24 Jul - 25 Jul 2005 Girne

Eastern Mediterranean

Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus

Girne

Escape

BeachSY "Kamu II" at anchor, off the noisy beach, on sand.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our noisy anchorage:

N 35° 20.84' E 033° 14.20'

Click here for a summary of this year's travels:
2005 Map
 
Daysailing along the coast below the spectacular Kyrenia Mountain Range, together with our number-one son Armin, and relaxing off Escape Beach at anchor, where in 1974 CE the Turks had created the prime beachhead for the landing of their invasion forces.

15 Jul - 24 Jul 2005 Girne

Eastern Mediterranean

Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus

Girne

Delta Marina +903928155491

SY "Kamu II" with her bow to the concrete jetty and with two permanent stern moorings.

YTL 21.- or US$ 15.- per night.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our harbour berth:

N 35° 20.50' E 033° 19.91'

Click here for a summary of this year's travels:
2005 Map
 

Logging the uneventfully sailed distance  of about 50 nm between the south coast of Turkey and the north coast of Cyprus in about 12 hours during a pleasant overnight passage with a steady 25 knots of wind on our beam. 

Exploring the town of Girne (Greek: Κερύνεια, Kerýneia), sipping the famous Brandy Sour (the refreshing local soft drink) almost every night at the Delta Marina Bar and watching an exciting, crash-free military air show with the Turkish Red Arrows Team right over our heads on the 20th of July, their so-called Peace and Freedom Day. 

Visiting the idyllic Old Harbour at Girne and the Byzantine Kyrenia Castle to see one of the world's oldest shipwrecks ever have been recovered (this wooden-hulled cargo boat sank just off Kyrenia in approximately 300 BCE and was discovered in 1967 CE by a local diver).

Meeting fellow German yotties/expats/builders Elfi & Lothar (SY "Daria", also a Trireme) and Heidi & Karl (ex SY "Early Bird") and enjoying their friendly hospitality tremendously - many thanks, guys. 

Enjoying the week-long visit of our son Armin from Cape Town (South Africa), crossing together the infamous Green Line from North Nicosia to South Nicosia at the Ledra-Palace-Hotel checkpoint and wandering through the narrow streets of Nicosia, the last divided capital in the world.

13 Jul - 14 Jul 2005 Bozyazi Limani

Eastern Mediterranean Sea

Republic of Turkey

Cilician Coast

Bozyazi Limani

SY "Kamu II" alongside, opposite the harbour master's office.

YTL 20.- (US$ 15.-) per night

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our harbour berth:

N 36° 05.76' E 032° 56.30'

Click here for a summary of this year's travels:
2005 Map

Meeting yotties Trish and Morris (SY "Cygnus II") from New Zealand, exchanging intel from the E Med against such from the Adriatic and installing a sophisticated new navigational software on our laptop computer.

Walking around the fortifications of the most romantic, double-walled castle Mamure Kalesi which was built in the 12th century CE by the Kings of Lesser Armenia.

12 Jul - 13 Jul 2005 Anamur Burnu

Eastern Mediterranean Sea

Republic of Turkey

Cilician Coast

Anamur Burnu

SY "Kamu II" at anchor, off the ancient city.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our anchorage:

N 36° 01.33' E 032° 48.44'

Click here for a summary of this year's travels:
2005 Map

Passing the southernmost point of Turkey's Mediterranean coast, the high and bold Cape Anamur, with numerous Roman and medieval ruins on it, first mentioned by Francis Beaufort, an English naval captain who explored the S coast of Turkey in 1811 CE.

Matt: Exploring ancient Anamurium’s largely intact churches, aqueducts, houses and defensive walls from the 1st century CE until the city's abandonment around 650 CE when Arab attacks made the coast unsafe.

10 Jul - 12 Jul 2005 Yakacik Koyu

Eastern Mediterranean Sea

Republic of Turkey

Cilician Coast

Yakacik Koyu

SY "Kamu II" at anchor, on sand.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our anchorage:

N 36° 05.88' E 032° 33.28'

Click here for a summary of this year's travels:
2005 Map

08 Jul - 10 Jul 2005 Gazipasa

Eastern Mediterranean Sea

Republic of Turkey

Cilician Coast

Gazipasa

Fishing Harbour

SY "Kamu II" at anchor, inside the new fishing harbour.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our anchorage:

N 36° 15.87' E 032° 16.73'

Click here for a summary of this year's travels:
2005 Map

Matt: Climbing the ruins of Trajanopolis (formerly ancient Selinus) which was one of three coastal fortress cities founded by Antiochus IV; it was renamed Trajanopolis when the Emperor Trajan died here on his way to Palestine in 117 CE.

06 Jul - 08 Jul 2005 Alanya

Eastern Mediterranean Sea

Republic of Turkey

Pamphylian Coast

Gulf of Antalya

Alanya

SY "Kamu II" at anchor, off the octagonal Red Tower (Kizil Kule), opposite the five vaulted galleries of the Seljuk naval dockyard (Tersane), on sand and rocks.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our anchorage:

N 36° 32.12' E 031° 59.97'

Click here for a summary of this year's travels:
2005 Map

Taking pleasure in the stunning views from as well as exploring the old kale (fortress), built (by a Syrian military engineer, Ali Bey of Aleppo, to make the fortress rock, which is nearly 250 m above the sea, impregnable) on top of the bold promontory which in ancient times was known as Calonoros, the "Good Mountain", and later, when it became a pirate stronghold, as Coracesium, the "Crow's Nest".

04 Jul - 06 Jul 2005 Side

Eastern Mediterranean Sea

Republic of Turkey

Pamphylian Coast

Gulf of Antalya

Side

SY "Kamu II" at anchor, N of the headland with the ancient harbour from the 8th-century BCE Greek colony; on hard sand.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our (rolly) anchorage:

N 36° 46.14' E 031° 23.15'

Click here for a summary of this year's travels:
2005 Map

Motoring away at full hull speed from some threatening water spouts (aka mini tornadoes) which were breathing down our SY “Kamu II’s” neck.

Strolling through the overdeveloped resort town of Side with its numerous hotels and pensions dotted around it, which is situated on the E part of the Pamphylian coast, which lies about 20 km E of the mouth of the Eurymedon river.

Stopping at the antique Roman amphitheatre at Side, one of the largest in Anatolia (it has 15,000 seats), that relies on arches to support the sheer verticals (the Roman style was adopted because Side lacked a convenient hillside that could be hollowed out in the usual Greek fashion more typical of Asia Minor) and thereafter relaxing in the archaeological museum's wonderful pine tree-shaded garden, filled with carved architectural fragments and chunks of statuary.

03 Jul - 04 Jul 2005 Kemer

Eastern Mediterranean Sea

Republic of Turkey

Lykian Coast

Gulf of Antalya

Kemer

Moonlight Bay

SY "Kamu II" at anchor, off the beach, on sand.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our anchorage:

N 36° 35.92' E 030° 34.70'

Click here for a summary of this year's travels:
2005 Map

DM Konni: Scrubbing the hull of SY "Kamu II" below the waterline and removing two year old barnacles and mussels, thus extending the lifespan of our cheap Tunisian antifouling (Astral Super Ionitox for € 32.- per 5-litre can) for the third year in a row.

Enduring the deafening techno sound of the countless beach discos in Kemer's backyard south of Kucuk Burnu.

01 Jan - 03 Jul 2005 Kemer

Eastern Mediterranean Sea

Republic of Turkey

Lykian Coast

Gulf of Antalya

Kemer

Park Kemer Marina +902428141490

SY "Kamu II" with her stern to the concrete jetty and with two permanent bow moorings.

YTL 370.- (US$ 280.-) per month.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our marina berth:

N 36° 35.99' E 030° 34.29'

Click here for a summary of this year's travels:
2005 Map

Enjoying the buzzing social life and the many amenities (e.g. excellent ablutions/showers, stylish club house with bar, tennis court, library, movie theatre, well-stocked ship chandlery and diverse workshops [general engineering, diesel engine, stainless steal, electrical, wood]) in this well-managed Turkish tourist marina.

Celebrating the boat women Brita's (SY "Akka"), Hülya's (SY "Blue Belle") and Konni's (SY "Kamu II") triple (!!!) birthday on the 11th of January, munching a giant birthday cake and partying together with many other yotties in the Navigator Yacht Club through the night.

Being delighted by our most lovely number-one daughter Ulrike's and Konni's mother's visit from Germany who had flown together to Kemer to holiday with us for a week.

Entertaining Matt's brother Thomas and his current partner Elke, having a wonderful time together.

Matt: (i) Installing a new 16-nm FURUNO 1620 yacht radar on the mizzen mast of our ketch SY “Kamu II”, (ii) fitting two swivel-mounted 80-W solar panels on each side onto the ship’s rail, (iii) building and connecting a 35-litre stainless-steal day tank on top of the Perkins 4.236M diesel engine, (iv) replacing the ailing 24-V starter motor with a new one and (v) mounting a new 8-mm Perspex windscreen in front of our centre cockpit.

Rambling through ancient Arycanda, an ancient Lykian city, built upon five large terraces ascending a mountain slope, located near the small village of Aykiriçay, and touring the Bey Mountains Coastal National Park (with snow-capped peaks) between Kumluca and Kemer.

Strolling through the labyrinthine streets and the charming old quarters of Kaleici (Old Antalya) which feature restored gracious old Ottoman houses and are sprinkled with Roman ruins (e.g. the Hadrian's Gate aka Triple Gate, constructed in the 2nd century CE by the Romans in honour of the Emperor Hadrian, the third of the so-called Five Good Emperors).

Touring the ancient city of Olympos, situated 90 km SW of Antalya and just inland from a beautiful beach beside the course of a clear stream running through a rocky gorge, where the Olympians worshipped Hephaestus (aka Vulcan), the god of fire, and from where, according to Homer, the god Poseidon looked out to sea and saw Odysseus sailing away from Calypso's island, and called up a great storm that wrecked him on the shores of the island of Nausicaa.

Exploring the ruins of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the 7th-century BCE Greek colonies of Xanthos and Letoon with their chequered history of wars and destruction (e.g. in approximately 540 BCE the Lykians destroyed their own Xanthos acropolis, killed their wives, children, and slaves, then proceeded on a suicidal attack against the superior Persian troops).

Wandering through the ghost town of Kayakoy - consisting of 2,000 rundown but still mostly intact Greek-style houses and churches - which had been deserted after WWI and the Turkish War of Independence by its predominantly Anatolian-Greek inhabitants.

Browsing through ancient Perge, founded in around 1000 BCE, which is famous for being the birthplace of Apollonius of Perge (c. 262 BCE - c. 190 BCE), a giant of early Greek mathematics who produced much of the early work on describing a family of curves known as conic sections, comprising the circle, ellipse, parabola and hyperbola, which - when re-discovered during the Renaissance - enabled Johannes Kepler to work out his laws of planetary motion.

Learning about 13th-century CE Persian poet, jurist, theologian and mystic Celaheddin Rumi, one of the world's great philosophers, in the Mevlana Museum in the Seljuk capital Konya and watching a fascinating sema (a dance and trance inducing ceremony) of the mevlevi tarikat (whirling dervishes).

Exploring the marvellous moonscape of the Cappadocian valleys with their churches hewn out of rock, their fairy chimneys and their eerie underground cities of Kaymakli and Derinkuyu.

Completing SY “Kamu II’s” toolbox and buying a semi-automatic 12-gauge shotgun plus sufficient quantities of bird-shot (for practising) and buck-shot (for self-defence) from a Turkish arms dealer in Antalya for only YTL 250.- (US$ 190.-).

Refilling one of our 9-kg LPG cylinders for € 17.50 at the marina.

Bidding goodbye to the many flotilla diesailors who had joined the 16th Eastern Mediterranean Yacht Rally and feeling somewhat relieved when these wonderfully dressed and proud sailing yachts from 19 different countries were leaving the Park Marina at Kemer ... and overhearing two hours later a “distress” call on VHF Ch 16 from one of these yachts which had, already 12 nm off-shore, caught a plastic bag in its prop and was urgently asking for a diver from the marina - aaagh, shame.