Trip Report #3-2002: Off To Istanbul

Filed From Istanbul

40 58.30N 028 53.00E

June 6, 2002

Turkey allows visitors to keep their boats in the country for one year, but issues personal visas for only 3 months; therefore, it is necessary for long-term cruisers to leave the country and return every three months to renew their visas. A ferry ride to a nearby Greek island or a trip home will usually take care of this problem. Since Tom's visa had very little time left on it, we decided that a day in Rhodes, which we had missed seeing on the way to Turkey, was just the thing. We bought tickets ($45 each) for a catamaran ferry, leaving at 8:45 am, returning at 5 pm. The trip to Rhodes took one hour and was a very pleasant, comfortable ride; although when we hit the open sea and waves, there was much oohing and aahing from many of the passengers and quite a few looked a little green around the gills. We noticed that the ferry staff became hyper-vigilant, watching the crowd to remove anyone who looked about to be sick. Fortunately, no one was.

Photo: New and Old in the harbor in Rhodes

Photo: Peg prepares to board the catamaran ferry to Rhodes

The city of Rhodes was delightful. We spent the entire day walking through the streets of the old city and touring the Palace of the Grand Masters of the Knights of St. John.

Photo: Street scenes in the old city, Rhodes

Photo: Tom in front of the Palace of the Grand Masters, Rhodes

Photo: Mosaic tiled floors in the Palace of the Grand Masters, Rhodes

We finally said good-bye to friends at the marina in Marmaris on May 16 and set off, motorsailing in light winds to Dirsek, 35 miles away. Dirsek is a long, narrow inlet, attractive and wooded, with a small restaurant on the shore. We arrived at 4:45 pm and it took us 1 1/2 hours (of increasingly artificial politeness through gritted teeth!) to get anchored because of a sharply sloping cliff along the shore. We finally dropped our stern anchor close in to the shore, motored out and dropped the main anchor, set it, and then adjusted the stern line. This is a common experience in the Mediterranean and most people handle it by anchoring and then taking a stern line ashore to tie on a rock or tree. This prevents having the boat swing and the anchor pull out if the wind switches. Soon after we were settled, a beautiful British-flagged gulet came in and were anchored and having cocktails within 10 minutes. They did have a paid crew of three and a dinghy in the water. Even so, we vowed to do better next time and sat down to a dinner of pasta with spinach, pine nuts and fresh romano cheese in the cockpit, enjoying the afterglow of sunset at the end of our first day of cruising this year.

As we were motoring in absolutely calm winds and seas the next day, with 50 miles to our next destination, the autopilot started making strange noises. Tom checked it out and an important part had come loose, working itself off the end of the shaft. Drats! Hand-steering, hour after hour, in no wind, is really painful even to contemplate. He took it apart and fixed it, only to have it come apart again within ten minutes. After much thought and work, he finally came up with a method to keep the thing together and concluded that a design fault in the equipment was the problem - this has happened before. Since his clever remodeling job, we have had no further problem. This is typical of the cruising life, though. We had just spent weeks working on the boat, and thought it was breakdown-proof.

We arrived in Bodrum, a bustling town built on the ancient site of Halicarnassus. In the anchorage just outside the harbor, we met Sharon and Randy on Lohani Kai, whom we first met in 1995 in the harbor at Man-O-War Cay in the Bahamas. They were on their way to the Greek island of Kos, but we had a pleasant, if short, conversation with them, catching up on their recent adventures. Later, we watched as a boat tacked up the bay, looking pretty and well-trimmed, and came into the anchorage. It was friends, Jean and Len on Moonbi, who will also be going to the Black Sea.

In Bodrum, we visited the Castle of St. Peter, which houses the Museum of Underwater Archeology. The museum has an extensive collection of artifacts and statuary from the Bronze Age to the Ottoman Empire, recovered from ship wrecks along the coast.

Photo: Bodrum, Town and Harbor from St. Peter's Castle

Photo: Tom examines amphora at Museum of Underwater Archeology, Bodrum

While we were in Bodrum, the 2002 World Classic Car Rally was driving through the finish line there, and we spent some time admiring the beautifully restored cars.

Photo: Eileen & Bob Gatti - this one's for you!

As we left Bodrum early in the morning and motored out into the Kos channel, we encountered fog, the first fog we have ever seen in the Mediterranean. We had visibility of 50 feet around the boat and no more. We put the radar on and maneuvered to stay clear of several freighters and fishing boats. Later in the morning, as the wind picked up, the fog gradually cleared and we had a nice sail to St. Paul's Bay, where we anchored for the night with 2 other boats. It took us about 15 minutes to anchor - much better!

Photo: Island with lighthouse in Strait of Samos

Our way north along the coast took us into the Strait of Samos, where Greece and Turkey come closest together, less than a mile in some places. As we were motor-sailing along and enjoying the scenery in this area, a large Greek Coast Guard cutter came speeding up to us, asked us a few questions about our itinerary and then informed us that we were in Greek waters and were flying a Turkish courtesy flag. They asked us to strike it and raise the Greek courtesy flag immediately. We did as instructed and they told us to enjoy our holiday and left. We resolved to be more careful about this in future. We obviously have not been taking the issue of courtesy flags seriously enough.

Photo: Fisherman in the Ayvalik Archipelago

We spent several days in the Ayvalik archipelago, a group of islands that help to form a "lake", a body of water almost completely enclosed by islands with access through a well-marked channel from the sea. There are several very good anchorages in the lake, with good holding in uniform depths of 20 feet and excellent protection from the meltemi. The town of Ayvalik is a typically Turkish working town, very charming, and not yet over run by tourism. One can see, however, from the building of condos and vacation villas in nearby Alibey, that it is increasing. Still, most vacationers here are Turkish.

Photo: Ayvalik, scenes along the harborfront

Photo: Statue of Ataturk in the town square, Ayvalik

One can not travel anywhere in Turkey without encountering a statue of Ataturk. His statue is in every town square. His picture graces the walls of homes, shops, official buildings - everywhere. He is revered here, and with good reason. He was a man of enormous vision and, against great odds and much internal resistance, he brought Turkey into the modern world. Arguably, his methods were not always laudable; he often trounced human rights and democratic principles. But, our respect for him grows as we learn more about him. After leading the country in its' struggle for independence, which was won in 1923, he converted Turkey to a secular state, abolished the fez, improved internal communication, converted the alphabet from Arabic to Roman, and made great strides in education, including mandating universal education, education for girls, and the building of schools and universities.

We left Ayvalik and, after an overnight stay in the bay of Poroselene, were on our way to Bozcaada, an island 12 miles south of the Dardenelles. We left the anchorage with an 8 knot wind from the southwest on a sunny, warm day. As we sailed up the Muselim channel and passed the Greek island of Lesvos, we briefly raised the Greek courtesy flag. After we rounded Baba Burnu, again flying the Turkish courtesy flag, the wind blew steadily from astern at 17-20 knots. We were sailing wing-on-wing and averaged 6 knots the rest of the way to Bozcaada. We joined Lovejoy and Moonbi who were tied alongside the wall there.