Knidos

Farewell to Datça   

The morning clearance from Immigration did not go quite as quickly as we had hoped. Having dropped off our passports at the yacht agency at 0800, an Immigration officer was expected to visit us on BV shortly afterwards. With that visit over, the passports could be stamped for our leaving Turkey and our closed transit log returned by the agent; we’d then be free to depart Datça. Confined to BV until Immigration visited we took the opportunity to give her a well overdue wash down, expecting the paperwork to be completed before we’d finished. However, apparently Immigration was very busy so, in the end, the agent took us to the Immigration office to speed things along.

Motoring down the Datça peninsula   

Everything was eventually completed correctly; we just ended up leaving Datça a little later than expected. We’d read that you have 24 hours to leave Turkish waters after you have been stamped out which allowed us the option of an anchor stop but not visits ashore. Motoring west along the south side of the Datça peninsula we hatched a plan to use this option to stop overnight at Knidos. It seemed silly to keep flogging along under engine when a good breeze was forcast for the morning.

Knidos   

Situated right on the end of the Datça peninsula, Knidos is always a busy anchorage for yachts on passage. Despite this we found that there was more than enough space for us and, after anchoring, we snorkelled and then sat in the cockpit enjoying our final evening in Turkey. The ruins of ancient Knidos stepped up the hillside provided a suitably atmospheric backdrop for our final night in Turkey – boats have been arriving and leaving these shores from this port for thousands of years.

‘3E & EGE’   

As we enjoyed a glass of wine whilst watching the evening flood of arriving boats, one Turkish yacht, ‘3E & EGE’, caught our eye. The anchorage was starting to get rather busy and so the crew of ‘3E & EGE’ tried to anchor and then run a tape line ashore. Unfortunately, in the process they got the tape wrapped around their propeller. We watched the father and his son dive under the boat to try to clear it but after about 15 minutes it was still jammed solid. The father and son were clearly starting to get tired so I hopped over the side to lend a hand. They were very grateful for the extra help because the tape was not coming clear; it was jammed around the driveshaft in the narrow gap between the propeller and the leg of their saildrive. Locking the gearbox by selecting forward on the throttle proved to be the trick and I was then able to unravel the 2 turns around the driveshaft and pull the tape clear. A much relieved crew invited me on board for a beer to say thank you. Father is an engineer, mother a chemistry teacher and son is in his first year at university studying law. To my shame, despite their friendliness and hospitality, I can’t remember their names. I enjoyed a quick Weissenbier with them whilst we chatted and then swam back to BV; they had had a long day and didn’t need me hanging around.

By evening the achorage had filled up   

We too needed to sort out dinner and made plans for an early start, both to fit in with the spirit of clearing out of Turkey promptly, but also because the forecast showed that the wind was potentially going to be quite brisk. We needed to decide whether to go north or south of Kos. Making headway north before turning west towards the Saronic Gulf on the other side of the Aegean gave us more options with the long-term forcast but it did mean that we’d probably have to fight our way directly into wind through the gap between Kos and Turkey. Up for the challenge of the Kos gap, we set the alarm clock early.

Knidos, Turkey