Kalkan to Symi - Out of Turkey into Greece

Gaviota
Thu 13 May 2010 18:43
36:36.940N 27:50.229E
Thursday, 13th May, 2010
Good sail with Spinnaker up most of the way back to Fethiye and moored in bay outside Friday night 7th May.  Sailed into Fethiye and anchored off ECE Marina again and did food stocking up.  After an exciting Saturday night listening to Turkish Rock in a rather dubious bar called Car Cemetry?? Sailed back to Batikkaya Buku Bay and swam and spent night there, a strong wind picked up midday of the following day so we headed up to the outside of the 12 islands to anchor in a beautiful bay called Kizilkuyruk - after 3 anchoring attempts and dropping 2 anchors the swell was so bad we re-anchored in the other half of the bay and dropped 3 anchors!  Taking no chances as wind and swell had picked up big style.  Next day sea like a millpond (not great sailing weather!) but set off motoring to Fethiye, luckily wind picked up again early afternoon and managed to sail most of the way to Gerbekse Cove a beautiful little bay with crystal clear sea and some amazing rock formations with Byzantine ruins near the beach.  We were joined there by a couple on a lovely yacht which resembled an old Brixham trawler, they were heading up to Croatia with their family - 2 cats (one part Turkishswimming cat!) and husky dog.  After a lot of swims we left en route for Symi and rather sadly leaving Turkey for the time being to return to the Greek Islands and explore the Dodekenese.  Wind picked up early afternoon again and we sailed steadily arriving in Symi early Wednesday evening.  Symi is stunning and arriving by sea is the perfect way of seeing it for the first time.  The neo-classical style pastel coloured houses tumble down the hillside into the unbelievably deep clear sea.  We anchored right in the centre of the Town and spent all today exploring climbing the hill to the old Town which was destroyed by earthquakes and trying to count it's amazing number of chuches which cling to the side of the hills.  Tonight it is less cultural and more explore the nightlife (maybe some Greek Rock!!!).