Gocek to our first sighting of Finike!

by Chantal & David · Published July 27, 2019 · Updated January 22, 2020

So on the 5th July, having lost our “micho” (deckhand!!!!), and with the main sail back up, boat all provisioned, we left Gocek a little later than expected and simply made it back to our favorite anchorage in Yassica Yadala for the night, not without witnessing a rather brave, or stupid helmsmen, note the proximity between the 2 boats below, the power boat being on anchor, and another deciding to provision whilst still on the go. Steven will however be pleased that we still found enough time to finish the polishing process before the vino took priority!

The following morning we left at 8am to make the 41NM passage eastward to one of our favorite places from last year, Kalkan, sadly mostly under engine as Steven seemed to have taken the winds back to Antigua with him, at least for now.

Kalkan by night

We stayed a couple of days, visiting our memorable coffee shop, and generally chilling.

Dinner out was a strange affair, having seen a lovely menu in a fish restaurant earlier in the day, we booked a table for two, upon arrival that evening we sat at our table and picked from a different menu, but still fortunately had a good meal, it was only as we were paying the bill that the owner then advised us that there was in fact two restaurants under the same ownership, and we had inadvertently ended up in the other one, well at least the mystery was solved !

On the 11th, with the winds coming back with a vengeance, according to our trusted forecasters, PredictWind, we headed to Kas Marina to hide! Not there was much sign of the 35 – 40 knot winds that were predicted, where is Movingweather when we needed it !

Again, we revisited Kas old town but aside from that and spending some 30 minutes looking for a chandlery that didn’t exist, we just chilled. Had we known before we left that the Marina had a swimming pool, then we would have made good use of the facility, but it is now locked away for next time we stop there.

Kas Old Town

Next stop was to Greece, namely Kastellizon, to get our Depka (Greek Cruising License) stamped and validated for another year, believing the requisite date was the date we left Greece last year. So have we moored up, said hello to the local turtles, promised our restaurateur, whose jetty we used, we would be back for lunch, we trotted off to the Port Police, only to be told that the important date was the date the Depka was first obtained, one we had missed by some 2 months! Hmmm, clearly false information had been given to us somewhere along the line. With that, our friendly policemen took us outside his office, away from his boss and said if we left quickly, we were never there! This mean’t that when we return to Greece at the end of the season we will require a new Depka and the running around to 3 different places, including a bank to get it completed. We rapidly returned to the boat, made our apologies and departed heading eastward again to Kekova Roads, with 24 knots of wind and a following sea pushing us along nicely.

Kastellorizo

Seaclusion, back in Greece, if somewhat briefly!

Whilst we went to Kekova Roads last year, we actually stopped in a new anchorage Polemos Buku, with a tiny restaurant and rather wobbly jetty, one we were not happy to secure Seaclusion to… that said an hour later a much larger and heavier gullet had no qualms in doing so! Something to remember on our way back perhaps! The wind finally died down during the night, and we woke to a peaceful bay, ideal for the paddle board!

Polemos Buku, West Kekova Roads

The following day we sailed through the “Roads” to the east end without a cockney in sight….

It isn’t called Kekova Roads for nothing!

…to pastures new, Gokkaya Limani, which is a group of small islands, with numerous islets and reefs which we safely navigated to find ourselves in a quiet peaceful spot, that was until the day tripper boats decided to arrive, I think they must believe that all their clients love very loud Turkish music blaring out as they sail, not quite to our taste but thankfully they weren’t there very long!

Visiting a cave… a tight call, braver than most, or more stupid!

Again with calm seas in the morning, I (Chantal) donned the paddle board to go exploring, meeting the local inhabitants, (see below), and going around one of the islands to check out the cave we saw the day before. I will however be the first to admit that it was a little further than I expected and it took me into not so calm seas which for the first time saw me paddling on my knees, perhaps the handheld VHF should have been with me!