Gerbekse Cove

Netsel Marina, Marmaris

So, having paid up our marina dues and been issued our ‘exit chit’ to hand to the mariñeros as we left, we let slip our lines and departed Marmaris Yat Marina. Not that we were planning on going too far immediately as we needed to top up with fuel at Netsel Marina, close to the centre of Marmaris town.

Marmaris Castle

We had an excellent view of Marmaris Castle as we approached the marina and successfully filled up with 200litres of diesel as well. After the short stop we continued on our way out of Marmaris Bay and southwest down the peninsula in the general direction of Rhodes. En route, we discovered that the genoa furling line had been re-reeved incorrectly by the sailmaking team that had put the sails back onto BV. It was probably the only part of that job which we had not checked and it caused us some problems rolling up the genoa when the wind got up suddenly at an inconvenient moment. As a result, we have sustained a little damage to the furling clutch; nothing to cause a problem but irritating nonetheless and yet another lesson learned.

çiftlik

Tony and Helen, whom we had met at Marmaris Yat Marine, had suggested that Çiftlik might be a good shake-down sail destination, though they (and the pilot book) warned that it could be a somewhat rolly anchorage, despite the island in the entrance. Having stowed the sails we motored into the bay, noting that there did indeed seem to be a swell being magnified in the southern entrance. Once in behind the island we saw a yacht at anchor and another 2 on a pontoon, all of which were rolling. The surf of the beach just confirmed to us that this was not going to be a comfortable place to spend that particular night so we turned round and back-tracked to a small inlet just to the south of Çiftlik. This despite a restaurant owner desperately waving a huge red flag at us trying to get us to moor next to the other yachts on the pontoon and use his restaurant. You can’t fault his ingenuity in attracting our attention and trying to rustle up business.

Gerbekse Cove

Our choice, however, was the inlet of Gerbekse Cove which has an entrance facing north-northeast and which, in the conditions of the day, was totally unaffected by the swell affecting Çiftlik. We were the only yacht so we free-anchored in the middle in about 8m of crystal clear water and spent the evening enjoying the peace and quiet of our surroundings (donkey braying excepted!).

Better still, the following morning we were able to take the dinghy ashore and spent some time wandering around the ruins which are right on the beach. Our pilot book suggests that they were probably a Byzantine trading post.

We climbed up to the ruined church which seemed similar to others we’d seen from the  Byzantine era. What appeared to be a small crypt was exposed and above it a terrace with fantastic views over the anchorage. You can certainly see why they chose this location to build the church.

The weather is significanty warmer than back home, despite there still being quite a lot of rain for this time of year, and so when the sun is out we are in shorts and T-shirts. With temperatures in the high teens the flora and fauna are also much further ahead than back home. Wild sage was growing from cracks in the walls and meadow flowers were everywhere, as well as the pine and wild olive trees we were used seeing from our experiece last year. We also spotted an unusual large deep burgundy flowering plant with a pungent aroma the insects seemed to like.

On the other side of the beach, we found more ruins, one of which had been somewhat rebuilt and turned into a temporary sleeping area, perhaps for a fisherman or shepherd, but it, like the rest of the bay, was deserted and we felt lucky to have it all to ourselves. The only other people we saw were on a tripper boat which arrived just as we lifted anchor to head further west along the coast.

Gerbekse Cove, Turkey