Mersin, Turkey
Vasco da Gama
Ian Strathcarron
Sun 9 May 2010 09:39
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We are tied up to a pontoon in the port of Mersin
on the SE Mediterranean coast of Turkey. Mersin is the biggest city we
have seen for a long time. We are in the centre, alongside fishing
boats, some Turkish-owned power boats, and floating restaurants in big, old
gulets from which Turkish pop music wails into the early hours of the
morning. Nearby is a pleasant square, shaded by palm, cypress,
hibiscus and oleander trees where there are some smart clothes shops and
restaurants, although we discovered last night that none of the
restaurants serve alcohol, so we drank coffee and diet cokes like the rest
of the natives until we got back to the boat. Mooring here was quite
dramatic, as there was no space, and a fisherman indicated we could tie up to
him after dropping our kedge anchor, which runs from the stern of the
boat. The kedge anchor we only use warily and occasionally, and this time
it jammed on the way down. I was on the helm trying to keep ourselves
steady and not colliding with anybody, when people from various other boats
started gesticulating and shouting and miming that we should pull up the kedge
anchor, as two large boats were on their way in and they would become
entangled with our anchor chain. The helpful fisherman, who
spoke some English, moved out of his space to allow us to tie up to the
pontoon. At this moment, the kedge anchor jammed on the way up and Ian had
a terrific battle to dislodge the anchor as we moved backwards and forwards and
he tugged on yards of heavy iron chain. By now people on all the
surrounding boats were watching and encouraging and trying to be helpful (but in
Turkish which didn't help much at all). Eventually we were free to tie
up. So far we are not connected to water or electricity and it is all very
ramshackle, but at least we are safe.
To get here from Cyprus, we have had
five lovely days of cruising, anchoring each night in quiet bays or small
fishing harbours. We have been greeted enthusiastically everywhere we go,
although we have not been ashore very much, preferring to stay on board, swim,
and eat and drink in the open air. Thanks to a Vodafone dongle, attached
to this computer, we have been able to hear BBC Radio and follow the drama of
the election. We huddle around the wireless like families before the
arrival of television. This coast does not have the spectacular beauty of
the Aegean Coast where we cruised last year and it is less visited by foreign
tourists, and we are noticing a more Middle Eastern or
Levantine atmosphere. There is very little traffic on the sea, just a few
fishing boats and large freighters, some heading in and out of Lebanon and
Israel. In Alanya we saw a camel for the first time. He, or
she, was quite small, wearing a coloured fez, and standing patiently by the side
of the road, perhaps waiting to take children for rides along the beach,
like donkeys in English seaside towns. Also in Alanya there is a
marvellous Seljuk fortress, built in the 13th century, on top of a
promontory which divides the town in two. The Seljuks were the original
Turkish people, originating from Central Asia, and establishing their
empire in the lands once colonised by Greek Byzantines. I have
christened this coast the Coast of Castles as we have
seen so many castles, some fairly intact, some in ruins. They
are either Byzantine, Seljuk or Ottoman, and particularly in this part of the
world - called the Cicilian coast by the Romans - Armenian. It seems that
in the 11th century there was an exodus of a group of people from Armenia
(one thousand miles to the north east) who settled on this coast and
founded the Kingdom of Lesser Armenia. As the Armenians were Christian,
they were very helpful to the Crusaders who passed through here in
1097 on the First Crusade.
Crusader history is very noticeable in Cyprus, as
it was a Christian island, and so near the Holy Land. The port of
Famagusta was an extraordinary place to visit. It was here that the
remnants of the Crusader Knights, who established and held a kingdom on a
coastal strip stretching from Antioch, now in Turkey, to Acre, now in
Israel, came when they were finally expelled from the land they called Outremer
in 1291. The old city, which is surrounded by a
high wall, ramparts and a moat encircling about one square mile, contains
the remains of at least a dozen huge cathedrals and churches, built in
the styles current in Europe at the period, Romanesque and
Gothic. Most of them are intact, only the roofs are missing,
apart from the Cathedral of St. Nicholas, which is now a mosque. It looks
like a slightly scaled-down version of Notre-Dame in Paris, except
built in the golden limestone of the island. A guide told
us there were once 365 religious buildings in Famagusta, created by the
wealth and piety of the religious orders. Another
beautiful survivor is Bellapais Abbey above our anchorage at
Kyrenia, founded by Augustinian monks from Jerusalem in 1200 and enlarged
by the Lusignan kings in the 13th and 14th centuries. Some of it is
romantically ruined, but the refectory has survived and we saw a classical music
concert performed by two young pianists. We went to the concert with a
charming couple from the Orkneys (Orkadians?), called Roy and Moira Dennison on
the yacht Halcyon, who were our neighbours at various anchorages and
moorings.
I have to leave Ian and Vasco in Mersin with the
fishermen until I return from the funeral and memorial in
Pennsylvania of my brother-in-law Larry, who died earlier this
year. This has been a sad time for my family. When I return we
will sail south to Lattakia in
Syria.
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