So up early to make our way to Turkey. The weather forecast was for virtually no wind, so we were
pleasantly surprised to have a top of a force 4 to start out. It did give us some problems leaving
our mooring as the bow thruster wasn’t strong enough to overcome the wind and
we had to reverse to get out of the harbour, avoiding another boat with a
fouled anchor!
We had a nice sail for about three hours. However, sometime after midday the wind started to die away
and we had to motor most of the rest of the way. However, with our luck the wind picked up to the top of a
force 5 just as we were getting to the marina to moor. But it calmed down and by the time they
brought us to a berth it was fine.
The only problem is that this berth is really too narrow for the
boat. We are hard against the two
neighbouring boats. The marina
staff had to really help us to get in.
But as we were safely moored I was relieved and pleased that there was
no more difficult mooring to do until the autumn.
Well that is what I thought, but I was wrong. When we went to the office to organize checking in to Turkey
they told us we have to take the boat to the other side of the harbour to the
Customs office to check in! If we
had forewarned them that we needed to check in to Turkey, they would have
directed us there to start with.
We were just making ready to take the boat out again, when the marina
man said that his agent at the Customs office said we should leave it until
tomorrow because there is a bad swell at the dock there and it is
dangerous. So we will have to go
out again tomorrow morning and then try to get back in this little space. I am also a bit fed up with the fact
that everything is being charged for.
The signing it to Turkey is going to cost us a further 150 euros. Of course we could have tried to do it
ourselves, but it does seem more complicated than Greece and we just want to
get it over with.
The marina is far away from the main town, but has a lot of facilities. There is a toilet and shower block
right at the end of our pontoon and it is air conditioned! There is free WIFI, which seems to work
very well and there even is a swimming pool, where we spent the late
afternoon. My only real gripe is
the problem over “grey water”.
Here in Turkey it is illegal not only to discharge your toilet waste,
but also all washing water from the sinks. The main problem this raises (given that there are good
showers and toilets) is washing up after meals. I had assumed that there would be facilities for that, but
there aren’t. I gather from people
that they just cheat, but I can’t see how we can do that in the marina, where
water coming out of the boat will be noticed by the sound if nothing else. So this evening I have washed up in a
bucket and will have to dump it into our toilet. That means that we will fill the tank quickly and have to
move the boat again to go to the pump out station! The whole thing is crazy particularly as we understand that
the Turks dump only partially treated sewerage into the sea in much greater
quantities than boats could ever make.
It is incredibly hot here.
It was nice by the pool, but now there isn’t a breath of wind and
despite our swims and showers I am bathed in sweat. We are also being plagued by mosquitoes despite covering
ourselves in repellant and spraying the boat with insect killer. I’m not sure I will get any sleep
tonight. It is time to go home.
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