This has been a very different summer. Today we are sailing along at 5.6 knots with the spinnaker up. Because of the currents in the
Upon leaving Sile, we had to go straight out to a point about 5 miles. The Navy was conducting firing practice along the coast and had closed off a large area off the coast. There was a Naval Patrol vessel posted off the harbor making sure you didn’t stray into the wrong area.
Kefken is where we finally met up with our planned Black Sea Rally boats. The Coalition of the Willing was finally formed. When we got there 4 boats were already anchored in the bay and we couldn’t get our anchor to catch so we went alongside by the fishing boats. There was one waterfront restaurant there and he had “some fish,” but not enough to feed all of us so we walked into another place on the main street in town and 5 of us ordered meatball dinners. He brought them over to the first restaurant. It turned out to be a nice meal. Because it was early in the season, I guess they hadn’t turned on the refrigerator so the beer was warm.
[Cruising Notes] CMap seems to have this harbor plotted incorrectly as the chart plotter had us going over the jetty on entrance. Most boats seem to go to the newer harbor on the island calledt Kefken Adasi based upon notes in Heikell. We did not stop there but based upon others who did, there is not much there. There is room for 5 or 6 boats at Kefken and it has a small village and a couple of restaurants. Heikell seems to show that you can navigate between Kefken Adasi and the mainland. We were warned by several people not to try it and to go around Kefken Adasi.
During this summer, closing of several areas along the coast was common due to firing practice exercises. All were posted on NAVTEX and since we could sometimes hear the booms, we knew they were not kidding.
This was the first time ever an official Turkish Customs boat came over to our boat at anchor and wanted to see our cruising log, passports and boat papers which were thoroughly checked. We were certainly surprised, but all our paperwork was in order. It reminded us of being stopped in Corsica a few years back and having to prove we had been to
In Eregli, diesel was available on the pier so we pulled along side to see about filling up. However, fishermen were working on their nets and they said it would be an hour before we could actually get near the fuel hose. We parked the boat further down the pier. Then we saw a hose for water so we talked with the officials about filling up with water. They unrolled about 100 feet of a big black hose. The hose was so big we couldn’t attach our filter to it, so, for the first time in 5 years, we filled the water directly into our tanks using their hose. That was a huge mistake. The water tasted like drinking from a very old black hose. We decided to solve this problem once we got to the next port.
The fishermen finally left and they gave us a spot to get fuel rafted to a smaller fishing boat and wedged between two very big steel trawlers. It was not an easy spot to get in to. However, we finally got in. Then we washed the boat down with salt water in case the gas spilled on the teak. Now we were ready for them to bring the gas hose over. After waiting a long time, they told us there was a power outage and they couldn’t pump diesel. We waited another hour for the power to come on, and then decided it wasn’t in the cards to get fuel that day. Steve had figured out a way to rig a springline so that we could unwedge Sugilite from between these two trawlers. The wind was blowing us into the docks so it was a bit trickier than it sounds. Anyways we were rigged and ready to spring loose when the fisherman said the electricity was now back on. Sorry, we’re out of there.
We had been having doubts about our participation in the B.S.R. or the Coalition of the Willing as it were for several days now. It seemed our agenda didn’t match well with the others. So, at this point we said our good-byes and parted. Cruising with a group of boats has its attractions as you get to spend longer amounts of time with people in the other boats. The disadvantage is that you can’t linger in ports that seem interesting to you and it effectively precludes any kind of interaction with the locals as you are always with the group. We decided to finish our B.S. adventure as a solo.
[Cruising Notes] Eregli is large commercial and naval harbor. Because of the naval presence, they seem to pay more attention to who is coming and going than in other ports. The water is dirty and in general this is not an attractive stop but it is convenient and diesel is available. I believe that water may also available at the fuel dock. We took our water off the customs dock from the huge reel of black hose. I would not recommend that as the water was very “hosey” tasting. You are not allowed in the north part of the harbor due to naval activity and the navy will send a launch out to have you move if you try. It is also a Port of Entry not mentioned in Heikell.
Our next stop was Zonguldak. It is a big city, the provincial capital and the center of a declining coal mining district. It is a large commercial port with very dirty water. We tied off alongside a British boat (First Flight) that we had met in the last few days. We were the only two foreign boats in the harbor. As we would get in and out of the boat, about 6 fishermen were on the pier making new nets. For the next 3 months fishing with nets was not legal so they spent this time preparing for the season. The fishermen had befriended a wild cat with her kittens. After the first day it was tough keeping mom off our boats. The first night we barbecued chicken with First Flight. Momma cat wanted some food. We finally tossed her a piece of chicken. She looked at it long and hard. Having spent her whole life around fishermen, our guess was this may have been the first piece of chicken she had ever tasted.
The mining heritage is still strong here. Leaving the port, you pass a small park with various pieces of miner’s tools on display. Across from the park is a wall reminiscent of the Viet Nam Wall with miner’s names and the year of their demise. It was very apparent that some years were not fortunate for miners or their families.
[Cruising Notes] Zonguldak is a Port of Entry not mentioned in Heikell and we did check out here on a subsequent visit. It is a large city for provisioning. We obtained fuel delivered by a truck to the quay with the help of the fishermen and an agent. In checking out we used the same agent to negotiate and find the various official offices. This proved to be invaluable as when some official was not in his office, the agent would just call him. When the official was unsure what to do or what paper to stamp, the agent would fill out all the papers, pull the correct stamps out of the drawer, and stamp the papers. This happened on two occasions. For several hours of his time, including driving us around in his car to the various offices, he only charged $10. We gave him $20.