leaving this place and moving out into the open sea was not a smart option.

We got the dingy right into the inlet, tied it off and started exploring. We met a man who runs this ramshackle, hippy like accommodation/restaurant called the Purple House, after the purple dye that comes from the earth in the area. He suggested we take a walk east to the far inlet where we would be sailing to when the weather improved.
A moonscape. Walking past 3000 year old ruins, the ground strewn with rocks, discarded olives fallen from neglected trees, acorns, porcupine quills and 12 bore shotgun cartridges it really did feel like we were on another planet where the civilisation had long since perished.

We arrived at the other inlet, the wind coming straight in off the sea. The restaurant and all facilities looking decidedly shut for the winter, we took a walk out along a very long jetty to see if we could see any signs of life. Nothing. Just about to head back and Sally smelled food. We walked around to the only likely source and totally surprised three locals who were indeed preparing lunch for themselves.
We asked if there was any food to be had, they looked at each other, chatted a bit and "sure, why not?"

After producing two bottles of white wine, they got busy and knocked up a quick Menemem, a delicious Turkish dish mopped up with bread. While we ate they sat with us as we all played charades in an effort to understand what everybody was saying. By the time lunch was done, we felt like family. On leaving and with what little they had, they produced a bag of apples and pomegranates for us to take home.

The walk home included a meander through the ruins. Whilst there are so many of them, we had to wonder at the number of sarcophagi that have been standing there for over 3000 years and will be standing there for another 3000 by which time, this civilisation may well have long since perished.

That's Al doing his Ninja thing on a sarcophagus standing as part of the submerged ruins of the city of Aperlai.

On returning to the boat, we were horrified to see the boat, not in the position we'd left it.

The volcanic rock had cut right through the line ashore and the boat was gently bumping against the very sharp rock on the other side. The wind still howling, we went into emergency mode, restoring the situation with Al having to do a lot of heroic swimming with propellers churning in the chill of the evening. We used chain around the rocks and put out two lines for the night, something Al had suggested and I had ignored on the previous day! Luckily the damage was minimal, we must have arrived soon after it had happened, but it made for another fairly sleepless night.

Kalcan to Kas (Pronounced Cash) and the Blue Card Blues

13:20 on Sunday the 2nd November... We cannot believe it is November! we weighed anchor and cast off, bound for Kas, a place that has come highly recommended. We'd topped up the fuel in Fethiye and had the black water tanks pumped out as we'd been warned that the authorities were checking and a catamaran "just like ours" had been fined 2500Euro for not complying.

We were asked for our Blue card... "no, we have not been able to acquire one, do you have any?".
"No, we don't have any here but I can give you a receipt which will satisfy the authorities"


20TL or $10 later we're all pumped out and compliant and resolved to go via the new marina in Kas on our way to the old town harbour to get a Blue card and another pump out....

We motored all the way. It had promised a decent sail, we did get the sails up for all of 15 minutes until it went flat and down they came. I radioed Kas Marina on the way in, was directed to the pump out station and assured there would be a technician there to sort it. There wasn't. We waited. The sun was setting. I radioed again. Another assurance. Nobody showed. I radioed again fearing we would be arriving at the old town harbour in the dark when somebody finally showed....

"Where is your Blue card?" The adrenaline started to reach my face while as calmly as possible I explained that in no port so far had we managed to obtain a Blue card and that a receipt would suffice. "No" he explained very patiently having noticed the adrenaline build up.. "the machine will not function unless a Blue card is inserted."

Slightly embarrassed now..."Ok, can I buy a Blue card here?" He called the marina office which was some distance away and "Yes" they had a blue card for me. In darkening skies I jumped on my bike and hurtled off to collect said card.

On arrival I'm told by a very ditzy young lady that they don't have any Blue cards....! "But, but you've just told the guy on the phone that you did!" more adrenaline coursing it way into my brain.... "I am the only one in the office and nobody has called here...." She replies, exhaling a lung full of cigarette smoke....

Back on my bike, its time to move, dump the black water at sea and deal with the authorities if and when we needed to. I get back to the boat and explain what has just happened to the now very confused poo technician. The adrenaline makes its way to his face and he is back on the phone as we are gearing up to leave. "Stop" he says, "They do have a Blue card for you."

Back on the bike, into the office and "Soooorry" say ditzy, "They arrived on Friday, it was my day off". "Yeah, yeah. whatever. We need to go, will this take long?" as she tries to log onto the government web site that authorises Blue cards.

The minutes tick by, her screen remains blank, I flick through a yachting mag. Finally she gives up. "It's Sunday, nobody in office, government wed site". As she lights another fag the adrenaline is now replaced by disbelief and laughter restraint and I cannot wait to relay this one to the crew....

Back to square one as we cast off and head at pace for Kas harbour.

As it was getting late I had inquired of Ditzy how much to stay at the Kas Marina for one night.... 115Euro! that's AU$150.00. At the Kas harbour, right in the heart of town, water, power and free bread delivery by Smiley each morning, 70TL or AU$35.00...

Still no Blue card and fast filling poo tanks!

This is the serene scene that greeted us a soon as we docked in the harbour. The wharf is where the paragliders land and so the very next morning Sal went up the hill, had a wonderful flight and landed less than 50 meters from the boat.


An enchanting town is Kas. We had called Smiley (Ismail) on the way in which was fortuitous. This is not a large harbour and it is jammed with Gullets and dive boats. He managed to get us a spot and he delivers bread, free of charge each morning!

Not overly altruistic, he does have a great restaurant....

As in Kalkan, it is obvious that the tourist season has ended. Everybody is packing up, tourists venues are closing or should be and it is nice to have the whole place pretty much to ourselves.

Kas sits 6kms from Kastelorizo.

This is a Greek island also highly recommended but easier to go over there by ferry rather than check out of Turkey, check back in to Greece and back again in our own boat.

On the following day we caught the ferry over and as pretty as this little hamlet is, we found it all but shut and we had six hours to burn....

Al and Summer went on a marathon walk to get this shot which encapsulates the whole town.



If there seems to be a shortage of big fish in the Med, it is probably because they get, or got eaten.

Something that is not on the menu in either Greece or Turkey is Loggerhead turtle. They are protected, nurtured and pop up everywhere from way out at sea to inside some of the cleaner harbours.

Being back in Greece meant being back in the land of the 'very familiar' Greek menu... There were only three restaurants open, at one of which the owner was cleaning a freshly caught squid. He explained that it was the start of the squid season and he would be cooking it for lunch... We went no further.

After walking the length of the harbour trying to imagine what it would be like in mid season, we sat down at the water's edge in that clear light that comes with autumn sunshine.


With turtles munching on our prawn scraps we enjoyed the best meal we had experienced in all the time we were in Greece.

Prawns in garlic and chilli sauce, fresh calamari, octopus salad for starters, oven baked lamb for the main and ice cold Rose' as the lubricant. Yummmm.

Then off down to the sunny end of the harbour where there were some comfy looking sun beds for a little nannanap

The six hours was hardly enough...

Gullets are magnificent Turkish crafts and we have wanted to experience one since we arrived in Turkey.

A day on a Gullet with somebody else worrying about the provisioning, the steering, the anchoring, the cooking, the cleaning and the mooring was so appealing we selected a suitable Gullet from a choice of about 50 and motored out for a day of island and beach hopping, snorkeling, fishing, relaxing and eating genuine home cooked Turkish by the skipper's wife.

The following day was a free day, meaning one with nothing organised which saw Al, who has the appropriate licence, go for a dive and Sal and I do the schooling for change.

This is an example of what he saw...

I had asked Ismail in passing what we could possibly do about obtaining a Blue card... Now how amazing is this guy?
He arranged space for us in the harbour.
He arranged special off season 'local' rates which included power and water.
He fed us very reasonably
He woke us at 2:00am one morning to warn us of an impending and dangerous catabatic wind, that we should get the boat well off the wharf to avoid being surged onto the dock.
He delivered fresh bread and rolls to the boat each morning free of charge...

and yep, you guessed it....

He arranged for an illusive Blue card!

All he has asked was that we say something nice in Trip Adviser....

We have done so. Thanks a ton Ismail.

Onward and Eastward

Sal has joined the Islamic movement.. It's a protection thing as we sail closer to Syria!

Actually, it is getting a bit cooler in the evenings now...


I spent a day relaxing in Fethiye which was an extra day for Sal to get over her jet lag. We provisioned the boat but were asked if we could move it to make way for a large flotilla coming in. We complied, they directed us into a nice, but very shallow spot. On leaving the following day, a breeze threatened to push us into shallower water so they had their dingy on hand to ensure this didn't happen. The dingy man failed and we hit a rock with the port rudder. Not serious, but I was not happy! They will pick up the tab when the boat comes out in the winter.


Our next stop would be Kalkan, but on the way, we just had to take Sal back to Karacaoren Bay. I have covered it in a previous blog so feel free to go back a couple of posts, this place is heaven on a stick. Even in November the water is warm enough to stay in for ages. A nice swim in for a hang over curing breakfast and then off to Kalkan with paragliders still popping off Mount Babadag as we left.

As you see, it is a 30 mile sail which is longer than we have done in a while so we got going fairly early on the 30th October. We left in dead calm but as soon as we reached open water a NW started to blow. Up went the sails and little did we know it we were in for the best sail ever.

Kalkan Harbour 

The wind reached 25knots, it was blowing in the exact direction we were headed which meant we did have to jibe a few times. We averaged 8-9 knots and turned just before the entrance to Kalkan harbour in order to drop the mainsail.
30 miles, no fuel. I like it!

This is where we said goodbye to Lily. Bye Lily! Thanks for being so good with the kids and in the kitchen and taking care of them while we were away and for being such good company...

Lily headed off for a few days in Istanbul, then Italy. After that she begins her new life in London. Gutsy lady and we wish her all the best.

So what did Kalkan have to offer? (and the stuff you missed Lily!) The Google Meister got to it, we hired a car and had three destinations in mind.

Xanthos was our first stop. The capital city of the Lycian Federation built in the 8th century BC but is believed to have existed during the first centuries of the iron age. The most obvious site was this amphitheater. The best we've seen. Sitting at opposite ends we could converse without raising our voices. There are large areas behind the stage for performers to do what they do and an entrance arch big enough to drive a chariot through... Ignites the imagination.





A trip advisor post had said that this place would only take about half a hour. That was until we were joined by a man in a smart uniform. He became our official tour guide without asking for payment and the half hour became two.

This road was uncovered for the first time only five years ago. It ran down to the port and up to the Citidal. Amazing! Then onto the tombs of Kings and Queens, in fact the entire royal family.

The City walls consisted of bits build by the Lycians who use Pentagonal shaped blocks which are apparently better in earth quakes. The Romans who used square blocks and Byzantines who used cement. These blocks are so big it is impossible to imagine how they cut them, let alone moved them?


Carved out of the rock that was there, except that huge block on top. Please tell me how that got that up there?? The tombs are the biggest we've entered. One accommodating six people on double bunks (calved rock shelves). Once again, all the artifacts from these tombs were pillaged by the discoverer, Charles Fellows and are now somewhere in the British Museum.

We would have seen none of this, nor known what it was about if it weren't for Omer, our uniformed tour guide.

Next stop, the Saklikent Canyon. Three hundred meters deep and 18km long, one of the deepest in the world. It is only open in the summer months after the snow melt from the Taurus mountains.

We were mercifully only allowed to go one kilometer into the canyon because of the possibility of flash flooding at this time of the year. I say 'mercifully' due to the plastic shoes we hired. Combine these with mud, small pebbles and freezing water and our feet were put through the ringer.

It was so worth the effort in the end though.









There were plenty of these warning signs posted about....

we're still trying to figure out what they meant??







By the time we had eaten fresh trout caught by the kids, cut and cooked right there, it was too late to go to the third venue which was to be Patara. The place where St Nicholas (Santa Claus) was born. Ah well....

Mum in Sydney, Dad in London, Kids in Fetiye??

It was time to get back to Fethiye. I had a 40th Astor reunion to go to and Sally would shortly be back from Australia and as fortune would have it, we had Al and Lily on the boat and we couldn't really think of any two people we'd be happier leaving our kids with to look after...

At 10:35 on the 22nd October, we weighed anchor and left our safe nook and the surreal surroundings that are Olu Deniz and in a good wind set sail back to Fethiye. There were a number of yachts heading in the same direction all heaving over at 30 degrees all making heavy weather of the beam seas as we just sailed on through them all.... ya just gotta love a catamaran.

Thursday the 23rd and I was on a plane to London to catch up with some of the people I worked with at Astor Hostels in London and Portugal in the early '80's. We are all older, no wiser and exactly the same.

Alan Rivers still owns the show. That's Al in the middle and every 10 years he puts on a bash. This year trumped them all. Perfect size venue for 250 people. Twenties theme to which everybody complied, huge jazz band followed by Swedish DJ and great food, wine a beer. Thanks Al, it was well worth the journey.

Other than the great party, a few highlights...

The Hotel I stayed in with the OTT name,
'The Grand Royale' was a nice surprise and I'd recommend it if you have stepped up from a youth hostel budget. Very nice cozy place in autumnal London with a comfy lounge and bar and that fully inclusive English Breakfast 'buffet'... simply no good for a 'growing' ex boarding school boy... four days in a row!


The poppy installation at the Tower of London, destined to be the most photographed art installation in history. There will be 888,246 ceramic poppies, all hand made and hand planted. Each one represents a British military death during the 1st World War. I found it particularly moving as I am reading Gallipoli right now, mainly because we we'll be sailing there next year. The appalling leadership and the absolute lack of sanctity for life by cognac swigging, cigar smoking, arm chair Generals at home lead to this daily slaughter. The final poppy will be planted on the  11th of November, the day the war began 100 years ago.

The Book of Morman's is a play you have just got to see if you ever have the chance. It is a laugh a minute.. literally.

And a meal at Ottolenghi's. Lily, who's mum, Joanna Seville is one of Australia's better known food critics and the person behind 'Good Food Month and the Good Food Guide' recommended it in passing before I left the boat and it just coincidentally happened to be on the agenda. This particular outlet is really for take away and the queue ran out the door. They have only one table that seats 12. There were 7 of us and we managed to somehow jag a place at the table. Alan's son Alex who arranged the aforementioned bash left early and is absent from this photo... if you just happen to be counting.

On Monday the 27th it was time for the long overnight slog back to Fethiye, the boat, the kids, the crew and of course Sally who I hadn't seen for three weeks. Whilst our time away was for two completely different reasons, we couldn't wait to be back on board.

Karacaoren Buku (Bay) in the top 10 places to hang

Al Reid, otherwise known as Google Meister. If we want to know anything about the place we are in or where we are going, just ask Al.

14 Nautical Miles from Fetiye is a bay called Gamiler Adasi where there are a number of anchorages, a lagoon where anchoring is not permitted and a 2000 meter mountain off which as Al and Google discovered, there were to be the annual paragliding and base jumping championships.

So at 12:45 on Monday the 20th October, we cast off and motored down there. The comp was to start on the following day, we hadn't decided on which anchorage we would choose but when we turned to take a look at Karacaoren Bay we were going no further that day.

This is quite simply my kinda place. The bay is protected from the prevailing winds. The water is as you see here. The facilities are primitive but entirely complete and very comfortable, the staff are efficient, professional and laid back.

It consists of a dining room, kitchen, bar, lounge, kids play area and grocery store all in one big covered balcony which overlooks the bay. So inviting, that no sooner had we got set, Al and I swam ashore, ordered a bottle of Rose', plonked ourselves down at the sunny end and exhaled in unison.

This place has a self sufficiency about it. Goats for cheese, sheep for eating, chickens for eggs and eating. They make their own bread in wood fired ovens where the most delicious meals are also cooked and a main comes with mezzes.

They have a really decent wine supply, essential in a place like this as we would spend a fair bit of time on that balcony.

We were delighted to find that they are open all year round because we will be back.

The loo, a climb up the hill behind the main building where, if you are not disturbed you sit with the door open and take in the bay below with the boats at their moorings, beyond the bay east along the coast the shimmering Mediterranean. To your left, the imposing 2000 meter Mount Babadag off which the paragliders popped like colourful bubbles from a child's toy.

This was a place we would have to bring Sally back to when she returned from Australia.

The next morning we tried to get the schooling done as we slowly made our way over to Olu Deniz, the town at the base of Babadag. The sight was awesome.

At any one time there would have been 50 or more paragliders in the air all doing amazing aerobatics and school for the day ended early.

We anchored a short dingy ride from the town in a small protected nook called Yurgun Burnu and made our way over to the beach. Never try to beach a dingy in breaking waves. I'll leave it at that, but suffice to say, we spent the rest of the day in wet clothes.

As we arrived we noticed a shop advertising tandem paragliding flights. Lily had said she'd love to try this and naturally Al was game... Please, please Dad can we have a go... Please please as I nearly lost the sleeve to my shirt.

"Kids, they'll never allow kids of your age or size to go tandem so just get a hold of yourselves". I asked the guy, kinda hoping he'd back me up on this one, but nope. This is no nanny state.... "Sure, why not? We go in ten minutes". And the kids went ballistic. Having been a hang glider pilot, I was way too cool to be going tandem in a jelly fish, but now that the kids were going there was no way I was busing back down that mountain. Ten minutes later we were on our way and if anybody was nervous about the impending 2000 meter flight, the bus ride certainly put paid to that. This guy had driven this road before and was clearly unconcerned that we hadn't. I'll let the YouTube video tell that story. Al has put together a video you really should watch after reading this post.  Paragliding Video

The Take off area










Summer Amy looking very please with herself!

William Colin likewise!

Al Reid, and just take a look at that view!










.... and Lily Rose looking very comfortable.











Gregory being very uncool going tandem in a jelly fish and loving it. The pilot was kind enough to let me fly the thing and then he took me on a wild ride. Once again I'll leave that one to YouTube. Paragliding Video

So, in Sally's absence they have been up the mast, got around on scooters and flown off a 2000 meter mountain.... Hmmm perhaps she should stay with the boat?