Kiseli Island

Kiseli is a small uninhabited island in Yesilova Bay, off the western side of the Bozburun Peninsula in Mugla province. This is Aegean water rather than Mediterranean: the bay runs from Atabol Burnu at the peninsula's western end south to Kizil Burnu, about four and a half nautical miles, with the harbour of Sogut at its eastern end, and older charts label the whole of it Sombeki after the Greek island of Symi lying outside it to the southwest.

The Island Itself

There is nothing built on Kiseli. No jetty, no water, no cafe — the only structure is the ruin of a windmill standing on the shore, which is the one piece of evidence that anyone ever worked the place. The ground behind it is rock and low maquis, green in spring and burnt back by August.

Feral goats live on the island and visiting crews regularly report rabbits as well, both tame enough to come close to anyone carrying food. For families with children this tends to be the main event of the stop.

Anchoring

Two indentations in the coast give shelter. The one on the north side is shallow and warms up fast, which makes it the better swimming stop in the middle of the day. The one on the south side is protected from the prevailing breeze and is the calmer choice for a night. Depths in both run 8 to 12 metres over a bottom of sand and rock, and the holding is good; crews normally drop the anchor and take a line ashore, and the coves take about eight boats between them. They never feel crowded because there is no room for them to become so.

Bozburun harbour is a short passage away, close enough that you can provision in the morning and be lying off the island by lunchtime, which is part of why Kiseli is one of the anchorages you'll visit on a private gulet charter from Bozburun.

In the Water

Snorkelling is the reason most people stay longer than an hour. The water is clear over the sand and rock, and the fish are easy to see without going deep — shoals of small fish over the sandy patches, larger ones holding along the rock edges. The shoreline is rocky with occasional pockets of stony beach and coarse gravel, so sea shoes matter more here than they do on a sand beach.

Season

• Boats use the island from May to October, with July, August and September the busiest weeks.
• Peak summer afternoons reach the mid-30s C (mid-90s F) ashore. Sea temperature runs around 27 C (81 F) in August.
• Early and late season are quieter and the water is still swimmable, but the northerly breeze that keeps the summer bearable can turn the north cove uncomfortable.

What Is Nearby

Kiseli works as a lunch stop or a quiet overnight rather than as a destination in itself, and it fits into a route that most boats sail anyway: Selimiye and Sogut are up the bay, Loryma and the Bozukkale anchorage lie around the southern tip of the peninsula, and Symi is close enough that the crossing is a morning's work for anyone cleared to go.