Pastures New for Seaclusion – Finike to the Antalya Korfezi

The 12th July saw us setting sail for Finike, well motoring as still there was not enough wind to fill our sails, thankfully it was only 13 miles under engine.

So what can we say about Finike? Had we arrived by air, the area around Finike would apparently have looked closer to home than our previous experiences of Turkey with lots of polythene-covered greenhouses, as the area is renowned for its tomatoes, green peppers and aubergines for export, everywhere, for its orange orchards, and not a lot else!

Our pilot guide says that Finike as a town is “likeable enough”. Our thoughts however are somewhat different, the 70’s small tower-blocks cover the frontage of what could be a lovely setting, that not withstanding, we assumed there was more to it that met the eye, sadly though even that proved to be a step to far. The High Street, one block off the seafront, was filled with about 8 hairdressers, a few hardware shops and not a lot else, which was fortunate as my (David) curls were starting to show, so a barbers was just what I needed. Now you never know what you are going to get in a Turkish barbers, remember the wax job in Fetihye last year, well this time it was a haircut, naturally, but followed up by a head and shoulder massage, oh and did I mention my arms as well ! All for the price of £6…

The tour around the town took about 30 minutes and that was with us walking very slowly! Dinner the first night by the marina was adequate…

The infamous oranges of the area!

Our second day was fortunately the Sunday that the British Grand Prix, the World Cup Final in Cricket and the Wimbledon Mens singles final was on, so having found free wi-fi in the marina, we attempted to watch all 3 events, which was a struggle, but at least it saved us another trip into town apart from dinner later that night.

We thought we would try a different restaurant our second night, so one of the 3 took our eye, bad call, it appeared that nearly everything we wanted on the menu, was off the menu, we settled for a Lamb Kebab, which not to put a too strong a word on it, was inedible, such that when the bill came, even without asking, they were both struck from the bill….

The one bonus of Finike, aside from the mooring itself being free under our annual contract with Oren, was that our laundry including ironing was done for around £4, and our waste pump out, water and electricity were free.. yippee given it was 44 degrees and the only way to keep Seaclusion’s ceiling from being too hot to touch, was to run the air con constantly!

Happy to depart from Finike after just 2 nights, we did actually set sail in a healthy SE Force 5 (which was good for us, given we are now struggling with getting our boat up to the speeds we were used to, with our new sails… watch this space for an update as we are complaining,  not that we are speed freaks!) and rounded the headland into the Antalya Kprfezi, our first stop being  a bay called Cavus Limani, sorry to say a somewhat rather uninspiring bay with nothing but touristy places aligning it, so we didn’t do much other than open the vino, cook and retire in calm seas, although they didn’t last and we woke to waves breaking over our bow, not quite, but the swell had definitely changed direction!

With rain and thunderstorms imminent , we set sail for Kemer, further into the Antalya Korfezi.  You wouldn’t have thought we would be so  happy to see rain, but trust me we were and the sails needed a wash. The fork lightning however was a different matter, so soon we had all the portable electronics safely stowed in the microwave and being away from any dangers, sailed with all of our navionics switched off for a couple of hours.

As the weather started to clear we turned everything back on, also because we were on our approach to Kemer, where we caught our first sight of the Kemer Armadas!

Our entry into the Kemer Marina gave us our initial thoughts on the place based on the following;

1. We saw a McDonalds,
2. It felt like we had just sailed into the set of Pirates of the Caribbean 6,
3. Nothing but very large hotels surrounding the waterfront,

…. not quite what we were expecting, or wanting. But I have to say the staff in the Marina were lovely, the Operations Manager came to say hello at the quay as we arrived, and seemed perturbed when we said we were only staying one night, asking why we weren’t staying longer ? I debated whether I should tell him why, but decided to just smile..

A walk around the town did nothing to change our initial thoughts, there just wasn’t a soul to the town, just a pure holiday resort, complete with a poor man’s version of Sea World…

We weren’t sad to leave Kemer the following day, heading to Antalya, which we had far higher hopes for, and sailed past the wonderfully dramatic Taurus Mountains.

Hopefully our next instalment will be more enjoyable for us and you!

18th July 2019