Advertisement
Only a Few of the Numerous Rabbits and
our last time "attached" to Turkish land at CustomsAs mentioned in the last blog entry we went to the customs dock in Marmaris to officially check out of Turkey. One thing I forgot to mention was that we wound up seeing lots of rabbits while there! We were quite surprised to see them as we have seen plenty of cats running around all over Turkey, not rabbits! We were told however, that the rabbits run crazy there and that they are glad that they do have cats to try to keep them in check! Once we left the dock and headed toward the bay entrance, we were able to put up at least one of our sails and it felt really good!
Our plan was to check into Greece next on the island of Symi as we had heard it was quite an easy place to do that and there was a nice bay to anchor in. Sounded great to us. A real bonus was that we had friends contact us a few days earlier about trying to get together. They were planning on sailing to Marmaris early the following week, but we informed them that we needed to leave the marina the Friday before. They very nicely
agreed to stay in Symi a few days longer so we could meet up there. Definitely great friends to do that as we look forward to seeing them whenever we are “in the neighborhood”
In checking the weather, we found that the winds were not favorable for heading to Symi that day so we tucked into Ciftlik Bay which is still in Turkey, but as long as we don’t get off the boat, we figured we would be OK (or at least that was our hope). It seems to be a popular bay for charter boats to come to as there are numerous restaurants to draw them in for having dinner. The nice thing is that the charters go to the docks provided by the restaurants so the anchorage is quite empty. There was only one boat anchored when we arrived but with the winds piping up a couple more came in after us. We were very glad to get there early enough to get a good “hook” in order to feel comfortable there for the night. There is quite a cut in the mountains which forces the wind through there like a wind tunnel which makes for a
less than calm night as the winds increased, but we had a very good location and our anchor held well. We didn’t have any cell coverage in this bay so couldn’t check our weather apps. We had contemplated moving the next day, but we watched a couple of boats take off and some turned around while others changed direction due to the winds. We figured another night at anchor would work out fine and got a little rest as well after such a hectic week before leaving Marmaris. One bonus was the second day we were sitting out in the cockpit and got a chance to see a turtle swimming around. Later on in the day we saw the same or another one actually come closer to the boat. Our wildlife sightings for the day – always a bonus!
The winds died down the next day as predicted and we started off for Greece. We motor-sailed along the Turkish coast marveling at the roughness of the coastline and realized why there were no places for anchoring along this stretch of land. It is always a marvel to see how plants are still able to take hold in many areas.
Views of Ciftlik Bay
numerous restaurants and a valley with wind! When Bob planned the route, he estimated it would take about 4 ½ hours and it turned out to be quite accurate. It is fortunate to have a chart plotter helping guide you to your destination as the island of Symi at first sight did not look to be an inviting one by the looks of its barren, stark, cliffs. In fact, it would be hard to pick out where the entrance to the bay we were headed to if you didn’t know it from your charts. We knew that Pedi Bay cut back in quite far so it wasn’t until you went into the mouth of the bay before you first started to see signs of a community. The backdrop is again stark mountains, but the houses are quite colorful making for an inviting place to stop. There were a few boats anchored here, but fortunately we were able to drop anchor quite close to our friends, Bridget and Peter on their boat, Plan B. They had already invited us for dinner that evening so we were looking forward to catching up with them again. We first met them in 2011 in Trinidad and then didn’t see them again
until they visited us while we were in London in 2014. There was another large gap of time until seeing them again in Marmaris in June 2022 and now again this year. It really is wonderful to cross paths with friends we have met over the years as the time in between falls away quickly when we get together again. Bridget prepared a wonderful meal for us and we never had a problem coming up with things to talk about all evening. It was wonderful that they modified their plans to stay long enough in Pedi for us to get together as they moved on the next morning to go to Turkey.
The next morning, we went to shore to catch a bus to the town of Symi where we needed to go to get the official paperwork done to legally check into the country of Greece. Fortunately, there is a bus that goes between Pedi and Symi quite frequently for 2 euro a piece. Bridget was kind enough to give us 4 euro to cover our bus fare into town as we only had US dollars on the boat now. We’ll owe here the next time we meet!
When we got to shore, we met a cruiser that had been sailing this area for quite some time. He took us across the road to see a cat that was usually around. He said the cat seems to always know the bus schedule and we found out why. The bus driver stops at that corner, gets out of the bus and every morning on the 8:30 AM run, he opens a can of cat food to feed the cat. We heard that on a later run he stops again, but that time the cat gets dry food! Love how people here and in Turkey take care of their cats.
It was a pleasant bus ride into the town of Symi with some beautiful views of the harbors, but with a few parts on very narrow and windy roads. We are used to those from other places we have been, but this time when the bus came into Symi it had to drive along the edge of the waterfront on a concrete very narrow roadway with absolutely no guard rails. That seems like it would be bad enough but, in some sections, other cars and scooters decided they
needed to go through that section at the same time as the bus. It was best not to look. I did overhear another tourist on the bus marveling at it as well but did say that at least he didn’t see a large pile of buses in the water so that was a good sign!
The buildings here are quite colorful as well – not the typical white with blue trim houses that many think of when they think of Greece. We found that the port police were very pleasant and even apologized for us having to wait some as they were having problems with their computer, but it didn’t last long and we got our passports stamped and then onto finish the paperwork. All in all, it was an easy enough process and quite a change from some countries we have had to check in to (we won’t name places!)
After getting official paperwork done, we stopped for breakfast and one of the first things we noticed was the difference in prices on the menu. We knew we were spoiled in Turkey with the prices, but the ones we were seeing here in Symi were more like
back in the US especially after you then convert euros to dollars. Oh well, the price of travel (and this is an area that is popular with tourists). We always like to get an early start into towns like this as the tourist’s crowds don’t seem to fill in until closer to noon so we had a chance to wander some of the streets before that happened. As the crowds increased, we figured we had spent enough time in Symi and caught a bus back to Pedi and returned to Tsamaya. Our first task was to lower the quarantine flag and now we could legally put up the courtesy flag for Greece.
Checking into Greece was quite easy but this now marks the beginning of our 90 days that we are allowed legally to stay within the Schengen member countries (which is most of Europe with a few exceptions). We now know how long we have to get to our final destination for this sailing season, Cartagena, Spain. Keep your fingers crossed for us that the weather (and most importantly the winds) cooperate so we can cruise comfortably from Greece to Spain this year and get a
A Closer Look with Lots More Ahead
not an inviting coastline of Turkey chance to visit many interesting places.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.059s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 15; qc: 31; dbt: 0.0304s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
