40:58.3N              028:52.6E

Istanbul Atakoy Marina

Thursday May 16

Motor from Erdek to Atakoy taking care to cross the TSS at right angles. A lot of up-bound traffic. Arrive at Atakoy marina where we had made a reservation 6 weeks earlier. Take on fuel, then dock hands lead us to our berth and help us tie up. Berths have finger piers and we just fit between two fingers. Set fenders to just skirt the water.

Marina  is ok but a bit of a shambles as docks are littered with boat equipment and dinghies. Water is disgusting, flotsam everywhere, jellyfish and scum.  Marina staff are friendly and helpful but inefficient – you must walk 200 metres to the accounting office to pay your charges. The local agent charged us E150 to adjust our Trip log to reflect new crew. Restaurants are plentiful and attractive but some are a complete rip off – wines are universally expensive – nothing less than 50TL (as much as 6 times retail), and the waiters are glibly recommending wines without mentioning the 400TL cost. Elios and Balikcr were particularly bad. Invariably, they would only have one bottle of the reasonably priced items. After being told this at the Balikcr restaurant, we walked by a display of 5 bottles of the wine they said were “finished”. Balikcr had a great setting at the end of the mole but served us some deep fried Turbot that was off.

Kazan Carlis a restaurant on the upper level was quite good.

Not a great marina but convenient to a great city. We remembered the foul water at Port Liberty on the Hudson in Manhattan and it was no worse.

Spent a great two days touring the sites, Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace, the Grand Bazaar. Left with a couple of nice leather jackets. Taxi’s were quite inconsistent and it proved to be very important to ensure the meter was on or get out of the car as you were about to be taken for a ride. Two good restaurant experiences – Medusa near the Haiga Sophia and Havluzu in the Grand Bazaar.