Cooinda’s Season 2024, another cracker!
Bozcaada Castle
After wintering in the wonderful Mytilline Marina on Lesvos, Season 2024 was our best yet. The island and it’s people restored our faith in the general friendliness and graciousness of the Greek people. Season 2023 out of Porto Montenegro had started poorly with bogus issues from Greek AADE around VAT status becoming even more galling having to reflag Polish from Australian.
With a fresh start we began with a few short cruises around Lesvos to the beautiful Molyvos harbour, Petra, Sigri and Yera Gulf before setting sail to clear into Turkiye at Ayvalik. April goals were first to do the Dawn Service at Anzac Cove and explore the Gallipoli peninsular. Next goal was Istanbul to rendezvous with kids, other family members from the US and Oz as well as cruising friends for a surprise party for Sandy’s significant birthday.
After Ayvalik checkin it was on to Kabateppe via Bozcaada, which seemed the most logical jumping off spot to explore the peninsular. There was a paucity of information on the harbour, but once there we were welcomed and looked after wonderfully in the public port by the Harbour Master, Arif and his team. We settled in for nearly a week. From there until departing Turkiye we were continually blown away by the generosity, kindness and good humour of the Turkish people despite their many travails. Google translate was worn out but vital.
Exploring the peninsular and attending a Dawn Service was a lifetime goal and did not disappoint. The services were done extremely well by the armed services of Australia and NZ and the respective DFAT and MFAT. Equally the Commonwealth War Graves Commission deserve great applause for their careful and thoughtful custodianship there and around the world. Unknown to me before was how important this time is for Turks who venerate and celebrate Cannakkale Victory and Martyrs Day on March 18 as we do Anzac.
We were fortunate to have a couple of good guides and an acquaintance who were indispensable in showing us all over and dispelling many of the stupid myths surrounding the campaign there. It was deeply moving to visit the cemeteries of the Anzacs, British, French and Turkish soldiers, hear so many of their stories and walk the terrible fields of battle in conditions pretty much as they were found on April 25 1915 (we were there before the fires took a lot of the vegetation). From the harbour it was only a short ride or 30 minute walk to the Anzac beaches, with Ercebat, Bigali, Cannakkale, Cape Helles with associated memorials and museums only a taxi ride away.
The passage up the Dardanelles always fascinated me and didn’t disappoint with traffic aplenty adding spice, however I’d have been happy to give the sloppy slog across the Sea of Mamara a miss. Istanbul marinas are like so many throughout Turkiye usually full and expensive. We chose Yalova for its availability, with the Setur staff as usual very accommodating. We stayed ashore celebrating and exploring in the old town for a few days. After a short Bosphorus cruise done we got a lift out at West Istanbul Marina for a platform issue. There are not a lot of marinas in Turkiye or the Aegean equipped to lift cats with beams wider than 7.3 m so we were stuck sadly with this option.
Back down the Dardanelles we made stopovers in Cannakkale, Bozcaada and Ayvalik from where we did land trips to Ephesus, Pergamon and Kusadasi. Ephesus and Pergamon were must sees!
Cruising south to Didim was quite special as we had so many of the anchorages to ourselves or shared with never more than one or two other boats in some very pretty places. We suspect this is the case throughout the year but certainly through May and June.
After Didim we were in charter boat range and traffic increased but never in our 3 months north of Marmaris did we see anywhere near the press of boats we ever saw in the Ionian. From Bodrum through the Gulf of Gokova we managed to catch up with a few cruising friends in places like Orak island, Deremen and Cokertme. The winds were fairly fickle throughout.
Like the Gokova, the Hisaranou and Bozburun Gulfs were excellent cruising grounds with even more interesting and varied coastal inlets and islands providing for some great memories with yet more cruising friends. There are the requisite ruins and historical sites like Knidos to keep it interesting, and plenty of quality as well as basic restaurants in the myriad coves, none detracting from the beauty.
Groceries and excellent beer were available in the many small towns or even the largish “super” market boats by Migros or Carrefour. After Greece we found Turkiye very expensive experiencing the very high inflation, yet people were still most generous throughout. Too soon our 3 months were up so we exited Turkiye from Marmaris but not before taking a road/boat day trip down to the spectacular Dalyan caves.
Back to Greece at the stunning Symi harbour it felt a bit like being home again. We love the Dodecannese islands so our journey back through these waters was like putting old gloves on, comfortable and warming. The coastal waters of Turkiye generally sported very genial if any winds save the Sea of Mamara, in our experience anyway. We knew we were back in the Aegean however, where the Meltemi held us for a week in Astypalea which to be fair is a pretty nice place to be “stuck”. Sailing back to one of our favourites in the beautifully varied and pretty Kalymnos for a few nights was great. It was then on to Leros for yet another haul out to re fix our Istanbul issue.
Sailing in company is not something we have done lots of, but this was a heap of fun with other Aussies/ Kiwis who made the next few weeks even more a lark when being held back by another big Meltemi blow.
Into the Saronic Gulf to Hydra, Ermioni and Dokos, with a gaggle of guests arriving soon, we slowed the pace for a while especially at Dokos. With guests aboard it was southbound to Monemvasia which is breathtaking and the perfect intro to what turned out to be our favourite part of Greece, the Peloponnese. South from there around the infamous, but for us benign Cape Malea, we holed up at beautiful Elafounisos on the east side. It was hard to leave there but for a guest pick up, it was off up the Laconian Gulf to Gythea famous in history as Sparta’s seaport from where Paris eloped with Helen to spark the Trojan war.
The Mani peninsular ranging south of Gythea is known for its spectacular and rugged scenery as well as the hardiness of its people. The coves south bound especially at Kotronas and Porto Kagio are very pretty and worthwhile stopovers. Up the other side of the Mani peninsular we were blown away by the Diros caves and the very pretty town of Areopoli with the enjoyable anchorage at Kardimili a welcome lunch spot treat. The nondescript town of Kalamatta, rebuilt after a devastating earthquake was a good base to tour the area from.
With a fresh group of guests we headed to Koroni and the superb anchorage and town of Methoni. Again a place with loads of history and some very tasty food offerings we lingered for a while before setting off for our Italy jump off spot, Pylos. I enjoyed another history hit here (eg Battle of Navarino), but enough out of the way to avoid masses of tourists. Sandy was pretty much over the history hits and old rocks by then! This still turned out a good spot to hang waiting for an elusive weather window to cross to Sicily.
As with the rest of the season and as many others opined about Med forecasting throughout the season, our forecast was not particularly accurate. For our crossing the bigger winds veered and the seas were larger than forecast with an “interesting” Cape index suggesting some interesting decision making for the first night. Poor Sandy was seasick for virtually the whole 2.5 day passage. Making landfall near the inviting waters of Syracusa harbour, we lingered only a short time before heading to the very sociable Marina di Ragusa to our winter berth. After a short coastal cruise we winterised Cooinda and enjoyed over the next few weeks the many and varied delights Sicily offered, before returning to Australia for a couple of months.
More detailed accounts of the this will follow.
