Sogut Island

Sogut Adasi is a small rocky island in the water off the western side of the Bozburun peninsula, about 6 km south of Bozburun harbour. It takes its name from Sogut, the village on the far side of the peninsula, and it belongs to a line of islands - Kizilada, Zeytin Adasi, Sogut Adasi, Degirmen Adasi, Suluca - that boats thread through on the way south towards Loryma. It has nothing to do with the Sogut in Bilecik province, the inland town associated with the founding of the Ottoman state, which lies some 400 km away.

The anchorage

The island is rock and Mediterranean scrub, low and bare next to the pine slopes on the mainland behind it. The bay on the side facing Zeytin Adasi, which sits just under a kilometre to the north-west, is the reason boats stop here: it is out of the swell, shielded from the prevailing summer wind, and big enough to take several yachts at once. The bottom in this area is sand and mud at depths of roughly 3 to 12 metres, so an anchor sets and holds, and many charter guests anchor here for the afternoon before carrying on to Bozburun or Sogut for the night.

Swimming and what lives down there

The water is clear over a rocky bottom and shallow enough close in to snorkel with nothing more than a mask. The rock and weed around the island hold the usual Aegean fish, and visibility is at its best early in the morning. There is no beach and no shade on the island itself, so people swim from the boat rather than going ashore.

When to come

The swimming season runs from May to October, and July to September is when the boats are thickest. Average highs in the district reach about 35 C (95 F) in July and August, with the sea around 28 C. The anchorage faces west, so it gets the whole of the sunset over the water, and that is one reason crews plan the evening stop on this side of the peninsula.

Sogut village and the peninsula

The village of Sogut lies about 4 km away across the peninsula, on the eastern coast, strung out along a valley that runs down from the hills to the sea; there are fish restaurants on its waterfront and mooring buoys off them. Taslica, the most remote village in the Marmaris district, is a further few kilometres south, and beyond it the land narrows towards Serce Limani and Bozukkale, where the ruins of ancient Loryma stand above the bay. This is the quiet end of the peninsula: small villages, cistern water, and gulet yards at Bozburun.

Marmaris

Marmaris, a few hours to the north-east by sea, is the base most charters use. Its marina complex is the largest on this coast, takes international boats through the winter, and the town has the yards, chandlers and crew that a charter fleet needs.

Ashore, the castle above the harbour houses the town museum and the old quarter below it keeps its narrow lanes; behind the town, the pine forest of the Marmaris National Park has marked walking trails and views down over the gulf. The covered bazaar is where most people go for spices and textiles, and the seafront restaurants work with fish landed locally.