Heading up the Coast

After some restocking in the morning that we enjoyed due to the different and sometimes unusual products available in Türkiye, we left the harbour with a comfortable 4 Beaufort already blowing from the north.  This allowed us to sail on a close haul in the direction of Foça further up the coast on the Turkish mainland.

On the way we were, once again, approached by dolphins who, for some reason, seemed to be much more curious about us in Turkish waters.  After a several hours underway and some tacking as we approached the islands at the entrance of the natural harbour outside of Foça, we sailed into a well protected bay behind the island, Orak Adasi with its curiously long stone breaker coming off of the south end.  Here we learned that the name, Foça come from the word for seal and that the island where we anchored was a favorite habitat of the small and endangered monk seal population in the Mediterranean.

We went to the shore in the dinghy to watch the sunset before a strong wind picked up that turned the boat close to the island’s stone breaker and we decided to move more into the middle of the bay to sleep comfortably that night.

The following day, after a relaxed breakfast, we made our way to the mainland beach in the dinghy to walk the 3km into the town of Foça.  Having remained in the village until sunset we decided to stay another night in this anchorage and watched the thunderstorms around us on the mainland that thankfully did not approach the boat.

Another day of moderate wind from the northeast allowed us to sail around Orak Adasi making our way further up the coast.  We watched carefully for monk seals with the binoculars but saw none as we rounded the northwestern point.  We continued with a good pace until a brief lull in the mid-afternoon before the wind came back from the northwest and we continued to tack up to a bay between two small islands, Garip Adalari and Kalem Adasi where we joined several other boats at anchor.  With the setting sun, we made our way to shore to have a look at the eastern island before having a relaxing evening on board.

The next day came with another 20nm of sailing northwest to reach Ayvalik.  With fresh wind still coming from the northwest, we first tacked out toward the island of Lesvos before tacking again to make our way north.  When the islands that make a wonderful natural harbour around Ayvalik came into view we enjoyed sailing past the one deforested island, Ciplak Ada, while the others and the mainland were lush and green.  Finally, we arrived at the dredged channel into Ayvalik and the wind was from just the right direction to easily sail down this narrow, buoyed passage. We then continued to Cennet Koyu, a wonderfully protected bay just to the southwest of the city that felt like a lake because of the all-around protection by the land.

Having seen some interesting ruins of a house on the peninsula, we went to shore in the dinghy as the sun was setting and followed the trails to see what we might find.  Although we didn’t make it to the house, we enjoyed walking under the bright waning moon.  The next morning was a relaxed start from the bay before heading to the customs quay where we had contacted an agent to assist us with the exit formalities from Türkiye to return to Greece.  We said goodbye to Janis and Axel at the border control who would continue their journey on land back to Izmir where they would catch their flight.

Once our passports were stamped we had a quick look at the town that we all agreed was worth another visit and then we headed back out down the channel to a bay near Otel where we dropped anchor in the dark and continued to Mytilini, on Lesvos with a couple hours of sailing in the morning.