The sea  was as calm as a mill pond and no wind as we motored the next 60 miles to Istanbul.  We entered the Atakoy Marina on a finger pontoon.  Spent the next day cleaning all the salt from the Med’ off the yacht and doing laundry and cleaning below decks and making up the bunks ready for Becky, Malcolm, Ed and Alana to arrive the next day.

We were about an hour out of Old Istanbul but only five mins from the airport.

The ‘Offspring’ spent their first two days sightseeing in Old Istanbul.  Jonathan and I had already ‘done’ most of it a few years ago.

Jonathan and I went off to provision the yacht at the local supermarket.  The area we were in was all new build with trendy cafes and restaurants.  They are in the process of building a very large super yacht marina not far away.

We set sail at about 13.30 hours at least we hoped to sail with the Meltemi behind us for a change, but guess what no wind at all, so we motored back across the Sea of Mamara to SARAYLAR which is the island where the grey marbled marble comes from.  The breakwater was made of marble blocks.  We arrived in the dark and found ourselves in a small resort amongst the quarries for the marble, very strange.  The quarry has been used since ancient grecian times and is still in use.

As we entered the Dardanelles still motoring due to no wind, the engine alarm went off……. it gave no indication of the problem or why.  Fortunately we were not quite in the narrows yet and there were no big ships near by.  We stopped the engine, whilst we still floated along in the 3 knot current and managed to start the engine again and bought it slowly up to speed,  phew!  It is slightly disconcerting not knowing why the Yanmar engine is playing up again and hoping like mad this does not happen when the only way out of a situation is to use the engine. 

Our next stop was Canakkale Marina opposite Gallipoli. On our way down the Dardanelles two Nato ships, one Dutch and one Portuguese, past us in the same direction.  We of course lowered our ensign and much to our surprise they responded!!  and waved like mad,  Great fun.

We arrived in Canakkale Marina and squeezed into a berth.  Showered and went ashore for drinks and dinner.  Canakkale is near old Troy the horse that is in the photo was in the film ‘Troy’ and is supposed to be better than the one up at the ancient site a few miles away.

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