Tomb Bay

We got ready to leave Fethiye just before 11am on Sunday 20 September. Raising the muddy anchor, we cleaned it off and stowed it and then made our way into the marina. Our plan was to moor on the refuelling pontoon to get some fuel for the outboard and a pump-out of the holding tanks. However, as we approached the pontoon it was full. We didn't realise at the time that the yachts had decided to get a refuel and then stay on the refuelling pontoon whilst they did some shopping so we thought that it would be a short wait for our turn. It didn't help that the refuel area was at the end of a long narrow run and so we couldn't easily get close enough to see what was going on. In the end it was about a 40 minute wait before one of the yachts finally moved off and made space for us. The outboard motor fuel tank was refuelled almost immediately and we were hooked up to the pump-out machine just as lightning and thunder started on the hillside above. The pump-out machine clearly didn't like this sort of unseasonable weather and promptly stopped pumping. After some fiddling in the pump box the marinieros got it going again but sadly not for very much longer. After 4 stop-starts the pump was deemed to be out of action 'until tomorrow'. The refuelling chap was very apologetic, recorded what had been pumped out on our Blue Card and asked us to come back the following day. It's just as well that we hadn't waited until our tanks were full because we had a party to go to and wouldn't be returning to Fethiye. Not their fault but a minor frustration for us not fully emptying out our holding tanks.

Gently sailing across to Tomb Bay surrounded by Lucy’s ‘Jurassic Park’ scenery    

The party venue was 15 miles away on the other side of Fethiye Bay and would take place on the Monday night. That gave us Sunday to show Alex and Lucy Tomb Bay, an anchorage just 3 miles further north on the western side of the bay. As the name suggests, there are Lycian tombs carved into the cliffs there making it an interesting anchorage to visit. The tombs were part of the ancient Lycian town of Crya which controlled this part of the coastline.

We didn’t expect to need to put up the cockpit tent!    

Our plan was to anchor in the bay with a long line running to the shore and then inflate the dinghy to go ashore and take a closer look at the tombs. The weather, however, had other plans in store for us. After a gentle sail across chasing the zephyrs between the islands we approached Tomb Bay. There were angry black clouds on the hills above us and lightning flashing down onto the peaks. The acclimatisation programme for Alex and Lucy to return to Manchester was getting serious! Anchoring and running a line ashore went very smoothly; our first one in pouring rain. It was raining so heavily that we decided to build our cockpit tent.

At sundowners time the cockpit tent became
the cocktail tent for 'Mojito time'!   

It was just as well that we did because the rain continued for the rest of the afternoon and into the evening. Trips ashore to explore the tombs were cancelled and instead we played Scrabble. Alex braved the elements to do some (unsuccessful) fishing but the rest of us stayed dry. Come sundowners time the cockpit tent transformed from being a Scrabble emporium into a cocktail tent; Alex’s mojitos were very good!

Camera-shy turtles    

There was an unexpected highlight, and that was turtles. We saw 5 or 6 of them swim around the bay close to the shore during the afternoon and early evening and we saw them again in the morning when it had stopped raining.

Despite having to get to the party venue for about midday, we decided that we had time for a quick dash up to the tombs. We inflated and launched the dinghy and motored ashore to what looked to be a suitable location from which to climb up to the tombs.

Next to the jetty we tied the dinghy to, on one of the large rocks on the shoreline, there was a painting of a fish on a rock. Apparently, this was painted in 1974 by a prominent artist from Istanbul, Bedri Rahmi Eyüboglu, but the colours are very fresh and so we agreed with the assessment in our 2013 pilot book, that the paintwork is most likely touched up each year to keep it so vibrant.

Views across Tomb Bay from above the ‘fish painting’    

From the fish painting we took a hike up to try to get to the tombs. Whilst we did get a good view of the smaller, less ornate tombs, we decided that getting to the other tombs would be a bit extreme hiking so we returned to the dinghy.

However, all was not lost because we made our way to the small beach in the corner of the bay and from there we found a path leading up. Separating up and searching through the trees we eventually found the tomb we were looking for. Alex made it up onto a small plateau just above the tomb, from where he had a grandstand view of the anchorage and, being so high up, he could see all of the turtles; he counted eight of them.

The tomb itself has long been ransacked so the chamber is empty and some of the pillars on the carved facade had been knocked away in the process. Despite that it was still pretty impressive and well worth the climb.

There were also ancient Lycian inscriptions; a written language which apparently has still to be full interpreted.

Returning to the beach was much easier going, with great views down towards BV, and we finally found the blue and yellow painted spots which marked the trail; down is always easier than up! Back on board BV we stowed the dinghy, lifted the anchor and made our way south the 3 miles to Wall Bay where we would meet up with the Cruise in Company group for the start of the rally.

Tomb Bay, Turkey