Now that we are ready to head off into that big sea once again, our bags are packed, provisions sought and ourselves mentally and physically prepared, we leave our local harbour in Akbuk Turkey. Our first stop keeps us within the local area and Didim is our destination. Having spent a couple of weeks repairing and replacing, especially engine parts, we needed to be happy that Kejstral would run smoothly whilst travelling relatively close to a port. In addition, we must have our dirty a water tank emptied. Turkey expect all boats have a blue card, this card is issued by the port authority and stamped on each emptying occasion, therefore, the coastguards are able to check whether you are dumping waste out at sea. The rules do state that at a certain distance from shore, tanks can safely be opened out into the sea. For this reason, we decided to have this procedure documented at the beginning of our travelling, ensuring that if stopped at anytime by anyone, we have proof of adhering to the rules. It is a relatively straightforward thing to do, it just takes time and of course a little money. We radio ahead as this is the normal procedure, clarifying that the quay is empty, before mooring against the fuel / pumping station. Our money is taken, whilst our tank is hoovered, with no mess and no smell..... Luckily! Now that we are clean and empty, and our engine sounds perfect, we travel south to Yalikavak, sailing half of the four hour journey. On a broad reach, we travelled happily at 5.5 knots. Yalikavak is one of our favourite locations, it is a busy town with a lovely atmosphere. A fantastic marina sits on its south banks, however, we chose to anchor in one of its three bays. Usually a good night of calm and quiet follows. Spent the evening on board relaxing as temperatures were good to chill in the cockpit. Made chilli, had free WiFi from xuma beach club then early to bed. Good sleep for first night onboard, no dogs just the usual Mosque alarm at 06.00 sunrise. Today our journey takes us south into the busy port of Bodrum, we leave early as the sea can be rather lively around a this south western tip of Turkey. At 06.45 in perfectly calm water we motor 2.5 hours on the engine bring us to Akyalar, where a huge shiny cruiser following us, it soon overtook us leaving his enormous lumpy wake behind! A further 1.5 hours to bring us into Bodrum, motoring the whole way, as the wind sat at a lazy 5 knots on our bow mostly, how annoying. We had to travel from Didim Marina, to Bodrum, as Didim do not have Customs officers or port police until May, the start of the holiday season, pretty inconvenient if you would like to leave in April, as unlike a car which will take us to Bodrum in around an hour, Kejstral is a boat, a floaty, go slow, which must travel around the outside edge of the land. The entrance to customs and the port police is easily identifiable, huge flags and guys in uniform milling around. We drop our anchor ready to moor stern to, there is no-one around at this moment to take our ropes. Always a bit tricky jumping onto shore from a moving boat, but we cope well bringing Kejstral to a gentle stop close to the jetty, stopping the anchor chain at an appropriate moment to ensure we stay just far enough away, before Kevin leaps across with one rope. I race to catch it as he tosses it back on board, having pulled it through the ring on shore. I then throw out our second stern line to be secured. Success, with no injuries and no stress, all skills we have become accustomed to, there are of course the occasions where the procedure goes totally wrong, high winds being one of those. We had planned to arrive in the harbour before 12 midday, hoping to catch the staff before lunch, but failed! As soon as Kejstral was secure we launched ourselves traight into customs office with our pile of papers. A young woman in uniform jobs worth greeted us with a particularly miserable face, she sent us to harbour masters office, we knew that is where we must begin the paperwork , we just couldn't get through the gate without her sullen authority. The harbour master, a perfectly nice guy, required our details to be entered into 'the system', he was not allowed to do it for us any longer as the regs had changed. This means that we need the assistance of an agent (money) we dutifully sought out a helpful guy who asked the same questions that we had actually answered on the document he was reading! Anyhow, all on 'the system' took him 3 minutes. How much ........Our grimacing faces anticipated the final balance of .....20tl =£4.80, oh ok. Run, before he changes his mind! Quickly back to harbour masters office, as he had mentioned earlier, be quick, it is almost lunchtime. He instantly stamped our papers and said, have a good trip. Wow that was less complicated than previously. Now to the Port Police, they are responsible for stamping our passports out of Turkey. As we reached the office, the security man said they are at lunch. They were in the cafe that we just ran past when we attended the harbour masters office on the first instance. We were informed that lunch ended at 1.30pm the were eating at 11.50am , I want that job! We sat behind the table full of Port Police in the local cafe, just to ensure that when they finally moved from their reclining positions, we wouldn't miss them. At 1.30pm they ambled towards their building on the harbour, overlooking the array of Gulets and yachts. As we approached the office we were told, 10 minutes please, ok so lunch begins at around 11.50 and didn't actually end until 2pm......Nice. Eventually they dragged themselves back to a working state. The first Police woman scanned my handbag, nothing else. (My handbag is barely big enough to hold a full purse). She then asked us to attend customs. I asked, "no stamp for passport?" She replied, "no, customs first then stamp". Unusual but they are in charge, we squeeze through the Police gate to sullen customs officer. Immediately she asked for our papers then said, "where is your passport stamp?" She explained in her more than grumpy tone, "you need to go to Police". We said, "we know, but they sent us here". She then walked away, handed our papers to some random guy next to us without another word. He clearly was a yacht agent, one of the guys we should really employ, to complete these formalities on our behalf (at a very high cost) He explained that we require the Police stamp first. We agreed and said, "we know". So, back to Police woman..... Eventually we had a police stamp on our documents. Back to Mrs happy Customs, she finally decided that all was in order and gave us that final stamp. It is not that we mind the 2 hour wait for the correct procedures to be carried out, it is the lack of importance these professionals put on their very professional jobs that scares us. We scuttled through the steel doors as fast as our flip flops could carry us, kind of anticipating Mrs happy to come bounding out after us for some misdemeanour that we had performed. Quickly we readied our ropes and hurriedly pulled free the anchor, before scarpering to the safety of the water. They couldn't possibly come after us now, could they? (with their speed boat and massive engine!) Once out and free from the stress of the procedure, we began to relax and enjoy the journey. The Greek Island of Kos is two hours or 10 n.m away, barely a stone's throw. The wind was negligible for the initial hour, gradually building for our final hour enough to put out our sails in 15 knots of wind. The sails are out, enjoying this wonderful opportunity to flap wildly as the wind chops and changes direction according to the land mass. We watched a black silhouette develop from the horizon into an oddly shaped tanker, being towed by a robust tug. On closer inspection, it had another boat on top of the tanker too! Behind these two huge hulls stacked like bunk beds, was a second tug doing its best to assist. What engines do the have on tugs, which will allow them to tow and assist these great ships for quite some distance. It had travelled from our port side, possibly Rhodes and past Kos towards Kalymnos on our starboard side. The approach to Kos was breezy therefore calm enough to wind in our sails without too much problem, on some occasions the sails can be pretty tricky to bring in, especially when the wind takes hold. The aim is to turn the boat into the wind, therefore taking pressure off of the canvas, allowing for movement. But, as you can imagine, the wind then has its own agenda, occasionally grasping the opportunity to gust from a slightly different direction, just as you begin to winch the sail. At this point the sail will billow around like a hosepipe let loose! Today our challenge was straight forward, the sails wound away with ease. Kos harbour is a municipal or council run affair, we have no idea of the cost out of season, but know that in season people have paid €21 per night. Reversed, tied stern to, with no issues. Onto Greek soil and straight to the harbour masters office, almost the reverse of our Bodrum escapades (just without the lunch intermission) The harbour master was great really friendly lady who pointed us to the Port Police, well that is what we thought....Her directions were "down the road". So, we walked, down the road. Found the Customs office which was tightly locked. No port Police, we are not too shy to ask and ask we did, four perhaps five different shops. They all directed us to the harbour masters office from which we departed almost an hour ago! We even found the normal town Police Station, who directed us back to the same harbour masters office. Confused, yes we were. We went back to friendly lady, explained that we could not find a Port Police office. She came outside and pointed to the ferry port across the bay, therefore nowhere near "down the road" we apologise for being so dumb, while noticing that her uniform shirt clearly stated Port Police in lovely gold embroidery, What! We have since decided that the only person allowed to stamp out paperwork is the one person carrying the little plastic stamp device, today it was not this lady's turn evidently. The port police person we required, was at the ferry port meeting the arriving ferries. Ahh ok, now what, it is 5 pm hometime for these guys. She very kindly said "I will phone them for you to check whether they are still working" how very helpful. They appeared to have gone home, as there was no answer. Please return tomorrow morning at the ferry port at 09.00 hours. Other than that you can go and enjoy Kos. Great, done for the evening. We came back to Kejstral, had tea then came out for a walk. The temperature was a fabulous 20 degrees, slight breeze tickled our necks and bare arms as we sauntered to the castle and busy ferry port. Following a drink in the nearest bar, we settled for tea on board then an early night.
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Sailing Kejstral AdventuresRetired and following our dream of sailing around the world Archives
April 2019
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