PASMALIMANI ADASI IN THE MARMARA ISLANDS

We have not seen another foreign yacht yet and no foreign tourists.  The Marmara Sea is more like a lake, it is less saline than the Med’ which in some ways is good for us as the salt crystals which have built up on the yacht are quite huge, we managed to give it one wash down when we were in the fishing port aft to.

We were told by the pilot book to be careful approaching Pasmalimani Adasi from the western approach as there are many hidden rocks, for Jonathan this was an invitation to go through!!  So yours truly was up on the foredeck, with her polaroid glasses on, on look out!  We went through between the marker buoys with no problem at all and no hidden rocks spotted.  Anchored off the tiny village of Pasmalimani.  There are a few vineyards here but I believe they export their grapes to other places.  The pilot book says the Pier is in constant use by ferries and boats loading grapes, I guess it is the wrong time of year and the pier was not being used at all except by children to swim off. For once the wind did not blow hard yesterday, the sea was calm and so we thought we would go for a lovely swim once we anchored, ha, ha, the sea was full of white jelly fish, hundreds of them, I had thought about putting on my sting suite but then the pleasure of a cool swim would have gone. 

There is one restaurant here on the shore, so we decided to go there in the evening and were greeted like old friends by the Patron and his wife.  We found a lovely table (the restaurant was empty except for a couple of local guys) right on the waters edge and a great view of the sunset see photos below.

The Restaurant filled up a bit more an hour later with two sets of people from two other yachts, both Turkish.  We all got by with some conversation but we, sadly, don’t speak Turkish and they don’t speak much English around here, using drawings we got by and found out that the jelly fish are fairly harmless, just a small sting, but the black ones are to be avoided they are deadly, we haven’t see any yet.

The Meltemi is forecast to blow hard over the next 48 hours so we have to decide where to go next.  Jonathan is all for moving on to the next island which is where they quarry marble (the whole island is marble) and have done since ancient times, but I’m not sure as we would be down wind and I hate the idea of quarry dust all over the yacht.  In many ways I wouldn’t mind staying here it is much more sheltered.  J says that it would mean we have more milage to do on Friday to get to Istanbul.  According to ‘Windity.com’ the winds are much less on Friday.

All I can say is that, hopefully, we will have the greatest sail when we turn around and head back to the Med’ with the wind behind us.  As the guide book says the scenery here is about the closest you will get to the Balkans, it is so very different from the Med coast.  In some ways this is lovely as we are not guaranteed booming, head banging music from every club ashore when at anchor and nothing but noise.  This area is remote and windy, I suppose it is like the middle of Dartmoor not visited much by others other than locals.

Having written this this morning I have been unable to send it due to a lack of signal.  We had black clouds drifting over us and a bit of drizzle, then it suddenly cleared up and the wind dropped.  We took the dingy ashore and went in search of the local bakery we found it with lovely loaves of bread cooked in a massive bread oven, I think they supply the whole island.  We carried on with our walk to the top of the hill walking through olive groves, past fig trees and blackberry bushes; we didn’t see any vineyards.  Back via the local shop and bought some orange juice and nuts, on to the cafe where we moored the tender, J had a beer and I had a turkish coffee.  We headed back to the yacht, lunch and then upped anchor to set sail.  Out of the shelter of the island the meltemi was blowing at about 25 knots.  The idea was to hop across to Port Marmara, but it was far too choppy, so now we are heading up to Avsa Adasi to anchor of Turkeli Lemani to find more sheltered water and to see if we can pick up a signal to send and receive emails without having to rely on the iridium.