Lapseki and Canakkale
Arwenofbosham
Rob and Jacky Black
Sat 11 Jun 2011 05:36
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40 09.1 N 26 24.2 E
Canakkale Marina 8th - 11th June
We had a good quick passage from the islands to
Lapseki and a peaceful overnight anchorage before heading for Canakkale Marina
the following morning.
With a favourable current it only took us a couple
of hours to get there and we were soon all fast on the lazy lines stern to the
quay. Unfortunately Piper ( June and Steve) had left
earlier so we didn't see them - however we were
pleased to see Zephyr the South African yacht from the EMYR with Robbie and Di
on board. Needless to say we
spent some time with them catching up on all the
news. Their friends arrived later and I joined them for a tour of the Gallipoli
battle sights the following morning.
We liked Canakkale a thriving town with plenty of
shops, cafes, bars and restaurants. It is a university town so throngs of
students around plus plenty of tourists
although the ones we saw were mainly Turkish. We
discovered the Yellow Rose Pension (with whom Robbie had booked the tour) had
laundry facilities for guests which they were happy for us to
us as well. So on Thursday afternoon I dropped off
the bedding and towels - they were ready for collection the following lunch time
all fro 20 TYL. Finding places to get washing done is not an easy
task
in this northern part of Turkey so we were relieved
to get this done. Jacky also did a 'clothes' wash by hand later that afternoon.
We had the crew of Zephyr for pre- supper drinks and had a
useful
chat to Richmond and Avis about touring in New
Zealand as Richmond is from there. Later the British yacht Pyxsis arrived
we hadn't seen them since 2009 in Messalonghi - Karen and Richard invited
us
for drinks the following evening - it's been all go
on the social side here! We were able to pass on information about our
experiences in Istanbul and the Sea of Marmara to both yachts and in return we
had
a most fruitful session with Richard and Karen
about their trip around the Peloponnese last year.
Friday morning Rob headed for the various offices
to check us out of Turkey while Jacky went to the market with Karen and Di. Rob
had a bit of a chase around as we had to pay 8 TYL to the harbour office and
this entailed going to their bank
when he got there he discovered there were two
numbers on the document and the bank wanted to know which was the one to apply -
Rob didn't know so he had to walk back to the harbour office to get that sorted
out, then back to the bank before going on to the Port Police which is a
taxi journey away. He shared the taxi with a French couple going through the
same procedures but when they arrived at the Deniz Police they were told the
passport officers were on the two Cruise Ships and wouldn't be back for 1.5 hours!! By this time it was already 11.30. He finally
got back to the boat with all the paper work completed around 1330. In the
meantime Jacky had done a good fresh produce shop - a big covered market near
the bus station had all the usual fresh items plus an even larger section with
clothes, shoes and bags etc. Unfortunately many of the roads are being
re-surfaced and with the thunderstorm and heavy rain it meant for some muddy
pathways so shoes were duly washed on her
return.
The charge for yachts at the marina is a standard
75 TYL per night - there is water and electricity and one toilet/shower room
which was adequate and had hot water for showers. However we discovered there
was a problem with the electricity
as our sacrificial anode which we dangle over the
side was actively flaking even though our Galvanic Isolator was not showing any
warning lights- we decided to disconnect to be safe and used the shore power
direct to the freezer and computer with out going through the batteries. We
think there must be stray current in the water
here - be warned!
We left the harbour at 0600 on Saturday morning
with a favourable current sweeping us to the west at 8 knots!
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