Sailing Turkey

Days 9-11 Kas and Kekova

Day 9

Ian and Leah woke before the sun and got us the hell out of Greece. We sailed all day back to the Turkish side of the world, more specifically one of our favorite towns – Kas. The sail was long and (I’m not going to lie) a little boring.  We read, did some laundry, Ian and Jason did some MacGuyver-esque electronic repairs to our faulty GPS display, read some more, and really just tried to stay out of the sun as much as possible.  There weren’t any other boats around, we couldn’t see land, and we couldn’t really sail because there weren’t any winds, so we just put it on autopilot and motored for 10 hours.  You read that right. 10 hours.

The destination was worth it, though. Kas (pronounced kash) is our favorite town in all of Turkey.  It’s a little bohemian resort town with a lively downtown that has beautiful little shops, restaurants, and bars.  

It is a tourist town, but they are a mix of Turks, wealthy yachtees and vacation home owners and backpackers.  It’s San Diego meats Cannes, meats Positano without any pretension whatsoever.  Ian says, “ritzy, but laid back ritz,” there were over 100 fully crewed superyachts that he was drooling over, and beautiful homes built on the edge of the cliffs with infinite pools overlooking the Mediteranean that I was drooling over.  

We walked around town, did some shopping (Leah and Ian bought a carpet) and we had our best dinner yet at a little restaurant where there was live music played on an oud. Just beautiful!

Day 10

Jason and I enjoyed a delicious traditional Turkish breakfast while Leah and Ian went back to pick up their rug from last night, then we left Kas to head to Kekova.  None of us had ever been and we were all excited to check out this spot with sunken ruins and ancient towns.  As soon as we got there we hiked a small hike to ruins that proportedly dated back to 2^nd Century AD. 

Then we found an anchorage right next to some sarcophagi and ate dinner at a little restaurant nearby.

Day 11

In the morning we took to the dingy and the paddleboards to explore the sunken ruins.

It was really amazing, but the noodlers became too much to bear, so we got the hell out of there.

Noodlers (n. pl):  Sunburned Northern European tourists packed tightly on a large, loud boat which takes them to beautiful spots throughout the Turkish coast.  The tourists themselves cannot (or choose not to) swim, so they float in the water on pool noodles until a loud horn is blown and they all swarm back into the boat ready to be unleashed in their next beautiful spot. 

We had planned on two days in Kekova to explore, but we decided instead to have two days in Kas since we loved it there so much and the noodlers were overtaking Kekova, so we went back to our place.  This time we pulled into the marina like grown ups and filled up our water and power and took long luxurious showers in the marina.  In town, we did some more shopping and had another lovely dinner with a fabulous view, then back to the boat to sleep.  

While sitting at dinner, Jason and I decided (read: I decided and just need to convince Jason) that we should build a house here.  Honestly, I think it’s a great idea.  We could build it to our specifications, with an inlaw suite for my mother, and rent it out to offset the cost.  Stay tuned for more on that as I do some research, and then you too can vacation here by renting out our perfect little house on the hill.