Çeşme and Alaçatı
You came out of the water and it was not on your hand
Ilıca, Alaçatı, Altınkum, Pırlanta, Dalyan and the coves in between them.
On this peninsula the shore is cut into coves, each with a name of its own. If the town is as far as you can get, that is a workable starting point and not a problem.
Ring Seekers is a lost ring and jewellery recovery service that connects people who lost a ring, wedding band, watch or phone at Çeşme and Alaçatı with a metal detectorist who can search there. Write it in English.
Tell us what happened and where. We find a detectorist who can reach the coast, brief them with your map and photos, and tell you honestly if the odds are poor.
This is a windsurfing coast, so wind is part of the ground here rather than a detail of the weather. The municipality names the Meltem, the Lodos, the Poyraz and the Gerence among the winds that cross the peninsula through the year.
Whether it went into water changes everything after it
Water and ground are searched by different people with different kit, so that is the question worth answering before the name of the place. After it comes the surface, because shallow sand off Ilıca and cobble in the Alaçatı lanes are nothing like the same proposition, and saying which one you mean turns a description into a plan.
Wind belongs in the account too. If you were rigging, changing or coming out of the water when it went, say so, because a launch point is a much smaller piece of ground than a bay. Mark what you can on a map alongside it, however rough, and say which parts you are guessing at.
Places we cover at Çeşme and Alaçatı
- The sea front at Çeşme town
- Çeşme marina
- Tekke beach, in the centre of Çeşme
- Ilıca and the water off it
- Boyalık cove and Kalem Burnu
- Sakin Deniz, written also as Aya Yorgi
- Şifne
- Büyük Liman and Paşa Limanı
- Dalyan and its harbour
- Kocakarı beach, at the entrance to Dalyan
- Ali Bostan beach
- Sakızlı cove
- Çatalazmak beach
- Altınkum
- Pırlanta beach at Çiftlik
- Delikli Koy
- Cleopatra beach, also known as Güvercinlik
- Ovacık
- Alaçatı and its old town
- Hacımemiş, in Alaçatı
- Kemalpaşa Caddesi in Alaçatı
- The Alaçatı surf bay
- Çark beach
- The Alaçatı yacht marina
- Germiyan and Reisdere
The named places, and what each one is
Each name below means a different kind of ground.
Çeşme town, the marina and Tekke
The town front and the marina sit together, and Tekke beach is in the centre of Çeşme inside a small cove. The municipality calls its water clean, clear, shallow and without waves, and says the end of the cove reaches into the sea like a quay. It takes its name from the Ottoman lodge above it, of which some remains can still be made out.
Ilıca and the water in front of it
Wide white sand with accommodation along it. The municipality writes that hot thermal water wells up from inside the sea here, and that a strip of water out from the shore stays no deeper than a person is tall.
Boyalık, Şifne and the coves north east of Ilıca
Boyalık is a cove the municipality says carries the same character as Ilıca, with Kalem Burnu meeting the land in the middle of it and the Altın Yunus holiday village and marina standing there. Its calm beach, sheltered from the north winds and lined with restaurants, is Sakin Deniz, written also as Aya Yorgi. The band of coast running north east from Ilıca as far as Şifne holds the Büyük Liman and Paşa Limanı coves, and Şifne is known for its hot springs.
Dalyan, Sakızlı and the north of the peninsula
The municipality describes Dalyan and Sakızlı cove, on the northern shore, as holding a fishing quarter, its houses, a harbour and beaches, and Dalyan is known for its fish restaurants. Kocakarı beach lies at the entrance to Dalyan. Ali Bostan is along the same shore, quiet, its sea cold and the wind blowing over it.
Altınkum, Pırlanta and the western end
Altınkum lies on the south west of Çeşme and takes its name from its fine grained golden sand. The municipality puts it on a partly sheltered cove looking out on the open water of the Aegean and says its water is known for being freezing even on scorching days. Pırlanta, which the municipality places at Çiftlik, is named for fine sand that shines like a diamond, the whole shore covered in it, with wind and waves that come in without a break.
Alaçatı, the old town and the surf bay
The old town is stone houses and narrow winding cobbled streets, with boutique hotels restored out of those houses, and cafés, antique stores, boutiques and restaurants through the middle of it. Hacımemiş is the quieter quarter, cobbled lanes with bougainvillea on the walls. The surf centre sits in a cove shaped like a V, the water clear and quite shallow, the wind out of the north, and Çark beach on the south of the peninsula carries the surf schools, with a public beach beside the cove for people who only want to swim.
What we do with what you send
Your words go over as you wrote them
What you write and what you mark on a map is passed on as it stands. Nothing gets smoothed out on the way, because the odd detail you nearly left out is often the one that places the spot.
The shape of what happens next
You send what you have. Questions come back, usually about the ground rather than the item. Then it moves out of your hands, and you hear where it has got to.
A picture of the item helps at the far end
A photograph of the item itself, or an insurance or valuation image if there is one, tells whoever searches what they are looking at when something comes up out of the sand.
Write while it is still fresh
Memory of a beach thins from the edges in, so the bits that go first are the ones that narrow ground. Put it down now, in whatever order, and tidy it later if you want to.
What this coast is actually like
Conditions a searcher will ask about.
The wind is not a side note here
The municipality says the wind at the Alaçatı surf bay comes from the north, and describes the wind and waves at Pırlanta as arriving without a break. If a board, a kite or a sail was in your hands, that belongs in the first message.
A good deal of this water is shallow
The municipality writes that a strip out from the shore at Ilıca stays no deeper than a person is tall, calls the Alaçatı surf bay quite shallow, and describes Tekke as a small cove that is shallow and without waves. How deep you were standing is worth saying, because shallow water over sand is workable ground.
Cold water, even in the heat
Altınkum is written up as having water known for being freezing even on scorching days, and Ali Bostan at Dalyan as having a cold sea with wind over it. A ring can sit differently on a cold hand, so say if the water was cold where you were.
Questions about Çeşme and Alaçatı
A watch came off in the shallow water at Ilıca.
The municipality writes that a strip of water out from the shore here stays no deeper than a person is tall. Shallow is the useful part. Say how far out you had gone and whether your feet were still down, and a searcher has an edge to work from.
It was gone by the time we got back through the Alaçatı streets.
Start from where you ate and where you paid. The middle of the old town is cobbled streets lined with cafés, antique stores, boutiques and restaurants, and Hacımemiş, the quieter quarter of cobbled lanes with bougainvillea on the walls, is easy to wander into without registering that you left.
I was windsurfing at Alaçatı and my Oura ring is not on my hand.
The municipality calls the sea at the surf bay quite shallow, and shallow water over a known patch is workable ground. Tell us which school or club you rigged at and roughly where along the bay you were sailing. If it went in out past the shallow part, that is a long shot, and you would hear that from us first.
It was either Altınkum or Pırlanta and we cannot settle which.
The day tells them apart. Altınkum sits on a partly sheltered cove facing the open water of the Aegean, and its water is written up as freezing even on scorching days. Pırlanta is at Çiftlik, where the wind and the waves come in without a break. A cold swim or a day holding onto a kite usually settles which one you mean.
Our booking said Ilıca and the hotel called it Boyalık.
Both can be right. Boyalık is a cove of its own, with Kalem Burnu meeting the land in the middle of it and the Altın Yunus holiday village and marina at that point, and its calm beach is Sakin Deniz, written also as Aya Yorgi. Any of those names narrows this further than the booking does.
A bracelet went at Dalyan, probably around the fish restaurants.
Dalyan is described as a fishing quarter with its houses, its harbour and its beaches, and it is known for those fish restaurants. Say whether the evening stayed at the table, moved along the harbour or went down onto the sand, because those are separate surfaces to search. Kocakarı at the entrance to the neighbourhood and Ali Bostan along the same shore are useful names if either fits.
Nobody in the family agrees on which cove we spent that day in.
Descriptions do better than names here. Cleopatra, also called Güvercinlik, lies between Alaçatı and Ovacık, out of sight from the main road and ringed by high rock. Delikli Koy takes its name from the hollows in the rocks standing in the sea there. If one of those pictures matches, you have your cove.
We have dropped a pin on a map but we are not confident about it.
Send it and say so. An uncertain pin with a line underneath about what you could see from where you sat is worth far more than waiting until you are sure, and being wrong by a little is easy to correct once the questions start coming back.
Çeşme and Alaçatı
Say whether it went into the water and we can begin
A message on WhatsApp is all this takes to start.
Give the cove or the street if it comes to you, and say whether it went into water or onto ground. If no name comes, say what the place looked like and somebody will put a name to it from that.