The Carian Coast

After a great fish meal and a good nights sleep we depart Cokertme around 8am.  It's a very interesting coastline as we head east and then south down to a lovely anchorage for lunch.  There is a huge chimney stack for the powerhouse right on the water and in many cases a lot of rubbish has been washed up on shore so the view is not so appealing in some coves.

We spend the day chillin out, sun baking, sailing and fishing but with no luck as yet on the lures as Greg tries all three of them.

We have agreed to meet our Australian friends Cheryl and Will from Port Adelaide and their charter guides Alan and Kristen at English Harbour Okulk where we again tie up to a restaurant wharf.  We are invited over for pre dinner drinks on Cheryl and Will's yacht which they purchased in Marmaris a few years ago and are enjoying sailing around the Med like us.  

Alan and Kristen have been involved in the charter business for some time and have been in Turkey for a few years as well.  They are able to offer us much good advice and Alan even shares some magic tricks; shame we are not twelve years old.

We have our evening meal with them and I have to say I'm not that impressed with this place unlike Captain  Ibrahim's last night and there is no Wi-Fi.

Greg, Will, Cheryl, Kristen and Alan.

The Carian coast is pretty barren and fairly remote, there are only a few villages on either side of the coast where you can tie up to a restaurant wharf to eat and find some limited provisioning.  The early mornings are usually sunny and clear, by 9 am there is haze and mist everywhere and then it's clear again and hot and sunny by 4pm.

Day Three.

We bid farewell to our new acquaintances and head out for Cleopatras Beach around 9am.  It's only a short distance to  both Snake and Castle Islands where her beach lies.   As the myth goes, apparently Cleopatra imported sand from Africa so her lover Antony could sun-bake on her beach.  By the time we get there we can hardly see it as we are punching into the wind up to 20 plus knots and the skies are overcast and hazy.

By the time we round the Islands and are heading with the wind to our final destination, the wind dies down just as fast as it blew up,  we are becalmed for about two hours, so we make the most of it.  Greg has his lure out and we do some sun worshipping.  Later Greg trims the sails and changes course to pick up the South Easterly.  We are headed for a lovely calm anchorage on the South Coast called Buyuk Cati.  Two hours in and the wind picks up to the forecasted Beaufort 5 and 6 so we can't wait to get here.

We arrive at 2pm and find a big tree to tie off to.  It's calm and a great place to spend the night and certainly a lot calmer than the seas of the last two hours.

It's time to relax and have a siesta once we put up the sun shade.  There is alight breeze which cools us down for the afternoon and we just chill.

It's an early start tomorrow around 5.30 am so we can beat the wind predicted by lunchtime.  Our plan is to head West and round the Datca Promontory and find a place to tie off to in Palamut; its about a seven hour trip.