Let's Dance - the Schengan Shuffle, and, the Two Big Questions

Maybe this post will be a little dry, and yachties will be more than familiar with this topic (and perhaps will correct me, I keep learning). This is for those who are new to this, or think we've been idling away in peaceful retirement.  An explanation of some of the complexities that have taken up our time while we wait for boat jobs to be completed, or the weather to improve. I'll chuck in a few photos of the saturday Finike Markets to brighten this all up... 

During the week, this whole area is filled with used cars for sale 

Look at how the tomatoes are arranged perfectly 

We'd arrived, settingly into our first week in Finike, during winter. We thought we wouldn't rush into any planning, let the first season in the Mediterranean be a relaxed learnng experience. Focus on what we needed to do to the boat, and then see where the wind took us.

But we really didn't understand how much forward planning needs to take place for us to legally and financially maintain this lifestyle

Some things we did know about, if only in theory. Such as the winds in the Med, which can be very changable and sometimes dangerous. In fact they have names: Boro, Sirocco, Tramontane, Lebeccio, Mistral, Marin and Meltemi - this last one is the one that will affect us in this region. We knew we'd need documentation, such as a transit log and Ikamet in Turkey, which would allow us to stay in Turkey for longer than 90 days. We also knew about The Schengen Zone, which we need to navigate, in every sense of the word, to sail in the Med. 

So what is the Schengen Zone? Either it's darstadly plot to thwarte the dreams of sailors and travellers, or it's an agreement between some European countries, and some non-European countries, to enable unrestricted travel for their citizens, a Europe without borders. First signed in 1985 by 5 countries, it now includes 27 countries of the EU and some non-EU. What a great idea! 

Whoopy-effin-do for them, a less than generous soul might say. Ok, that was me..

What does this mean for us? Citizens of non-Schengen countries are limited to travel within the entire zone for 90 days within each 180 days. This means if I travel to France for 90 days, I must leave the zone for 90 days before returning. To paraphrase Dr Seuss, to Spain I must not go, nor to Italy can I row... 

There are a few countries in the Med that are not in the zone. Turkey is the big one. This also includes Albania, Algeria, Montenegro, Morocco and Tunisia. Croatia, a very popular cruising area with good services and marinas, joined the zone in January of this year. Bummer big time. If you look at a map you will see large areas covered by the Zone, particuarly in the Western Med, and very few places to flee to, given that sailors are restricted by the winds and seas, which can dictate your direction for months at a time.

Brexit further complicated things, as having "left" Europe, UK left the Schengen zone, and all the British sailors are now like the Americans, Australians, New Zealanders etc, trying to find somewhere for their boat and themselves. And, Turkey is a safe haven for Russians. Either leaving in disgust, or avoiding the war, they have moved to Turkey, particularly in the region we are in. This has impacted the whole residency application process and they seem to have funds that most of us cannot match.

We intially thought that's ok, we can sail to Greece, and return to Turkey when the 90 days are up, as Turkey is not in the Schengen Zone, wait it out and go back etc.

Not so. Because once you get your head around the laws for you personally, you then have to look at the laws for your boat.  If we sail out of Turkey, we cannot sail back for six months - we may have residency but the boat cannot return. So no coming back here to reset the clock in that period. Also, and this may not be an issue, the boat itself, regardless of who owns her or what she's called, can only stay in Turkey for 5 years. Kirrikie has already been here 2.5 years.

Then if the EU VAT has been paid and is still valid for your boat, you're ok. Our's isn't. So if we find a way to stay in the Schengen Zone for longer than 90 days, we have to move the boat out of the zone before 180 days is up. Luckily, you don't have to stay out for very long, so that's doable-ish. 

Confused yet? 

We have spent daaaaayyss and weeeeks getting our head around this. This is the main preoccupation with Finike boaties, in fact thousands of boaties, trying to work out the Schengen Shuffle, moving the boat around in line with border laws and within weather windows. Avoiding the Meltemi and other winds.

So, we arrived in ignorant bliss. I joined an afternoon discussion 3 days after our arrival, in January, where the topic was where they were going to be next winter. Huh? I tentatively asked when should we be thinking about this? "NOW!" was the unanimous reply. This is because the demand for marina spots over the winter is very high, and you have to arrange it now. Yikes!

I hurried back to Mike as he was bum up in a boat locker somewhere and relayed the wonderful news that although we had yet to work out how to get the loos working properly, let alone sail 1 day, we had to work out where we would be at the end of the year. The first Big Question that we all discussed for weeks - what are you doing next winter?

The easiest solution would be extend the contract, stay in Finike, or another related marina along the coast. BUT. Thanks to the Schengen Shuffle, Brexit, Croatia now part of Schengen,  the flood of Russian rubles and Turkish inflation, the marina fees have sky rocketed, tripled and more, even more than when we signed last October. Even then I had to breathe into a paper bag to cope. So no-one, including us, can stay unless they have money..

This links into the other Big Question - where are you planning to sail/go this season? Those that have decided they can't or don't want to stay in the Med any longer are planing to be in Morocco or Tunisia towards the end of summer, ready to head west towards the Caribbean, or go north after passing through the Straits of Gibralta. (PS the Canaries? ... part of the Schengen Zone..). Some are staying in Turkey, with a lucky good deal eslewhere. Others will go west and north as soon as possible, as from end of June the head-winds make this a difficult journey, or leaving to go north and then head for Greece. And then they have to negotiate the shuffle.. and find somewhere to stay next winter. And so it goes round.

(In Turkey, there's just 'Delight')

And us? Who haven't really got a clue? The suggestion was Northern Cyprus, where many will be heading. Let's be clear, this isn't Cyprus - that is is in the south and is Greek territory. Northern Cyprus is Turkish, but with a different visa. Many countries including Australia don't recognise Northern Cyprus at all. But the marina is much cheaper...  so I applied for a contract to cover us from the end of October til the end of March. And waited. And waited. And called. And emailed...

Why not try leaving the boat in Greece instead? It will get us up further and ready to see Greece next year. Ok. Emailed more marinas. Got some replies. But then, we looked at the distance and time we'd be heading there after my sister and brother-in-law visit in - not going to work.

The marina in North Cyprus finally offered us a 6 month contract for winter - 1 month after I enquired. This was so they could sort out their fees, and of course they more than doubled in that time. AAAhiieeee! But it will be a safe place to leave the boat, so we can return to Perth for the most important job, welcoming our first grandchild into the world, who has decided to arrive early October. 

Baby Agostinho

Oh - one more tidbit - you can go from southern Cyprus to northern Cyprus, but not the other way around. The Greek Cypriots don't like that at all. And as Australia doesn't recognise Northern Cyprus, we have to fly via Turkey. And when we leave Northern Cyprus next year, we have to sail back to Turkey, then leave so that our paperwork is accepted in other countries... 

And I haven't mentioned our Turkish residency application - it involves the Russians again - or the bilateral agreements established in the 1950's between Australia and Greece, or Italy, that we can apply for, but only if we're in Australia. Which may or may not be accepted, depending on which port official is on duty at the time at various ports. 

Mind Blown!!

Time for a drink, hey?

Here's a winter sunrise instead...

Kirrikie is born

At the beginning of March, we sandgropers of Western Australia get to celebrate a long weekend. There is some rumour that this is for an official day of note, but the real reason is that it is my birthday, so the whole state gets a holiday.  As we seem to be on a permanent long weekend, we had to come up with something equally important to mark my birthday this year.

In reality, the boat is more important than me. So tossing out birthday plans we decided that having picked up our new boat decals (vinyl lettering) while in England visiting Mike's mum and family, it was decided to re-christen the boat, and give her her new name, Kirrikie. In addition, we wanted to say thank you in some way to all the wonderful people in Finike who had made our lives so much easier, be it help with the boat, advice on living on board in a new country, or through support and hospitality. These include

Dean and Linda -  SV Thesee

Ian and Janine Ann - SV Deejay

Lane and Kay - SV Mai Tai

Bill and Laurie - SV Toodle-oo

Ian and Malia - SV Longo Mai

Phil - SV Southern Star IV

Mark - SV Thinking of Dave

Sarah - SV Wandering Star

Sadly for us, Craig and Janine -  SV Inelsamo - had already left, heading towards Marmaris.

This ceremony must contain some very important elements - alcohol - some for us and some for the gods in equal measure, a loud dramatic voice, words of wisdom and great solemnity, metal ingot with the old name on it, friendly witnesses and celebration. 

In anticipation of this ceremony, we picked up some duty free bottles of prosecco on the way back from the UK. The trick is to be able to obtain something of quality, because the gods will know if you are miserly and bad fortune will befall you, and yet feel ok throwing this elixir 4 ways into the wind. You might have to sacrifice a virgin, or at the least ask her to pee on the boat, but that might be a trifle difficult. An option is to use red wine which symbolises the blood of a virgin, but red wine was out because it bloody stains and it was a windy day. And I prefer prosecco..

Pre-ceremony rehearsal (Mike telling me how it's gonna happen)

Luckily for us, a fellow boatie from Oz, Phil, has renamed a few boats in his time. So much so that he had laminated the format and words, which he kindly lent us. Mike reasoned that Phil has never sunk, and that was good enough for us. 

Before the ceremony it is important to remove all traces of the old name - the easy ones were the old decals. Harder was to throw out old paperwork and documents. We may, or may not, have had to keep possibly one sheet that may, or may not, still have the previous words on it, as they may be needed to prove ownership/legality in the future. We also needed a metal object with the old name on it; Mike located an old padlock and scratched the old name onto it. So that's taken care of.

Generally there are 5 parts in a renaming ceremony: Invocation, Expression of Gratitude, Supplication, Re-dedication, and Libation.

Firstly you invoke the God of the Sea Poseidon, also known as Neptune, and in the case of sailing vessels, the God of Wind, Aeolus. They must be thanked for their patronage and protection of the vessel with its previous name and owners. 

All vessels names are recorded by Poseidon in his Ledger of the Deep. Poseidon - bureacrat of the sea. In the next part of the ceremony, you request Poseidon to expunge from all records the name of the vessel as previously recorded, which has 'ceased to be an entity' in his kingdom. As proof of this, a metal ingot bearing the old name must be flung into the sea - at this stage Mike threw the old padlock overboard. Further supplication is made, asking for the Gods' blessing on the vessel with the new name - Kirrikie - and all the protection for safe passages that was previously bestowed on her. 

At this stage the Libation officially begins. In reality our guests had already started to make headway on this, as it should be done, to show the Gods we are all generous beings..  The Gods hate mean, stingy sailors.

Thank you Janine for providing the video footage

As instructed I liberally poured prosecco from east to west, then west to east as a nod to the Gods. Thankfully Phil reminded me of the dire necessity of taking a swig myself at the same time....

Next we appease the 4 OTHER gods of the wind, North, South, East and West. At this stage I wondered if this was some sort of alcholic nautical version of Mah Jong. As the ceremony progressed, Mike's recitations got faster and faster. The god responsible for clouds and rains was threatening to drop in as well, and we just managed to complete it and squeeze all 14 people into the cockpit, and pull over the tarpaulin filling in for our bimini before it rained. 

The Libation and feasting continued well and unabated for some hours, thanks to what seemed like a never ending cellar.  For some of us, it was 8 hours... At times people decided to leave the boat to visit the well appointed facilities, but returned to ensure Kirrikie had the blessings of the Gods. One person, who shall remain nameless, didn't realise she couldn't walk until she tackled the passerelle and jetty. I'm sorry, but well, it was very entertaining watching her smile like an angel while her husband put her shoes for her and carry her home... such a sacrifice she made for our safety, what a gal.

Kirrikie's birthday cake - we love our Turkish French Patisserie

And thank you Dean for providing photos of some of the bottles piling up

Servants of the Gods - Phil, Mark, Ian, Janine Ann, Mike, Me, Dean, Linda, Kay, Sarah, Laurie and Bill. Lane took the photo, Malia and Ian rushed off to return later (I think to close their hatches as it was starting to rain)

Finally, a piece of silver has been placed in the bilge, as a good luck talisman for Kirrikie.

So there it is, believe it or not, some traditions are worth it, even if just for the pleasure of the company of like-minded souls. And Kirrikie now has the same birthday as me.

PS we are not auditioning for Avatar 3 - this is our normal hue, while we continue to wait for our new, paler bimini, and have to rely on the blue tarpaulin.

The Ancient Ruins of Tlos, and discovering Narnia

 Now, where were we?

Oh yes, driving back from Marmaris to Finike...   you may need a bigger cuppa for this one.

Having a four hour drive in front of him, it did take me a little bit of cajoling to get Mike to agree to take short diversion on our way home to visit an ancient site. 

'It's only 13ks off the main road" says I. "So that's 26ks all up. It's nothing.."  (Plus the hour or so to look around, although I didn't bring that up. I'm not that stupid). 

Now, to be fair, I have the advantage of having visited Turkey before, 12 years ago with Jess, and already knew that Turkey is a country with unbelievable ancient sites linking the present day country to many long gone civilizations (e.g. Hittites, Ancient Romans and Greeks....). Mike just thought I was dragging him to a boring bunch of rocks. 

Finally he agreed, turned off the Fethiye-Antalya highway, and tried not to harumph as we drove through green rural scenery gazing at snowy mountains on a bumpy country road. 

And then, at the end of a winding road we spied the impressive remains of what looked like a castle on a steep and rocky hill.

"Holy guacamole!!" shouted Mike as he leapt out of the car.

"Welcome to Turkey"  I said expansively, as if I had created all this for his benefit.

The castle turned out to be The Acropolis, or rulers palace and fortress. But it didn't stop there. The site also contains the remains of a stadium, baths, necropolis, temple and a roman theatre. 

Now, I'm not going to pretend to be an overnight authority, and nothing I write can adequately describe Tlos, so here are the basics - evidence shows that the foundations for Tlos began approximately 4000 years ago, and Tlos, first called Tlawa by the Hittites, became the oldest and largest Lycian city. After several civilisations lived in Tlos, the remains suffered serious earthquake damage in 141 AD, and then again in 240 AD.  

Click here for information about Tlos   

(Apologies to my librarian friends, this is from Wikipedia...)

We first wandered up the hill, taking our time explore the ruins and take in the view. A single Turkish flag fluttered at half mast in the cold wind at the very top of the ruins. It was a very poignant sight. The day was the 7th February 2023, one day after the 2 catastrophic earthquakes in South East Turkey. In fact, while we stood still and considered the fall of this ancient site due to earthquakes, tremors continued to devastate cities and towns elsewhere in Turkey, as they still do. 

PS - there are no photos of the theatre because

a) it was undergoing renovations to repair collapsing walls

b) camera malfunction

c) camera operators malfunctioning, or

d) all of the above.

So after wandering around in awe and contemplating our insignifant place in history, we headed off. Not before Mike had made friends with a local dog, who followed him everywhere and looked completely bereft when he realised Mike was heading for the car. 

I decided to give Mike a break, so I turned off the GPS and told him, when we get back to the main road, just follow the signs to Antalya. He agreed with me, it's one road which we'd already driven, how hard could it be? So I stopped looking at where we were going and paid absolutely no attention to the road, but to the scenery...

After a while I thought, gee that man looks cold, poor guy, as I gazed out the window. Hold up, it's cold because... that's snow outside! What?? There was thin, but definitely white stuff on the ground next to the road. I'd heard that there had been more snow on the mountains near Finike, so we both presumed that it had snowed more than we'd been aware of. 

As it continued we decided, well there was a section 2 days before that had been covered in thick fog, so this must why we didn't recognise any of the landscape. And it was white now.

The snow got thicker and thicker. We got out a couple of times just to revel in the novelty. So exciting - confusing, but fanastic. I was kept busy looking for Mr. Tumnus, after all we had somehow tumbled into Narnia, without a wardrobe. And surely there would be Turkish Delight somewhere too? (You cannot imagine my "delight" when I found out as an adult that this was a real thing).

If you look at the mountains in the distance in this photo, you see a lake we passed and this was the way we were headed...

Eventually it became clear to us that we were also continously, gradually climbing. The wide vistas were not narrowing and descending as we expected. I'd better check our location...

Yup, we were on the wrong road. Heading into The Mountains. We'd forgotten about a small link road between the main highway and the road to Tlos, so we'd turned right to Antalya, as I'd told Mike, instead of left and left again. So, a different road to Antalya. We'd long finished our emergency donuts and it was after 3pm. It would be dark not long after 6pm. Quick, do a U-ey.  

Mike headed up the way we came as I checked the GPS. It said that the way we had already been going was better. Quick, do another U-ey.

So back we went. Admiring the view, but aware that we didn't have chains, and it certainly looked like we were going to cross mountains. The road had recently been graded, but we agreed the moment the road deteriorated, we were turning around again. After about 30 minutes I managed to contact Tarik, the man who had lent us the car.

"Hello Tarik, it's Mandy. We took the wrong road, we're following the GPS route, but we will be back a little later than we thou-.."

"Merhaba - No, No, No.! You must not go that way. I can see you on the GPS tracker, you cannot go over the mountains. You must turn around."

Tarik hadn't even finished speaking and we had that car turned around again pronto. After all, it was still a wide road with, as you can guess, no other vehicles in sight.

Poor Mike, that quick only 26ks (and an hour or so) turned into a marathon effort. The last bit of the road was the winding twisty ocean road, and we'd be doing it in the dark. I'd already got to the jumpy, we're going to die on the next corner stage, so we gave up and stopped off at Kas to rest up. 

Then he had to get me up and on the road by 8am the next morning - another marathon effort - so we could get the car back on time, but we got to enjoy the blue ocean in the morning sun for the first time.

Kas and Marmaris - our first road trip

 Having moved to another country, involving long flights, language barriers, bureacracy and strange everything, what did we do to help settle in?

Leave again. 

Not long after arriving in Finike the cold weather decided to slide off the mountains above us and come to visit the low lands. Faced with days of close to zero nights and frustrated by our inability to obtain boat parts and the essential vaccum (for storing linen and clothes) we run away to Marmaris via Kas. The temptation to be warm and closer to a hot shower was too much for me anyway. We hired a car and yelled at each other while Mike remembered how to drive on the right hand side of the road, and I kept "reminding" him.

The trip there was on a bitterly cold Sunday. It involved winding seaside roads - similiar to the Great Ocean Road in Victoria -  rural towns, straight roads reminiscent of driving through La Trobe Valley (Turkey's Traralgon), rain and deep fog, wind that cut through you, closed cafes all the way, snow capped mountains and finally amazing views looking down on Marmaris, The Pine Honey Capital of The World! (I didn't know it was a competition..)

On our way we did drop into Kas. It was FREEZING. Wet. Very slippery, and, we discovered, without power. So no warm cafe to escape to and and have a cup of tea/coffee/chai. Apparently it helped to be Russian and therefore immune to the cold (ah, there's a story there), but as we are neither, we decided to push on.  But not before seeing how lovely it is, and what a pretty place to come back to... And as always, the cats are well taken care of.

 

Marmaris is a port city, popular with tourists and boaties, located on the Turkish Riveria or Turquoise Coast. Population about 98,000, and probaby much more when the warm weather arrives. Lots of big hotels along the coast, 3 Marinas of varying size and a beautiful big bay which we will come back to and lower our anchor into, and... relax. 

Link to Marmaris Map

But we were here in the cold weather to shop. We visited "yacht' street, which is actually a meandering bunch of streets and lanes near the main Marina, chokka block full of chandleries, sail makers, riggers, canvas specialists.... if it's not in Marmaris, it ain't in Turkey. Naturally, we didn't find what we were looking for, but picked up other 'must haves' like new plastic wine goblets, charts, turning blocks, winch bits, power tools and generally wandered around clutching a list which we ignored. And no vaccum.

Night time saw us venture out along the seaside (looking like Santa and his Russian Bride) to the first restaurant that looked warm. Indeed we were the only ones there, and we were given the best seats in the house, the ones next to the heater. Lovely, a little bit expensive and nice staff. We discussed the difficulty we were having saying 'thank you' properly. The advice we received was to say

                                                                 TeaSugarCream

very fast, and it would sound about right. Further advice was we would have problems should we travel as far as the Black Sea, as no-one could understand them, not even the Turkish. It is a bit like the Scottish, Irish and English.... 

 The next day I continued to complain about no vacumm, but after getting advice from the right people - aka the ladies at our accommodation - we visited to Carrefours.... ahhh bliss. Yes we did get a small cleaner to suck air from bags but the main score? CHEESE. Or more precisley, CHEDDAR CHEESE. And asian souces. And something almost like bacon. And smoked salmon.... a veritable goodie bag. Munching on yummy donuts, we left bloated and feeling more positive about the drive back to Finike. 

The journey back took some interesting turns - see next post - which saw us pull into Kas again to sleep, before an early start to return the hire car by 9am the next day. The temperature had risen to -1 degrees, the rain had stoppped and power was restored so it was a much more pleasant stop. Once again we sought out a cafe with heating and about 7 cats, who were there for the same reasons as us, and enjoyed the night and morning views over Kas, before a sunny drive home to Finike.