Turning to Türkiye
Enjoying the night together in Chios town with our arriving and leaving crew, and after sharing a breakfast of Tsoureki to get a taste of the Mastiha that Chios is famous for, we said a sad goodbye to Fenia. Then began the process of completing the necessary paperwork to take the Goden Wind and her crew to Türkiye. While checking in with the port authority and customs office Masha and Katya joined us to complete our crew of eight for the next leg of our journey.
With copies made and all our documents stamped, we set sail due east to Çeşme in the late afternoon with an ideal 4 Beaufort of wind. As we turned downwind, deciding to go around the peninsula on which Çeşme sits to Setur Marina in the east where there was meant to be an agent to help us enter Türkiye, we set the spinnaker for the last hour of our sail. When the fuel quay, where we intended to moor, came into view, we were surprised to see many people swimming just off its wall. We slowly entered to moor alongside in the early evening avoiding the bobbing swimmers.
Unfortunately, our arrival coincided with a day of short staffing at the marina office so they could not assist us with the entrance formalities but directed us to another agent in Çeşme who could do so. However, by this time it was after 5:00 pm and the port police were closed so we moved over to Dalyan Koyu, a nearby bay, to anchor for the night and begin the process again the next day.
After discussing with an agent and moving to Aya Yorgi, the next bay over where we would have slightly better access to the town, we made our way to shore in the dinghy and took a short taxi ride to the agent’s office in Çeşme. There we went together to the border control to get our passports stamped and then visited the old town while we waited for the paperwork including our transit log and crew list to be complete. Returning to the boat around sunset, we set sail for a quieter anchorage on the uninhabited peninsula north of IIdir.
Finally underway in Türkiye, we set sail in the late morning with a gentle breeze. When the wind was blocked by Teke Dagi we had a short swim break before motoring back into the wind zone that had now picked up to a moderate breeze as we tacked between Karaburun and some small islands. The wind was reducing but the waves stayed high enough to impede our course so we made slow progress in the afternoon. Picking up enough for us to sail comfortably to Egriliman Koyu, we dropped anchor in this interesting finger bay which was also full of work boats.
What was at first a very calm and sheltered anchorage, surprised us when a few hours after sunset, gale-force winds began gusting down over the mainland. Thankfully, we had tied our stern to a nearby buoy to avoid being caught in the lines that were floating off of it so this kept us aligned with our stern in the wind. Yet, bright lights from the work boats shining on the other sailboat that had found shelter in this bay indicated some difficulties for them that were not entirely clear to us.
Eventually, the sailboat came nearer to our corner of the bay and tried to drop anchor right beside us, perhaps not recognizing that the buoy at our stern made us not align with the wind. With our warning, they moved again before running aground just behind us. Workboats approached telling us something in Turkish that we could not understand and shortly after a very large workboat, typically used for hauling out nets on fish farms approached to tow the sailboat out of the sand. We watched this scene and the slow process of getting this boat tied to a mooring buoy in the middle of the bay. We then took anchor watches for the rest of the night as we were unsure of the strength of the buoy we had picked up that was now holding us off of the beach.
An hour or so before sunrise the wind was calm enough that we called off the anchor watch, and not long after sunrise we raised the anchor to begin a 40 nm sail around the Karaburun peninsula. Leaving the bay the wind was gusting very strong close to the mainland so we tacked away and found a more steady wind at 6 Beaufort that we used to tack for the first 10 nm. Around the northern point of the peninsula the wind lulled a bit but we still had some rolling waves from the previous day’s strong wind that slowed our pace. As the waves and wind calmed near the northeast corner and the small island of Bueyuekada we took the chance to jump in the refreshing sea before setting the spinnaker to take us downwind to Urla Iskelesi.
We were delighted by the tranquility of the water and the calm steady wind that made for absolutely ideal spinnaker conditions. Rarely have we had such consistent wind speed and direction in the Aegean and we marveled at how easy the last 20 nm of our sail were while enjoying the scenery of the Turkish Coast and seeing dolphins swimming along with the boat. Arriving at the harbor just before sunset we moored alongside at the end of a pier jam packed with fishing boats on either side at the guidance of a friendly local fisherman.
The Urla Iskelesi harbor proved to be a perfect jumping off point for us to reach Izmir and explore land. Unfortunately we had to say a sad goodbye to Sue who had a flight to catch at sunrise before we made our way further ashore. With the guidance of Charlotte’s relative, George and his wife Joumana, who have lived in the area for many years, we were shown an unforgettable day of the up and coming wine culture in the area with stops at several vineyards. We were also delighted to hear their account of local and personal history that they shared with us at their beautiful home among the olive trees. With a great meal to top off a great day, we also had to say goodbye to Masha and Katya who were headed to Izmir for their flight the following day.
