Turkey
We sailed from Kos, Greece to Bodrum, Turkey – literally just across the way – about 2 hours sailing. We checked in at Bodrum whose marina fees left us floored, understandably we only stayed 1 night, then began exploring South.
We fell in love with Turkey from the moment we sailed into the first bay. Whilst Greek Islands are amazing we were there during the hottest part of the year which made life uncomfortable – we rarely went exploring ashore as it was too hot – the islands we visited were made up of grey rock with little vegetation so heat radiated, to arrive in a heavily wooded bay with small alcoves dotted around just large enough for a few boats was heaven – so beautiful and it smelled like pine.
The local “gullets” were hidden in almost every bay – a gullet is a traditional design of a two-masted or three-masted wooden sailing vessel, varying in size from 14 to 35 metres. Gullets are mainly used in the tourist trade – you can go for a day excursion or several nights to several weeks on these beautiful boats.
Departing from one country and arriving at another is always exciting with a little apprehension thrown in – we had read about severe penalties in Turkey for discharge of black water (toilet) and grey water (shower), a boat must go to a “pumpout” station regularly. To ensure yachties comply a “blue card” must be purchased upon arrival (fine for not having a blue card is high). Each pump out is electronically recorded on the blue card which coast guard will expect to view from time to time. The Coast Guard take note of the number of people aboard, the capacity of your holding tanks and decide how often you need to pump out. The idea is excellent but unfortunately the rules and fines were put in place before the infrastructure – finding a pump out station that is situated on a dock which can be accessed is not that easy – some bays do not have any facilities at all and will happily process your blue card, take the fee for pump out and send you on your way with full holding tanks – gotta love Turkey.
The next few weeks were spent exploring the Carian coast, Gokova Gulf, Golf of Hisaronu, Sombeki Korfezi and into Marmaris where Yat Marin, our winter marina is situated.
Much to our delight our good friend, Janet, decided to visit us during her tour of the EU. With all the bad press about Turkey, Janet decided to fly into Rhodes, Greece. Don and I caught a fast ferry across to Rhodes and the three of us spent 1 day exploring the island before returning to the boat. Janet did not quite understand the terminology of “our boat will be at anchor”. We arrived back at the boat currently tied up safe and sound in Yat Marin, told Janet to enjoy her one and only shower, stocked up on fresh food and took the boat out to anchor in the bay. Once Janet realised we really were going to anchor out in the middle of the bay her face was priceless but being a great sport she began to enjoy the dinghy rides to shore to get groceries, the shower which consisted of a swim around the boat with a quick fresh water wash off – the best was the gin & tonic at the end of the day while watching the world pass us by.
We took advantage of Janet’s visit to book a trip to Daylan. Unfortunately (for me) the trip was via boat but being large and a calm day all was good. We stopped inside a tiny island and transferred to a small motor boat then taken along invisible paths through the salt marshes to a beautiful inland town.
Further on are the mud baths – you jump into a mud pool, coat yourself with it, wait a while for it to bake on, walk to the communal outdoor showers to wash off, line up to have a fire hose ensure every last drop of mud has been removed then jump into a thermal pool – supposedly at the completion of this exercise you will look 30 years younger – it definitely works – Janet and I were drop dead gorgeous at the end of it all – Don will confirm this.
Janet was flying out of Istanbul for the next leg of her holiday so we all jumped on a local plane and spent 2 nights in Istanbul before we parted company. It was a quick tour of Old Town, Istanbul. Janet’s friend had visited the area a short time ago and sent us a list of what to see. What a wonderful day –
Blue Mosque – The temple is stunning with its six minarets and enchanting Iznik tiles. There are over 22.000 pieces of blue hand-made tiles decorating the interior walls of the mosque.
Hagia Sophia & Museum – one of the biggest temples in the world for nearly 1000 years.
The dark curves of the dome meeting the bright gold of the mihrab in a space so expansive I had to marvel at the mathematics or engineering or whatever it was that kept the dome from caving in on my head. Originally built as a Greek Orthodox Church by the Romans, the massive temple had been the biggest Christian church of the world for centuries. Saint Sophia is one of the very few places in the world where you can experience the marvellous Byzantine mosaics along with the mysterious Islamic calligraphy.
Basilica Cistern - Underground Cistern: Sunken Palace
The enormous underground cistern was built by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian (527 – 565). With marble columns rising from the water level it was nick named “The Sunken Palace” by the public. The cistern is 140m in length, 70m wide and a gigantic rectangular shape. It contains 336 columns at 9m height each. The ceilings weight is distributed to the columns through arches. The cistern has a capacity of 100,000 tons of water storage. Two Medusa heads are used as plinths and are surrounded in myths as to why they are placed there.
This underground water cistern was the major water reservoir of Constantinople. The water was transported from the Belgrade Forest by the immense Byzantine aqueducts.
Grand Bazaar – A paradise for shoppers with its 66 streets and over 4000 shops. It is the biggest covered market in the world. We didn’t get lost but in hindsight probably stayed in one corner of the huge shopping complex, very close to our exit.
Hippodrome Square - It is very much like an open-air museum with various monuments from different eras. Hippodrome was originally the stadium where Roman chariot races took place and proudly displays a 3500 year old Egyptian Obelisk.
Topkapi Sarayi Palace
Construction of the Topkapı Palace begun in the year 1460 and completed at 1478. Palace was built on a 700,000 square meter area. Topkapı Palace, was the administrative, educational and art centre of the Empire for nearly four hundred years since Mehmed the Conqueror until Sultan Abdulmecid who is the thirty-first Sultan. Although the Palace was abandoned by the Ottoman Dynasty during middle 19th century, Topkapı Palace has preserved its importance.
After the establishment of the Republic of Turkey, Topkapı Palace, was transformed into a museum in 1924 and was also the first museum of the Republic of Turkey. Today Topkapı Palace Museum covers approximately 400,000 square metres.
We had a wonderful time with Janet on board and really appreciated her taking the time to visit us.
As with most countries in this area, we are allowed to visit for 90 days then must leave for a minimum of 90 days. Turkey offers a “Residents Permit” which allows yachties and expats to stay in Turkey. A requirement of the Permit is health insurance which is expensive. We decided to go home instead so tied White Rose 1 securely in a berth in Yat Marina, Marmaris. This marina was the most popular for many years, we were told about its extensive social life over winter and many yachties had returned each year. Sadly the marina put their fees up which excluded normal yachties whom went further down the coast to Finike – seeing the results of their 200% price hike the marina dropped their price again. There used to be over 250 liveaboards in the marina each winter – we found 5 and the marina only filled to 60% capacity. Staying in Yat Marin was like living in a boatyard – noisy with the travel lifts constantly lifting and splashing boats, the enormous boat yard is mainly dirt/dust which blows over the boats tied to the docks. Boats are squashed in very tight so your neighbours are one fender away – that equates to about 30cm between boats so no privacy, it is difficult to even wash your boat down without wetting your neighbour who no doubt has hatches open and washing on the lines. The bonus of the marina is it was very well serviced by the local dolmus (mini bus) and a 8 km trip into town costs $1.50.
Marmaris town is vibrant, touristy and fun – during winter it closes down almost completely. It is a popular holiday destination for the Brits – Thomas Cook flys direct from UK to Dalaman, the airport that services Marmaris – these flights stop early October and all the hotels and tourist shops close at the same time. Another bonus with our marina is “tin plate dinner”. The marina has a large canteen which offers cheap meals to the workers – guests in the marina are also welcome to attend. The marina does boast a restaurant, swimming pool, bar, reading room etc. but we loved tin plate dinners. The menu is printed a week in advance in both English and Turkish even so the meals are open to interpretation – a “roast chicken dinner” is not what we are used to. The meals are dished up on very large tin plates with dents for various foods – soup, salad, main and the usual dessert is yogurt. Tea is available and as much bread as you can eat – the meals were filling and plentiful and no washing up !
