Mersinçik

After the fun of exploring Ancient Knidos we started to hatch a plan about heading north. We intend to return to this area at the end of this sailing season so we know we’ll get a chance to look at many more anchorages. Also, we are very conscious that the strong meltemi winds from the north will make it more difficult for us to get up the coast and they start to get much stronger in the June – August period. Therefore we have decided that we will try to progress north relatively quickly to explore the Ionian and Aeolian coastlines of Turkey before turning west.

Cape Krio Lighthouse

We headed out from our anchorage by Ancient Knidos at 9am expecting a good sail. Unfortunately the wind didn’t really build as forecast so we initially motored past the Cape Krio lighthouse situated very close to Ancient Knidos on the end of the Datça peninsula. Once clear of the cape we were able to sail properly heading north and then bearing away to the east. We were heading for a bay on the north coast of the peninsula at Mersinçik. There is nothing much there but it looked to be a remote and pretty anchorage.

Cove at Mersinçik

Specifically we wanted to anchor in a small cove on the northwest tip of the bay where there would be good shelter. This is popular in the summer with gulets but as we made our way into the cove we saw that we were the only boat there.

Like most Turkish anchorages the seabed shelves quickly so the middle of the cove is over 10 metres deep. Free anchoring have required us to put out over 40 metres of chain and with that scope BV would then potentially swing very close to the rocks on the shore. Therefore, standard practice in Turkey is to anchor and then run a line ashore to stop your boat swinging. When it’s busy in the summer that also means you can fit more boats into the anchorage.

The only issue is getting the lines secured to the shore. Rather than going through the faff of inflating the dinghy, Nicky donned her wetsuit and swam ashore. Even with her wetsuit on she described the 17.5 degrees Celcius water as, “a little bracing!” (Ed: though it has to be said that friends of ours back home in Guernsey would consider me a total wimp as they are happily swimming in the sea there (about 10 degrees C at the moment) without a wetsuit!) But she did go for a long swim around the cove and checked the anchor was dug in well. There wasn’t much to see underwater, just a few small fish.

The cove proved to be very sheltered and warm. With the air temperature at 25 degrees Celcius, swimming costumes were the rig for the afternoon which we spent lazing in the cockpit reading. I just read a novel but Nicky was much more industrious studying the pilot books and guidebooks for this area. By the end of the afternoon she had added a lot more detail to our initial rough plan for exploring the Ionian and Aeolian coastlines of Turkey.

The evening cooled down quickly as the sun dropped below the ridgeline. However sundowners was still deligtful with the more orangy evening sunlight highlighting the peaks to our east.

The next step in Nicky’s new master plan is to head north towards Bodrum. This is a big yachting centre, where we planned to stock up on food, top up the diesel a little and, more importantly, get the holding tanks pumped out.

Mersinçik, Turkey