Hi Again!

Turkey – more than just for thanksgiving!

We left Limnos behind in a blaze of reefed down sails and flashing topsides. It’s the perfect wind; a beam reach followed by a huge shove from behind up the Dardanelles. So much for 2 to 3 knot current against us, we horse along keeping pace with the giant procession of tankers and cargo ships and set a new record of 9.48 knots (plus or minus errors!!)
The sea turned a milky green as soon as we crossed the imaginary line between Turkey and Greece… perhaps that is how they keep track of their territories… no more clear blue depths till we head back out of the Dardanelles and go south. It’s a bit like sailing around NZ being this colour and along with shallower depths and rocky outcrops off the points we will have to keep our wits about us. First stop çannakale and hopefully a chart.
It has been a long day by the time we make it into harbour and our mooring up is a bit on remote control but the guys on the quay shout out encouragement as well as protecting their precious ropes from dodally yachtsmen and their rope cutters! We have to check into Turkey tomorrow. It is a long winded process we hear and involves trips all over town to various offices which have to be done in the correct order or you get sent back again… kind of like a giant Turkish board game.
We hit the town and sample our first Turkish cuisine courtesy of a little family shop. It’s fantastic and the people are very friendly and helpful. Murray gets grilled about what he knows of Ataturk and our rudimentary Turkish gets corrected. Must remember that not all restaurants serve alcohol!
Cannakale is just across the straights from Gallipoli and reminders are everywhere. Sobering stuff although it is offset by the Hollywood Trojan horse on the waterfront. Thanks Brad, it looks great! Ataturk as usual is very prominent around and it seems more apt as this was his first success. We decide to give Troy a miss but there is a great display on the waterfront so we get a go idea of what it was all about and apparently the ruins can be a bit “well if you squint really hard you can kind of make out…”
It is always great to be in harbour as suddenly enormous thunderstorm and that night a real doozy breaks out. Manic, thunder and lightening, outrageous winds… in the morning the whole place is a bit shell shocked and the harbour is full of anything that wasn’t nailed down! Amazing stuff!

And finally the Harbour Master… again!

Today is check in day… we start off well with a shower and new clothes. Help a completely spaced Bulgarian moor up and get ready to hit the newly dusted streets. But no, can we go with the Bulgarian please? OK he doesn’t know where to go and insisted we set off in a hire car in the wrong direction in search of the police!? After 20 minutes of driving round in circle we finally find the central police station complete with Uzi toting guard. No we are in the wrong place… well we could have told you that… right time to take charge. The hire car is abandoned in the centre of town and we hitch a lift in a paddy wagon (I told you the Turks were friendly) and head back down to the harbour to start again.

1: Go to Agent 44 (Not Maxwell Smart, the other one!), get the transit log, drink cay and crown your draught.
2: Go to Doctor and fill out a form… do not pass go and do not sniff, sneeze or mention that passionate affair you had with that Asian pig.
3: Locate hire car and set out on journey to Kepes with no map and seek out passport control. Collect “get out of jail free” card. May need that if have to visit central police station again.
4: Go to customs. Wrong. Go down the ladder and seek snake Harbour police.
5: Find Harbour Police and build a motel… it has already taken most of the day and you may need a bed for the night.
6: Go to Customs (find out Bulgarian has failed to write his name on the from… no problem Murray writes all over it and it is still signed!) Cash in any chips you might have accrued and stroll back down Park Lane to the Harbour Master!
GAME OVER…

Now we make that sound very simple but throw in a fat Bulgarian that has been up all night sailing in a thunderstorm, a bunch of officials that aren’t a hundred percent sure of the system, the lack of accurate directions (indeed no one seemed to know where anything was!), piss poor Turkish on all our behalves and you pretty much have the recipe for a very long day. 9am start and 4pm finish! Everyone was most helpful though (particularly the police, although the prisoner in handcuffs was most surprised to be sharing his ride!) And it was entertaining to say the least!
We have a rest after all our exhaustions and enjoy the local scene. Lots of colour and laughing in Turkey. Everyone is really energetic after Greece and smiles are the norm… refreshing! The fire team are having a fire awareness afternoon and “bomb” the harbour with various bits of fire kit; a helicopter with monsoon bucket and tiny ancient planes cause a riot (Snoopy and the Red Baron had nothing on these guys!) and I wouldn’t have wanted to be the guy in the anchorage as he was peppered repeatedly with a salt water douche!
Finally we decide to celebrate Turkey by hitting one of the local bars we have seen, The Katal. Has a great ring to it! It’s a man’s bar (no ladies loo – I wonder if you can use a “she-wee” in a urinal!) and shrine to Ataturk (apparently he used to drink there!) The guys turn out to be a really friendly bunch (what’s new in Turkey!) and ply us with Efes and sour green plums. It is frustrating not knowing enough Turkish to satisfy everyone curiosity but I’m sure we will get there.
We lurch home after a quick dinner and are looking forward to heading up to the Sea of Marmara.

Night sailing…

We have a chart now but it is only a photocopy of a low detail one. Sketchy to say the least but hopefully has all the relevant information!
It’s a gentle motor sail up the channel passing many pods of dolphins with new babies… great to see… they seem to have the babies in the back eddies and some are learning to jump and play. Not always with great success and you wonder how much water they are getting up their “noses”!
We also see turtles and lots of birdlife, not bad for what is supposed to be a heavily polluted waterway that sees some of the largest volumes of shipping in the world.
The wind finally picks up and we scoot across to Kemer… turns out to be somewhat less than sheltered so we have to risk a night passage to Karabiga. Turns out the chart may be holding back on some details and we narrowly avoid a reef, glad there was a full moon! When we wake up in the morning we have done a reasonable job of parking in a not so picturesque place to have a quick dip with the jellyfishes and head out to the islands in the middle of the Marmara Sea. The islands turn out to be lovely peaceful places. Dolphins hunt around the boat at night and by day we laze about, dodge medusas, read books and make minor repairs.
Finally we run low on supplies and cruise over to the big town of Erdek. A flock of 100 plus storks pass over head going north and in the distance three mine sweepers are playing war games.
Erdek is a Cay house mecca… we are convinced you must be able to get a cay high somehow… we just can’t work out how many glasses it would take!
It is all very green here and trees line the streets. It seems to be some sort of spa town and everyone is taking the air so we take another day off to explore the area. We walk up into the hills where I save Murray from a snake and the place is alive with irrigation systems and frogs. We also come across an oasis in the heat, dust and olive trees in the form of a cay and beer selling café under the shade of some ancient plane trees. Talk about bliss!
Our Turkish is improving but we still have to rely on guesswork for most food (haven’t got to that section of the book yet!). Has lead to some large and interesting meals… shame we can’t repeat some of the dishes… they were great!
We have just heard that Pete Rennie has died after a short stay in hospital so we risk another “mans” bar to have some drinks in his honour. Again a great response from the locals but still no ladies loo! We nickname it the “sunset bar” as everyone insisted we go outside to watch said sunset sip beneath the waves… Ahh Turkey, it may be a bit grubby round the edges but it is certainly growing on us! Pete would have loved it… it was like one of his good Peruvian bar stories and all the satisfaction you get from attempting to mingle with the locals with only your enthusiasm and pigeon Spanish to get you through. It was a privilege knowing you, Pete.