Sea of Marmara to the Dardanelles Greek Aegean Leros, Greece Aug. 21, 2004 Hi Folks, We are down in the Dodecanes Islands of Greece, the last two days of voyaging being against the SW winds when they should be NW. Murphy's Law. However, we had good sailing down the Turkish coast. I may have two or three logs ready to send in short sequence, as we will be another few days before getting into a town with internet cafes, as we plan to anchor in various islands on our way down to Crete. We find that the mobile phone system of Greece does not accommodate data transmission without a contract and thus we can no longer send E-mail from the boat. The weather is hot and sunny, the waters clear and warm, and the livin' is easy! Enjoy this log which gets us from Istanbul into the Turkish Aegean. All the best, Aubrey **************************************************************************** Log #33b Sea of Marmara to the Dardanelles Greek Aegean In Fenerbahce we contacted the Simrad agency to repair or replace our defective wheel pilot. We had to wait three days, only to find out they did not have the parts and could not get them in reasonable time. The wheel rim we gave them had the defective inner band, but when they returned it to us, part of that inner band was missing such that we could not epoxy it in place, and was now totally useless. However we had the previous rim in which we had epoxied the defective plastic inner band, and so used it. Fortunately the local agency did not charge us anything for their time removing it, taking it to the shop and returning it to us. But, this did delay us an extra two days waiting for it to be returned, and we now had no spare rim. We ordered through Aegean Electronics in Piraeus to be delivered to Samos one new wheel pilot rim (€160.00), 3 spare belts (€86.00), and a set of six new rollers (€35.00), plus courier costs of €100.00 for a total expense of €430.00. I am writing a snarky letter to Simrad expressing my displeasure. We will be crossing the Atlantic in another year or so and need reliable autopilots. Our old original Benmar Cetek may be able to be made more reliable, or we may have to consider a new system altogether. We want two reliable systems for any ocean crossing. Judy is leaning towards a wind vane steering system, but I have my reservations about such. I will discuss the pros and cons in a future log. In Fenerbahce we did some maintenance, and enjoyed sending E-mail from the boat, now that we are back in Turkey. We enjoyed being back in Turkey around familiar surroundings and the friendly Turkish people. Our friend Murat returned the bike we left with him and we set off to Atakoy Marina so Judy could access their book exchange and we could get some spares for our Jabsco toilet purchased in Atakoy last year. We expected to see some boats we knew but were disappointed in this regard. I took in a movie at the local mall to find an unusual format in that the various theatres were in different parts of the mall, and the ushers expected a tip for showing you your seat (luxurious upholstered armchairs). We did a re-supply run at the big Migros and shoved off next day, Aug. 8, to head down the Sea of Marmara. Incidentally, Atakoy was quite expensive in this high season, costing 35,000,000 TL (about $32.00 Cdn) for one night. We motor sailed in light force 2 or 3 north winds 60 miles, a bit over half the length of the sea, to anchor in Saraylar on the north coast of Marmara Adasi. This was a pleasant anchorage (40° 39.52' N, 027° 40.18' E) beneath the marble quarries in the east cove off a swimming beach and restaurant. Next day, before leaving, we motored over to the town to see the marble breakwater and the marble statues and sculptures lining the town docks. Marmara means marble, and thus the names for the Sea of Marmara and Marmara Adasi (Island). The island bore the scars of many quarries, current and closed, marring the tree clad mountain sides. It reminded me of, but was not as bad as, the clear cutting of timber along the BC coast of Vancouver Island on the Inner Passage to Alaska. Another long 50 mile trip next day took us to Gelibolu on the Gallipoli side of the Dardanelles. We were able to sail for about three hours of the ten hour voyage, and at least the winds were not against us. When we went ashore in Sprite to get fuel, we were greeted with traditional Turkish hospitality in that a local fisherman took us in his car to the only gas station, way out of town. It would have been a very long trip carting the fuel container on our dolly. He refused any attempt to offer some Turkish Lira for his assistance. We then took Sprite over to the ancient inner town camber and got a top up phone card, some vegetables and Judy surrendered to have Kazandibi, a sweet burnt chicken breast pudding. The outer part of the dish was a caramelized top with milk sugar and cinnamon wrapped around chicken breast fibres cooked in potato starch and rice flour paste. I had a few forkfuls, just to taste of course, and found it like a sweet custard, not noticing that chicken was part of the ingredients. Mmmmm good! Off again early next day we went down the busy Dardanelles to Anit Limani (Morto Bay), the anchorage on the southern tip we used on our way up last year Just before Canakkale half way down, we saw some dolphins playing in the bulbous bow wave of a large ship. We anchored under the Turkish Memorial for the Gallipoli Campaign, only a few yards from our anchorage position last year. I dropped Sprite into the water and went over to Seddulbahir, the town at the southern point of Gallipoli, where there are the remains of the fort that was pulverized by the combined allied fleet in 1915, and the British War Cemetery. It has a well maintained obelisk recognizing the naval and army units participating in the campaign, surrounded by a concrete fence listing the names of the 20,504 British service personnel and 248 Australians, unit by unit, who died near Seddulbahir in that horrendous wasteful futile nine month battle. There are several other ANZAC cemeteries on the peninsula as well. The area is a popular Turkish tourist site not only for the cemetery, but also the remains of the fort, with several of its large guns lying at forlorn angles, some still in their bastions, and a Turkish memorial, a tribute to their soldiers who held the might of Britain, France, India, and the ANZACs at bay defending their own country. These memorials are not the sad, desolate remembrances as we saw at Verdun. They exude life, hope, and respect for all parties to that conflict. The British obelisk is surrounded by acres of riotous yellow sunflowers overlooking the hills and valleys upon which so many shed their lives. As I dinghied back to Veleda, I saw on the inner shore facing Morto Bay what appeared to be a couple of large gun mounts hidden by foliage. Of course I had to explore them, climbing up a high rocky washed out shoreline and through thick prickly gorse (me in open toed sandals - ouch!) to find two cement gun emplacements with their ancient barrels still pointing into the bay, and their cave-like ammunition coffers gaping open, in mute gray abandon, silent sentinels that in their short life in 1915 blasted away at British and French battleships that were bombarding Canakkale. Back on Veleda we had a quiet night's sleep before departing next morning, Aug. 11th, to head down into the Aegean, past Troy and the tumulus of Achilles and Patroclus, and inside Bozcaada, the island where the Greek fleet hid while the Trojan Horse was being hauled inside the city walls. This is a historic corner of the world! Next log