Ed, The rules to stay in turkey have changed. With your 1 year transit log, you can renew your 90 day visas and stay as long as you want
See your marina office for details. If not, can send. Regret to say that had you asked in advance, would have suggest you NOT check in Istanbul, or if you must, hire and agent and enjoy a rum and coke. Currently in Marmaris where the days are 30+ and the nights 23+ C Lee MarMaris "LeeZe" On Sep 4, 2012, at 15:13 , Alan Lewis wrote: Great story Ed. It sounds almost as bad as trying to register a vehicle in Massachusetts. I hope your winter is snow-free and warm. Alan Alan Lewis "Victoria" Gulfstar 41 #160 Lying Kittery, ME K1ALL Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2012 08:16:00 +0300 From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: [Liveaboard] Living aboard while cruising ... checking into Turkey It is a chore to check into Turkey in Istanbul. In case anyone has trouble sleeping they can read the following tale of the 9 hour slog to get the bureaucratic necessities out of the way... we are now legal for up to 90 days. We will try to get an extension before our permission expires, or go to Greece, or get a temporary resident papers. We decided last winter that it was warmer in southern Turkey than in London. We are excited about Istanbul but it snows here in the winter. That "S" word we hate as ex-patriot Iowans. Hope everyone had a fabulous Labor Day Weekend. Ed and Sue Kelly on Angel Louise... (now living aboard in Turkey and planning on doing the Med next year before coming home to America) -- Ed & Sue Kelly sailing vessel ANGEL LOUISE - Catalac 12m -o0o- US Skype phone #: 202-657-6357 [email protected] CHECKING INTO TURKEY... read the book, do not wait for the movie! We share the story of what it is like to check in as a foreign pleasure boat in Turkey. For your amusement and as a sleep-aide. Warning: You may fall asleep before you finish the story. (its so long) Do not operate any heavy machinery or drive as you may be too drowsy to stay awake after reading. <Very Big Grin "VBG> COSTS: <optional> Taksi for day (taxi) 320 TL ($176 US) TRANSIT LOG COST at Bureau of Shipping 135 TL ($74.25 US) Health office (can't remember ... did they have 10 TL charge??? (Sue thinks not.. I thought they surgically extracted 10 TL from my pocket) <optional> noon food ... Baklava and Chi for three people... 24 TL ($14.40 US) VISA OFFICE TO STAMP PASSPORT AND PUT STICK IN STAMP IN IT ($40 US - they wanted it in US money that would have been 72.75 Turkish Lyra Excess payment for tonnage of pleasure boat over 10 Net Tons... 9.75 TL ($5.04 US) AGENT FEE: nothing...none used but TAXI driver did some interpreting and finding out info in some places Experience PRICELESS Yahoo... we are checked in and have our transit log. WHAT A PROCESS. The agents will check you in and they charge $450 US... we did not use one. But we did hire a taxi for all day and that cost 280TL (Turkish Lyra) and he was with us for 9 hours!!!! What a bargain... We ended up feeling sorry and so grateful for him. We bargained his priced down from 300 Turkish Lyra, then at the end of the day, where he stood in line with us for several hours... we felt guilty and in the end paid him a total of 320 TL ($176 US) ... He was most pleasant and a very nice man named Bayram with a phone number of 0546 244 76 06 - he works the West end of Istanbul near Atakoy where we stay near the fancy Sheraton Hotel. We will use him again this week I imagine. He really was super nice and we never would have gotten checked in on one day without him... so he bought us a lot more time. We followed some printed directions other cruisers have shared that were written for folks at Marinas on the Asian side of town. We were told by our marina office we did not have to go to the Visa office on their list... and would not have had to, as the passport police here next to the customs dock would have stamped for us... but just before our arrival a DHL truck hit their cables overhead and wiped out their computer. So the officer sent us to the Passport Police office downtown, next to the VISA place and we haad to go there too, just a couple blocks from the Health Office stamp people. The story: Got to the Atakoy marina office at 9:10am, and Secretary gave us their list of the hoops you have to jump through. We left the marina before ten ... and despite list of instructions the driver made one wrong stop first at the wrong office, by going to the Harbormaster, where a nice guy told us we needed to come there last, and sent us down the street to the Bureau of Shipping for our blank unstamped but prepared TRANSIT LOG. (note the transit log seems to be the Turkish idea of a passport for a boat... including all your stops and details for local harbor masters to see, I guess). 1... 10:30 am at Bureau of Shipping... 3 Nice folks helped us, the last a young lady with wonderful English... cost 135 TL (Turk Lyra - with lyra worth about 55 US pennies per Lyra) for our Transit Log. and they gave us a bunch of maps and guides for SE Turkey too... left 11:07am 2... 11:18 Coastal Health Control Center Office not too far from there for first of four stamps to be made on each of the 5 copies of the Transit Log Form ... left with first stamp at 11:33am -- cannot remember but think we paid them a 10 Lyra fee. STAMP 1 On Form. 3.....back to our area to Zeaport TO SEE PASSPORT POLICE... (not as far from us at Atakoy marina as the rest of the offices... you into complex through the customs office building & lady at Customs had little dogs one her aides was holding on a leash). We stopped in nice Customs Lady's office first and she explained we had to go through her offices and to next door building where Passport Police were... walked to PP office at 11:55am, stood around puzzled at what was taking time, and at 12:06pm the Passport police head said their computer was down (a DHL truck had driven through a gate and snagged the computer network cables overhead, crashing all computers.... he thus could not help us but told us we could get the stamps at the other Passport Police Office at Karakoy that is next to the cruise terminal .... Go to the exit door from the terminal and turn left to go to the PP office there. 12:15 we head downtown. ou 3b.... We get to passport police at downtown Karakoy but that office said they wanted stamp in passport from VISA office on 4th floor in next door building first before they could do anything and would not stamp our passport (we were led to believe the Passport Police at Zeaport might have stamped both passport and the Transit Log, but who knows) so we went next door to large building where we needed to go to office on the 4th floor... we were at Visa office 12:30 ... everyone was at lunch till 1:00pm. <we went across street down block and got Baklava and Chi for lunch -- great cheese pastry MMMMmmm good>... 3b <cont.> At 1:00 pm sharp we were back at Visa office and got on elevator at front hallway entrance of the building, instead at the backside hallway of the building... there are two elevators and our earlier instructions were to turn left coming off the elevator and that the Visa office would be on the left ... So my wrong elevator move really screwed everything up as we got off the front elevator and no one on that side of the building had any idea where they stamped passports or visas.... and no one spoke English... Finally we stumbled on opposite side of building (180 degrees around hallway) and found VENZE ...we think it said .... written on door. (Only other Turkish signs we could decipher were the WC and symbols of both sexes on doors for bathrooms.) We knocked, shoved our passports thru a little door in the door and then a minute later were asked for 2 - $20 US bills. Then gal came out another door down hall from a connecting office and invited us back. WE got the first postage style "stick on stamp" ever in our passports we have ever had plus a bates style STAMPING Stamp and we were happily sent on our way...told we had 90 days now. We left Visa office lady around 1:25pm 3c ... walked back over to passport police down below and next door building at Terminal Karakoy and the Passport Police took us back, inspected the passports, and then stamped the Cruising TRANSIT LOG with their stamp... OUR SECOND STAMP. THEN A GREAT IDEA BY SUE... Sue thought there must be a customs office in this building ... maybe lets stop and see if they will stamp our Cruising log.. after all they can only say no and it won't take much time... TURNED OUT TO BE BAD IDEA.... found the many friendly customs folks, none had any idea, sent us to two different customs offices with limited English in building. They then started calling around on their iPhones and had no idea what we should do, but wanted to direct us anyway... one insisted we could just go back to our marina and get the transit stamp. (OK...sure.) We thanked them and we jokingly kidded ourselves that we were lucky to leave without getting wrong attention to ourselves... so we met our driver and told him we needed to go to ZEAPORT for Customs stamp.... back down the road toward our marina again. 4..... ZEAPORT CUSTOMS Our TAKSi took us back to Zeaport at 2:07 pm for the ten+ minute ride to go see the nice lady with the two little tiny dogs (one a 3-month old Chiuaua) on leashes to stamp us with CUSTOMS authorization on our TRANSIT LOG...we got it... stamp number 3... She said be sure and bring back her copy after the Harbor Master stamp...we assured her we would. Happy to be done so quick we headed back downtown in rush hour traffic again. 5. ..... HARBOR MASTER back to Karakoy to go to Harbor Master Office in rush hour traffic with TRANSIT LOG having all but his Last Stamp. Arrived at Harbor Master office 2:48pm Now swarms of people there. We waited quite a while and finally a half hour later a different less friendly harbor master guy than we had seen in the morning let us in his inner office and made clear he was on duty. He clearly did not seem to have time for us...and had 6 other captains and agents in his office... Dismissed us by saying "you have to pay 10 TL for something..." <we think we were two tons over the official 10 ton limit for pleasure boats>. I whip out a ten TL to pay him then and there, and he said NO you have to pay Garity Bank down street...Go do that first. We knew no idea how to go to pay Garity bank for them and he was not gong to tell us... he sent us out but on the way out his Harbor Master office door the Nice Young Harbor Master nice young guy that we had seen that morning sees us as he is coming into the office from upstairs and tells us to come back in and sits us down in front of him and he starts to fill everything out. The older guy who had sent us packing intervened and told him a bunch of stuff and they held a Turkish conversation I was unable to understand except then the young guy says we need three copies... copy of Boat Documentation... copy of our Captains licence (we used the ICC (Intl Cert of Competence) cert, and a copy of our Marina Rental. They were not interested in our US license from the USCG showing we were Merchant Marine Officers.... He printed out a document on the computer with our boat name and an official number and account and sent us to Garrity Bank down the street... about 300 yards I would say... We were to pay bank for their govt acct, 9.70 Turkish Lyra..... <about $4.60 US>. The bank was jammed with about 50 people. I took a number and it said 698 on it. They were then calling number 605. Two teller windows open. Oh oh, I thought. Over the course of the next 50 minutes our poor taksi driver was standing with us looking forelorn... probably thinking I should be off duty by now but am stranded with a couple of yo-yo's who are having no great luck. Finally a guy leaving who had picked up a discarded number that had not been called, gave our driver his old number 680... He gave it to me. Later we got up and paid. We decided it was then 4:30pm and we worried the Harbor Master closes at five. We go into the harbor masters office and there are 7 folks in his office. He sees us and tells us to leave and go outside his door and he will call us. We note many new folks go in and are taken care of. We try twice to get through his door with no success. Finally at 5 someone who is doing business with him, takes pity on us and said come in and sit down. Still the Harbor Master guy refuses to do anything or help us. Finally after the last person leaves, he decides to make phone calls for the next ten minutes. At last nothing else stands in his way but us, so he says to give him our papers. While I waited in the bank Sue got the three documents we knew he would need and went to a copy machine place so we would have copies for him. We figured that was what he would ask to have next, so when we got to be serviced by him, that is indeed what he asks for. Then he needs to see the orignal... I am magnanimous and so grateful and telling him how the Ambassador to of Turkey to the US invited us to come to Turkey in 2006 when we were in Washington. He tells me how hard his job is. I asure him I know. He finally studies everything a third time and stamps the 4th and final stamp on our TRANSIT LOG for Turkey. He gives us the original and 2 copies to be taken back to the Passport Police and also the Customs Officer... LAST STOP AFTER 20 MINUTE rush hour drive to Zeaport... We drive back to the marina and divert to stop at that harbor complex. We see the Customs Lady with her dogs to give her a copy and exchange greetings, then go next door to the PP official who are still on duty and give him their copy. We have one left. See attached. We give the driver 320 TL, he did not count it and just put it in his shirt (he will be surprised pleasantly we hope when he opens it). I feel he paid off well for the investment. He was always on call and several times talked and interpreted and explained for us. We get back to the marina and our boat at 6:10 pm... about 9 hours from when we first went to the Marina Office to get our receipt for rental from them. WE ARE NOW LEGAL ALIENS! Since I prosecuted about 300+ illegal aliens when I was an Asst US Attorney I feel better about it. We hope you have a great rest of today! Ed and Sue on ANGEL LOUISE... _______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list [email protected] To adjust your membership settings over the web http://liveaboardonline.com/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] The archives are at http://www.liveaboardonline.com/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archiveshttp://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html _______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list [email protected] To adjust your membership settings over the web http://liveaboardonline.com/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] The archives are at http://www.liveaboardonline.com/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
_______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list [email protected] To adjust your membership settings over the web http://liveaboardonline.com/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] The archives are at http://www.liveaboardonline.com/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
