Our crossing to Syria

We made reasonable time on the first half of our passage to Latakia, the main port of Syria, but were then totally becalmed off the northern coast of Cyprus. The timing meant that we were not going to be able to arrive off the Syrian coast before dark (as required) on Wednesday night. We therefore spent the day becalmed, drifting along, swimming and relaxing.

We saw lots of dolphin along the way – in groups of 10-15. The last pod that came to play seemed to have some sort of strange parasitic fish attached to them up to 2 feet long (see photo). They were a different species, much smaller than the usual bottle-nosed variety we normally see. Any marine biologists among you may be able to tell us more about this.

Wednesday evening the wind picked up and continued on the final leg. It was a rough passage the last 70 miles across from the tip of Cyprus. As we approached Latakia at about 08:30 the winds were 20/25 knots making our final mooring in the “Syrian Yacht Club” (basically a concrete quay in a tiny fishing harbour) an interesting arrival.