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Yakamoz - sparks in the sea

Yakamoz is the word used to describe the glowing plankton in the southern sea. And everyone that encounters this sight for the first time can’t believe the magic. The story takes place where the Aegean Sea becomes the Mediterranean, and everything is an organized mess. Today we have an Anatolian story, that softens us up and makes us laugh at the same time.

Anatolia - that is what the Asian part of the Turkish coast is known as. Actually, the word comes from Greek and in modern language, it means sunrise. Or east. The good thing about our lands is that they are filled with thousands of years of history, and some things never change.

Today we travel southeast, all the way to the capital of oranges - Finike, where the only things you can find are oranges and a monument of the leader.

Getting to those dusty areas via dry land is quite the journey. It takes you through key cities like Keşan - the capital of authentic gypsy music and “designer” outlets. Then comes a ferry ride through the Dardanelles, Troy, Ayvalık, Izmir, and the surrounding area. When it comes to Izmir’s suburb Menemen, we always wonder - did the town steal the name from Turkish mishmash, or the dish took its name from the town. What follows are Effes and Seljuk, and we are now far south. After Muğla, nature takes up its truest form and everything becomes massive - pines, eucalyptus, citruses. The temperature raises together with the humidity levels.

For many years the end point on land was Marmaris, but today we go even further down south towards Gocek - the Turkish sailing base.

During the last couple of years the whole coast of Fethiye where Gocek is located, was full of boats and it offered great conditions for sailing. We found ourselves on the boat „Kardoula” (“Heart” in Greek) in those exact conditions. We took it around the coast and we met dolphins and turtles, as well as the local Homo sapiens.

But let’s get back to the yakamoz - in the summer the plankton reacts to the heat and with each movement in the water in the dark - be it swimming, kicking, peeing, or whatever else you could possibly think of - the water shines. The temperature during the night both inside and outside the water is the same - around 28-29 degrees, and you feel weightless. In combination with the century old Mediterranean bliss, you easily reach full nirvana. There is rarely wind, and when that happens, we are all glad, because the heat and the humidity can be unbearable at times, even for heat lovers like us.

The coast of Fethiye was the first zone in Turkey that was pronounced clean, and many wastewater treatment plants at the marines were implemented. They pump out the wastewater of the boats, once the required card is presented. This created further fun at these stations, where people had to dock, in order to participate in this initiative.

But apart from purely bureaucratic changes, this situation created yacht areas, unreachable by land, where life kept going, to each their own way. We ended up at the yacht sanctuary Sarsala Koyu a couple of times. A small wooden makeshift pub with the owner coming to each boat and asking everyone what they would like to have for dinner. There is place for no more than 15 boats - and there are many takers. If the wind happens to come from the Northeast - docking can be a tough job. In one such case, we almost scraped our English neighbour’s brand new shiny boat, which he was inhabiting with his missis. The guy had read in a book that this was a quiet spot, where you wouldn’t encounter any idiots, but to his surprise - the sea is for everyone, especially when there’s wind. We were greeted with a friendly “Fucking idiots.” while we kept docking, with the next boat coming up next to us. A Turkish society lady, with a rented captain, who had invited guests for dinner. She’s awaiting them via helicopter in two hours. In the meantime, she’s asking us if it is all right with us if she were to turn on her air conditioning, as it is loud. And we are doing our best to help her sailor position their boat and collecting all the things they dropped in the sea.
The sour English neighbour is speechless at this point - we are obviously the lesser evil. In the meantime, a few boats down, a Russian is trying to single handedly dock his boat carrying his family - his wife and two small children. And the man from the restaurant is collecting orders with a menu in hand.
But the night comes and everything changes. The English neighbour is totally wrecked and going through his guidebook, which states that Sarsala Koyu is a quiet place, where one would go to find peace. The rich neighbour is welcoming her guests in enchanting outfits. The deck is full of candles, and we’re observing everything form the local pub, wondering what else awaits us.

And because on a boat everyone is free, somewhere around midnight people start jumping off their boats, and the water is sparkling - yakamoz.

In the morning everyone goes their own way and somehow the whole magic is gone. But in the evening the yakamoz repeats itself. And as a farewell we tell the now smiling English man “You will remember us!”

This poetry we accompany today with beautiful Mediterranean music.

Three classics - the timeless Sezen Aksu and Erkin Koray, and for dessert TNK’s hit “We Are Awaiting Summer Again”.

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