Tuzla Bay, Turkey

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Sun 30 Aug 2009 18:43
36:58.6N 27:18.7E

Sunday 30th August

Lots of action around 7.00am today as lots of the boats decided to make
early starts. Bit of a shock to the system as there were clouds in the sky
which is not something we have seen since the thunderstorms in June.

Since the two boats downwind of us had now left, we opted to go as well as
it made our exit much easier and it would have been a nuisance if another
boat had arrived and alongside.

We got away OK and watched as the Frenchman upwind of us did the same to
avoid any more problems with the Turkish yacht that had certainly swung
round in the northerly, but the Turks were now lying sideways to the wind
and the crew were seemingly quite oblivious to the problems they were
causing.

Very light wind and we only had 10 miles to travel, but since we needed to
run our watermaker for two hours, we just unfurled the staysail and pottered
along, downwind at just a few knots.

We had a choice of two big bays and so we took a look in the first one to
see what it was like. There had been a lot of building work done since the
pilot book was last updated and the entire bay was lined with hotels,
resorts and busy beaches. In fact anchoring there would be the equivalent of
mooring in the swimming pool of a Butlins holiday camp!

We went round the headland to the second option and found that the western
bay was busy with anchored yachts, restaurants, packed beaches and loud
music, but the north eastern bay was virtually empty apart from a few
gullets that we knew would go home later in the day. We picked a spot over
sand and anchored. The entire beach area and behind was given over to what
might once have been a Club Med resort or similar. It certainly was very
exclusive and lined with palm trees, dozens of unusual, tasteful white
marble sculptures scattered around and pretty empty.

By early evening all the other boats had left and we had the bay to
ourselves. The beach resort also seemed to close down at night and so we
were left in complete solitude. Set about trying to catch a small fish to
use as bait for something bigger and eventually succeeded, but the next bit
proved trickier and so far our fresh fish bait has proved unsuccessful.

Ah well, another day another time .....