Fethiye to Kaş... the Lycian Coast

Adrenaline junkies eat your heart out....We get caught by the afternoon sea breeze and catch a few waves in our inflatable!

On Thursday 16 April we motor out of Fethiye past snow capped mountains and both agree it has been a fantastic place to visit. The provisioning has been feverishly accomplished as there were some big spaces in the cupboards. The Tuesday market and the large Carrefour Supermarket provided everything we wanted.

The highlights of our stay in this lovely place include…

…The fish market in the centre of town where we choose our fish from the circular central stall and then have it cooked at one of the many restaurants surrounding this open area for a cost of TKL5 including salad, bread and potato chips. The atmosphere is super, the fish is fresh and varied. Andy and Brenda have John Dory, we have salmon from Norway.




…The friendly locals who are laid back and helpful in every way and set the scene for a great stopover in this lovely town.

…The fantastic holding of the anchorage in the inner harbour.




…The fragrance of all the citrus trees in full blossom…mmmm.

It is 15 NM to our next planned stopover at Gemiler Buku and a light breeze slowly fills in from the north west as we clear the harbour.

We experience the catabatic nature of this terrain when we round the point of Dokubasi. From here until we pass the island of Karacaoren, we are harried and slammed by regular strong gusts from the craggy cliffs to our port side. We hastily roll in some of the headsail and constantly ease the main as we crab and slide our way along here at times doing over 9 knots, not uncomfortable, just a little busy. It is a salutory lesson on standing further off shore when wind is coming over tall outcrops and mountains. It gathers at the top then drops like an accelerating stone towards the sea, gathering momentum along the way. This is not the first time we have been sailing comfortably in light breezes, only to round a headland and find ourselves in something quite different.

On arrival at Gemiler Buku and once tied stern to ashore on the western side of the bay, we immerse our senses in the beauty of the surroundings. Crystal clear turquoise water, golden beach and vegetation wild and lovely down to the shore. Off to our starboard we can see the island of Gemiler Adasi with its masses of interesting ruins.



We are woken by gusts coming across the bay between 3.00 and 5.00am, but are securely anchored thank goodness. We are paid a visit by Turkish Coastguard the next morning. They come on board and check our papers and crew list to make sure that everything is in order. Soon after this 3 of us (Richard stays on anchor watch) go ashore and get a lift with a German couple, Reiner and Biggie – in their very nice camper van - to the nearby abandoned village of Kayakoy, featured in Louis de Bernieres novel Birds Without Wings – a truly fantastic read. We see the sun and blue sky shining through the empty windows of the roofless stone houses on the hill side as we approach the site and walk the abandoned streets overgrown with wildflowers which seem to represent the ghosts of previous inhabitants. Kayakoy, built on the ancient site of the Lycian city of Karmilassos ‘died’ as a result of the population exchange program between Greece and Turkey in 1923.






Richard has a relaxed calm day on board and we all join him after a brisk 7km walk back to the boats. We throw our lines and search for a more sheltered anchorage for tonight, motoring past Gemiler Adasi on our starboard, otherwise known as St Nicholas Island.


In the western side of Bestas Limani we discover one of the true jewels of anchorages we have experienced so far. Very sheltered in the current wind, this protected bay is our home for the next two nights, tied stern to ashore. The turquoise water is crystal clear and icy cold but we all enjoy the swimming here. The wind in the night goes straight over our heads, We plan to visit the surrounding places of interest, leaving early the next day in our two tenders for the 2 mile trip across to the national park of Olu Deniz. It is flat calm when we leave and make our way to this “blue paradise” – more like a resort, with its inland sea thankfully closed to visiting boats. We watch paragliders leaping off Babadag Mountain, which towers above us and see them change from tiny shapes to scraps of collapsing coloured cloth when they land on the nearby beach. This is all very lovely but the best is yet to come.


The afternoon sea breeze is starting to ruffle the water when we make our way back across the bay to St Nicholas Island (Gemiler Adasi) and pull the tenders ashore on the sheltered northern side. The Byzantine ruins of 3 churches and accompanying buildings on this island date back to early Christian times and before. It is thought that it was a holy site on the route of Christian pilgrimages from Constantinople to Jerusalem, but was lost to the Christians around the 12th century, when attacked by enemies and destroyed by earthquakes. Further excavation work is planned to fill in the gaps of the history of this amazing island. We walk among the extensive ruins in the idyllic Mediteranean setting of blue azure sea and wildflowers. We have the island almost to ourselves and eat our lunch on a high plateau covered in yellow wildflowers, watching a pair of red kite birds of prey come and go from their nest in an adjacent cliff face.

By the time we make it back to our tenders, the wind and sea has come up and is blowing quite fresh from the southwest. We don life jackets and pack everything into the wet bag, tie it to the inflatable and motor out of the lee of the island. We get a bit of an adrenaline ride as we surf the crest of some of the waves in our 2.3m inflatable, arriving gratefully back into the calm shelter of our small bay 10 – 15 minutes later. It has been a great day.


On Sunday 19 April we leave Bestas Limani and head for our next stop of Kalkan – approximately 30 nautical miles and 5 hours away. We motor most of the way picking up a light breeze later in the day as we close on Kalkan past the long sandy beach near to the Lycian sites of Xanthos and Patara. Kalkan is a bit of a surprise. As we turn the corner into this tiny harbour we are met by loud music, which almost shatters our ears. However, we see our friends Eric and Susan (on board SY Lola K) tied up and figure if it is okay for them to be there it can’t be too bad. We reverse on to the wall alongside them, right underneath the blaring speakers and stage of the concert to be held tonight. The atmosphere turns out to be really nice once the concert of Turkish folk music starts. We take a short stroll around the town and then retire to the cockpit of Matelot, lie on our soft cushions and enjoy the music.

Monday 20 April turns out to be a day to remember as we four hire a taxi for the day in order to visit the important ancient Lycian sites of Letoon, Xanthos and Patara dating back to before 3,000 BC. These are huge sites and only partially excavated, with lots of discoveries to be made yet. Xanthos set on the Xanthos River was the centre of Lycia in its heyday. Nowadays the river plain is almost entirely silted up and its fertile soil provides a place to grow tomatoes for the whole of Turkey and beyond. We climb to the top of the hill above Xanthos to have our picnic lunch. The wildlife in Letoon and Patara is worth the visit with lots of terrapins basking on the rocks, the occasional tortoise, frogs and bird life.



Back on the boat and early to bed, we are up again the next day and departing for Kastellorizon, the Greek Island 15 NM away and very close to the Turkish coast. We are close-to when we come across a swathe of rubbish floating in the sea – lots of plastic items, bags bottles etc. This is very sad to see. We hear later that this idyllic island with its permanent inhabitants of 400 people tips its rubbish over a cliff into the sea. We do hope that this will change in the future as it is a beautiful place to visit very briefly for an overnight and we climb to the top of the hill behind the town and take in the view.




The harbour is calm for the night and we depart early the short trip next morning to Kas – pronounced ‘Cash’ getting tucked in behind the sea wall stern to as we hear the weather is taking a turn for the worst over the next 3 days. It is a good place to be as the westerly comes in overnight and we bounce around on our double lines all night, sleeping fitfully.

The next morning marks our one-year anniversary of the day we first set foot on Rupert Wilson’s SY Rumpus in Selimiye. We know this because it is Children’s Day in Turkey and the children parade in front of us in an event with entertainment, which takes up most of the morning. It is colourful and delightful to see all the children of the town decked out in their costumes.

It helps to take our mind off the building wind, which really is getting stuck in as I write. We are getting clouds of dust down the companionway in this relatively sheltered harbour. It is leaving a fine coating over everything and the decks are red with it. The wind instrument says around 30 knots. There is a big sea crashing against the sea wall and our lines are straining against the surging sea, which is coming around the corner into the harbour.

We are surrounded by several other yachts, Deep Blue on port side, two other yachts stacked side on to the quay on our starboard side. The wind is howling. It will be nice when this settles down but we may have another night of it yet. The spring loaded line on Deep Blue has just snapped at the end of the spring which is – or was, a shock absorber!

Matelot signing out for now. Next stop Kekova Roads.