Chased by the “Rozzers”

There we were, leaving Leros Marina to sail to Kos to check out of Greece. Well, when I say sail, I mean motor. Conditions were calm, and we chugged along quite happily, and by 14:30, we were anchored up in Mandraki harbour, the old town quay for Kos. It is usually packed with large day-tripper boats, pretending to be the ‘Black Pearl’ from the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’, complete with a gruesome statue on the bow. Richard once counted six boats all called the ‘Black Pearl’, which must be incredibly confusing for small children looking for Jack Sparrow.

Of course, they are really booze cruises, and sell disgusting concoctions for the duration. Fortunately, we were too early in the season for these boats to be in the harbour.

We notified our agent that we had arrived, and she came to take our documents. The only thing we had to do was meet her at the passport office to get our passports stamped. After that, we walked zillions of miles in the opposite direction to the Kos Marina fuel dock, to buy a replacement/full gas bottle.

Once you are checked out, you have to leave within 24 hours. This suited us, as we had checked the weather window, and we were away early the next morning to Turkiye. We would check-in at Datca, but we intended to stay anchored overnight at ancient Knidos, just on the south-west corner of the Anatolian peninsula. We had stayed here before, and as long as you don’t go ashore [we think], you can claim to be on “innocent passage” or doing essential repairs.

On the way south, we passed the express catamaran ferry from Rhodes heading to Kos and Leros. We waved cheerfully at Judith and Al who were photographing us from the top deck, as we videoed them. It would have been lovely to spend the Orthodox Easter weekend with them in Greece, but we wanted to take advantage of the benign weather to get well into Turkiye.

The next day, we continued around to Datca in calm conditions. Of course, just as we arrived at the town quay, the wind picked up and there was a 16-knot (F4) cross-wind. There were two narrow gaps, one of which was between two gulets, and the owners were both on the quay waving us in. Missy Bear is quite a high-sided yacht, prone to being blown sideways at low speeds. So of course, it took a couple of attempts to get in, kindly helped by the gulet owners.

South quay, Datca

Eventually we were tied up safely stern-to, and our Turkish agent, Ahmet, was on the quay to meet us, and to collect our documents. We stepped off the back of Missy Bear and straight into a quay-side café, where we enjoyed a coffee while we waited.

Now you can check in and out of Greece without an agent, but foreigners are obliged to use an agent in Turkiye. Eventually, Ahmet returned and he accompanied us to get our passports stamped. We paid his eye-watering fee, which included, he said, a fee to the Passport Office for opening on a Saturday? He gave us our Turkish boat Transit Log in return. [Ed, it turns out that his fee is only 90 euros, and the remainder covered fees for the Transit Log form itself, a fee to customs, and a fee to the government.]

Our next task was to head into the town to find a mobile phone shop, where we could purchase a Turkish mi-fi box, a SIM card, and a data package. Once you have used your mobile for 120 days in Turkey, the officials will block your phone from the network (unless you pay an extortionate tax – perhaps €600-€900!) This is supposedly to stop tax fraud and illegal immigrants, but I suspect it’s more to avoid family and friends coming to visit and handing over their old phones.

We found the Turkcell shop, and duly bought a mi-fi and three-month, 100MB data package. If we use all the data, we can just top it up on-line.

Meanwhile, Richard is still playing Russian Roulette, by continuing to use his iPhone, purchasing weekly roaming packages from EE, which gives him phone calls as well as his UK unlimited data allowance (the Turkish SIM excludes phone calls, and I must use Facetime/WhatsApp etc.)

We wandered out that evening to find a recommended restaurant, just one street back from the water. Dinner was an excellent, with an extensive choice of mezze. We didn’t want mains, but shared some calamari. Back on Missy Bear by 22:30, we found that our lovely café had converted into a banging, techno nightclub. Music thumped-out until well past the witching hour, but we were so tired and didn’t know the music, so we simply slept through it.

We had decided to stay on the Sunday as well as it was Easter Sunday [Ed, the Turks don’t celebrate Easter…] We had asked our lovely restaurant owner if they did lamb, and they now proudly presented us with a delicious dish of spiced lamb cubes. And luckily, Sunday night was not a nightclub night!

Easter supper

After two nights on the south quay, we were happy to depart, and explore the large bay beyond Datca – Hisaronu gulf, or the ancient 'Gulf of Doris'. Our friends Lynn and Tony were arriving in a week or so, so it seemed a good opportunity to spend some time in the gulf, before heading around to Marmaris to collect them.

On the Monday, we dropped the anchor in a pleasant bay, and swung, alone, on the hook overnight. It looked a bit chilly for a swim. On the Tuesday, we ventured up a long, wooded “fjord” and elected to practise our long-line-ashore berthing technique. The next anchorage, at the end of the bay at Orhaniye, was probably our early favourite. We had a super evening bobbing gently under the ancient fort on the little island in the bay.

The next day saw us tacking weswards out of the bay, to get to Dirsek, a lagoon inlet at the outer, southern end, where we had heard there was a good restaurant and pontoon. The restaurant guys helped moor us stern-to the wooden pontoon, and, as we were the only boat, we sneaked on an extra lazy line. There were a few boats out in the bay itself, and a couple of them also came ashore for dinner.

As the food was so delicious, it seemed churlish not to stay an extra night. The water was amazingly clear, and you could watch shoals of pipe fish swimming around.

Missy Bear returns to Bozburun

Then we set off to re-visit Bozburun. It’s a pretty harbour, with a few nice supermarkets, and where we could get shore power, to top up the batteries, and also top up with water. The Cruising Association (CA) has a representative based there. Lynne is Scottish, and is the partner of Osman, who has an excellent restaurant on the quayside. I WhatsApp’d her to let her know we were coming, and asked about laundry. Bless her, she did all our laundry for us, as she gives the money to pay for surgery for local cats.

(Meanwhile, as as usual, I had been keeping an eye on the weather. For a while now, the forecast for Marmaris was looking very wet on the day that Tony and Lynn were due to arrive. And the days either side were looking a bit dodgy as well. I had already booked the night of their arrival at Netsel Marina in close to the old town. Neither of us had fancied being anchored-out in a thundery deluge, gazing longingly at the warm dry marina a few hundred yards away.)

As we were motoring out of Bozburun, I spied a motor boat coming out astern, and alerted Richard. He could see it was the Turkish Coastguard. They looked as if they would overtake us on starboard, but then they changed course to port and headed right for us. “On no, the Rozzers are coming”.

They slung a couple of fenders over their sides, and shouted at Richard to stop the boat, which he was actually trying to do. They asked us to hand over our boat papers, and passports. We knew all our paperwork was in order, but felt somehow guilty of something at the same time.  The coastguard has everything electronically on their boat, so they could see our information anyway, but we gave them Missy Bear’s Transit Log and our passports. I’m sure it’s not important but they were both young and veeeerrry attractive... [Ed, men in uniforms.]

Visit from the coastguard

We waited with baited breath, while they disappeared back into their boat’s saloon. Fortunately, thanks to the immense sum of money we had paid Ahmet in Datca, our papers were in order. They said thank you, wished us a nice day, and sped off. Phew.

This made us resolve to update our crew list on our Transit Log – officially - when Lynn and Tony came onboard. Skipper had been contemplating just updating a separate paper crew-list as you do in Greece. But, in Turkiye, that probably wasn’t going the cut the mustard, and that would involve even more fees. Sigh.

Later on, the same Coastguard boat came in – red and blue lights flashing – and parked up next to us on a restaurant pontoon, where we had chosen to stay overnight. Eek! Fortunately, the restaurant owner come hurrying down the pontoon, and handed over a few bags of food to the officers – obviously their take away lunch.

And the next day, we were at the next bay, when a different Coastguard boat (it had a different number painted on the side) came in flashing its Blues and Twos, and headed for us. Oh no, not again! But they turned away at the last minute and parked upon the next pontoon. They simply went ashore for lunch.

I wonder if there’s a Turkish Coastguard’s Restaurant Guide to the area?