Buddy boating is great for so many reasons and I'll be sharing full details about why in a future blog. But there are times when you've got to get somewhere fast and yours and your buddy boat's schedules are simply not compatible.
I suspected that our starter and windlass batteries were not getting a proper charge from our alternator and I wanted to get to the safety of Kaş marina before I addressed the issue. The idea of making a mistake doing a repair/replacement job that could disable the boat whilst out at an isolated anchorage is not a fun thought.
This is why we made a quick dash from Datça to Kaş leaving Jim and Matt on Acheron to make their way to Kaş at a more leisurely pace.
Hung over hop
The morning after the night before we were feeling a little hung over from celebrating Aannsha's birthday but we still managed to up anchor a little after 08:00 hrs. We then promptly forgot to do any filming at all until we arrived at Çiftlik 5 hours later.
We really didn't want to dine at one of the Çiftlik restaurants so instead of med mooring to a jetty we just dropped anchor in the sandy bay. This was a bad idea that only became apparent at around 03:00 hrs the following morning. Even with hardly any wind there was a swell that came into the bay and made the anchorage very rolly. So our top tip for you if you ever find yourself at Çiftlik, is to either med moor to a restaurant jetty or tuck in close and take a line ashore.
Sleepless night hop
The rolling of the boat at Çiftlik was so bad that by 06:25 hrs we were already motoring out of the bay and heading further south east to Karacaoren. It's a beautiful spot and the mooring field in front of Can Can's restaurant makes staying there overnight so simple.
Last time we'd visited it was very early in the season so there were only one or two day tripper boats. Visiting in July/August meant there were a lot more day tripper boats coming and going and we were quite thankful that Can had put us on a mooring ball deeper into the bay where we didn't have to worry about having a huge pirate themed ship park next to us blaring out loud music.
Being on a mooring ball of course meant that we were obligated to dine at Can's restaurant and as usual he picked us up in his tinny at dinner time and took us over to the small restaurant jetty. It's all so convenient and there's always a warm welcome.
From the chalk board menu we chose grouper to share and all main meals come with a mixed meze plate, a shepherd's salad and a hunk of homemade bread. It was all fresh, perfectly cooked and delicious. Even the local wasps, that discovered our plate of fish bones, were very polite and didn't come near our plates and only took bits of fish from the bones plate.
After dinner we had a good night's sleep and at 07:00 hrs the following morning we upped anchor for our estimated 7 hour final hop to Kaş.
Arrival in Kaş
Even though there was no wind there was a large swell rolling from west to east through the part of the Aegean Sea we were in, so our hop to Kaş was a little uncomfortable. However it was very nice seeing familiar parts of the coastline as we got closer to Kaş.
Before we tied up at our pontoon berth we paid a visit to the fuel dock to pump out our black water tank and put 100 litres of fuel into the diesel tank. We also lowered the dinghy from the davits and tied it off to the amidships cleat in readiness for our stern to approach onto the pontoon.
The fairways at Kaş marina are very wide and the marineros are excellent at their job so the whole process of getting settled into our new home spot for the next 12 months was super easy.
The bonus is that we're right next to our friend Jens, Jim on Acheron is two boats away and our Turkish neighbours have all welcomed us too. It's going to be a great spot to iron out the niggling maintenance issues and the perfect place from which to explore more beautiful anchorages up and down the Turkish coast.
But before we do any exploring, we've got a few jobs that need taking care of and I'll tell you all about that in my coming blogs.
To watch the video that accompanies this blog click here.