VdeG Tusucu Turkey to Cyprus

My Birthday LtR Ian, Self, Gay, Melanie, Michelle, Andy.

Blue Magic's mystery crew member

A dog called Bollock, for obvious reasons

The Skippers were now getting itchy feet and wanted to get going from Turkey. We had had our last supper with full support from the local Mayor who provided us all with a bag containing hats and tea-shirts, Fuel had been delivered and food hoarded. The last detail was checking out of Turkey. For some reason we could not check out till midnight, meaning we would leave on Monday from 0000hr till 7am. We were ready to go so rather than wait till morning we left Tusucu at 1am to do the 140 miles to Paphos.

Paphos Fort and fishing fleet.

An ideal and unusual Easterly wind was in our favour as we cleared the headland and set a southwesterly course to West Cyprus. Large thunderstorms were to our port side over the mountains of Turkish Cyprus and I expected them to remain there and not bother us. We could see and hear the flashes and rumbles some 60 miles away. During our passage the wind blew from 25 knots to zero, mostly on our rear quarter making for a pleasant sail. The last part we had to motor as the wind died but we arrived in Paphos ahead of the others only by one hour, at 0600 on Wed 3rd October. The fleet were not so lucky and got caught up in the storms, some getting 35kn of wind but no lightning strikes. Most of the way they had to motor.

Rafted with seven others, Paphos.

Paphos is not a Marina as such so we were required to raft up alongside each other, the largest boats on the inside going down to Jigsaw on the outside, eight boats in all. Another group were tied together next to some local boats with lines running in every direction. Kiwi, Gavin from catamaran Sol Maria dived down and got a line to a secure block behind us so we became the anchor point for the raft should we get any strong Easterly wind....
For most of us, Cyprus was an opportunity to re-stock supplies not available in Turkey. I'm not talking Marmite and Tetley. Very reasonably priced spirits meant every available space on the boat was filled with bottles, cartons and cans. Lydl provided tins of ham and other preserves that would make the winter easier to 'endure'.