We left Pserimos at 0700 in a light N NW wind. We put up the main and the Genoa and sailed, then motored when the wind died, then sailed again when the wind picked up occasionally we motorsailed. We arrived in Datca at 1500 so we made good time despite the light winds. Anchored in the North bay with plenty of space, unfortunately I zoomed too far out on the chart plotter and we placed the anchor, on what looked like from the plotter when I eventually zoomed out, an underwater cable that was lying on the surface of the sea bed. When I reset the chart plotter my anchor marker was directly on the cable. We dived on the anchor and found that it was only a couple of feet away so we decided to re-anchor to be on the safe side. That would have been very ironic to have come all this way to save €210 only to have had to get a diver, costing hundreds of €, to free us from a submarine cable!

The agent for the entry procedure was waiting for us, he had done all the paperwork before we had arrived. He took us to immigration, a very pleasant and polite lady, then to customs, an extremely pleasant and cheerful officer who even welcomed us to “paradise”. Then the agent went to the harbour master on his own and met us back at his office, all done in less than 30mins. All the officials were cheerful and polite and very welcoming, so different from Greece. Even the new Transit log was simple. One piece of A4 paper, no book of triple copies to keep and get stamped. All our details are on computer, so no reporting to Port police, the officers can look up your details from their computers probably even at sea.

The weather is now very hot and is officially a heatwave. On Muskie the temperature is daily above 40’c, the humidity is just 20% and the sea temperature is often 29’c. Not a time for the water maker to pack up! We know what bits we need but we are not going to order them from Trinidad and have them sent out to Türkiye or Greece after our last experience with FedEx and customs so we will wait until get home to order them and bring them out with us time. In the mean time we will have to buy drinking water to top up the tanks and use the tap water for washing from jerry cans. Our rain catcher is doing a very good job at keeping the rain away!