Up until now we had had quite a hectic time cruising along the Turkish coast and now, we were in a more leisurely mode.  We made our way Port Iasos.  This was an anchorage behind a breakwater alongside the marina.  Ian decided to get his drone out and take some pictures.  He flew it for all of about five minutes when I heard those immortal words “Oh f**k”.  Yes, you guessed it, it had just dropped like a stone into the water, never to be seen again.  If it loses connection it should fly back to its starting point but not this time.

We visited Iasos Bay which is an ancient harbour where part of the wall is submerged under water on one side of the narrow entrance and on the other, the remains of the breakwater tower. Also here is the ancient city of Iasos sitting alongside the harbour and is over 4,000 years old.  There is a theatre and what looked like a grave yard. 

This photo proves that Andy does visit what he calls “piles of rocks”.

Just on shore were cows grazing, well actually they were so motionless you could think they weren’t real, which did cross my mind.  They looked like plastic models.  An hour or so later the plastic models had been collected and moved, no they were real!!  One of my blonde moments.  Another day the farmer walked them along the pathway at the end of the day, just like taking the dog for a walk. 

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We hopped about to a few other anchorages and then visited Guvercinlik, a small town next to the main high road along the coast.  At the entrance to the bay were some very large hotels with very large speakers booming out very loud music.  We decided to head further into the bay away from this tourist hotspot.

Our daughter, Jessica, was due to visit and we were collecting her from Bodrum so we needed to get a move on.  This part of the Bodrum peninsula is saturated in super yachts, either tied back to the rocks in the bays or anchoring outside because of their size.  They can be a pain with the amount of wash some of them leave.  One particular “idiot” and that’s being polite, was so close as he whizzed by you could see what the group sitting at the back were having for lunch. 

This photo below is of Eclipse, the fourth largest super yacht in the world, whose owner also has an interest in football, notably Chelsea FC!  Note the superyacht moored to his bow to get an idea of its size.  Eclipse is 533ft long. 

Bodrum wasn’t what I expected.  It was quite a tourist trap but the old town was very quaint.  Plenty of happy hours being offered on drinks though.  We anchored on a mooring buoy overlooked by the castle.  Unfortunately, we were broken into whilst we went ashore for a meal.  On arrival back to the boat we noticed wet marks on the floor, yes footprints, then we saw the handprints on the table.  Our front hatches were left slightly ajar but you had to be very small to get in, child size. We think they must have swum, as if you came in a dinghy there wouldn’t ‘t be so much water everywhere.  We have a motion sensor light at the back hence why we think they went there and then went to the bow and climbed up the mooring buoy onto the boat.  Thankfully they only took a few things which we guess they put in a water proof bag.  Still not nice to have your stuff riffled through.  We have some nice metal bars to put across the hatches so they can be left open to keep the boat cool but no-one can get in, not even a small child. 

The next week we spent hopping along the coast.  We visited Cokertme, pronounced “yougetme” where you have to have a Cokertme Kebab, which is marinated strips of veal served with thinly fried potatoes, garlic yoghurt, tomato sauce, fried tomatoes and green peppers.  Delicious!

We also visited English Harbour, which is where British naval vessels secretly took shelter in the second world war.  It is also where the Turkish President’s summer house is.  There was a small boat guarding the stretch of water up to the house, so no going up and being nosy.  It was very busy here and I expect that in normal non covid times we wouldn’t have got in here.  Being a catamaran we have the advantage of being able to anchor close into the corner of the bay where there is shallower water. 

English Harbour isn’t very wide and the gulets drop their anchors on one side and tie onto rocks and trees on the other side.  We spent two nights here and the locals come along each day selling bread and fresh produce as well as ice creams.  We thought we should support them so naturally had ice-cream.

There were very strong winds coming through so off to Oren next where we spent the night in the marina and where Jessica left us to go back home.  It was lovely to see Jessica and how lucky were we all, that less than a week later Turkey was taken off the UK Corridor and so those returning would have to quarantine for 14 days.  This would have meant Jessica couldn’t have come out to see us, so she got back in the nick of time.

September 2020