Cruising Notes – Turkey Cruising Notes – Turkey General – Arriving in Turkey from the Red Sea is, to say the least, a bit of a culture shock. Back in the ‘land of stuff’, you can reprovision, buy new clothes, repair yourself and your boat, clean up and cool off. Before long you will forget how remote you have been for the last several months.
But all is not so great. Just when you thought you were finished with windward sailing, you are faced with a windward trip to Gibraltar. Diesel is 10 times more expensive than in Egypt (1.00 a liter vs 12 cents a liter!) It is very crowded with people everywhere there is a city or village. Boats are packed anywhere there is a good anchorage.
Other cruisers who have been here for many years though, are very helpful. They will tell you if you ask, where to go for the best places depending on whether you want ‘remote’ or ‘busy’, low budget or high.
Weather – May is the best month. It is still a little cool, but the wind is not strong yet. If you arrive too early you risk winter gales, which I am told are not nice. In May, the tourists have not arrived yet. You can get the best deals on carpets and other essential souvenirs then. The towns and cities are not crowded yet and there is lots of room in the anchorages and marinas. We were told to cross the Aegean before mid-June, so arriving in May gives you time to cruise a bit and fix the boat etc. Of course, if you plan to spend years in the Med, I would recommend you not rush through – we have been told by many cruisers that Turkey is the best part of the Med.
Charts & Guides – The Imray guide “Turkey & Cyprus
Pilot” seems to have cornered the market here. It is a ridiculously high-priced
encyclopedia and overkill as far as I’m concerned. It is supposedly updated
every couple of years, thus forcing more sales to those who think they need the
latest information. I have compared an old one to a brand new one, and saw
almost no new or changed information. However, this guide is pretty well all
that’s available and certainly full of detailed information if you don’t mind
carrying two tons of books around for the Med.
This is the first part of the world that we don’t have paper charts. We don’t know if we will get any – we are using C-Map and it is very accurate. If we were spending years here, we would get paper charts but not sure why – just habit I guess.
Anchorages – We had heard that there are few anchorages and you would have to go into marinas everywhere. This is not true. There are millions of marinas and thankfully, most boaters use them, leaving more room in the anchorages for us. For example, in the huge harbour of Marmaris there were 1200 boats – all at marinas except for 4 of us! The mentality in the Med is to go to marinas, not to anchor.
Many, many cruisers winter in Turkey and the marinas give
huge discounts for wintering. Check around for the latest prices because they
fluctuate wildly from year to year. Most cruisers seem to leave the boat and fly
home (the lucky ones who still have a land home!) or you can stay on the boat.
You can also winter aboard on your anchor (eg Fethiye), but it gets pretty cold
so you will need to be self sufficient in terms of heat. I don’t think I’d want
to do it.
Anchorages we tried - Kas to Marmaris:
Kas – 36’ 10.528 N / 29’ 38.640 E . Not recommended. Holding hit & miss. Long dinghy ride to town.
Fethiye – 36’ 37.381 N / 29’ 05.731 E. Highly recommended 40 ft sticky mud great holding, sheltered all directions. Close to a great town.
Gocek – 36’ 45.260 N / 28’ 55.972 E. 16 ft. A little exposed to afternoon wind but good holding. Steep drop off so set well. A little far dinghy ride to town. OK for a night or two.
Kucuk Kuyruk – 36’ 37.795 N / 28’ 52.713 E. 30 ft rock & sand. Take a line ashore to a tree or rock on the SOUTH shore like the guide says because of the direction the wind goes in the afternoons. Gulets come in here to party for the afternoon and night so you won’t have the place to yourself.
A note on tying ashore: Make sure that you make a straight line from your anchor in front of you (lots of scope) to your line behind you, and make everything tight. That way you won’t swing sideways.
Marmaris – 36’ 49.583 N / 28’ 18.880 E 34 ft mud good holding. Quiet, away from the town but a real long dinghy ride. Can get a bus. Better spot is:
36’ 50.744 N / 28’ 16.971 E – 40 ft. Holding reported to be hit & miss but we stuck well with our new ‘tooth’ anchor. Close to town but gets bouncy in West wind. Take the dinghy right up the little river inside the breakwall in the center of town and leave it with the little fishing boats. Lots of chandlers on both sides of this little river just north of the footbridge.
Good buys in Turkey –
Boat stuff – There are huge tourist sail-type boats here called ‘gulets’ and therefore there are lots of chandleries catering to these guys. Good buys on locally-made items (list follows). In general, locally made items are inexpensive and anything brand-name imported is very expensive. Marmaris has the most chandleries close to walking distance from the waterfront. Marmaris is a great place to go for a refit – huge yard, supplies and skills close at hand.
Some examples:
chain - about $6 US per meter for 10mil galvanized – make sure you ask for ‘calibrated’ or the thickness of the links may not be perfectly uniform
anchor - a knock-off “Bugal” tooth anchor 25 kg for $90 US
epoxy - $20 for a kit of their locally made epoxy/hardener vs $70 for West
filters - $7 for Raycor knock-offs vs $37 for the real thing
I’m sure there’s more but you get the idea.
Boat repairs – the two major cities we were in were Fethiye and Marmaris. Both have a good range of mechanics, carpenters, welders etc. Marmaris seems to have better canvas workers and electronic repair but that’s just what I saw. Both have a section of town where there are all kinds of industry and shops catering to automotive, plumbing, electrical – small shops and very helpful and nice.
Dental – It is very inexpensive to fix your teeth here. Ed got a large filling replaced with a modern, hard good-looking porcelain one for $68 (US). The ordinary amalgam ones are much cheaper. Just ask another cruiser for a recommendation.
Clothing – Kas, Fethiye and Marmaris (and surely all major and minor towns) have Market days. This is not your ordinary farmers’ market, although there are loads and loads of fresh stuff to buy. Also included are stalls selling clothing, shoes, household and kitchen items, spices, meat (no flies!), essential souvenirs and little local food stalls. These markets are big. And fun.
Provisioning – There are large supermarkets and you can get everything you need. We found it hard not to do major stocking up – in Europe food is always near at hand and not expensive. We especially liked the prices on local cheese, box milk, junk food (yes!), local beer, chicken and turkey. Beef is sky high, and we did not see anywhere vinegar, baked beans, spaghetti sauce or decent breakfast cereal. We heard provisioning in Greece is not that good so we stocked up a little.
We only spent a month in Turkey. These are just my impressions of the place, and there are many cruisers who can tell you much more about the place. If you need boat parts and work done, I would not pass it by because things are much more expensive in the EU countries.
Reports from Other Cruisers:
General - You can anchor in all ports of entry except Finike. There are no real protected anchorages east of Anamur. A
Alanya 36' 31.8 N / 31' 59.5 E - nice town
Antayla to Finike is a beautiful coast, archaeological sites. At Kemer, you can anchor east of the marina around the peninsula, or go to the popular marina. Don't miss Tekirova 36' 31 N / 30' 34 E is the anchorage.
Marmaris to Bodrum is the best cruising area. Lots of anchorages.
Datca - south of the causeway is crowded. More peaceful to the north side of it.
Bozburun - can anchor to the west of the breakwall. The town is nice.
Bozuk Buku - recommended. Best anchorage is at the north end near the Ruins. Again, there are 'free' moorings if you do dome business at the restaurant.
Keci Buku with a mud bottom has a good hike to a fort.
Serce - The north end of the bay is all moorings but they are 'free' for having a beer at the restaurant. If you don't trust the mooring, anchor and tie your stern to it. You can anchor in the south and west sides.
Ekincik Limani - reported to be a good spot but crowded. Arrive late after the day-charter boats are gone.