6 March 2021 – ROADTRIP to Sapadere Kanyon (Canyon)
We took another road trip with Pam and Eric (SV PIED A MER), this time to Sapadere Canyon about 45 km from the Alanya city centre.
We first drove along the coast heading SE, passing banana plantations, greenhouses, and countless resorts, and then turned into the mountains.
Our driver Kareem drove us first to his family home and then through the Sapadere Canyon road to the Canyon itself. This was actually his mother’s home, and she spends the winter living with her sons (one at a time) and then returns in the summer – and then they come to visit.
On the way to Sapadere Canyon, you get the feeling that you are traveling through the heart of the Taurus Mountains.
You pass through small villages, and endless picturesque scenes, as the car moves higher in altitude.
Eventually, the snow and ice are found at the edge of the road in the shade.
At the end of the road, there is an area where you can easily park your car, several artificial ponds, a small restaurant, a picnic area and a gift shop. There was a modest entry fee of about $2 CDN per person. The waterfall and natural pool are at the end of a 750m walking path at the end of the road – through the deep canyon.
The water pipes shown in this photo provided fresh, clean, “pressurized” water for many of the local villages. We read that swimming in this canyon water is popular in the summertime, but it is WAY TOO COLD to do that in March.
Life (this tree, perched on the edge of the canyon wall) always “finds a way”.
We enjoyed lunch at a picnic table outside and then headed back home.
We just returned from another road trip with Pam and Eric from Pied-a-Mer. This time, we went all the way NW to Marmaris, passing through – and checking out the marinas at Finike, Kas, Fethiye, and Marmaris. Our interest was three-fold, exploring further East away from our usual neighbourhood, visiting cruiser friends in Turkey, and scoping out other marinas. Altogether, it was nearly 600km, mostly by the coastline, although we took the mountain road on the way back.
We stopped overnight at Finike, to see our friends Steve and Liz on SV LIBERTE. We first met Steve and Liz when In Trinidad in 2012, and many times in between.
Finike Marina is one of the smaller, cozy marinas in the Setur Group with a large live-aboard / expat community. It is set in the agricultural city of Finike. Both the marina and town are warm and inviting.
The next morning, we drove through the town of Kas, a beautiful village set on a hillside.
This whole coastline is just so picturesque. The marina at Kas is definitely “up market”, and nearly full with very glossy boats. Even from the highway, the views along this coastline are stunning.
The last stop was at Marmaris, where we met up with George Greenberg (of SV RIO) who we met last year as he was passing through the Red Sea. George’s RIO is currently berthed at Marmaris Yacht Marina. I actually inquired about a berth at Netsel Marina, but they are completely full, and very expensive (more than double our cost at Alanya Marina). The great thing about Marmaris is that it has a lot of shops and services for yachts, more than we have seen in a long time. Sadly, we feel that this area is just too glossy, too glitzy and too expensive for us “cruiser trash”.
Here, we are having a cheeseburger “on the street” COVID-19 style (take out food only). Our trip did not violate any of the current COVID-19 restrictions in Turkey. Masks and social distancing are becoming the norm here. Although it is perfectly acceptable to remove your mask when eating!
The next morning, we headed back on the road and took the mountain route for a change in scenery. At one point, Diane checked the “compass app” on her iPhone 6SE and saw an elevation of 1400m and rising. There was snow in the distance, but getting closer by the minute.
It was definitely the coldest we have been in years. We were very close to the snow line at 1030am, and we were still in the shade.
On the way back down through the mountains, heading to Antalya, the surrounding clouds and valleys were beautiful. We noticed many of the same greenhouses that are in the Alanya area but they were NOT growing bananas, and the plastic was OFF the greenhouse roofs, probably because of the danger of winter snow loads.
A few weeks ago, we bought and tried out some kumquats (in the market) – for the first time. A kumquat isn’t much bigger than a grape, yet this bite-sized fruit fills your mouth with a big burst of sweet-tart citrus flavour. In Chinese, kumquat means “golden orange”. In contrast with other citrus fruits, the peel of the kumquat is sweet and edible, while the juicy flesh is tart. Diane used them with papaya to make some chutney, that we eat with our spicy dishes. In this photo, the kumquats have a white circle around them.
I figure that no boat blog is complete without evidence of some maintenance work. So here is a photo of the toilet diaphragm pump in our aft head (toilet). It was stuck for a day, so I had to take it apart and over-haul it.
This maintenance work (done about every two years, only when I HAVE to) involves taking the pump apart, cleaning it with various cleaners and chemicals, replacing the rubber bits and then putting it back together – and hoping it makes a seal. Amongst all the other things you might expect to find in a toilet pump, the parts are usually encrusted in crystals that are formed by the combination of urine and sea water. This stuff has to be thoroughly cleaned out. Its much easier, but more expensive, just to replace the rubber flapper and the two valves.
Even though COVID-19 restrictions are in place here in Turkey (like nearly everywhere in the world), we were still able to take a well deserved break from the Alanya area, primarily to visit Mamure Castle about 130km East along the coastal highway 400 – situated on a sandy beach near the town of Anamur (Mersin province). Mamure is reported to be the best preserved Roman castle on the Mediterranean coast in Turkey. For our trip, we had beautiful blue skies but cool weather, starting at 12C in the morning and 16C in the afternoon.
There is snow in the mountains, a good thing because it is very dry here in the summertime.
Unfortunately, when we reached Mamure Castle, it was CLOSED. Consequently, it will be forever remembered as “Manure” Castle in my mind. In the days before departure, we did our research – did everything except actually phone the place, which is pretty difficult for us to actually do. We were attracted to the place based on a Facebook post on the Alanya Expats site a few months ago. When we arrived, it was obviously in a state of disarray and a worker told it was under construction/renovation – something I thought was finished last year. Bummer. We didn’t even try to bully our way inside, just drove away and took a few external photos.
We drove on, heading back in the direction of home in Alanya – and picked up some take-out food in Anemur (all the restaurants in Turkey are closed due to COVID-19 restrictions) and then took a few minutes recalibrate. We discovered that there was a very good alternative site, only a few minutes away. These are the ancient ruins of Anemurium.
But first – our take-out lunch.
Anemurium dates back to the Hellenistic period and is nearly 2000 years old. The ruins are completely vacant now, and stand within view of the Turkish city of Anemur. This is a tourist sign or placard at the entrance to Anemurium. Based on my experience to date, ruins like this in Turkey are always accompanied by good signage written in Turkish, English and sometimes other languages as well.
There are bits and pieces of the aqueduct still in place, although obviously not serviceable. We were looking into a window to the past.
This is “The Odeon” (dating to the 2nd century AD), a special covered structure which was built for musical performances in ancient times.
In addition to performances by the arts, it is known that these buildings also facilitated council meetings. This particular Anemurium Odeon is one of the best examples still standing in the province of Anatolia. It measures 31m X 21m, is 10m high, has four facades and two stories. It has the capacity to accommodate 925-1130 people, consisting of 15 rows of seats, an orchestra, scene backstage and vaulted gallery. Unfortunately, the top canopy or sun cover has long since fallen to ruin.
Here are Eric and Pam (from SV PIED-A-MER III) and Diane.
I was there too!
Diane took these flower photos, and I thought they were cool too.
We had an uneventful drive back to the marina, and I can offer an update on my solar project. I’ve changed out 4 of the 10 solar panels (the back 4, since they are nearly 20 years old), bumping up our solar production to 1820W. I replaced 4 X 75W panels with 4 X 190W panels in “nearly” the same footprint. The new panels actually hang out the back a little bit, which isn’t a bad thing. This required me to move around a few antennae, but things are all working fine.
I also replaced the Blue Sky MPPT solar energy controllers with Victron MPPT controllers (100/50) in order to handle the current, leave room for future expansion and so that I can follow the systems on my iPhone with the Bluetooth app.
A few days ago, I had a record 56A coming into the battery bank (after satisfying the loads). This will only get higher as we move towards summer! The extra current goes into the water heater, as planned.
29 December 2020 – Finally Launched – Alanya Marina Turkey
Its almost the end of the year. As I’ve done many times before, I’m posting a year end snap shot of our travels. In 2020, we broke free from Cochin India, sailing by and stopping at Djibouti, Eritrea, Sudan and Egypt – and stopping at Alanya Marina Turkey. This was a total of about 3980nm.
We have been “on the hard” for nearly four months, and we have finally finished all the painting work and yesterday – launched JOANA.
The sandblasting contractor tried his best not to damage the white boot stripe, but in the end I decided to give him a contract to sand and spray that single white stripe. Of course, while he was working on this, we gave in and decided to repaint the hull (above the waterline to the deck) as well. The hull was last painted in December 2017 in Pangkor Malaysia with Jotun Hardtop XP polyurethane (colour AWL Grip – Jade Mist Green) – but we had lots of bumps and scratches from local fishing boats over the past 3 years. This time, we wanted a glossier finish so we paid “top dollar” for Jotun Mega-gloss polyurethane, and again went with the same colour. Here, the contractor is mid-way through sanding and washing the “green”.
He continued to sand, spray primer, sand/fill and spray more primer.
Then he sprayed 4 coats of the final glossy paint.We were very impressed with the end result.
After the contractor finished sandblasting and spraying the bottom with epoxy (4 coats), a few weeks ago – Diane and I carried on with 6 rolled coats of the same epoxy, giving the bottom at least 600 mils of Jotun Universal epoxy paint. This was going on in the gaps when the contractor was painting the grey/green hull. Next for us was 4 rolled coats of Coppercoat, together with our friends Pam and Eric (Pied-a-Mer III) on the same day. This is the same antifouling paint we have been using since September 2008.
Diane and I put some new vinyl letters on, and presto, JOANA was looking like new again.
We even adjusted the painted booted stripe, lowering it a bit (maybe 6”) at the bow, and raising it a bit at the stern (maybe 4”) in ordering to make the boat look a little more “balanced” in the water. We borrowed a laser level from another boater, and laid the red LED line at night.
I found time to replace the 1500W element in the water heater with a dual element: 500W AC and 300W DC.
My theory is that when there is excess solar energy (in the summer), this can be diverted to make hot water, instead of just heating the cabin like a heat sink. While I was at it, I also changed out the magnesium anode that is part of the drain.
Our last aluminum hot water tank only made it to the 4 year point when it started leaking! I had to buy a 3/4” drive 38mm socket especially so that I could remove and replace the element and drain. I tried last year when we were in India with an adjustable wrench and a pipe wrench but it was impossible – I needed a socket.
As we have moved from country to country, we have not encountered much difficulty in filling our propane tank, probably because we only use it for BBQing. In NZ, due to regulations, we couldn’t get our fibreglass tank filled, but instead bought a NZ tank that used the same threads. In Australia, we exchanged the NZ tank, and again, used a tank that had the same threads. We had both our Australian and US tank filled in Malaysia and India. However, Turkey is different. The tanks, the threads, the valves, even the gas – are all different. This is a photo of our 12 year old fibreglass tank.
To get around this, I simply cut the rubber hose about a foot from the tank valve, and bought a Turkish 10kg tank with valve and hose. I did not use tape on the hose, but the black plastic hose “cover”. The hose is secured with a hose clamp.
We bought a second hand Vitrofrigo freezer when we were in Malaysia 3 years ago, but in the tropics we were never satisfied with its performance. It didn’t freeze fast enough and used a lot of energy. We bought a new slightly smaller but very efficient Isotherm upright freezer. It can run on 220/120V AC or 24/12VDC. This time, I took my time and built it in as a complete installation.
Taking the issue of solar one step further, we have decided to replace the 4 oldest of our 10 solar panels. These 4 panels are nearly 20 years old. We are in the process of replacing 4 X 75W panels with 4 X 190W panels, getting 760W into nearly the same footprint as the previous panels. This will bump up our solar panel total from 1360W to 1920W. More on that in the next post.
On Christmas eve we “scored” a 5kg turkey, and as is our tradition – had a Christmas dinner get-together with our friends. Well, as many as we could safely and legally have during the world-wide COVID-19 pandemic. This included Duygu (a female Turkish member of the marina staff), Pam and Eric on Pied-a-Mer III, and Jean-Yves and his wife Tuba. The celebration was held on Pied-a-Mer because they had the largest table. Here, Pam and Diane are getting the turkey ready for consumption.
More than a month ago, a fairly large Turkish “gulet” (wooden tourist boat) sunk in the nearby bay when a big wind whipped up some slightly large waves (3 feet, tops). Sadly, one Russian tourist died. The boat was raised from the bottom and brought over to Alanya Marina to be lifted with the travel-lift and a crane.
Before launching, I had to sand the bottom paint, the Coppercoat – with an orbital sander and 180 grit paper. It took about a day, and wasn’t too hard. This is necessary to “activate” the bottom paint, exposing epoxy encapsulated copper – so that it can work as a bottom paint.
We launched yesterday, without any drama. I finally noted that the travel lift (regardless of its weight capacity) needs to have a vertical clearance of at least 7.8m for us to lift and launch without taking down any hardware. Alanya Marina uses a 100T lift.
A few hours after we were floating in the water, I did a corrosion survey without connection to shore power, and with connection to shore power (the ground is isolated through an isolation transformer). I did this once in Trinidad about 8 years ago using borrowed equipment. A few months ago, I bought my own Corrosion Reference Electrode and used my digital multimeter to do my own test – after we launched. Their recommendation is -.850mv < protection < -1.100mv. I found that the readings varied between -1.035mv and -1.040mv so my conclusion is that we are more than adequately protected with zincs in the water.
We still have our scooter, but have given up the apartment and moved back onto the boat. Oh, it is good to be home at last sleeping in our own bed.
There has been lots of work done on our boat in the last two months, since my last blog entry. First, we hauled out of the water on 8 September. The boat yard at Alanya Marina operates a 100T travel lift, and its a tall one – which means that I didn’t have to remove any rigging or wind generators. The crew were gentle with our boat and did a great job with the pressure washer.
Then, they moved us over to a “remote” area of the yard, one where we could make a mess and a lot of dirt.
We received two fixed price quotes for “sandblasting” the hull, selected one, and then basically waited for 5 weeks for the blaster to show up. The price was good, much cheaper than in NZ. In that 5 week period, I worked on finishing the deck painting. This was the paint programme:
Remove all the 21 year old Treadmaster, and grind off the remaining epoxy.
Roll on Jotun Jotamastic epoxy, one coat of grey, one coat of red, and another coat of grey.
Roll on Jotun XPrimer epoxy, one coat of white.
Roll on Jotun XTreme Gloss polyurethane, two coats of Lynx White 5097
Roll on Jotun XTreme Gloss polyurethane, one coat of Delphius Grey 0967 Liberal sprinkling of Jotafloor aggregate non-skid additive, Medium grit (0.4 – 0.8mm)
Vacuum the un-bonded grit off, and then roll on two more coats of Grey.
This was a total of 9 coats of paint, some over bare metal, but most over several previous layers of paint. Hopefully, this will look good for many years to come.
I divided the deck area into 3 roughly equal sections: the raised cabin, the foredeck and the poop deck. This is what the raised cabin looked like after the first coat of grey polyurethane and the non-skid additive.
The poop deck was the next section to be finished. This photo shows the section after the red epoxy coat.
This photo shows the poop deck as I was applying the non-skid grit over the first layer of grey polyurethane.
This is the finished poop deck, we just have to remove the tape.
This is the foredeck, midway in the process. I had to apply lots of West System epoxy “fairing compound” (micro-balloons mixture) in order to smooth out the deck, all the deck.
The deck repainting project is now finished. We have yet to do the toe rail (the outside edge), but it will happen “in a few weeks”. The deck is noticeably cooler to walk on than the Treadmaster was, and the new non-skid is tenacious (like 80 grit sandpaper) but not too hard on the skin. Here is a photo of the foredeck and raised cabin, with the dorade boxes refinished (by Diane) and re-installed.
While waiting for the sandblaster to show up, I had a very close inspection of the hull. Although the bottom was last sandblasted and painted a mere 4 years ago in NZ (it should last more like 20 years), it was really a shitty job and had to be redone. Why was it shitty? Because they did not spray enough epoxy paint (should have been at least 600 mils, equal to 6 rolled coats) and they “wet blasted”. This means that the epoxy was sprayed over “rust bloomed” wet steel. After 4 years in salt water, this is an example of the result.
This was a piece of paint that just flicked off with my fingernail, just above the rudder. I blame the yard in NZ for this sub-standard job. I figure its not worth while mentioning their name, or trying to get compensation from them – the Manager was incompetent, a lier and a crook. Unfortunately, we were not present for 90% of the work done (our bad) so most of it was covered up by the time we saw the boat. This time, in Turkey, we had DRY “sand-blasting” with basalt grit and we were on site, full-time.
Another reason for the bottom job, is that we had evidence of some galvanic corrosion leaving some “pit holes”. Although none punctured the hull, they were concerning to me. Since there were no actual “holes”, I determined that the best course of action was to fill the “pits” with a special epoxy compound – Belzona 1311 (Ceramic R-Metal) (made in the UK and approved by Lloyds for metal replacement, machinery and hulls used in sea water immersion). It was fairly pricey stuff, at 370 euros for a 2kg kit, but it was perfect for the job, and easy to apply immediately after grit blasting, before spraying on epoxy.
This is a photo of one of the worst areas, clearing showing a very small corrosion pit.
I have since traced the reason for these pits to the connection to my Victron isolation transformer. Of course, all the hull zincs were completely eaten away, and this was really not possible to detect or correct while we were in India. The marina water was really foul. The situation will be rectified before we launch.
The “sandblaster” equipment was laid out next to our boat, showing his bags of “basalt” grit. It was really clean, dustless in fact, until he started to recycle the grit that fell on the concrete bottom — then it got dusty!
Inside the tented area, it wasn’t dusty at all, on the “first round”.
I figure the grit blasting took 16-18 hours in total. They did have some technical difficulties, and had to stop to refill the hopper, but it took nearly two full days.
This photo was taken at about 2100, after the first full day of blasting. I asked them to get paint on, immediately, but they insisted that it wouldn’t make any difference – they could paint the next day…
The next morning, I had a close look and found a few sections that looked like this. It forced them to re-blast in some areas.
After reblasting those areas, then they got paint on the one side.
After the blasting was completed, the painter sprayed on 4 coats of Jotun Universal epoxy primer, to a dry film thickness of approximately 100 microns. I figure that I need 600 microns of dry paint before rolling on the anti-fouling – Coppercoat. Over the next week, Diane and I will continue to paint the bottom and I’ll report on that with the next update.
Another job I did was to re-install our rejuvenated 200A alternator. I had removed it several months ago, and had the yard replace the bearing, clean and paint it. The adjuster arm also needed to be beefed up, and painted.
The Treadmaster (rubber deck material epoxied in place 19 years ago) removal project is going fine. I can say not that all of it has been removed, but there are remnants of the rubber backing still on the poop/aft deck. It has been challenging to remove this while still dockside. I have to say that the marina staff have been very tolerant of the noise and dust, and of course, I have done a lot to try and mitigate that (only work for a couple of hours a day, and using drop sheets to close off areas). The next step is to use epoxy fairing compound to fair all the nicks, scratches and gouges in the deck remaining after this removal. That will take a “few weeks” and will be completed “on the hard”.
The solution to best removing the Treadmaster, efficient and nearly dust-free, was to use a hammer-drill, with a chisel attachment.
This is a good, but very short Treadmaster removal video I made so that others that follow this path might jump directly to the best method. Nobody mentioned this on YouTube, and its really the best method.
We are very close to finding an affordable apartment that we will lease for “a few months” and hope to finally haul the boat in “a week or so”. It will be much more comfortable to be living in an apartment with the planned sandblasting and painting of the bottom – while I’m also painting the deck!
We took a day off today and rented a car to go sight-seeing with our friends Eric and Pam on Pied-a-Mer. Our plan was to see the amphitheatre in Aspendos as well as the ruins in the area of Side (pronounced See-Day) – both of which are about 1.5 hours drive to the West of Alanya.
Aspendos was an ancient Greco-Roman city in the Antalya province of Turkey. The wide range of coinage throughout the ancient world indicates that, in the 5th century BC, Aspendos had become the most important city in Pamphylia. At that time, the Eurymedon River was navigable as far as Aspendos, and the city derived great wealth from a trade in salt, oil and wool. In 546 BC it came under Persian domination. The fact that the city continued to mint coins in its own name, however, indicates that it had a great deal of freedom even under the Persians.
There are plenty of ruins in the area, and these photos are of the aqueduct ruins that remain. I have read that some Roman aqueducts date back as far as the 7th century BC.
I thought these ruins were particularly interesting because its just on the edge of town, and if you look closely, you can see local farmers even store their farm equipment in the alcoves of the aqueduct.
Aspendos is best known for its 12,000 seat amphitheatre, which is still in use today for ballet and concert performances. It was built in 155AD by the Greek architect Zenon, a native of the city. This is a photo from the top looking down (you have to walk from the bottom to the top, and its pretty steep).
This is a view of the bottom level, currently setup for a concert series.
Of course, there are plenty of other ruins in the surrounding area, and a short hike in the 38C sunny weather will yield all kinds of old buildings and rubble.
The next stop was to the resort town of Side on Turkey’s southern Mediterranean coast, commonly known as the Turkish Riviera. Side was an ancient port city, known for long beaches and its Greco-Roman ruins. In the centre are the remains of the 2nd-century Antique Theatre, which seated up to 15,000.
The white marble columns of the Hellenistic Temple of Athena stand near the harbour. Its a classic view, one that is found on most of the tourist pamphlets for the area.
Other sites of ancient interest are sprinkled throughout, with most interesting finds housed at the Side Museum, the site of a restored Roman bath complex. This is a sarcophagus that was inside the Museum. Not only was the museum an interesting and economical visit, but it was also air conditioned – providing much needed relief from the sweltering heat.
We were extremely fortunate this past weekend and took a 3-day excursion with our friends Jean-Yves and his wife Tuba to Cappadocia. The region of Cappadocia lies in central Anatolia, in the heartland of what is now Turkey. Jean-Yves drove nearly 5 hours to get us to this high plateau over 1000m in altitude that is pierced by volcanic peaks, with Mount Erciyes (ancient Argaeus) near Kayseri (ancient Caesarea) being the tallest at 3916m.
To get there, we had to drive up and over mountains and then across the “breadbasket” of Turkey. The roads were excellent, as we have come to expect in Turkey.
This picture could have been taken in Saskatchewan Canada.
There were a few real police officers, but more often than not – they were “cardboard police”, like this one – pretty convincing at a distance.
This was probably our first view of what we came to see with respect to homes carved into the hills.
During these COVID-19 times, there are very few tourists. There are still many government restrictions in place, one of which prohibits the flying of small groups of tourists in large hot air balloons – probably because they can’t maintain the social distancing requirements. Typically, photos of this area show many colourful balloons in the sky – particularly in the morning. One could say that we were fortunate, and the crystal clear blue sky was unpolluted by the usual dozens and dozens of balloons. We were also fortunate to visit in the summertime as Cappadocia has a markedly continental climate, with hot dry summers (nearly the same temperature as Alanya, but very dry) and cold snowy winters. Rainfall is sparse and the region is largely semi-arid.
This is my “play on words” with a Turkish “inuksuk”. It is more commonly known as a manmade stone landmark or cairn built for use by the Inuit, Iñupiat, Kalaallit, Yupik, and other peoples of the Arctic region of North America. These structures are found in northern Canada, Greenland, and Alaska – but it looks like nature makes them here in Turkey as well.
The name Cappadocia, is traditionally used in Christian sources throughout history, and continues in use to define a region of exceptional natural wonders, in particular characterized by fairy chimneys and a unique historical and cultural heritage. These are the fairy chimneys.
Cappadocia is diverse, with Turks, Kurds, Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks inhabiting the region. The earliest record of the name of Cappadocia dates from the late 6th century BC. Every meal was an event.
We stayed at the Grand Elite Cave Suites in the city of Göreme, first settled in Roman times.
The Yusuf Koç, Ortahane, Durmus Kadir and Bezirhane churches are found in Göreme, and houses and churches are carved into rocks in nearby area.
The Göreme Open Air Museum is the most visited site and contains more than 30 carved-from-rock churches and chapels, some having superb frescoes inside, dating from the 9th century to the 11th century. All photos and videos inside were prohibited, by the way.
Obviously, this cave was used by the community for grinding grain.
We rented ATVs and quickly explored 4 nearby valleys.
One very interesting side trip is to the underground private ceramic museum, Güray Müze. This place was massive, with excellent displays of thousands of ceramic items, presumably found in the hundreds of former dwelling places inside the nearby caves.
It was cool enough inside that Diane and I took a comfy seat next to the fireplace.
On the first night, we had a wonderful dinner right in the town centre, with a commanding view of the caves and wonders of Göreme.
On the way back, we followed the same route, but this time stopped at a truck stop for lunch and were treated to a region speciality – pizza made on flatbread.
They say that first impressions are lasting, and I have to admit that I’m somewhat disappointed in the views of Turkey that seem to be held by some of my friends. These views have been promoted by the main-stream media that launches on every news-worthy story, particularly stories about fear and desolation. Yes, Turkey is a police state. There have been many coups here. But, Turkey has first-world infrastructure and hospitals – and the people are honest, hard working and pleasant. If I didn’t tell you, you could hardly tell that the majority of the population were Muslim. When the mosque starts up with a loud-speaker “call to prayer”, it lasts for about a minute, compared with the norm of 20-30 minutes in Indonesia or Malaysia. I would argue that you would see A LOT more hijabs worn by the women in downtown Ottawa or Toronto than you do around here. Come to Turkey – you won’t be disappointed. Hopefully, you’ll see the balloons in Cappadocia.
We are in TURKEY, a transcontinental Eurasian country bordered by Greece and Bulgaria, the Black Sea, Georgia, Armenia, the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan and Iran, Iraq, Syria the Mediterranean Sea; and west by the Aegean Sea. Approximately 70 to 80 percent of the country’s citizens identify as Turkish, while Kurds are the largest minority, at between 15 to 20 percent of the population.
At various points in its history, the region has been inhabited by diverse civilizations including the Anatolian peoples, Assyrians, Greeks, Thracians, Phrygians, Urartians, and Armenians. There is A LOT of history here. During the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent – the Ottoman Empire encompassed much of Southeast Europe, West Asia and North Africa and it became a world power.
The Turkish War of Independence, initiated by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and his comrades against the occupying Allied Powers, resulted in the abolition of the sultanate and the establishment of the Republic of Turkey on 29 October 1923, with Atatürk as its first president. Atatürk enacted numerous reforms, many of which incorporated various aspects of Western thought, philosophy and customs into the new form of Turkish government. For example, under Atatürk, the Ottoman Turkish script was replaced by the Latin-based new Turkish alphabet (nearly the same as the English alphabet we use today). Turkey is a member of the UN, NATO, the IMF, and the World Bank.
Accession negotiations with the European Union started in 2005, but were stalled in 2018 and suspended in 2019. Why? I have two suggestions: possibly because President Recep Erdoğan has introduced measures to tighten “freedom of the press”, measures that increase the influence of Islam; and the refusal of the government to admit to the genocide against its own people of Armenian, Assyrian and Pontic Greek origin – during WWI. In short, Turkey applied for EU membership, everything I’ve seen so far resembles any other EU member country bordering on the Mediterranean Sea – but that application has been stalled for 15 years.
The population of Turkey is about 85 million and they have a GDP that puts them in 19th place in the world. Consequently, they are a member of the G20, an influential group for international cooperation on the most important aspects of the international economic and financial agenda. This group includes 19 countries, and the EU: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, France, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States.
We went paragliding for the first time on 8 July – right here in Alanya, and landed walking distance from the marina.
The weather was fantastic, and the views were spectacular. We couldn’t turn this event down at only $30USD per flight and $10USD per video (some bargaining was involved). I had to do some serious editing to chop down the video material down from about 40 minutes to only 2.5 minutes. This video is very authentic in representing our experience, with the exception of the take off. The take off slope was very, very steep – not at all represented in the video.
Another surprise was that since we were the first foreign cruisers to arrive in Alanya, we became an object of some interest and were interviewed by a TV station from Antalya and subsequently our story appeared on Turkish television, and maybe elsewhere. This is the link to the magazine, and this is the link to the video – of course its all in Turkish, except for the video interview.
Like everywhere else we travel to, we always seek out the local market and have become accustomed to going there every Friday. It is much like any other market, but I will point out that it is very clean, and the prices are clearly marked at the stalls. Of course, once we enter the market area, we have to “mask up”.
Today, we stopped at a little park just outside the market, waiting for our bus. The brilliant sunshine is creating havoc with my photos, often over exposing them.
Last week, when we went to the market with Eric and Pam on Pied-a-Mer III, we stopped at a local fast-food restaurant for local food.
Today, I also noticed this little friendly cat with some unusual, but beautiful patterns in her fur.
We’ve been busy with boat maintenance and repairs. Our sails have been sent to a sailmaker in Marmaris for work. We have two big projects in mind this year, and they both require the boat to be hauled. We will have the bottom sandblasted and painted “again”. This was last done in NZ, a mere four years ago. Unfortunately, we were not present for a lot of the work, and although it looked superficially fine on the outside, underneath – it is not good. In NZ, the yard insisted on doing “wet sandblasting” following strict environmental laws, but this is never a good idea for a steel hull. Also, they simply did not apply enough epoxy “primer” before painting on the Coppercoat. Sadly, after only two years, the result was rust leaching through the paint, and over $25K in wasted money. The second big job will be removing the deck Treadmaster and repainting the decks. To that end, I have started on the tedious job of removing this excellent but aged deck non-slip material.
So far, I’ve probably removed about 20% of the Treadmaster, but its a tedious and dirty job – particularly in the heat. I’ve tried an oscillating tool (with a scraper and a cutter blade), a planer and a grinder – one after the other.
To be honest, the best result is with a hammer and chisel, but it is also the most tiring!
Yesterday, we took a couple hours away from the boat and visited the Alanya Castle, only a 10 minute scooter ride from our marina. This castle, first constructed in 1220, was built on the remnants of earlier Byzantine era and Roman era fortifications. The castle is located 250 metres high on a rocky peninsula and the wall which surrounds it is 6.5 kilometres long and includes some remains of 140 towers.
News FLASH – We made it through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. We’re done, and now safely berthed at Alanya Marina in Eastern Turkey.
At Port Suez, we docked at the Suez Canal Yacht Club (a Yacht Club, really in name only) and were treated very well by our agent Capt Heebie. He did all our clearances and arranged for diesel and fresh fruit and vegetable delivery. We were not permitted to go ashore, the Egyptian borders remain closed. We had an Egyptian lunch (gratis Capt Heebie) with SV LIBERTE (who we first met in Trinidad about 7 years ago) and SV PIED-A-MER (who we first met in Tahiti about 5 years ago).
We departed Suez for the first of two legs through the Suez Canal on 24 June. Our first pilot was a jovial fellow, who spoke only a little English. He ate and drank everything we gave him. He boarded the boat at 0415. Unlike the Panama Canal, there are no locks in the Suez Canal, it is really just a long ditch, first undertaken in the period 1854-1856, by the Frenchman Ferdinand de Lesseps (the same man who started the Panama Canal). He obtained a concession from Sa’id Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt and Sudan, to create a company to construct a canal open to ships of all nations. This was a French, publicly traded company.
We passed hundreds of these military “bridges”. They are really water-craft that are assembled by the Army (in practice and in war) to make a temporary bridge to cross the canal. It is literally done in “minutes”. When I lived and worked in the Sinai for Schlumberger 40 years ago, this was how I crossed the Canal to go from mainland Egypt to the Sinai.
Canal traffic is a mixture of one-way and two way movement because of lane widening, and construction efforts. We were overtaken by a few large container ships like this one. We were motoring at 6 knots, and them at about 10-12 knots.
The Captain of the huge container ship Mersk Gibraltor (Patrick, who we met when we stayed a year at Pangkor Marina in Malaysia) actually took a photo of the 3 sailboats underway (from his bridge deck) and we got this photo by email an hour later! What a small world indeed.
We arrived at Ismailia (mid-way through the Suez Canal) about 8 hours later, and left, as planned, two days later on 26 June. Ismailia might have been a nice place to visit, but we weren’t allowed to – because of COVID-19 and the fact that we checked out of Egypt on arrival at Port Suez. Here we are berthed at the Ismailia Yacht Club ($21USD per night, including water and electricity) alongside SV LIBERTE and SV PIED-A-MER.
Our second pilot also was a little rusty with his English, and also arrived very early at about 0430.
This was our last view of Ismailia, it might have been a nice place to visit ….. Look at the blue sky and the clouds!
We continued to see hundreds of military bridge sections, pre-positioned and soldiers, hundreds of soldiers standing guard, often on the crests of the Canal sides.
This bridge, definitely did not exist when I lived here 40 years ago. The Mubarak Peace Bridge, also known as the Egyptian-Japanese Friendship Bridge, Al Salam Bridge, or Al Salam Peace Bridge, is a road bridge crossing the Suez Canal at El-Qantara. The bridge links the continents of Africa and Asia – and 60% of the cost was financed by Japan.
In the next few hours, we could smell and feel the freshness of the Mediterranean Sea and we were on the way to Turkey. The fishing lines were put out and Gabo and Mariona caught 3 tuna over a 12 hour period. The best lure was a pink, squiggly thing that resembled a squid. The best fishing time was at dusk and dawn – not always the best time for cleaning though.
We figured this last one was about 15 kg. Now – our freezer was FULL.
Crew Recommendation
At this point, I would like to make a public recommendation for our reliable crew: Gabriele de Rota (Italian) and Mariona Gil de Biedma Galofre (Spanish). These two friendly, honest, trustworthy, polite and practical people have been our crew from Thailand to India last year and again from India through to Turkey this year – covering 8 countries. As you can see from my blog posts, they are also serious fishermen: catching / cleaning and cooking fish whenever possible. But, they are also thorough boat cleaners and dedicated watch-keepers. They are wonderful in the galley and even entertain us with music. They are also both very comfortable in the water (SCUBA divers) and very thorough with hull cleaning/scraping. They came with a bit of prior experience but we tried to train them as well, and I can say that I completely trust them both to make the right decision in any situation. They have kept their cabin neat and tidy and are always available to lend a hand or take charge. There have been no arguments or bad feelings between us. Sure, sometimes we have had a differing opinion, but nothing that led to anything more than a lively discussion. At times, it can be challenging to be “cooped” up in a small space with 4 people for months at a time – but not with these two people. I know that they both have some aspirations of getting professional qualifications and ultimately their own boat, or at least paid crew positions. They are made for this life and I’m sure they will find their niche. Not only do I highly recommend that they be crew on other boats, but we would take them back “in a heartbeat”. Gabo and Mariona will always be welcome on SV Joana.
Here, we are approaching our port of Alanya Turkey, our home for the coming year.
We are finally here at the South end of the Suez Canal! We have reached a milestone.
Traffic in the Suez Canal
We finally left Port Ghalib Marina on 9 June, after nearly 3 months “incarcerated” there. I’m sure that our experience would have been different, if it had not been for COVID-19. Why leave then? Because some of the Med ports were starting to open up. Cyprus declared itself open to incoming yachts, but a COVID-19 test and quarantine were required. We had friends who just arrived, and that was the trigger for us. At the time of departure, our plan was to make it to the Suez Canal, and then decide where we’ll go from there (Cyprus, Turkey, North Cyprus or even Greece?).
Our first anchorage was Soma Bay, at N26˚51’.10 E033˚58’.26 – about 87nm. I had set a course for the anchorage just North of the El Gouna resort, but it was just too far, given the weather conditions. We set out of Port Ghalib with the afternoon winds (always North) decreasing to only 8knots, but at 2am they increased to 15, 20 then 25 knots. This brought our boat speed down from 5, 4, 3, 2 and sometimes only 1 knot! So, I cut short the 132nm passage and tucked into Soma Bay at the 87nm mark. Soma Bay was very windy, but sheltered from the current and large waves. However, when the wind piped up to 30-40 knots, the waves in the anchorage similarly rose to nearly 1m even though we were only 150m from shore. At Soma Bay, I discovered that our water maker couldn’t build up pressure, so we could no longer make our own fresh water from sea water. Conservations measures were in put in place, reducing consumption and using sea water to wash dishes.
Even though it was windy, Gabo and Mariona practiced some “agro-yoga” on the poop deck.
Since we don’t have LPG inside the boat, our meals are either cooked on this rice cooker, or in the BBQ. Since it was way too windy for using the BBQ, we had lots of solar and wind energy to power the rice cooker, 12VDC to 115VAC through the inverter.
Diane and Mariona have both become skilled at making “rice-cooker” cakes (apple, orange, banana) and loaves of bread. This bread is a perfect size for making toast – and I think Diane made this one.
Gabo caught another tuna while underway, usually at about 0430 in the morning, just at dawn.
After waiting for 3 days, our next weather window opened up (light opposing wind) and we motored 57nm to Endeavour Harbour on Tawila Island. Here we had good sand holding, and very good protection from swell on nearly all sides, but we were still exposed to high wind since the surrounding land was only about 3m high. The wind generators were happy, all-night and all-day long for 4 days and nights. Then, we took advantage of a very short lull in the wind, and moved to Bluff Point, only 9nm away at N27˚40’.58 E033˚48’.21 a divers paradise, but empty due to COVID-19. This was a good move and simply shortened our passage for the next day to El Tur, on the SW corner of the Sinai at N28˚14’.12 E033˚36’.59 – when we were finally within reach (123nm) of Suez!
Along the way, we came across these used, and often unused oil production platforms. Since we were moving during daylight hours, there was no risk to us, but the Red Sea Pilot book warns that they are difficult to see at night, even with RADAR, and are sometimes unlit.
El Tur was a very sheltered, shallow sandy bottom anchorage – well positioned on the Sinai side.
Seeing that we were close to the bottom of our aft water tank (forward tank still full) – I contacted the Egyptian Coast Guard on VHF 16 – to request a water delivery. Within a few hours, I was put in touch with the El Tur Commander of the local Navy Base (who spoke impeccable English), and he arranged a bottled water delivery of 20 X 19L plastic jugs. This was well appreciated, and speaks volumes about the professionalism of the Egyptian Coast Guard and Navy.
Shortly afterwards on the same afternoon, we made contact with a local windsurfer / paddle boarder who offered to take away our empty water jugs and fetch us some fresh fruit and vegetables. Unfortunately, this never worked out because the Army chastised him for coming out to our anchored boat.
There were a couple of guys windsurfing, one with one of those new fancy boards that rides “above” the water.
Although we didn’t go ashore, we were pleased with the picturesque views from the harbour. When the dust settled, we could see the mountains of the Sinai (including the area nearby Mount St Catherine where the Bible records Moses getting his tablet with the 10 commandments) and the Egyptian mainland on the other side of the Red Sea.
After about 5 days, we left El Tur with a short, but defined lull in the winds – and rushed overnight to Port Suez, 123nm northwest. We continued to see Sinai vistas along the coast.
We will undertake the first half of the Suez Canal passage on Wednesday 24 June, and will “pause” at Ismailia for a few days to get sorted out before our passage into the Mediterranean Sea.
