Under a clear starry night, although cold and winds less than 5 Kts out of the east, we continued to make good progress on engines alone and obtain a DMG (Distance Made Good) that would ensure a mid-afternoon arrival in Finike, Turkey, and avoid a third night at sea. That was until Elaine came on watch at 0300 and a strong countercurrent of 2 Kts raised its ugly head, reducing our SOG (Speed Over Ground) to 5 Kts and moving our arrival time to late afternoon / early evening, but before sunset. Not ideal, but we were hoping we’d make up the lost time if and when the current reversed.

Dawn broke at around 0500 and the sunrise at 0545 revealed a bright sunny day with clear blue skies. We had 60 NM to go and the countercurrent had reduced by 0.5 Kts. Thankfully, at around 1030 we had a 1.1 Kt current with us, increasing our SOG back to 7.5 Kts. Land ahoy occurred at 30NM out when we spotted the towering mountains bordering the coastline. What we weren’t expecting was snow on the mountains. No wonder it was so cold! The next surprise was a warship of NATO Sea Guardian Operations greeting us and waited around until we had raised our Turkey and Quarantine flags. We’d definitely entered another world!

By 1500 we had arrived in Setur Finike Marina, where Paw Paw will remain while we visit loved ones in various parts of the world. This has been our single motivator for this passage, as exhausting as it’s been. We’ve sailed 5600NM in just under 2 1/2 months, departing Phuket, Thailand on 15th January 2022, where at least 30 days of that time was spent at anchor when we stopped for rest, diesel or weather. Never in our wildest dreams did we ever think we would do this particular passage and never in the timeframe that we did it in.

Hello Turkey and now for a well deserved rest, get Paw Paw cleaned, get much needed haircuts, detox our bodies from all the “Armageddon” meals, get some exercise and finalise arrangements to see loved ones.