Most of the islands off the coast of Turkey are Greek. So for the next year we spent our time going back and forth between Greece and Turkey. We had decided to head up for Istambul and then follow the coast of Turkey and winter in Antalya.
The last Greek island we stopped at on our way to the Dardanelles Strait
was Limnos. There is a strong current in the Dardanelles, 3 to 4 knots. Sailing upstream to the sea of Marmara is
not possible. The cruising guides recommend hugging the West shore in less than 10 meters of water. We
intended to stop in Bozca Ada for the night, anchoring in the harbor without going ashore, since Bozca Ada is not a
port of entry. However, I made the mistake of asking the port captain for permission and it was denied! So we
anchored off the mainland coast before proceeding the next day up the Dardanelles to Canakkale. We secured
help from an agent to enter Turkey for the first time. The procedure is the most complicated one we met in our
travels. One has to visit four different places, in a specified order, to get the required signatures and the entry is only valid for three months.
After a few days in Canakkale, in part due to a strong Norther, we proceeded up the
Dardanelles and anchored off Sahmelek Liman on the West shore of the entrance to the sea of Marmara. We had
no intention of going ashore but a group of teenagers were calling us in English from the beach. So we decided to
land. They were from a Lycee in Biga on an outing with their teachers. We were given a royal welcome and invited to participate in their games and share their dinner. It was only the begining of things to come in Turkey where we found everywhere great hospitality.
We went into a fishing harbor a few miles south of Istambul. It was very convenient because a few blocks away we could catch a commuter train to downtown Istambul. We stayed there for 8 days and went to Istambul every day. It is a fascinating city. Here is the Blue Mosque and accross the square St Sophie with in the background Tokapi. Further to the left is the "Underground Cathedral" It is an enormous underground water reservoir.
This underground cistern dates from the 4th century and the roof is supported
by 336 columns from greek and roman temples. It was too dark inside to take a picture so I scanned the entrance
ticket !!
In one corner of the cistern two of the pillars rested upon enormous head of statues.
On the right a street of Istambul and below a "fast food" restaurant a la turque on the side
of the Golden Horn serving sandwiches of fried freshly caught fish.
The sandwiches were good! In the distance you see the Eastern side of the Bosphorus. It is Asia. This is where the tourists take tour boats to go on the Bosphorus. We took one as far as the Black Sea. It was faster than going there with E Galois, so now we can say we went as far as the Black Sea.
On the way South we stopped again on the Island of Marmara, this time
at Asmaliköy. On the pillars holding the quay we found enormous clams may be 5 inches (12cn) across. They were excellent!! Leaving the Island of Marmara we stopped at Karabiga that we had been told was a nice little fishing village. As we arrived a group of school children were rehearsing a pagentry of some sort on the quay.
We were introduced to their teachers and one of them, Belgin, who spoke a little english invited us to her house that afternoon. She was the science teacher and her husband, Sedat, the history teacher at the Lycee. They had a 10 year old daughter Bugurcan. They invited us to come to their house that afternnon and stay for dinner, and they insited to take us the next day by car to Biga in order to visit their families. When Claire pointed
out a nice needle point hanging on the living room wall, Belgin walked over to it, took it down and gave it to her.
Claire said she could not take it, we had not enough room in the boat. Belgin then removed it from the frame and
insisted she took it. This was typical of the hospitality we were to find everywhere in Turkey. Here, Francis
with a turkish dictionary and Belgin with an english dictionary are discussing electrolysis, but that is another story!!
As we were cruising the coast of Turkey, we visited most of the offshore Greek Islands. On the left we arrive in the little fishing village of Mytilini on Lesvos Island.
On the right, a view in a narrow street of a little village on Lesvos. This picture could have been taken on every Greek island we visited. On many greek Islands we rented a scooter and toured the interior. This was
the case for the next Greek island we visited: Chios. We had a special reason for doing so. Our touring guide said not to miss
a visit to the interior village of Pirgi. In this village, as seen on the two pictures on the left, the facade of the houses are
decorated with geometrical motifs. Another reason for visiting Pirgi was its beautiful
13th century orthodox church, Agii Apostoli, with famous frescoes.
After Chios we headed for Kusadasi where we met two couples of french friends: the Cerdellis and the Tards.
We visited many archeological sites together. Here we are having lunch in an outdoor restaurant near Ephesus.
We sailed down the coast for a few days, to the Mandalya Gulf, with the Cerdelli's and then
they flew back to France. We stopped for two days, due to strong winds, in Kalimnos (right picture). In the harbor we were next to a famous turkish sailing couple: Sadum and Oda Boro.
Ater a stop in Kos where we visited several archeological sites we arrived in Bodrum (on left). Where we waited for our mail before exploring the Bay of Körfezi where
we met David and Lina of Scottish Warrior,with whom we cruised for a while. After a stop in Simi we circumnavigated the Island of Rhodes. We were caught by a blow on the South-West coast of Rhodes and spent two days at anchor in the lee of the Island.The crusader castle of Rhodes was
rebuilt by the Italians after the first world war. We read it was a very poor archeological piece of work, but it is nonetheless very impressive. In leaving the crowded harbor
our propeller caught a chain and was slightly damaged. We tried to get it fixed at the Marmaris Marina (on the right) but they clained it was not the propeller but the engine alignment. A few days later I almost completely fixed a slight bump on a blade, using a vise. In Marmaris we met
Maxime and Dwight of Concordia. With them and Scotish Warrior we sailed further East
exploring the Gulf of Fethiye with its Lycian tombs.
The Gulf of Fethiye is one of the places where one can winter afloat. We met several
sailboats that had done so. The situation being very similar to the one in the Saronic Gulf South of Athens.
However, in the Gulf of Fethiye the anchorages are very deep and one needs to tie a line to shore almost everywhere.
We continued on to the most easterly Greek Island of Kastellorizo, just a mile off the Turkish Coast.
At this point we kept on going East and both Concordia and Scottish Warrior went back West.
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