Tomb Bay

Leaving Küçük Kuyruk

We reluctantly left Küçük Kuyruk on Monday 6^th October and headed to the northern part of Fethiye Körfezi to visit Göçek. This would be a brief stop to try to get a loaf of bread and also, more importantly, to get our holding tanks for the toilets pumped out.

As we headed north we passed some very expensive yachts with more anchored in Göçek bay and at the 6 marinas and boat yards there. We tried talking to the Municipal Marina to see if they could help us but got no reply on the radio so Nicky called up Club Marina. They replied instantly and directed us to their refuelling and pump-out barge. We never did get the loaf of bread or bin our rubbish but we did successfully empty the holding tanks so that we would be able to enjoy more time in the bays of Fethiye Körfezi and Skopea Limani.

Leaving Göçek we motored south. The islands are very pretty and about every 50 metres there seemed to be a yacht at anchor tied to the shoreline. It was clear that everyone was out and taking advantage of the Kurban Bayramı holiday.

Entering Tomb Bay

Tomb Bay is only about 4nm south of Göçek and, again, we covered the distance under power as the wind was extremely light to non-existent (there’s a theme developing here!). As we enterered the bay we could make out a number of holes high up in the cliff-face, presumably some of the tombs after which the bay is named.

It’s another beautiful anchorage, but much busier than Küçük Kuyruk partly, perhaps, because it is in the very sheltered Skopea Limani (and protected from the open sea by the islands of Tersane Adası and Domus Adası) and partly, perhaps, because of the restaurant at the head of the bay.

From our spot in the anchorage we could see a number of the ancient Lycian tombs, which house the remains of the inhabitants of Crya, an ancient town which was located on the top of the cliffs.

In the early evening we were joined by a beautiful Van der Hoek yacht, Jazz Jnr.

The dawn light and calm of the following morning highlighted how beautifuly clear the water is in this part of Turkey. It felt as though you could reach out from the cockpit and touch the bottom but fortunately is a little deeper than that so BV stayed afloat.

Moored in 5 metres of water, though the anchor is in 18m – the bottom shelves steeply around here!

Tomb Bay, Turkey