EMYR 2011–Cyprus, Karpas Gate

After our eventful exit from Girne, the rest of the journey was ‘plain sailing’ (almost).  It was a little chaotic getting in but once in we were all given special welcome bags with T-shirts, pens and other ‘Karpas Gate’ merchandise. We arrived at about 5.30 pm and we were told that the official reception was at 6 pm! After a very quick shower we joined the rest of the crews for the opening ceremony. It was yet another free bar and the tired crews were soon getting well stuck into the enormous gin and tonics the marina staff were pouring. When challenged about their generosity we were told that they wanted to get rid of the booze as soon as possible so they could get to the night club! Well they certainly got an early night because the rally members were all dead on their feet (or floor!) by 9.30 pm. They really did look after us though, with another brilliant buffet meal and live band – pity we were all too ‘tired’ to enjoy it! The speeches did go on a bit though!

Early in the evening, before the crews got too ‘tired’, group meetings were called and we were all told that plans for the following day had changed – two of the government departments were having a power struggle and we were told that we weren’t able to check out of Cyprus at Karpas Gate (because it was a new marina and not yet registered) and that we had to go to Famagusta the following day! This was another 68 mile trip on a day when we were supposed to be resting. We had to get up at 4.30 am to arrive in Famagusta by 6 pm. Oh well, all part of the adventure!

We set the alarm and were off just after 4.15 am. It was a bit swelly as we motor-sailed along the North coast of the pan handle of Cyprus, but when we rounded the point the wind increased and we had a cracking sail all the way to Famagusta.

EMYR 2011–Cyprus - Girne

We had a fabulous first night passage from Alanya to Girne in the Turkish republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) Justin took the first night watch ubtil about 2 am and then Helen did the next 4 hours seeing the sun come up. We arrived in Girne at 10.30 am ready to be berthed stern too in the commercial port. The authorities had cleared all commercial shipping for the duration of our stay, costing them a considerable amount of money. We were slightly late docking as Michael and Christine from ‘Skysong’ hooked someone’s anchor on the way in and also managed to pick up another boat’s anchor tripping line! They had to be cut free by a local diver and to compound it all the local press photographer from ‘Cyprus Today’ was on hand to record the whole incident! Oh well no one noticed (much!) but the following day’s headlines ran as ‘Not all plain sailing for BBC newsreader’. Unfortunately we didn’t have a much better time coming in as we seemed to drop our anchor far too late and had to move three boats down to avoid a real tangle. More on that in a moment…

In the evening at 6.30 p.m. we were collected by buses and taken to the castle for a welcome cocktail party hosted by the President of Northern Cyprus.  Finger food and drinks were being offered by waiters all night and a local dance group performed for us whilst traditional live music was being played.  We were lucky enough to meet up with the press photographer again and she kindly gave the ladies a lift home and returned to pick the gentlemen up who had started to make there way home on foot! It was a magical evening.

We spent the following day chilling out, cleaning the boat and preparing for the next social event. In the evening, a bus collected us at 7 p.m. and took us all to another cocktail party organized by Girne American University held at the Camelot Beach Resort.  Drinks and finger food were served all night and live music played by students.  Speeches were made by various government officials and they made us all very welcome.

The following morning some friends of Carol and Brian’s kindly gave us a lift to the local supermarket where we were able to stock up on all the essentials – Beer, Gin and Heinz Baked Beans! The local wine merchant also arrived selling cheap boxed wine out of the back of his van! (only for entertaining of course!)

We then took a walk into Girne and had a pleasant lunch overlooking the Old Harbour. We needed to make our way back to the marina mid afternoon, in order to prepare ourselves for one of the rally highlights – the Pirate Party.

This was held at one of the top hotels in Girne and we all gathered in the centre of town with our pirate costumes on and our national flags waving. We managed to stop the whole town as we paraded through to the hotel! Great fun. The food, company and entertainment were all excellent. We finally fell into bed after Midnight following a taxi ride home because the buses had not been able to make it back to the hotel – there had been a big football match in Turkey; the local team had just one the league and all of the supporters were out on the streets causing chaos !

Pre Party drinks aboard Avocet.

 

This lad was a guest at the marina and ended up with more swords and hats than he knew what to do with!

We decided that although we hadn’t taken the organised tour, a trip to Nicosia was a must. So after the skipper’s meeting we set off with Michael and Christine in a local min-bus taxi to the divided city. Michael and Christine had arranged to meet up with Michael’s old sound engineer from his days reporting in South Africa who lives in the Greek South. We were dropped off in the old town and had a very enjoyable few hours walking around the city.  After our return we had a quiet evening and prepared for the following day’s passage to Karpas Gate marina.

Silk worms for sale!

 

 

The Green line  - border between North and South Cyprus

We were due to leave at 8 am in strict reverse order of berthing to try to avoid any crossed anchor chains – it was all going very smoothly until we tried to leave and raise the anchor. The chain suddenly tightened and ground to a juddering halt bending the stainless steel bow roller. We were caught on a rock, not just one rock but two rocks! After much manoeuvring were decided we were well and truly stuck and luckily one of our ozzy friends dived off his boat with a mask and snorkel and dived to release us!  We then made our way to the fuel quay to fill up with diesel and we were on our way to Karpas Gate Marina …..