5245_BB_SailLeisureMOCKV11

SAIL
+LEISURE TRAVEL
The Moorings’ base in Fethiye is an
hour’s drive from Dalaman Airport in
southwest Turkey and airport transfers are
easy to arrange. At The Moorings’ base, at
the Classic Hotel Marina, charter guests are
permitted to use the wonderful hotel
facilities, including swimming pools, a spa
and restaurants.
The Moorings team gave us a thorough
technical briefing. After finalising the
paperwork, we also had a general briefing
on sailing in the area. We’d plotted a route
beforehand, but the base manager, Deniz,
also shared some great insider tips.
The Moorings offers a full provisioning
service, but we didn’t make use of this as we
like to wander the local markets and buy our
own stock. There’s a full-service marina
complex nearby, offering all sorts of services
and including a supermarket, but some
smaller shops on the main road will also
deliver the items you select to the boat. We
decided to support the locals and use one of
these shops. We found the Turkish people to
be friendly and accommodating, although
English is generally quite limited.
Our friends arrived the next day, after a
long five-hour bus ride from Bodrum. We
loaded them onto the boat and dashed off to
Kapi Creek to make the sunset. It was a
beautiful trip across the bay in warm
Mediterranean winds, passing the many
gulet boats coming back to base. We set up
the tender and took a stern line to a rock. It
was easy to moor the boat with the electric
windless and we dropped anchor in 25m of
water after seeing depths of up to 70m.
Having to use a stern line either tied to a
rock outcrop or a set mooring ring takes
getting used to, but it does help keep the
boat stable. After a few times mooring this
way, we became good at it and each of us
had our job to do when anchoring.
We enjoyed our first of many warm
evenings under a pitch-black sky, and woke
to an idyllic bay of clear waters in which
turtles joined us for an early morning swim.
A lovely old couple on a boat selling freshly
made pancakes and pots of honey also came
by.
We headed off to Ekincik Bay, a long
stretch of motoring for 28 miles. The swell
was big, but we used the sails to stabilise the
boat. Motor sailing works well in preventing
the rocking motion. At Ekincik Bay, we
moored at a jetty stern-in, and received
great guidance from the locals on their
tenders. But the marina was busy and we
were rafted up alongside boats on all sides.
Ekincik offers clean fresh water, neat
moorings, wooden paths, WCs, restaurants
and good recycling facilities, which we
appreciated as recycling is important to us.
We separated our recyclables by setting up
another bag for organic waste in the galley.
We ate at the hilltop restaurant that evening
and enjoyed the most unbelievable views
and seafood, but it was pricey.
I made the most of the calm morning
[next morning?] and went for a lovely
paddle in the clear waters of the bay.
Ekincik Bay is close to a turtle breeding area
and turtle tours are on offer, but July isn’t
breeding season. We could’ve visited the
Dalyan Rock Tombs close to the turtle
sanctuary, but we wanted to hit “the road”.
We decided to sail to the furthest point
of the area first and make our way back to
Fethiye after two weeks. We started with a
fairly long haul of 14 miles to Marmaris, to
stock up on supplies, where we moored off
the main beaches and pier and ran the
tender into town. Mooring in the main
marina was too costly, and The Grand
Bazaar is practical and wraps around a full
city block and we found a well-stocked
supermarket which delivered our groceries
to the quayside in a flatbed tuk-tuk. When it
comes to being helpful, the Turks can’t do
enough for you.
After the noisy market, we needed some
quiet, so we found a beautiful mooring in a
bay on the other side of an island off
Marmaris, called Kuecuekkargi. There we
took in a beautiful pink sunset, listening to
classic tunes and enjoying a “Cin” and Tonic
as our girls sang along to the guitar.
Priceless!
The next day, we headed back to the SE
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SAIL+LEISURE