Kas Turkey to Thessaloniki Greece

[AJ-SeaChange]

My wife and I on our Jeanneau SO 45.1 are currently in the harbour of Kas, Turkey for the winter months and we want to go visit a friend in Thessaloniki, Greece.


We were planning on making the trip around March 2019, hugging the Turkish coast as far north as possible and then waiting for a weather window to hop west.



Have any of you ever sailed this passage?

Is there a better time of year to head north through the Aegean?
Any advice on protected anchorages along the way?


Thank you in advance for your feedback.

[MartinR]

March is a good time for this. The winds are more variable then. There are LOTS of protected anchorages along the way. Nice harbours also. And the Turkish coast is very beautiful. You are right, go north on the Turkish side, including the Dodecanes, then hop across from Chios or so. Up there, the wind tends to be more Northeasterly.

You will probably be able to sail directly to Bozukkale or Serce Limani, both good anchorages, Bozukkale with an old hellenic fort. No need to anchor in either as in march you can go alongside some restaurant jetty.

Bozburun and Datca are nice small sleepy cities with cheap harbours.

Don't miss Knidos, you anchor inside an ancient Roman harbour, with the ruins of the city overlooking the anchorage.

Hundreds of anchorages to choose from, all beautiful, so hard to be specific.

[AJ-SeaChange]

Thank you Martin.

[MartinR]

Cesme is by the way a good place to clear out of Turkey.

[AJ-SeaChange]

We were thinking of going even further north and checking out of Turkey at Canakkale and entering Greece at Myrina on the island of Limnos.


If anyone has any experience of those two places we'd love to hear from you.

[vw1961]

We did that in August 2018, Canakkale: Nice cheap marina run by the municipality, helpful staff with check out and harbourmasters office closeby. Pleasant town, good supplies. Only thing, i found it difficult to dock at the customs pier inside the marina, docking stern-to with the strong prevailing winds coming from the bow and limited space. Next time i will go bows-to. Also even when it is calm in the dardanelles itself, coming out to the aegean, it can be quite rough. But both might not be an issue in march, out of the meltemi time.
In Myrina plenty of space on the town quai, friendly police to check in, but quite complicated to get the DEKPA which involves visiting another building at the other end of the town and a bank, so lots of walking

[AJ-SeaChange]

Hey VW1961 thank you so much for that info, very handy to have that much detail.

[meirriba]

We did this route in spring 2017. Early spring is fine as weather will be less meltemi prone...
I think that north of Turgutreis, there is no much fun in Turkey, except Pergamon near Kusadasi.
We went through the Greek islands. Hopping north according to the weather. All islands have plenty of options of berths and anchorages, just consult Heikel's pilot book.

[AJ-SeaChange]

Thank you for that extra info regarding the north Turkish coast.

[MartinR]

There are very nice anchorages North of Turgutreis, but the distances in between are longer. All doable in daylight. Also, there are very few yachts cruising here, so few facilities. I actually love this area, just for this. Good marinas around Cesme and Kusadasi. C&N marina in Cesme is very beautiful, but expensive.

Lesvos is a beautiful island and Sigri is a good staging point to Limnos. Greek or Turkey is according to taste, the problem is you are not allowed to sail in between without clearing in and out every time. Turkish yachts do it anyhow, and it seems nobody cares. They just get their DEKPA and do not clear out when going back to Turkey. Some islands, like Simi you can go to without clearing in. But it is always a risk. That is why for me it is either Turkey or Greece.

Also, you need to plan your Blue Card waste pumping. Two years ago, you could just swipe your card and that was it, most stations did not work anyhow, but now the government has camera control, to check that there really is a boat pumping out:-(. Many places have still no pump out facilities, so commercial marinas are the best bet. Fines are abhorrently high.

[AJ-SeaChange]

Thank you Martin for that extra information. We have a blue card and we pump out regularly at the fuel dock at Kas marina.



We will be planning out our route to take all of these factors into consideration. We understand that switching between Turkish and Greek waters is a no no.



Once we've calculated distances and researched facilities we'll choose our Turkish exit port. We can be self sufficient for quite a while with lots of solar and fresh water.


Once again, thank you for the information.

[MartinR]

This August we sailed in 8 days from Marmaris to Lesvos. All the time the Meltemi was blowing, so it was basically a beat. We started early a few days, but we did not have to sail nighttime. Always an anchorage within reach. Is easily doable in summer, in spring will be much better. North of Bodrum we met almost no boats, at the height of the season:-).

[olianta]

Originally Posted by AJ-SeaChange

We were thinking of going even further north and checking out of Turkey at Canakkale and entering Greece at Myrina on the island of Limnos.


If anyone has any experience of those two places we'd love to hear from you.

Myrina is nice town. Check in there. Of course you will lose the morning for bureaucracy. From Myrina you can continue west to Porto Koufo on the tip of Sythonia (Chalkidiki). Good protected anchorage. At this time of the year I believe you can tie to the dock as well but surely the many tavernas will be closed and there is nothing else to do on the shore.

Re: Thessaloniki I recommend Aretsou Marina.

[AJ-SeaChange]

Hi Olianta, thank you for the useful tips. All of these suggestions are getting pinned onto Google Earth and will be very helpful when we plan our route.


We don't really care that none of the tavernas will be open, we can be very self suffcient for a long time on board A B Sea.


Thank you.

[calin1967]

I would not worry so much about the weather. I would just plan 10-12 hours hops and wait for the weather windows, in any month. Last time when I checked in in Myrina, the moment the police came to their office, a big passenger ship with an american flag appeared. They told us that the island's GDP will grow 10% due to that visit and they will not loose a minute with us (all the prices grew by 50% instantly). So we went to a taverna and played backgammon till the ship left, which was very pleasant.