30th May 2006 - Mersin to Iskanderun

Posted at 2:25 PM, Thursday, May 25, 2006

This 80 mile leg across from Mersin on the southern Med coast to Iskanderun on the most eastern Med coast of Turkey, was another overnight affair.  Apart from a glorious sunset on the mountains behind Mersin as we left it behind early evening (that's Brit yacht Antigua Lady just creeping into right of the picture below), it was pretty uneventful.

Seas as you can see were flat.  They stayed that way.  Good 15 knot breeze directly from the south.  Next to zero commercial traffic.  We had the sea to ourselves (weeeell, if you ignore the other 80 yachts, that is).

Had been warned to keep to a good lookout for floating trash.  This part of the Med is the final resting place for just about every bit of plastic blown west.  Last year one yacht had to be hauled from the water with a complete plastic greenhouse cover - 120 metres long and 20 metres wide - welded to its propellor.

We were lucky - and saw nothing at all except lobster pots on our apporach to Iskanderun fishing boat harbour.  It felt hot even at 0800 - by midday, parked up in the harbour, it was roasting.

Hard eh?

JOHN