Yatch Marin - Marmaris

3 Sep - Checking out of Greece proved to be rather simple - but I can see the potential for issues. We had to go to the harbour police, where they demanded to know when I had checked into Greece and they weren't happy with my crew list - I told them I was a French boat - EU boat had never left EU waters and was just checking out..  Initially they foresaw problems, but after some thinking they agreed, EU boat.. They kindly got me to fill out their version of the crew list (this thing si fit for BIG boats), then they asked me to go to passport and finally to customs.. Passport control - simple, customs, gave me the same story - "There is a problem, you don't have the right papers", I explained again, EU boat, never left EU waters, VAT paid certificate and not sure what other papers he wanted.. He went and checked with his supervisor and agreed it was OK, then issued me a clearance piece of paper (in triplicate) and advised me to get my paperwork in order (WTF ?) and sent me on my merry way.  I then had to go back to the Port police who stamped me out after getting the piece of paper from the customs guy..

We were then cleared to leave Greek waters, and we headed to Turkey, the wind was kind on that day and was blowing straight to Turkey, at between 20-30kts at 120degrees off the port, I was lazy and opted only to put up the genoa - we were doing a nice 7kts with that much canvas out. As we approached the Turkish coast the wind and swell died down (as per the forecast - shocker!) and we motored the rest of the way.  We arrived at Yatchmarin outside of Marmaris and I went in to pay for my spot and clear customs..  I paid for a a month, 325 EUR - by far the *CHEAPEST* berth to date.. Then expecting to clear customs at the marina, I was told that they no longer could clear us here and we had to go 2NM, to the old town to clear customs, they were extremely helpful, took copies of what was needed and told me their guy would be on the dock to help. I ran back to the dock and told Jack we had to leave *NOW*. We hurriedly, got the boat ready as we had to get to the passport for 17h30 and it was 16h45..  We made it there on time and after a quick docking we cleared customs, got the transit log and were welcomed into Turkey and told to have fun and move along - Tooooooooooooooo easy!

We motored back docked and that was the sailing done for the day, and for a month as I get Wollombi II ready for the next part of the trip.

We had dinner that night and Jack informed me that he would not be joining me any further - a big thanks to you Jack, for your awesome hospitality at Paros and your help along the way.

The following day, Jack set off to catch a ferry back to Rhodes then then another to Santorini and another to Paros.  I went for a bike ride to Marmaris, there were a number of hills on the way, which gave me some much needed exercise.. On the way back, I saw 6 wild deer.

So far I am extremely impressed with the marina and Turkey, a very efficient (night and day from Greece) and friendly country.

On the way back from Marmaris (just before seeing a herd of dear)

Yatchmarin by night

Dinner at the restaurant at Matchmarin, good live music