We arrived in Turkey or now called Türkiye (more about that later) three weeks ago after checking out of Greece on the island of Symi. And we checked out just in time. The police told us we were on day 89 of our 90 days allowed in Greece as tourists. We asked if we could leave the following morning on day "90" - they were a bit confused on how to answer and finally said we should leave now because otherwise, we could face a 600 euro pp penalty for overstaying. The decision was made. We quickly did some last-minute duty-Free shopping and stocked Seabee's floorboards with lots of wine and spirits, as these things are taxed heavily in Turkey, and set sail!
We hired an agent in Turkey a few days beforehand to help us with all the paperwork, visas, and red tape involved in bringing a sailboat into Turkey. It was worth every penny, as the process is very involved in Turkey. We also learned a surprise along the way, that our agent called out. Even though Kivanc is a Turkish national, he can only stay in Turkey for 3 months as the co-owner/captain of Seabee without being subjected to Turkish taxes on our sailboat since Seabee is an American-flagged vessel. Taxes could be as high as 30-40k on a sailboat like ours. This adds a bit of a complication as Kivanc plans to stay in Turkey through the winter, while I go back to California. We have some ideas for a workaround and soon we will need to get busy changing boat documents to put everything under my name. Never a dull moment with boat bureaucracy.
As we approached Turkey we entered a bay near the Bozburun harbor and were astonished at how many boats we saw anchored - it looked like a parking lot. The last time we were in this area was about 6 years ago, during a sailing charter vacation and the difference was overwhelming. Since Covid hit everyone who has been thinking about buying a sailboat bought one. As expected due to Brexit, we have seen lots of British flagged boats here escaping the EU now that they have the 90 days rule applied to them. However, the vast majority of boats are Turkish flagged. Even though Turkey is in a bad recession, there are still plenty of Turks with extra money and since their country has a fantastic sailing playground, they all want to have a boat, and who can blame them - not us! One of the interesting things Kivanc was quick to observe is many folks bought boats but don't know how to sail them. They hire a captain and keep the captain on salary for the summer or sometimes all year. I'm not talking about a hired captain for super yachts or mega yachts - I'm talking about sailboats that are about the size of Seabee with a hired captain! It drives Kivanc nuts! I say whatever floats their boat...
As we have been sailing around the coast we discovered most of the bays to be extremely crowded. Do not expect to anchor and have a private bay all to yourself in Turkey during the summer months. Now that September is here, we are hoping that we will start to see fewer boats. Nevertheless, it's beautiful and amazing and we are still having a great time. Plus after all the wild winds we had in Greece this is a walk in the park, nice 10-15 knots of wind each day - perfection! I do feel we are very lucky to be sailing in the Med right now, as I honestly can't imagine what it will be like in 5- 10 years. I’m not sure we would enjoy it as more and more boats and people will surely come here.
One of the highlights of being in Turkey is the food. We enjoyed the Greek cuisine and honestly had a few of the best meals of our lives there. But Turkey is special. Being on the mainland now, instead of the islands we have an endless supply of the most delicious produce + the Turkish butcher shop meats are beautiful and fresh. Going to restaurants is fun as well, as the spices and ingredients used are different from Greece. Turkish cuisine is slightly similar to Greek cuisine but has influences from surrounding Middle Eastern countries to the east and the Black Sea countries to the north. The best part of all is the food prices - such a bargain! I'm having fun cooking on the boat with so much variety.
Regarding the name change to Türkiye - President Erdogan wanted no more confusion for English speakers referencing the country to the bird. Apparently, this is a big embarrassment to him. For Kivanc and I, it will always be Turkey.
Last week we had our first guests of 2022 onboard Seabee. Some good friends from Istanbul joined us and we had an absolute blast sailing with them! We explored the Datca peninsula which is a wine region with 2,500-year-old ruins - just incredible! Looking ahead we have a few more special reunions coming up with dear friends in Turkey. Life is good on Seabee right now - plus we have cat friends everywhere we dock.
