Early in the Turkish sailing season of 2021 our mate Kev told us about a restaurant pontoon he'd visited and suggested that we might enjoy it too if we ever found ourselves in the area.
On our way back to Kaş in late 2021 we found ourselves in that area and decided to check it out. But before I tell you about that I want to tell you about our 1 night stay at the anchorage of Ağaçlı Köyü near Bodrum.
By day there was a lot of watercraft activity but most of it kept its distance in the big bay and being at anchor was quite pleasant. Along the shoreline we could see many restaurants and bars filled with people enjoying their summer holiday time and we were looking forward to seeing the twinkling lights of the town once darkness fell.
The lights didn't disappoint but they were accompanied by at least five of the bars beginning to play music. Each bar was playing something totally different than the others and as the night wore on the volume levels increased accordingly. The result was an entangled cacophony of beats, styles and rhythms that blasted across the open water of the bay. This noise carried on until around 2am making sleep impossible.
Once the noise stopped I finally fell into proper sleep only to be awoken at 3am by a buzzing mosquito. After nuking that with the spray can I keep at the bedside I once again slipped into sleep. At 4am there was an altercation on shore that set all of the towns dogs barking like crazy. After a while things settled down and I went back to sleep. After a couple more mosquito visits I eventually heard Aannsha moving around in the princess suite and decided that I'd had enough and it was time for us to bring up the anchor and leave. We'll probably go back and visit Ağaçlı Köyü during a quieter part of the year.
To Söğüt
Our estimated 10 hour trip from Ağaçlı Köyü to Söğüt on Turkey's Bozburun peninsula was shortened to just 9 hours thanks to some favourable wind gusts of 30 knots that saw A B Sea reach 9 knots of speed at one point.
In this region a lot of the Greek islands are fairly close to mainland Turkey and on our chart plotter we see the red line which delineates Greek and Turkish territorial waters. The usual tension between the two countries was running hot so we made sure that we stayed within the boundaries of Turkish waters as we headed south and east past the Greek island of Kos. Even though we were doing the right thing we were still approached by two Greek coast guard vessels. They didn't stop us or show any signs that they wanted to come on board but they were definitely checking us out.
Following the invisible red line of the borders adds quite a bit of extra time to our trips and later on as we approached the northern area of the Greek island of Simi we observed several vessels cut a straight line through Greek waters so we decided to do the same. Nobody seemed to mind, maybe it's just a locally done thing that everyone just shrugs their shoulders at. Either way it shaved a bit of time off our trip.
By the time we entered the big bay at our final destination of Söğüt the wind was a steady 22 knots and gusting 26 to 30 knots right on our beam. Not something desirable when making a stern to approach to a restaurant jetty. Anchoring wasn't an option because of the depth of the water.
It was a bit of a struggle getting the lazy line and stern lines secured but with the help of three guys from the restaurant we eventually got it done without incident and nobody died.
The restaurant of Keçi Bükü offers a lot to sailors. Once you're on their jetty there's free water and electricity, free wifi and hot showers. That ticks a lot of sailors boxes.
We hooked up, filled up, had hot showers and then after a little work and provisioning it was time for dinner at the restaurant. You can dine at the tables set out on the jetty but as the wind was still gusting we optioned to dine in the more sheltered undercover area just on the shore.
All of the staff were super welcoming, friendly and helpful and they made us feel at home. We ordered a few dishes from their expansive choice of meze plates to start and grilled swordfish steaks for our mains, all washed down with a nice bottle of white wine.
Everything was cooked to perfection and presented as a delight to the eye. If you ever find yourself in that part of Turkey it is a restaurant we can highly recommend, we don't think you'll be disappointed.
Next week we head to Marmaris where we have to queue for fuel and I have another close shave while parking. I'll tell you all the details in my next blog. Until then stay safe and healthy.
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