We are having an absolutely brilliant time on our yacht, sailing in Turkey. Last night we overnighted in Kas, moored up on the town harbour, surrounded mostly by gulets and dive boats, most of the other yachts choosing to decamp to the new marina a few miles outside of town. We prefer being in the centre of town!
We had g&ts on the deck at 7 and then walked up to the edge of town for dinner at Smiley’s restaurant. An absolute feast! We started with mixed meze and then mostly moved to fresh fish. Stuart and I had grilled fresh calamari – tender as can be. Bob had a seafood platter, John had grilled octopus and Fi had pepper steak. Mammoth portions. Of course wine, beer and water. Very good value at £15 each.
Had a much better night’s sleep and we were up for breakfast on board at 830. Then a wander (barely 100 yards) to our dive boat – Nautilus Diving. It was a large 2 storey affair with a big platform on the back and good xmas tree ladders. The crew were so nice. We were grouped together with our own dive guide and we were thrilled when he told us that our first dive was to be at the Canyon and going to the wreck there. I had really wanted to dive that but I thought they might not take us without prior acquaintance.
The weather today was simply brilliant – so hot and blue. Fi was sunbathing on the dive boat all day. Water visibility was good but not brilliant. Better than many places though. Water temperature at the top was about 20C, at about 20m it was 17/18. I had a very thin shortie suit on, the others had 5mm full wetsuits with hood!!!! LOLOL
For the canyon, he lead us against the current (dragging hand over hand to rocks) to the opening above it, a very narrow crack in the bottom at about 10m. We had to descend through the crack one at a time, as soon as we did, we were out of the current.
Once we descended we were at the start of the short, narrow canyon with quite high walls on either side. The views up to the blue were lovely. When we got to the end, we swam over the top of a reef and there was the wreck of the Dimitri, smashed onto the reef. It was a steel coaster that went down in 1968 I believe, carrying bales of cotton. A very interesting area of twisted wreckage that made for good foraging.
After a time there we came to a small cave with a chimney, and again, one at a time we ascended up through the chimney to the top of the reef. An excellent dive! Really enjoyable.
Back on the boat we had about an hour’s break and we ate some snacks and had hot tea and just enjoyed the beautiful views all around us.
The second dive was to a Dakota aeroplane, deliberately sunk some time ago. It is open and you can explore the passenger areas and the cockpit. Amazing to see this plane with its propellers and everything intact just sitting on the bottom. We had a lot of fun on her and also saw three turtles during the course of the dive. Bob took a lot of underwater pix with his new camera and light so will deploy them when I can.
Thoroughly enjoyed our 2 dives with Nautilus and would recommend them. Including all kit, the two dives were 50 euros. Good value. We got back to the dock about 230 and did some more sunbathing and a bit of napping. Kas is just beautiful. Tomorrow we move on south to Kekova, about 16 nm to explore the castle and sunken tombs and city.