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The
Gulf ok Gökova (Gökova Körfezi) or the Ceramic
Golf (or Sinus Ceramicus or Colpos Ceramicos)
is perhaps the most rewarding cruising area in Turkish waters.
Roughly about 40 sm long and about 18 sm wide at its western
"mouth" it reduces to about 1- 2 miles at its easternmost
end. This bottom of the golf has some not much reported qualities
and in the following I will try to pay a special attention
to those.
Link
to Piri Reis about Gökova
The
gatekeepers of the Golf are the Cape Hüseyin
(N 360 57,9' E 0270 15,8') lighthouse
at the north shores and the most dramatic Cape Cnidus
(N 360 41,2' E 0270 21,8') lighthouse
in the south, towering over the antique city of Cnide and
the "Triremes" port .
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the left you can see the Cape Hüseyin (Hüseyinburnu)
lighthouse as when approaching from the NW and to the
right the shoals with an unlit beacon on them. Beware,
and do not pass between the lighthouse and the beacon
in all but at calm and favourable conditions. |
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The
Cape Cnidus lighthouse on a magnificent rock, as seen from
due West.
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Gökova:
The "Blue Plains" or the "Heavenly Plains".
Both translations are valid. Here follow a few hints -
telltales for your own discovery. |
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The
Gökova Pages
(Please click the images
or the text)
Prevailing
winds
In
the summer season the meltemi prevails, which, following the
contour of the coast blows into Gökova. In particular,
when you are weathering north from Cnidus towards Bodrum,
you will find that when you are on the port tack, it appears
first that you cannot hold the target. Don't tack, mariner
– the further your northing, the more the wind will
veer and slowly you will be holding Bodrum. Then, do not forget
a cheer to the sailors of the past, who did that trick with
much less weatherly ships than ours.
In
the winter months winds can blow from the northerly directions
as in summer or from southern directions due to passing lows.
While in the summer months there are several safe refuges
on the north shores, in winter, under unsettled conditions
almost no refuge is available and you should prefer to stay
over night in the south side of the bay.
Often,
when following the northern shores the wind will find a shortcut
out of the valleys in the north-south direction and will blow
locally from due north. These gusts can be fierce, in particular
off the Seytan Deresi ("Devil's Stream") and, further
east, off Ceramos, todays Ören. When proceeding further
east finally you come to the Mount Kiran, the last outpost
of the Anatolian Highlands. Kiran in Turkish means "the
Devastator".
Follow
here the link about the katabatic winds, the "Yayla Tepmesi". |
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The
"Admiralti Haritasi" or the Chart of "His Majesty's"
Admiralty
One
of the first seacharts I ever posessed was "The Gulfs
of Kos, Doris and Symi", Chart Number 1604, by the Hydrographic
Office of the Admiralty. I was sixteen when I saw this masterpiece
of marine art at the chandlery in Karaköy, Istanbul.
Deeply interested in the "mysteries of navigation"
I could not resist, and although it was a lot
of money for a humble student, it had to be mine. At that
time I did not know, that I had bought the principal chart
of the area, as I believe all later charts base on that survey.That
copy unfortunately I lost, but I am still in the posession
of the next one I purchased from Bade & Hornig in Hamburg
in 1979. It was my reliable companion when I discovered Gökova
for my own in 1979 - on an inflatable; but this is a different
story.
The area was surveyed by HMS Beacon in 1839. The
engravings in this article are from that chart. Depths are
in fathoms, heights are in feet.
Commander
T. Graves was in charge and had archeologists and scientists
with him. HMS Beacon surveyed Xanthos in Lykia and
cargoed the famous reliefs of the "Xanthos Grave"
to London. Today Xanthos has to display plaster placeholders
of the marble originals. Incidentally, Commander Graves was
murdered a few years later in Malta.
The
Chart Legend
| The
Hydrographic Office of the Admiralty
Mediterranean
Asia Minor
The Gulfs of Kos, Doris and Symi,
Chart Number 1604
The
Ancient Sinus Ceramicus and Sinus Doridis
Surveyed
in HMS Beacon by Commander T. Graves, F.R.A.S. and Commander
T. Brock
1839
Engraved 1844
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Piri Reis in "Bahriye (Seamanship)
" about Gökova
Description
of Gökova by Piri Reis, brilliant Turkish Admiral, Cartographer
and Scholar of the 16. Century.
Cevat
Sakir Kabaagaçli or "The Fisherman
of Halicarnassos"
(Crete,
1886 - Izmir, 1973)
No
account of Gökova could be complete without mentioning
the phantastic writer Cevat Sakir - "The Fisherman"
in short. Cevat Sakir, descendant of Ottoman Nobility, the
son of Sakir Pasa, is only but one of the numerous artists
who have emerged from this family. At a young age he started
to question the dull education he was exposed in Istanbul
through American missionaries, later he had the fortune to
study ancient languages and history at Oxford. Together with
his profound knowledge of Eastern languages and culture Cevat
Sakir developed into a major and native source of Anatolian
culture and history. As a result of a still today controversial
and dramatic incidence -he killed his father - he was imprisoned
in Bodrum early in the 20. century. In his own words "the
real inmateship started though when he was released and was
expected to get back to Istanbul." Cevat Sakir decided
for Bodrum, for Gökova, for the simple but humane life
amidst of the blue and the green he much adored and wrote
about.
I
hope to write more about Cevat Sakir at a furter occasion.
Below please find his photography by another brilliant artist,
the forgotten Turkish lady photographer Yildiz Moran Arun.
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