Dear friends,
Harmonica spent a week day-sailing along the "Turquoise Coast" of Turkey before the 2 night jump across to Cyprus. It is a lovely cruising coast indented with many bays. All of the hillsides are full of goats and ruins from Romans, Greeks, & Lycians. Sage, Oregano, rosemary and herbs we don't recognise grow around the olive trees, so the goat meat comes pre-seasoned on the hoof. In early April we had most anchorages to ourselves, but the major towns have enough boats ready to go that we assume it gets busy in summer. Sailing is less than wonderful since all Mediterranean winds blow the wrong way at the wrong strength and change to another wrong direction almost as soon as you have the sails set. We have been checking weather forecasts from the UK Maritime net on the HAM radio.
We left for Cyprus on David's birthday & had an amazing farewell from the birds. First we were visited by a long eared owl which sat on the rail for a few hours peering in through the window of our dodger. Then a tired swallow landed and was quickly followed by a sparrow. Yellow-breasted finches followed and at one time we had 2 swallows, 5 sparrows, & an owl all heading across the open sea with us. It was worth putting up with the noise and mess the sparrows left behind them.
Our first week has left the impression of Cyprus as a fine mix of ex-British colonials, Greek Orthodox, & Turkish muslim communities. Having landed in North (Turkish) Cyprus, we are in a country not recognised by the South (Greek) side or by many other countries. We cannot cross the UN-defended border, although tourists can cross the other way. It is always tough remembering names in a new place, but here every town has both Greek & Turkish names eg. we are in Kyrenia, which is now called Girne; the capital is Nicosea or Lefkosa, the island is Cyprus or Kibris etc. Our passports are in the care of the customs dept. but will not be stamped to show that we have been here. The money & language are the same as in Turkey, and the flag is similar. They drive on the left, have roundabouts at the major junctions, walk in the mountains & speak a lot of English so the colonial past is clear. The orthodox churches are mostly well maintained, although some are painted white inside and used as mosques. It would also be beautiful country for cycling holidays with quiet, windy, narrow roads. The Kyrenia mountains rise abruptly to about 1,000 metres behind the town and fall off again as steeply to flat, fertile plains in the middle of the Island.
It is on the slopes of these mountains that the retired ex-patriot english try to relive the life of Lawrence Durrel who wrote "Bitter Lemons of Cyprus" close by. Durrel's "tree of idleness" is healthy but now engulfed in a cafe selling tea & beer. Across the road is a monastery from the 11th & 12 centuries where we heard a wonderful violin recital from the world-renowned player Alexander Markov. The evening recital replaced the casual, dusty village life by the elegance of a concert hall modified only by tree frogs audible outside and 2 pigeons trapped in the stone vaulted roof. We imagined that many from the audience were connected with the universities which abound here. We know of 3 universities, which is a lot for a country which claims a population of 200,000.
We have been spoilt for weather over the last 20 months and a morning cabin temperature of 20 degrees C is still cool for shorts & T shirt. This time last year we were in Colombia 10 degrees north! Swimming is possible and both of us have now tested the waters accidentally: Jan somehow missed the dinghy getting up onto a jetty in Boyuk Buku, and Dave managed to make the gang plank fittings fail their strength test in Girne!
Daily ship life continues. We are now the proud owners of a blue, plastic, dual voltage, 300 watt, washing machine....a hand-me-down from other cruisers. Dave cleaned the motor and replaced the elastic band holding the timing switch together. It proudly sits beside us in the cockpit when being used. We are now looking for a boat size wringer to go alongside it (it has no spin cycle).
In 2 or 3 days we shall head east along the coast and anchor in what tiny bays we can find there.
Dave & Jan