December 1994

The 1994 cruise of E. Galois

This has been another exciting year where we accomplished a little more than we originally planned. We left Aegina in early april bound for Istanbul. We went by way of the Gulfs of Evia, which gave us a chance to witness the currents at Khalkis. We stopped at Volos and rented a car to visit the Meteora. After some stops in the Sporades, we sailed by Mount Athos, admiring the monasteries, and left Greece at Limnos to sail up the Dardanelles on our way to €anakkale, where we entered Turkey. After a nice sail through the Sea of Marmara we arrived in Istanbul in early may. Istanbul is a fascinating city that we enjoyed very much. Following a short day trip up the Bosphorus to the Black Sea we sailed South again.

The sail down the Dardanelles would have been a lot more fun if we had had the strong North East wind that we had on the way up, instead we had a strong South West wind, by chance the current did not reverse! We checked out of Turkey, with some difficulty, in Ayvalik, to visit the Greek Islands of Lesvos and Kios. We reentered Turkey in €esme and sailed down the coast to Kusadasi where, with some friends that had come from France we took a week off, it was just as good since the meltemi was blowing real strong that week, and visited by car some of the fabulous archaeological sites in this area. In particular Ephesus, Selcuk, aphrodisia, and Priene. The Agean Coast of Turkey is just as rich in archaeological sites as the one of Greece and is the main reason we spent another year in the Mediterranean Sea.

After a visit to the Greek Islands of Kalimnos and Kos we spent two weeks cruising the Gulf of G”kova, just south of Bodrum. The coast of Turkey between Bodrum and Antalya is considered as one of the best cruising ground in the world. It is getting a little crowded. This year, due to various factors, among them some acts of terrorism by the PKK aimed at scaring tourists and the recession in Europe, it was quite acceptable. We met a lot of very interesting cruising people from many lands and the number of 'Guletts', large Turkish charter boats, was quite manageable in most of the anchorages at night. Although it was best to avoid anchorages close to the large touristic centers, such as Bodrum and Marmaris.

We made another trip to some Greek Islands, Simi and Rhodes, before reaching Marmaris. Although the walled city of the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem in Rhodes was extensively rebuilt by the Italians between the two world wars, it is very interesting to visit. We spent some time exploring the Gulfs of G”‡ek and Fethiye, very beautiful and well protected anchorages but quite deep. We made our last visit to a Greek Island, Kastelorizo, before proceeding to Kekova Roads. A delightful place where people live inside the archaeological site, and have done so continuously for a few thousand years.

It was early September when we reached Antalya and since we could anticipate another two months of good sailing weather, we decided to explore the Coast of Turkey East of Antalya and take a swing through the Eastern Med. We visited Side, Alanya and Anamur before crossing over to Northern Cyprus. With "Bitter Lemon" in hand we visited many of the sites Lawrence Durell described. We were even fortunate to hear a concert of classical guitar in the abbey at Belapais, when we had gone there to see the sunset. After ten days in the inner harbour at Kyrenia, now called Girne, we left for Lebanon.

The only harbour in Lebanon where yachts can now go is the marina of the Automobile et Touring Club du Liban at Jounieh, more precisely at Kaslik, about 8 miles North of Beirut. Since so few yachts have visited Lebanon these past 15 years, we were welcomed with open arms. The facilities at the marina are outstanding, five tennis courts, olympic swimming pool, etc... We rented a car for a week. We had a grand time visiting unique phoenician, roman, crusader and druze sites such as Byblos, Baalbek, the Temple of Echmoun, the palace at Beit-el-dine. Driving in Lebanon is at the moment a unique experience since there is no signalization, no traffic dividing lines and every few miles road blocks manned by various factions. But we were never asked for identification and felt very welcome everywhere except maybe in the South where the Hizbollah is in control and around the "green line" in Beirut where people are still living in the damaged buildings waiting for demolition.

After two weeks in Lebanon we went South to Israel. We entered at Haifa but the Carmel Yacht Club there is not conveniently located in the mist of the commercial harbour and next to some refineries. Fortunately we were able to find a berth in Akko's harbour, seven miles North of Haifa. We were told that it was a crusader harbour (Acre), but it was probably already an old harbour in the days of the phoenicians. The boat was very secure in this little harbour therefore we went by bus for a few days to Jerusalem where we walked from dawn to dusk in the Old City and made a few side trips, in particular to the Dead Sea and Mesada. From Akko we rented a car for three days and drove more than 600 miles, mostly in the North of Israel, Galilee, the Golan Heights and to the source of the Jordan River. After two very busy weeks in Israel we sailed up to South Cyprus where we stayed at the marina in Larnaca for a week visiting more historical sites before sailing back to Antalya at the end of October.