Setur Finike to Kemer - an Invitation and a Banquet

Sunday 11 May

Photos:

Phaselis Ruins x 2

The one which would not fit x 3

Setur Finike Marina – Kemer Turkiz Marina
45 NM
Departure 8.00am (the rest of the fleet have left already)
Conditions 0-18 knots for a short sail on the wind then dying out to nothing around 10.30am.

This is a good time to talk about the marinaras who buzz around in their inflatables in each marina getting all the yachts docked. There are now 80 yachts in the Rally and sometimes the marinaras get a little over confident about what they can fit into the space available! Their skill in manouvering us into place is impressive.

Kemer is a beach resort city with wonderful facities for the holiday makers and the season is about the get into full swing. We ride to the top of the highest mountain in the world’s longest cable car, then visit the site of Phaselis the ancient Lycean city founded by Greek colonists in 334 BC. This is a truly magical place set in 3 delightful bays amongst pine trees.

Quite a few cruisers winter over in Kemer which is 2 hours from Antalya and offers cultural activities such as visits to the opera and philharmonia and wonderful tramping in the surrounding mountains.

On our second night the local authorities in Kemer put on a banquet for us in an idyllic setting close to the beach beside the marina. We are to dress ‘formally’ which is a bit of a challenge as we have not come prepared. Need not have worried, neither have some of the others and we all scrub up pretty well. We dance the night away.

Richard and I must soon decide. We think we will leave the Rally in the next stop Alanya and travel back to Marmaris to explore the possibilities there. Strange that we do not feel terribly excited about that prospect. From nowhere comes an opportunity. We can stay on Rumpus until Iskenderun, then change over to IBIS II with Hasan Kaçmaz the Rally Leader and complete the Rally as crew for Hasan. This means we will visit Cyprus, Mersin and Iskenderun in Turkey, then on to ports in Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Egypt, doing an overnight tour to the pyramids amongst other amazing tours along the way. We take some time out to consider this option.