Occasions and voyages

02 / 07 · Signature voyage

The Wild Blue Adventure

Diving, freediving, kayaking and canyons. For guests who treat a yacht as a platform rather than a hotel.

Why Kas

Kas is the strongest dive coast in Türkiye and it is not a marketing claim. Around 20 charted sites within a short run of the harbour, year-round visibility that runs 20 to 40 metres, and a seabed that holds more archaeology per mile than anywhere else in the Mediterranean that you are allowed to dive on.

The headline sites: the Canyon, which is the reason most divers come. Ucanbalik, or Flying Fish, which is for experienced divers only. A Second World War Italian bomber. A DC-3 sitting upright on sand at about 19 metres, which is an easy and strange dive. And 3 documented Byzantine wrecks from the 7th to 11th centuries off the same coast.

One rule worth knowing in advance: access to the archaeological sites is permit-controlled, and only dive centres holding an official permit may lead dives on them. That is arranged before the charter, not on the morning.

Diving the rest of the coast

Fethiye's Aquarium Bay is a protected site and the best night dive on the coast. Aladdin's Cavern on the same stretch is a wall that starts at 9 metres and drops past 40.

Bodrum has more than 20 sites across the Big and Small Reefs, with caves and 3 deliberately sunk wrecks, mostly in 7 to 33 metres. Easy diving, good for a mixed-ability group.

Marmaris runs over 50 charted spots, with Kadirga the reference site. Suitable at every level, which makes it the right base if half the group is certified and half is not.

Above the water

Sea kayaking over Kekova. The Lycian city subsided into the sea after the earthquakes of the 2nd century AD, and the quays, stairs and house walls run along the island's northern shore in clear shallow water. Swimming, diving and anchoring over the sunken city are prohibited. You transit and look. From a kayak at 08:00 you see all of it.

Saklikent. An 18-kilometre slot canyon inland from Fethiye that you wade into. A half-day shore trip and the best one on this coast for a group with teenagers.

Babadag. 1,960 metres, the most famous tandem paragliding mountain in the world, with a cable car to 1,700 m and chairlifts above it. Suspends in high wind, so it is a weather-dependent day, not a booked one.

Butterfly Valley. Day stop only, no overnight. Steep-to, deep and completely exposed. Tender landing on the beach, a walk up the gorge to a 50-metre waterfall.

The yacht, and what it must have

This is the voyage where specification matters most.

A compressor on board, or a dive centre partnership with daily tank delivery. A tender with enough power to tow and to run divers to a site the yacht cannot anchor over. A proper swim platform rather than a ladder. Davits that let you launch and recover kayaks without 3 people.

Certification: bring the card. PADI Open Water covers most of the easy sites. Advanced is needed for the deeper wrecks. Non-divers are well served. The snorkelling over the Kekova shallows is better than most people's diving.

The route

Fethiye to Kas and Kekova, 10 nights, about 110 miles one-way. Or the dedicated dive charter out of Kas, 7 nights and only about 50 miles, because the sites are all close and you spend the saved hours underwater.

The Lycian coast past Oludeniz is steep-to and tectonically drowned. The bottom falls away past 40 metres just off the rocks, and the technique everywhere is to anchor deep and run 2 long lines ashore. Guests find it alarming for 2 days and then prefer it.

Routes for this week

Route guide: Kas →Route guide: Fethiye →Route guide: Marmaris →

Frequently asked questions

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