Goodbye Greece, Hello Turkey Friday 6th June 2014

We managed to get ourselves tied alongside the quay for the day on Thursday and went exploring. There was a great little museum in Vathi that had a good many statues and artefacts (pots, jewelery, gryphons, etc) from the temple to Hera on the south side of the island. Such is the quality of some of the finds, that many of them are in more distant (and more prestigious?) museums such as Athens and the Louvre in Paris. But a couple of pictures here give you a flavour. We also explored the old town, high on the hill, steep winding lanes with Turkish style corbelled houses.

Back to the boat and the wind was changing direction and staying on the quay was no longer a good idea. We went back out at anchor and had a disturbed, bumpy, noisy night as the wind howled and the swell found its way around the breakwater. And we had our anchor chain snagged on something on the seabed - we tried to clear it in the middle of the night, but no good, it would have to wait until morning.

By morning it had miraculously unsnagged itself - we decided to leave. It meant punching into a F6/7 and big swell, but only for about 2 miles, then we could turn downwind and get the genoa out for an easier ride back round to the south of the island. And a pretty little cove, sunny evening and quiet night. Our last in Greece.

In the morning, we said our final goodbyes to Free Spirit who are heading back west through the Cyclades. We wanted to get to Kusadasi in Turkey by lunchtime, to give us the afternoon to sort out our entry and transit log and to suss out how we get to Ephesus on Saturday morning.

Arrival in Turkey and instantly aware you are in a different country. We have to be in a marina, but it is clean, swish and very well managed. Kusadasi is a big town and we are overwhelmed by the bustle. And the entry into Turkey goes something like this (and this is already having our personal e-visas)!

First, we bought a Transit Log for the boat and us from the marina - cost €50. You can employ an agent to do the rest (€65) or do it yourself - we elected to have a go ourselves. Then the routine is (all about 1km walk away).
1. Go to Harbourmaster. He checks your Boat papers, Passport, Sailing Qualification, insurance, Customs Declaration, gets you to give him an idea of your itinerary, all of which is logged online. He signs and stamps 6 pages, you sign. He keeps one page.
2. Go to the Port Health Inspectorate. They sign and stamp 5 pages and keep one for their records.
3. Go to the Passport Police (because no ferries were due, no one was around and we had to knock on the door). They checked passports and stamped them, then 4 pages of the transit log and kept one for their records.
4. Go to Customs. Hand over our signed Customs Declaration - they take copy, inspect boat documents and passport and stamp 3 pages.
5. Go back to Harbourmaster who checks that all procedures have been completed, puts his finishing stamp on all the remaining pages, retains one for himself.
6. Go back to Customs, who check that Harbourmaster has signed us off, then rips out and retains his copy.
We are left with top original copy. To exit Turkey, we fill in part Y2 of the Transit Log and sort of reverse the procedure. Phew.

Then we found and bought a Turkcell Sim card to keep up online. And sussed out the buses (dolmus) to Ephesus for tomorrow. So that's the plan. Welcome to Turkey! And they are all so far helpful, charming and kind.