Behram Kale

The wind died an hour and a half out of Berham Kale so we lowered the cruising chute and motored for an hour before the wind returned for the final push towards the harbour. As we approached, the remains of the ancient city of Assos stood out clearly on the volcanic peak above the port.

The pilot book says that the harbour is shallow but that it is a delightful spot and well worth making the effort to get into. It’s not wrong! The entrance between the two breakwaters is relatively narrow, made more so by projecting underwater ballasting and a sharp turn to starboard is required at the narrowest and shallowest part. Helpfully, at this point it is just possible to read the sign that says ‘Welcome to Berham Kale. Free mooring. Depths 2.0m to 2.5m’. BV draws 2.0m so we proceeded very slowly and cautiously hoping for depths nearer 2.5m!

From the pilot book we had expected to have to lay a stern anchor and then nose into the quay on the north side of the harbour. Happily, given the number of fishing boat mooring in the harbour, there are now lazy lines tailed to the quay and, even better, a local fisherman ran to a suitable berth, took our bow lines and passed us the lazy line. The harbour is really very shallow approaching the quay and with the moderately strong crosswind we would have struggled to moor without assistance, despite the useful platforms projecting from the quayside. In fact, the harbour is so shallow that we ever-so gently grounded at low tide (it was Springs at the time), despite having pulled BV as far off our ‘getting ashore’ platform as possible.

In the evening we ate ashore at one of the many restaurants lining the harbour. We had an excellent meal and tried a number of traditional vegetable dishes as well as some delicious fish which, like most meat and fish dishes in Turkey, had been cooked over hot coals.

Behram Kale, Turkey