Sailing to Turkey

We have arranged for BV to spend the winter in Marmaris in Turkey and have already booked to fly home mid-October. Taking into account that the meltemi may continue to blow well into October we had decided that we wanted to leave Cyprus before the end of September. This would give us ample time to get north to Turkey, check into the country and then cruise along the southwest coast to Marmaris. When we arrived in Cyprus we had told the marina staff that we were planning to leave on Thursday 25^th September but as that date approached it was clear that if we left then we would be hit by near gale-force winds to the west of the island. The GRiB files showed that the wind would be near gale-force out at sea from Sunday morning too but there was a good gap in the weather for Friday and Saturday, with the wind showing as northwesterly to start with, becoming westerly, at up to 20 knots and less close to land. As well as studying the GRiB files, we had the opportunity to speak to a weather forecaster who supported what we had seen online and who highlighted that the winds would not be as strong to the north of Cyprus.

We therefore planned to leave the marina at first light on Friday 26^th September. This would allow us to take advantage of the usual morning lull around Cyprus and motor as far west as possible before the headwind filled in. So, at 5am the alarm went (never a good time!), we finished the final preparations for sea, collected the clearance paperwork from the marina police, slipped the lines, motored gently backwards from the berth ………… and stopped about 10m away from the quay, with some interesting noises emanating from the propeller! Nicky looked at me as if to say ‘why have you stopped?’ and it dawned on me that when I had dropped the 2 lazy lines (which were unusually connected together) off the stern cleats the connecting rope must have snagged on the Hydrovane rudder, rather than drop down clear into the sea. When we reversed, they were pulled tight up under the hull and within easy reach of the propeller. The strange noise was that of a line being wrapped around the prop shaft. Not a great start! We drifted BV partially back into her berth and semi-secured ourselves to the motor yacht next door. A quick glance over the stern confirmed my fears. The first task, after quickly putting on some swimming trunks, was to remove the lazy line from around the Hydrovane rudder, which was quickly accomplished by removing the rudder and then putting it back on. The problem of the line around the prop shaft could only be cured by diving underneath the hull and unwrapping the rope from the propeller. Happily, the water was relatively warm and there was enough light to see, even when underneath BV, so it only took me 3 dives to clear the line. All in all we lost just 10 minutes and, better still, because everything happened at such a slow speed and low revs, there was no damage to BV or her drive train.

As expected, there was virtually no wind when we actually got out of the marina and we spent 4½ hours motoring to make as much westing as possible before the wind picked up. On the Akrotiri Peninsula there is a large salt lake which apparently is normally teaming with flamingos. We didn’t see any during our stay in Cyprus but as we headed away from St Raphael Marina, we saw a flight of flamingos heading east. Our friend Jos had been joking that my skinny legs looked like flamingo legs; having see these ones fly past us I probably have to agree with her.

At 1030 the wind suddenly appeared and we spent the next 3½ hours beating to get off Paphos from where we were able to go north. Heading up the west coast we had 10-15 knots of wind from the west-northwest and good sailing with a reef in the main and full genoa and staysail. As night fell, so did the wind so we shook out the reef and I took the watch. Over the 3 hours the wind dropped right off (so that I had to motor) and then came back, increasing quite rapidly until, by the time that Nicky came on deck, we had to put a second reef in the main and roll away about half the genoa. At about this point Antalya Radio issued a warning of Force 7 or 8 south or southwest winds in the west of the area from midnight for 24 hours. Given that Finike, where we were planning on going, is on a gently shelving south-facing shore in the west of Antalya’s area, Nicky spent her watch considering our options. When I came back on deck we discussed the situation though the wind, which had gone around to the southwest, had not risen above 21 knots (Force 5) by then. We agreed that should the forecast gale/near-gale occur, Finike would not be a good place to enter because, from our reading of the pilot book and charts, the approach appears to be open to the full force of the wind and waves from that direction. Instead we altered course 20˚ to the north and headed for Kemer, which was the same distance away from us as Finike. Like our planned destination, Kemer is a port of entry to Turkey but it’s about 30nm north of Finike on the east-facing coast of the Antalya Gulf and, importantly, is protected from the south and southwest by the mass of Turkey and a large headland, Koca Burnu. There is even a bay behind that headland in which we could have anchored if there had been no space in the marina.

Once we had an internet connection in Turkey we downloaded the GRiB file for our area and saw the gale that we had avoided by going to Kemer

In the event, the gale did not reach us though we had a spirited sail under double reefed mainsail, half genoa and staysail for the rest of the night. At dawn the wind eased a bit and we were able to shake out some reefs so that we could keep the speed up and so reach Kemer by nightfall. As we closed the coast the wind picked up again and the sea state increased quite markedly too until we were within a couple of miles of the coast, so we reefed down again but we never saw more than 24 knots of wind.

Approaching Koca Burnu headland. Kemer is hidden behind it

As we had anticipated, Koca Burnu provided an excellent lee in which to take down the sails and prepare BV to go into the marina and our arrival in the marina was made very easy by the experienced marineros who secure your lazy lines here for you rather than just passing them to you.

Once safely moored we started on the bureaucracy associated with arriving in Turkey and the issue of our Transit Log (a document that must be carried by all foreign flagged vessels in Turkey). The Transit Log can only be issued at a port of entry when paperwork completed for the harbourmaster, customs, immigration, police and health officials has been seen, approved and signed off by the same and then the Transit Log stamped and signed too. Most of the forms seem to require the same information in different orders but our form completion was not made any easier by our inability to speak or read Turkish or by the fact that the duty lady in the marina office was new to her job and did not speak good English (though her English far exceeded our Turkish!). Despite arriving at 6pm on a Saturday we managed to get most of the paperwork filled out, were able to have our passports stamped by Immigration and, from officials based at the marina entrance, obtain most of the required stamps on the Transit Log. The only potential problem was the stamp from the health official. There is no health official based at Kemer and the nearest health office is in the commercial port at Antalya, 42km north. We were advised that we could employ an agent to get this paperwork sorted out but, having spoken to the only agent in the area who told us that his services would cost us €300, we declined. Instead, we arranged with the marina duty officer that we would go by taxi to Antalya in the morning to obtain the required stamp. It was a slow process but eventually, over 2 hours after arriving at the office, we were able to returned to BV, have a quick meal and then crashed out for the night.

By daylight (and after a good sleep) everything seemed much better. It had blown hard in the night but the headland and the marina had provided excellent shelter from the wind and waves and Nicky said that she hadn’t even heard the wind! Mind, she hadn’t even been woken by the dawn call to prayer from the nearby mosque.

We spent the morning completing our arrival process by taking a taxi to the Coastal Health Control Centre in Antalya in order to give our health paperwork (certifying that no one on board was sick and that we had not found any stowaways during our passage) to the duty officer and received, in exchange, the final stamp on our Transit Log.

Since entering Turkish waters, as well as flying our Turkish courtesy ensign, we had been flying the yellow Q flag, which signals that we needed to clear our entry with the authorities (formally it means ‘our vessel is healthy and we request free pratique’). Now, with a full complement of 4 stamps on our new Turkish Transit Log and the fees paid, we are legal to be here. Nicky lowered the Q flag and we decided that we had a good excuse to crack open a beer!

Kemer, Turkey