We decided to check into Turkey at Kemmer. For me checking in is often "tear my hair out time" because invariably we are mucked around a treat. Andrew copes with this very well as he has the patience of a saint but for me I can get quite Scotty. My sister Pat (when with us recently) pointed out that I inherited this trait from our mother - thanks Mum.
Anyhow, we had heard that in Kemmer all the necessary authorities are close by and therefore the tedious process should only take a couple of hours.
The steps in the process are:
Acquire a transit log from marina office (authorization to cruise in the country)
Passport police (for a visa)
Doctor (to check for infectious diseases)
Customs (authorizes the boat to be in Turkey)
Harbour master (authorization to sail to different ports).
Now for the "tear my hair out" news, in Kemmer this process took three days. On day one there were no transit logs available. The morning of day two we had the transit log and the passport police. Customs had to be called and came at 3pm, the doctor arrived 7pm. The poor man had driven 40 kilometers from Antalya to ask "has anyone died on board?" which I guess is a big improvement from a few years ago when another Doctor's first question was "what is the registered tonnage of the yacht?" On day three the harbour master arrived to finish the process.
For the three days, we were told we must stay on the boat and we couldn't go shopping. We ignored that directive and went shopping as the 90 day visa we received in April was still current. This would have to be our worst check in experience to date. No, I'm not bald, but that's a wonder!
Just to add salt to our wounds we then traveled to Finike, met up with some friends who had checked in there and it took one hour. I guess it's all just the luck of the draw.
We are now anchored in a peaceful bay at Kekova. Plenty of swimming, reading, relaxing. Yesterday it was very hot (30-35 degrees) with warm winds, thankfully today is much more pleasant, the temperature is around 30 degrees but the breeze is cooler. We are very glad to have our Aussie silver tarp to keep the boat shaded and cool.
We don't know where we are going next, but for the moment here is perfectly fine.
love CANDY
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