We had breakfast in Akbük. After a brief swim, we set off for Çökertme, the bay made famous by the folk song we all know. We were travelling west from the inner Gulf of Gökova towards Bodrum, with the Datça Peninsula ahead of us looking like one enormous island.
Deroş was leaving the next day. A gentle sadness settled over us; this was her day.
We stopped for a swim in Çökertme, enjoyed another delicious lunch prepared by Berfin and set off again. Çökertme is a broad, sheltered bay with restaurants along the shore, barren hills and a sandy bottom. The water did not seem especially clean to us, so we continued west along the coast towards Bodrum.
We entered Alakışla, also known as Kissebükü Bay, where pine trees meet the sea. It is a first-degree protected archaeological site, positioned along the coastal routes between two important cities of ancient Caria: Keramos and Halicarnassus. A small monument to the sailor Sadun Boro stands in the middle of the bay.
It was nearly six in the evening when we arrived. We swam before sunset, then visited the ruins at the back of the bay. The five of us crowded into the tender and went ashore to see the remains of ancient Anastasiapolis. The settlement is thought to have been founded in the early fifth century AD and abandoned during Arab raids in the seventh century. The ruins remain neglected, made worse by litter and the remains of barbecues left behind by visitors. Even so, both the sea and the scenery were magnificent.
Dinner was another feast. This time Berfin’s pan-seared fillet steak was accompanied by Derin’s Asian-style rice with spring onions and egg. When Gökhan opened a fine bottle of wine, life could hardly have been better.
Derin was the evening’s Americano champion. When you play against someone whose work revolves around games, the result is inevitable: we lost badly.
At midnight Derin settled down with us on the flybridge, until our snoring drove her away. Perhaps the nights were beginning to turn cooler.