13 - With Gökova the Wonderful Blue Voyage Begins !

Next morning we left for Gökova. Gökova is one of the best well-known cruising grounds. Turks love sailing here, every summer making the Blue Voyage and enjoying the sea, landscape and the Aegean food, especially Rakı and mezes with fish. It is the time people are bathed in sunshine and seawater during the day and enjoy long dinners filled with laughter in the evening.

For Turkish sailors, the name Gökova immediately recalls one name, the legendary Turkish sailor Sadun Boro. He was the first Turkish circumnavigating yachtsmen and as much as his sailing prowess he is being loved and respected for his warm, wise character and efforts on environmental preservation. He has written the best pilot book on the Turkish coasts “Vira Demir” and upon my best knowledge it is only available in Turkish.

Boro traveled around the world and then moved his home/boat to Gökova. He says Okluk Bay is the most beautiful place in the world he came across and some friends of him crafted a beautiful mermaid sculpture and put it into the sea. Kısmet, Boro's 32 feet sailboat is now donated to Rahmi Koç Museum in Istanbul because Boro decided at the age of 85 he was too old for a monohull (a boat having one hull as opposed to catamarans and trimarans having two or three hulls) so switched to a catamaran !

This legendary sailor lists approximately 44 anchoring areas in Gökova. We visited over 40 of these over years. Below you will see Okluk Bay where Sadun Boro kept Kısmet for many years.

His reason was, after sailing around the world he decided that this spot was the best place in the world for reasons of geography, climate, culture and so on. As I mention elsewhere, southern Turkey enjoys a wonderful climate and one can still experience four seasons, though it almost never snows in Gökova.
Excellent shelter is easily available in numerous anchorages such as in Bencik or Büyük Çatı, pictured below.

Cruising is easy, anchorages, some of them providing food and water are plenty and there are no uncharted dangers. All you need is a positive attitude, a few good books to read and a good bottle of rakı or wine :-)