All this negative talk about Turkey

[mocruising]

All this negative stuff on this forum about Turkey, their officials and the blue card system and people saying they are leaving or will not bother visiting is such garbage.

Does anyone actually know any one who has first hand experience with regard to being fined or even warned. I did meet a fellow yachtsman in Yacht Marine who was fined for not renewing his permit on time but they do have their rules. Its no cheaper in Montenegro or Croatia although we were there a few years back.

I for one think holding tanks are a great idea and support them. Have you tried swimming in a small enclosed bay in Greece in the morning which is overcrowded with yachts and the charter boats are as bad.

We think its a wonderful place and it will be interesting to see if that opinion changes over time.

 

[affinite]

All this negative stuff on this forum about Turkey, their officials and the blue card system and people saying they are leaving or will not bother visiting is such garbage.

Does anyone actually know any one who has first hand experience with regard to being fined or even warned. I did meet a fellow yachtsman in Yacht Marine who was fined for not renewing his permit on time but they do have their rules. Its no cheaper in Montenegro or Croatia although we were there a few years back.

I for one think holding tanks are a great idea and support them. Have you tried swimming in a small enclosed bay in Greece in the morning which is overcrowded with yachts and the charter boats are as bad.

We think its a wonderful place and it will be interesting to see if that opinion changes over time.

I agree
just got back from a couple of weeks around Bodrum and had a great time. No hassles with authorities. I recently stood next to an Ozzie skipper who was reluctantly paying a fine for discharging waste in a bay (he denied it) ... but that was in a port police office in Greece, not Turkey. Fully agree re holding tank - we always use ours when not moving. The only niggle at the back of my mind is this business of grey water tanks but I beleive thats one of these new laws that is there for guidance rather than strict compliance.
We were planing to head back over to Greece but the last trip has persuaded us to stay on in Turkey.

 

[Borden]

We are moored in Didim marina which is a few miles north of the Mugla region where Blue Cards have been introduced. Sadly we don't spend all summer on the boat but we were there for a couple of weeks in May/June and took ourselves off on a cruise south and in doing so crossed the northern border of Blue Card territory. Before leaving Didim marina I checked with the office and was told that they couldn't supply us with a Blue card but their marina at Turgutreis, 15 miles south and in the Mugla region would. We bought our card for 20 Euros and were advised to get a pump out recorded on the card before leaving. We have a 80L tank and so paid for 5 Euros for a full tank pump (not that we needed it). So now we have a blue card and a full capacity pump registered on it. We returned north and spent the remainder of the time out of Blue Card territory. My wife was incensed when she read the leaflet which came with the card as that clearly states that the regulation includes grey water. She was pacified by the marina office who told her that this particular requirement is not being enforced yet. In September we'll be spending 6 weeks cruising in the Mugla Region so I'll be able to post our experiences on this forum.

 

[mocruising]

When we checked in last month and purchased all the paperwork and Blue Card we were asked on three separate occasions how big our black tanks were and how many persons onboard. There was no mention at any time regarding grey water, for us this would be impossible as we carry over a tonne of fw.

In the short time (A week) we were in the marina at Yacht Marine I witnessed at least a half a dozen people washing their boats down with sudsy water and a bad diesel spill on the outer arm, and there was me affraid to clean my BBQ on the jetty.

 

[sailaboutvic]

I would love to return back to Turkey , but until some thing done re the black and grey tanks I can't see us going back , Yes we know it not being applied , but at the in of the day the law is there and how long will it be before some job worth office fine some one , and the fact is you won't have a leg to stand on , as it stand you can't pump out unless your 12 miles out in which case you should had checked out so you can't use that excused , as far as getting your blue card stamped or what ever they do once before you leave , say there two people on board and your card ain't been stamp for 3 or 4 weeks , what have you done with it ? You must had pumped it over board , so unless your going to go into a marina every day or so I can't see how you can get away with it , if they atop you , and I bet in time it will happening .

I like them to implement the law fully or remove it , if they implement it then there would be a mass exit of yacht and once it hurt there pocket then they will do some thing , I just feel for the poor guy that gets fined.

www.dufour385.webs.com

 

[phantomlady]

We've just spent two weeks cruising around Marmaris/Fethiye/Gocek on a friends boat.
He has kept the yacht in Turkey since he bought it five years ago.
It does have a holding tank which everyone on board used for the sit down jobs.
He emptied it twice 'at sea' whilst we were there.
He does not have a blue card.
He has never been fined or asked for proof of it.
A large French yacht anchored next to us flushed a toilet out whilst we were in a beautiful clear cove swimming and it was disgusting to see the sh*t floating around. There don't even seem to be any fish around to eat it as in many places!!!!
We never saw any sign of official presence on the water whilst there....unlike Portugal, for example, where the marine police do actually cruise around noting boat names, checking papers, equipment etc.

 

[Squeaky]

He emptied it twice 'at sea' whilst we were there.
A large French yacht anchored next to us flushed a toilet out whilst we were in a beautiful clear cove swimming and it was disgusting to see the sh*t floating around. There don't even seem to be any fish around to eat it as in many places!!!!.

Good afternoon:

I think this subject is going to have to be approached delicately and with carefully chosen words but I have often seen mention of "floating brown stuff" which confuses me because my holding tank leads down to a seacock which is quite a distance below the water line.

I would seem to me that once the seacock is opened that any floatable material would remain in the connecting hose and not sink down through the seacock only to bob to the surface again unless there was a large amount of fluid swirling down the hose which might suck it down through the seacock. Still I would think that as the material would also floating in the tank that it would be the last bit down the hose and not sucked out.

Of course the yacht may not have had a holding tank but as it was mentioned to be a large yacht it would seem likely there was one.

I don't know if I have ever anchored close enough to see anything that was floating near other yachts anchored nearby.

Would appreciate comments or explanation as how this material gets out of the holding tank only to bob to the surface later.

Cheers

Squeaky

 

[Dig]

To solve the mystery,,I have seen this happen before and its down to some boats over 15 meters was my experience, a 20 meter cat that had house hold UK standard toilets with a 10 cm gravity out let on the inside of the two hulls,so it dose not get broken up, some people are so inconsiderate to the other people in the bays swimming.