Sunday 19^th June – Ataköy, Istanbul – Poyraz, Bosphorus (Dipping a toe in the Black Sea)

41:12.234N 29:07.715E

At 9am we checked out of the marina and the marinaro came with the rib to help us out of the berth as they had squeezed a large catamaran in at the end of the pontoon making our exit tight.  All the marinas around Istanbul are expensive for short stays, and this is the most expensive marina we have ever stayed in; visitors don’t stay long unless they have very deep pockets – the target audience here is the large motor boat owner!  That said, the staff and the service we have received have been excellent and it has been very handy for getting into Istanbul; however, they could do with the facilities being nearer the visitor pontoons.

Today we went for a day trip up the Bosphorus (Boğaziçi) and out into the Black Sea.  It was an exciting time getting past the ferries in Istanbul but we were lucky as a cruise ship arrived at the same time as us and put the ferries off their stride for a few moments so they missed us!

The trip was really good and the banks of the Bosphorus very pretty.  Although there is a strong current to battle against on the way up, just past Golden Horn we managed to find a strong counter-current we had read about and we were able to make good progress for a while.  A number of large ships were making their way up the Bosphorus but we stayed well clear of them outside the shipping lanes.

At the top of the Bosphorus we briefly visited the working fishing harbour of Türkeli Feneri sitting directly under the western entrance.  It offers good shelter but was absolutely crammed with fishing boats, large and small.  The only chance of us staying there would have been to raft on the outside of the already rafted fishing boats.

We then headed out a few miles into the Black Sea to complete our trip.  I dipped my toes in but decided not to swim seeing the jelly fish down there.  We then turned around, pulled the genoa out and sailed slowly back to the entrance to the Bosphorus, with a light wind astern and pleasant sunshine.  I put my mackerel feathers out and fished for a while but we reached the entrance to the Bosphorus without me catching anything, so it’s not Black Sea mackerel for dinner tonight (Richard is quite pleased about that).

Both in the Bosphorus and out in the Black Sea there were lots of dolphins around, some quite small and some large, some of them feeding and some of them playing and leaping right out of the water.  They were great to watch.

As we re-entered the Bosphorus it was like Clapham junction with a stream of large ships arriving from the Black Sea.  We quickly crossed the narrow shipping lanes in the wake of a VLCC and headed to Poyraz on the east shore.  Again the harbour itself was packed with fishing boats laid-up at the moment so we have settled in the attractive anchorage sheltered behind the harbour breakwater, along with a few other yachts and motor boats. 

The harbour and beach here are obviously popular with holiday makers; the beach is busy, a number of people are swimming off the breakwater, and the bay is swarming with pedallos (to make anchoring more challenging).  Some of the kids are also enjoying using one of the harbour marker buoys as a giant pendulum and diving platform.

This evening the wind has dropped, a few of the day boats have departed, and the crowds have gone home; very pleasant here in the anchorage.

Transiting the Bosphorus

Türkeli Feneri

The Black Sea

Poyraz, Bosphorus

© Pyxis 2011