Manastir Koy
There is a fabulous bay shaded by pines just one nautical mile to the W of Bozburun called Manastir Koyu. In making your approach to Manastir, you should navigate to the right, while maintaining a distance of 50-60 m. from the island in front. It is suitable to anchor anywhere in the bay, whereas small boats can moor alongside the wooden pier and spend the night by tying a line around one of the trees on shore.
In the SE quadrant of Manastir Koyu, one can see ruins in the sea that have been named by the local folks as Cleopatra’s Hamam. However, this is a fallacy as these ruins do not date back to the time of the Egyptian Queen, but rather to that of the Byzantine Empire. The pines lean into the sea as if they are kissing it whereas they stretch from water’s edge to the top of the hills, adding distinct beauty to the bay.
There are restaurants that are open to serve guests who have arrived in this wonderful bay which has fused with nature.
The S quadrant of the bay, where there is an island as well as remnants of a Roman bath, is considered to be an ideal spot to anchor as it remains calm in stormy weather. However, you cannot drop anchor in the W side of the bay in winds coming in from the N as well as lodos. It is a comfortably nice place to spend the night as long as there is no wind blowing.
In the W part of Manastir Koyu is an old, long wall that runs by a restaurant called Wallbay. This wall was built to protect Lydae at the top of the isthmus and its village Arymaxa. From here it extends up to the hill and then back down to the sea again. Thusly, the peninsula was securely cut off from the mainland.
When you get to the top of the hill the beautiful view of Gokgemile Koyu is going to amaze you. The shoals off the coast are like a motif of the panoramic view.
The two wooden piers are for the dismemberment of the vessels’ passengers. There is a restaurant across from a long wall. It gets quite crowded around lunchtime with famished day-trippers on excursions from Fethiye. Once they cast off lines, the restaurant returns to its normal calm self.
Now, let’s untie our mooring lines from the trees along the seashore and set a course for a new bay while we continue our search for hitherto undiscovered hues of green and blue.