We're off! Yeah we're actually going to get out of Kaş marina
It's uh near the end of February actually and the last time we were out was when we
went out and I took the engine for a test run around the island. We tried to
go out after that and we had the little problem with the starter motor and the
solenoid
Had the little problem with the starter motor and the solenoid and since all that's been fixed
we haven't had the opportunity to get out due to winds, lockdown restrictions at the weekend
wind, rain and work and also time schedules. Yeah. So really looking forward to this. The plan is
that we're gonna go out of here, around the peninsula and head east towards the Kekova area
but we're gonna stay outside of Kekova and keep on going east until we get to Finike marina which
is part of the Setur Marina group. We'll stay there for two nights, we've booked in already
and that's all part of the Setur contract that we can stay there for free and then we'll leave
there on Thursday and go to Smugglers which is just inside Kekova area and anchor up for
one night at Smugglers because we want to do some filming there, (it's so pretty) I think you're gonna appreciate that
oh you'll love it yeah. Yeah and back here for Friday just before the weekend curfew lockdown
happens. So that's the plan, let's see how it goes! Keep your fingers crossed this time! And your toes
Have you got it?
Yeah good morning uh we are just informing you that we have
left pontoon B and we are going out in the direction of Finike
for two or three days we expect to be back in Kaş marina on Friday lunch time or afternoon, over
Good morning Mr Jones have a good sailing [...]
Thank you very much this is A B Sea standing by on one six
Yes, all fenders at a jaunty angle Captain. Carry on Number Two. Thank you Number One!
Stern lines stowed Captain
They look beautiful! Oh they're so even!
We've just rounded the tip of the peninsula and um I've been down below and had a check of
the engine. It all sounds fine, it all looks fine. Also checked the alternator is feeding the Argofet
battery isolator unit that we installed that light is on so it's getting a charge. I've checked the
instrument panel down below at the nav station and our house batteries and our starter battery
are all getting a charge so everything seems to be working quite normally. There is no wind today
and that's fine because we really want to give a good long run to the engine after the rebuild and
like I said, it all sounds fine at the moment. There was a little bit of an incident as we came
along the peninsula. There's a lot of construction going on there and construction sites like to
burn their rubbish so I'm just standing here staring at the horizon and I'm going sniff sniff
What's that smell of burning? But um there was quite a few construction sites burning their
rubbish but I checked below and it's all good. So we've got about another five and a half hours to
Finike Marina and I think we're in for a nice mellow day and everything should be fine
Just a couple of nautical miles off the coast of Kaş is the Greek island of Kastellorizo
and unfortunately it's still out of bounds. I think the Turks and the Greeks have now kind
of finished their saber rattling about the oil and gas exploration that was going on and that's all
settled down, we don't see any military helicopters flying over or naval ships doing their patrols
Coast guard is still active of course from both sides of the coin but the reason we can't go there
right now is because of the travel restrictions due to borders being closed. It's a shame really
because it's a beautiful island and we'd really like to take A B Sea into the bay right there and
drop anchor and go ashore and check things out. But then again you've got the Greek cruising tax which
you'd have to pay for a month just for a day trip there so more than likely when restrictions lift
we'll just grab the ferry from Kaş town and go over there for the day on the ferry
Just seen dolphins
Usually when we're heading east we're generally heading for Kekover which
is slightly further east off the chart here and we would round this corner here and come up
and come through this gap here but today because it's quite calm and uh we want to do something
different we're actually going to come around this portion of the headland and go up this side here
and take a look see what it looks like from that side because we've never seen it from that side
We've come on the outside of that point over there, this is the outside of the island that we
were discussing and as you can see it looks pretty much like the inside of the island
and just here is where the gap comes out that we would have cut through normally. Looking further
ahead we can see the outer islands of the Kekova region and again instead of going inside to
Kekova uh we're actually going around Kekova outside. This area in here is the Kekova Roads
area, these are the anchorages we normally go to here, here, here, here and Smugglers up there
but of course we're not going in there today we're coming around the outside
staying away from that uh isolated danger and heading further up in the direction of Finike
We seem to be showing you an awful lot on the chart today, just for reference
this is the inside area of Kekova and this is the outside. Now one of the more
interesting and attractive anchorages of Kekova is on the outside in this little bay here and
what we're going to do is seeing as we're going past and it's you know we're doing decent time
we're going to just take a slight detour and have a mosey around there so we can get a look
and feel for it in case we use it uh next time we're down this neck of the woods
and hopefully because it is the middle of winter and nobody else is about um we should have the
whole place to ourselves which will give us a good chance to just motor around and check it out
Oh there's caves up there look
I have to admit that I was a little bit surprised to see two yachts already tied up in there um it
is obviously as you saw an anchorage where you've got to drop your anchor and tie a line back to
shore and I would imagine that in the summer once the day tripping gullets get in there then
it's going to be really really busy and there's probably going to be a lot of tangled anchors
So a place to go in the wintertime for sure, lovely protection in there, all around protection um
It's just a place to get away from it all. No facilities are sure of course!
So onwards we go. There is an unfinished marina just down the coast and we're going to just do a
flyby or a sail by and have a quick look through the binoculars because it's always good to know
these things and know what the approaches are like just in case we're ever in this part of the world
and something comes up with the weather or the boat and we need to find somewhere to drop anchor
where we are protected so we'll check that out on our way to Finike
We're just coming up to the outside edge of the ballast blocks of the unfinished marina
and just ahead of us there is a tug towing a barge and on the barge is what looks like dredging
equipment so I'm gonna guess that he's going into the marina to continue dredging it out to
get whatever depth that they want so maybe there's hope for this marina getting finished sometime. Yep
so there's the barge with the dredging equipment just going inside the entrance to the marina
The colour of the sea has changed quite dramatically here because this is quite a shallow
coastal area. We're actually in 12 metres of water here the reason why this is so shallow is because
what we're looking at on the coast here is Demre and a couple of episodes back we went to Demre
and we visited the rock tombs and the amphitheatre of Myra and also Saint Nicholas's church, so
this is what Demre looks like when you're looking at it from offshore. We're about 30 minutes
away from Finike marina which is just around that headland there but as we came around here
were greeted with this wonderful snow covered mountains in the background. Quite majestic
The Turkish mountains are just awe-inspiring they really are. We're now on our final approach
to Finike marina, possibly see the marina wall there and the masts behind it, beautiful view to
come into. Just ahead of us we have a fish transport boat because we have one, two
three fish farms that we've passed so Finike is a big area
for supplying fish along the coast. So the rough plan is we're just going to slow down as we get
to the entrance, call the marineros. Not a lot of room to manoeuvre inside as far as we can see
and uh the marineros will show us where we need to go
rather than go in there, find out we're in the wrong place and have to do some fancy manoeuvres
The sharp eyed amongst you will notice that we're not wearing the same clothes when we're recording
this bit as we were where we arrived here at Finike and that's because when we arrived we'd
had no wind at all on the way down and we turned around the corner on the approach to Finike and
had 17 knots of wind so we couldn't really record a segment because of wind noise. Anyway we are
here and what do you reckon? It's lovely, it's very quaint and d'you know what? Every single person that
we've seen has gone Hello how are you? Yeah! It's really friendly here. Yeah there seems to be quite
a big community of liveaboards and everyone seems to know everybody and I think that's down to what
they get up to at the weekend. And that is it's not a Roman orgy, it is they have like a communal
weekend barbecue for all the residents and everyone gets to know everybody. We were only going
to stay here for two nights but we've decided to stay the weekend because there's quite a lot
to explore here and we want to show you guys and girls what we're going to find yeah and also we
want to try and meet everyone at the barbecue. Yeah. So this is day two - yeah - of Finike and we're now
about to go into town and have a wander around and see what we can see - find yes looking forward
to it. Yeah.
The comments on last week's video were absolutely awesome and thanks to everybody who's
contributed to that. It's certainly given us a lot of food for thought. We're continuing our research
on that route and also alternative routes as we eventually make our way back to Australia
We'd also like to welcome our newest patron, Emma Williams welcome aboard Emma, it's great to have
you with us. Do us a favor give us a big thumbs up or a thumbs down if you didn't like the video
and if you'd like to join the conversation leave a comment in the section below