We had a fantastic sail 95miles across to Mersin (we decided this was a preferable destination to Iskenderum and only a further 10 miles distance). There were 2 to 4m waves but we had enough wind to make it a comfortable point of sail. We are anchored in a huge commercial port and it took several hours to get the paperwork we need. Not a single one of the officials we saw had ever seen a Turkish cruising log before! We will return to Latakia tomorrow. We are still incredulous of the whole situation.
It goes without saying that we are going to contact everyone we can think of to complain about this debacle. They are completely mad to send us off on a 200 mile round trip for a rubber stamp. There is absolutely no problem with issuing our visas and allowing us to travel in the country, the only problem was with Irony sitting on the concrete pier for around 7 days! So much for encouraging tourism in Syria!
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