Göçek

Space for all 14 of the participating yachts had been booked for us at the Marineturk marina in Göçek. This was particularly welcome given the unsettled weather as we knew we could leave the yachts secure whilst we went inland to do a little sightseeing. The forecast predicted strong winds for the Tuesday afternoon and so most yachts on the rally slipped their lines and headed off at 8 am on 22 September to get to the marina early. We, however, were stuck because a charter yacht had snuck in whilst we were eating dinner and had rafted up on our outside. This wasn't a major problem because the marina at Göçek was barely 10 miles away and we eventually set off at 9am.

Despite the gloom and doom of the forecast, we had very little wind and the whole mooring process was very painless. Suzie and Robin worked with the marina staff and we were called in in turn with the marina RiBs passing the lazy lines to us. Once snug in our berth we learned that, because of the forecast, the charter yachts had been called back into the marina. We laid out some extra mooring lines in case the predicted surge threw BV around too much and then went ashore to explore Göçek.

Photo of Göçek waterfront in sunnier weather sourced from the internet – I’d left my camera behind!    

Göçek is a lively touristy town with about 3 marinas, a town quay and lots of shops, restaurants and supermarkets. We checked out the restaurant venue we'd all be going to later and, more importantly, discovered that there was a taxi stand right behind it for Alex and Lucy to get to the airport.

Photo of Göçek town sourced from the internet    

We spent a lazy afternoon in Göçek, sadly Alex and Lucy's last one with us in Turkey for this year, and then returned to the marina. With still no significant wind to speak of we got ready for dinner and headed back out for the short walk to the restaurant, this time lugging Alex and Lucy's bags with us.

The table next door: our cruise group took over most of the restaurant for the quiz night and dinner    

The dinner started with a quiz and Alex and Lucy played their part admirably. We'd ordered food to arrive early for them and so they left us well fed and watered (beered?) at 8pm. The whole restaurant wished them well and they reluctantly made their way to the taxi stand where we said our goodbyes.

After a very pleasant evening we finally left the other restaurant customers in peace and all headed back to our respective yachts and turned in for the night. There was the odd crash and bang of lightening and thunder and we woke at one stage to the sound of heavy rain but overall we felt that the forecast had been overly pessimistic. Not so for some of our fellow cruisers it seemed, as we caught up with the gossip at breakfast time. One of the participating yachts was brand new and they found that water poured into the cabin from around the mast area during the heavy rain. Another yacht, just down the pontoon from us had already left the marina. Apparently their yacht had moved around so much during the night that the crew had got seasick. They had scarpered from the marina early to try to find a more sheltered anchorage. Sadly for them, that meant that they missed out on the sight-seeing trips.

BV, however, had looked after us admirably. We left her secure in the marina as the rain started again and made our way to the coach for our trip out to visit the Dalyan river and Kaunos.

Göçek, Turkey