Greece to Turkey

[NornaBiron]

We are planning to leave Greece from Chios and check in to Turkey in Cesme next month. Does anyone have any recent experience of Cesme? Is there an anchorage or will we have to go into the marina?

[athene]

You can't anchor at Cesme - it's dangerously exposed to the prevailing winds. Until they extended the breakwater even the marina didn't offer particularly good shelter. You could try Ayvalik as an alternative, which does have good anchorages.

[yeloya]

Ayvalık is nice but it's way up from Chios. If you want to stay around Çeşme-İzmir, try Sığacık bay. Very good marina there if you wish so, otherwise plenty of protected anchoring spots around. It's also very close to Ephesus and to the airport.
Cheers

Yeloya

[athene]

Originally Posted by yeloya

Ayvalık is nice but it's way up from Chios. If you want to stay around Çeşme-İzmir, try Sığacık bay. Very good marina there if you wish so, otherwise plenty of protected anchoring spots around. It's also very close to Ephesus and to the airport.
Cheers

Yeloya

Yes, sorry - we did have a couple of stops between Chios and Ayvalik, now I recall. Sigacik at the time we visited was even more expensive than Cesme, though (but you could anchor outside the marina at that time: 2012). For details see Sigacik Region - a Cruising Guide on the World Cruising and Sailing Wiki.

If you want a marina but you're looking to save costs you could also clear in at Kusadasi, which is a (longish) day's sail from Chios and was rather cheaper than the other two marinas (again, in 2012!).

[NornaBiron]

Our ideal would be an anchorage that we could go into and then dinghy to check in, in the Cesme area, any ideas anyone?

[Palarran]

I can't offer you suggestions but I hope you will update this post as we will be doing the same thing mid-June.

As an FYI, do you know that you are not an EU resident you have to get a Visa before entering Turkey. Probably not applicable but thought I'd mention it.

[NornaBiron]

Originally Posted by Palarran

I can't offer you suggestions but I hope you will update this post as we will be doing the same thing mid-June.

As an FYI, do you know that you are not an EU resident you have to get a Visa before entering Turkey. Probably not applicable but thought I'd mention it.

EU residents have to get the visa before entering too now. It can be done on-line. We'll let you know how we get on.

[yeloya]

Norma Biron,

I don't know why you insist on Çeşme but if you don't want to go to any of the 3 marinas, I have to warn you...
Çeşme bay is fully exposed to prevailing winds and like Chios the meltemi is much stronger there due to the funneling effect. Almost all of the anchorage areas shown on maps are not tenable, the main port is busy with RoRo ships, underwater cables , pretty deep waters..
So, I would suggest you to go to Setur marina for a day where you can make yr check in. Then you can move to the soouth of the peninsula around Alaçatı. You can try anchoring around but 3 problems;
-the winds are still very strong,
-this is the paradise for surfers; they are too many and dinghying around could be dangereous,
-inside the bay (close to Alaçatı marina) the water is very shollow, I remember having touched my keel with my catamaran (1,2 m draft only..) and anchor doesn't hold very well (buttom is weedy..)

In short, if you want Çeşme you need a marina. If you don't want a marina, only one day for checking in and then proceed to Sığacık bay..

Cheers

Yeloya

[NornaBiron]

Originally Posted by yeloya

Norma Biron,

I don't know why you insist on Çeşme but if you don't want to go to any of the 3 marinas, I have to warn you...
Çeşme bay is fully exposed to prevailing winds and like Chios the meltemi is much stronger there due to the funneling effect. Almost all of the anchorage areas shown on maps are not tenable, the main port is busy with RoRo ships, underwater cables , pretty deep waters..
So, I would suggest you to go to Setur marina for a day where you can make yr check in. Then you can move to the soouth of the peninsula around Alaçatı. You can try anchoring around but 3 problems;
-the winds are still very strong,
-this is the paradise for surfers; they are too many and dinghying around could be dangereous,
-inside the bay (close to Alaçatı marina) the water is very shollow, I remember having touched my keel with my catamaran (1,2 m draft only..) and anchor doesn't hold very well (buttom is weedy..)

In short, if you want Çeşme you need a marina. If you don't want a marina, only one day for checking in and then proceed to Sığacık bay..

Cheers

Yeloya

Thanks Yeloya, no insistence on Cesme really, it just looked like a good spot to head for from Chios. We need to be on a Greek island with a vet (to check the cats out) before heading to Turkey and didn't want to go too far south and miss the chance to cruise this part of the Turkish coast. Any other suggestions of good checking in points will be gratefully received.

[athene]

If you're not absolutely set on leaving from Chios, you could continue N to Lesvos and clear out from Mytilini and in at Ayvalik. There's a good marina at Mytilini (which is not too expensive, although now Turkish-owned) and the anchorages around Ayvalik are probably the best anywhere along this part of the coast (see Ayvalik - a Cruising Guide on the World Cruising and Sailing Wiki for details).

You could then cruise the Turkish coast S with the prevailing winds behind you. It's an attractive section of the coast and less frequented than the harbours and anchorages further S.

[NornaBiron]

We checked in at Gulluk yesterday. Did it all ourselves with no hassles, no agent required. The total cost of checking in was TL145 for the transit log. We then had to get a taxi to customs and that added TL35 to the bill. We were unable to get a blue card from Gulluk so still need to head to a marina to get that at some point.

No-one was the slightest bit interested in the fact that we had cats on board, their passports/vaccination certificates were not even looked at.

The only disappointment for us is that it is no longer a relatively easy task to get a resident's permit, therefore we only have 90 days in Turkey. To get a resident's permit you now have to have a marina contract, TL12000 per person in a Turkish bank, a Turkish tax ID number, health insurance translated into Turkish and there's some speculation about whether you would need to apply at the Turkish Embassy in your home country. I imagine that this will have quite a significant effect on the liveaboard community within Turkey.