Istanbul is a huge city straddling the Bosphorus Strait which links the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara. The old city is on the European side bordered by the Bosphorus and the Sea of Marmara and when we sailed into the marina we could see the Blue Mosque, Haghia Sophia and the Topapi Palace across the water.
Our friend First Class Susie arrived on Monday and we were keen to whisk her away to Princes Islands where we hoped she would enjoy the beaches and some relaxation. The islands are a fascinating mixture of military, crumbling wooden mansions, new swanky mansions, forest and horse and carriage (no cars allowed). The timber houses are some of the last remaining Ottoman houses in Istanbul. Most are badly neglected even though they are protected as they are very expensive to renovate and impossible to insure. I think Andy and I were somewhat more relaxed than Susie who found the slight swell caused by the passing ferries disturbing to the extent that she was actually sea sick on anchor! She put a very brave face on it and kept assuring us she was fine but was visibly relieved when we returned to the Marina and promised we would stay there until she left!
Apart from sight-seeing our time in Istanbul was filled with meeting up with our friends and sampling the nightlife. Mr Bond (Serdar) figured large on the scene - especially, we noticed, after he met Susie. We learnt a lot more about life in Turkey through him, especially from his stories about being in the army. Serdar‘s main international claim to fame is that 10 years ago he was the body-double / stunt man for Pierce Brosnan in Turkey and jumped from a 20metre high tower into the sea of Marmara in March! It turns out that he was also a child TV star in Turkey. He is a handsome man and in photos looks very like P.B. He is a quietly spoken, modest and spiritual man and we talked about many things. He told us
“ When in Army doing my National Service I was very young. I am told I am a Turkish hero - like Rambo.” He flexes his muscles which are, I have to say, impressive. “I like this. I told to jump from plane and throw bomb, perhaps into a cave or a house. I had to do this many times. I was told to make sure everyone was dead then leave. Told they were PKK terrorists.. But now I am older and I think ‘were they really terrorists or just some poor farming family who lives in a cave? I have terrible nightmares. The government just leaves you. They do not care.’”
We had several meals together as we enjoyed each others company. One night he took us out into Istanbul - we had lots of fun but by mid-night everywhere was closed. The Turks do not party on weekdays especially during Ramazam (fasting period for Muslims) which has just started.
Cenk and his sister Deniz came for breakfast bringing FIFTEEN Turkish films for us as, when we met in Tomb bay, we had discussed the Turkish books and films we had seen, some Turkish music we had heard him play and some breads and special Turkish cream (very like clotted cream). As when we met him before we had discussions about Kurds, politics and art. Everyone we meet is surprised at how much we know about Turkish politics but we tell them.
“We love the Turkish people. They are so hospitable. They go out of their way to help us and we want to understand the different wonderful people of your country.”
“Unfortunately we have a bad government at the moment. For instance the growing number of women wearing head-scarves - this is very bad. I hope in the next election in 2 years time Attaturks party will get back in but I am not hopeful. The ARC have such a large majority.”
We discussed the Turkish tax on luxury goods and the fact that most wealthy yacht owners avoid the tax by flying a USA flag of convenience. We thought the law had changed so that boats had to be registered in Turkey.
“No, all they have done is changed the name of the tax and now included cars as well. When we sail to Greece the Greeks laugh at us - everywhere they are flying the Greek flag and they tease us ‘and who’s country is it?’ It is embarrassing that no-one flies the Turkish flag on their yacht.”.
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Susie had come bearing gifts - for me she had a most beautiful Jaeger Hollywood / Oscar style silk dress - a cast-off sample - and some champagne courtesy B.A! Whenever I wear it I, of course, have to be served drinks on the aft deck from then on! My new style matches the style of many of the people with yachts in this marina. We are a bit of a novelty here as the marina is full of yachts belonging to very wealthy ‘Stanbulians. The only reason we can be here is because many have taken their yachts South for their summer holidays. Sometimes we get back to our berth to find Deep Blue has been moved. A look round the car-park is a car buffs heaven. There are many rare and expensive models here including several in new matt black - an Audi R8 and an Audi S5, several very special Porsches including those horrid 4-wheel drive versions, more Ferraris’ than I thought were ever made …you get the picture. The marina bars and restaurants are outrageously expensive. A gin and tonic costs £10 and a small local beer not much less. We actually had to pay £12 each just to enter one bar when it was the only one left open after 2am. But both Susie and I were dressed to the nines and we were “in the groove” so we paid only to find it was a crowded corridor with just one smelly toilet and a DJ playing pretty bad “Turkish house”. We made the most of it!!
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We were so pleased to see Banu again. We were having lunch at the yacht club again and just as we finished eating she walked onto the terrace. She looked great but a little tired. She has had a hard summer - her Grandmother died, her Grandfather is very ill and is on a life support machine and her mother is also struggling with a bad knee and needs help. But as always we were able to get some answers about the environmental problems we are witnessing and hear more about her work. She fronts the Oceans Campaign in Turkey for GreenPeace and she told us that Rainbow Warrior is coming.
“We leave Istanbul with Rainbow Warrior on 6th September and we are sailing slowly down to Marmaris via Izmir and Datca. We are visiting fishing communities - to support the small fishermen. The Government only thinks in terms of the number of fishing boats and not the capacity so what is happening is that the small fishermen are being discouraged and single owner large fishing boat fleets are appearing. The headline number of fishing boats is decreasing but over-fishing increases. We are having a flotilla of small boats following Rainbow so if you are around it would be great if you joined us”.
We will be around.
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We spent three days (the days we were not recovering from talking late into the night) sight-seeing. Istanbul is very full of tourists but not many “European” tourists. We have been surprised at how few people speak English here but then many of the tourists are Muslims from Turkey, Asia, India and Africa. Old Istanbul is impressive and we were pleased to note that the air pollution we suffered 21 years ago when we brought Piers has been cleaned up considerably. Banu told us that most heating and cooking now is natural gas from Russia where as before everyone used solid fuel.
“Though with the trouble this winter over the gas pipeline people started to use solid fuel again”
The public transport system worked very well and we used Dolmus (shared taxi), ferry and tram on a regular basis. We visited the usual sights including the amazing underground Cistern that the Byzantines built to water the palace gardens. It is like an underground cathedral full of water (it holds 100,000 tonnes of water!) and fish - quite intriguing. Somehow though, for me anyway, after the wonders of Egypt nothing quite seems to match up.
We left Istanbul a little reluctantly after saying a sad goodbye to Susie to sail back towards the Aegean. The wind was blowing in the right direction (for a very big change) and of course we have the currents with us too. The wind was actually blowing a lot and we soon had the spinnaker up as the wind was directly behind us. In 20 knots of wind and a following sea we were soon sailing between 6 and 8 knots. As the wind increased and the sea grew we started to reach speeds in excess of 9 knots. We decided it was time to drop the spinnaker! But still we were haring along. We even saw speeds of over 10 knots with a passage maximum of 10.7 knots.
We were making for the Island of Marmara - a 70nm passage. We had left a little later than intended as the marina office did not opened until 9 and we had to check out. The marina is really not set up for visiting yachts (for instance they could not tell me how to get bottled gaz for cooking and the ablutions facilities are very basic as most yachts kept here are only used on a daily basis) but all of the staff have been very friendly and we had a warm send off as we left at about 10 am. By 7.00pm we were nearly at our destination, still surfing the waves as the sun started to set.
“This is the time that you see dolphins ” and no sooner had I said these words than Andy yelled
“Dolphins on the starboard side” and thus started the best sighting of dolphins yet.
DB was obviously the point of attraction. We were sailing at speeds in excess of 7 knots and the dolphins were racing the boat, diving under the boat, surfing the same waves as DB.
“There are two big ones, two metres.”
“No they are small, no more than a metre”
“Then there must be at least four!.”
The biggest dolphin came to have a good look at us and I made eye contact. They swam with us for nearly one hour and left us just as we came into the tiny harbour on this tiny island that is the namesake of this small sea. Our 70 nautical miles had taken us just 10 hours of sailing - the best passage yet.
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