Gladlee of Guernsey

17th-20th May  -  Girne, N.Cyprus   

The distance to Girne from Alanya was 98nm so an overnight passage was necessary for the sailboats, the larger motorboats could manage it in a day. The sailboats started pealing off during the day with much better weather conditions than the departure from Kemer. The idea was that the last boats in were the first to leave to avoid the problem of crossed anchors but this didn’t work in all cases. Frank and Geoff were out again in their dinghies helping and Rudi even donned diving kit at one stage to help free someone. Geoff had to give up helping when Jen called him over as s/y "Sooty Albatross" was bouncing off the bottom!! We were going to be the last to leave so that everyone was safely out first and s/cat "Vision" being fast could catch up later. This was delayed further when s/y "Soleil sans Fin" radioed with a problem and were returning because they were sinking and needed a pump desperately. It turned out the water was coming from an engine cooling pipe so that was fixed and they continued later. S/cat "Vision" then set off and had an interesting sail through the night, again having to sail right through the pack, this time at night!

The arrival at Girne was well organised with the Harbour Master, Hasan, Frank and Tari directing boats to their berths. Some went to the new harbour and some squeezed into the old which had been cleared of local boats.

In the evening of the day of arrival, a reception was held in the castle by Rauf Denktaş, the President of Northern Cyprus. There were the usual presentations by Hasan and a speech by Mr Denktaş followed by folk dancing and singing. We did manage to find some beers and went out later with Geoff and Jen and Liza and Andy from s/y "Bagueera" for dinner. There was a trip the next day but we stayed to look after "Vision" and indeed the wind got up in the afternoon so we had to get extra lines on fast as we had this ‘vision’ of "Bingo", "Vision" and the pontoon heading off together down the harbour! There was the traditional pirate party at the Dome Hotel in the evening, which was a great success, most people making an effort to dress up. Red group even managed another prize as Linda won first prize for her costume.