Of Turtles and Tortoises Tuesday, 8th July 2014

It just gets better. Marmaris was good - lively and much bigger than when we were last here. A useful stop, we renewed our Turkcell Sim, stocked up (missed the market though) and got some useful information from a nearby Swiss yacht. The Cunard liner Elizabeth deigned to come and join us for the day here, dwarfing even the Castle on the front.

From there we went to Çiftlik Bay, on the Rafet Baba restaurant jetty. They helped us in (in gusty conditions), fed and watered us and generally provided us with most facilities, including crystal clear swimming water, made nice and cold from a nearby freshwater spring. On to Ekinçik, a large bay from where one can take a tour boat up the Dalyan River to visit the Lycian cliff tombs and the ruins of Caunus. It is not possible by yacht, too shallow to enter over a sand bar. We didn't. It was too hot and not enough people to spread the tour boat cost, so we will visit when we head back this way in September.

The point about mentioning this stop is that it is also close to Turtle Beach, so-called as one of the few special breeding grounds for the Loggerhead turtle. So important that, decades ago, David Bellamy took the cause up to have the beach isolated and off limits at night when the egg-laying and hatching is going on. So we dropped anchor in Ekinçik and R went snorkelling, as he does, to check the set of the anchor. Only to find a large Loggerhead (just under a metre in diameter) next to/under/over our anchor. W was concerned we had conked it on the head, or impaled the poor thing! R said definitely not (hopefully not just to pacify). We made sure it was moving. It turned itself slowly round the anchor. But we were sufficiently concerned that we took up the anchor and dropped it further away from the turtle to give it some peace.

Now we have come around yet another corner. We are in the Bay of Fethiye with two interesting towns, Goçek and Fethiye. It has hundreds of inlets, a few islands, steep sided cliffs with pines down to the water's edge and just magnificent scenery, along with the clearest turquoise water. All the inlets and coves are different, I won't go into them all, but with names like Tomb Bay, Ruin Bay, Wall Bay (aka Cleopatra's cove), Twenty-two fathom cove, Ragged Bay, etc., you get the picture. In one bay (Kizilkuyruk Kӧyü) we had to rescue a Spur-thighed Tortoise that had fallen in the water and was aimlessly paddling about - twice. First rescue was by a young man who put him back up on the cliff. He fell off. We found him next morning floating near our boat. Second rescue was by yours truly - I swam with him all the way to the beach and settled him in some scrub under a tree - their preferred habitat apparently. Sweet daft creature.

Such is the cruising life. We are now in Sarsala Cove, tied at the bow to a buoy with a long line from the stern to a post set into the rocks. The buoys are useful (and free) as it is very deep here; the posts are a conservation measure to prevent rope damage to the trees. Boats come round selling "village bread". The view is stunning. Say no more.