Port Marmara

Scott-Free’s blog
Steve & Chris
Mon 22 Jun 2009 11:16
40:35.13N 27:33E
 
Monday 22nd June 2009
 
We slipped Silivri at 8:30 and headed towards Marmara Adasi, an island off the South coast of the Sea of Marmara where we had made a brief lunchtime stop on the way to Istanbul.  Light winds meant we alternated between sailing and motor-sailing in order to make the distance in a reasonable time. 
 
We spent much of the passage swatting flies as we discovered shortly after leaving Silivri that the transom was covered in them!  Steve tried washing them off with a couple of bucketsful of sea water and that got rid of some, but they kept appearing in the cockpit and they had a bite that felt like a needle being stabbed into you!  They seemed particularly fond of our ankles and we spent a lot of time swatting them away.  In the end we mounted a two-pronged attack - Steve had the mechanical system (a plastic fly swatter) and I had the chemical system (a can of fly spray).  By the end of the trip we had dead flies everywhere and quite a few bites!  We decided they must have come from the fishing nets in Silivri, so watch out any yachties reading this if you tie up in the same place!!
 
We arrived in Port Marmara around 6 in the evening and were welcomed by a friendly harbour master who showed us where to go and helped take the lines.  Having tidied up the dead bodies we went off to explore the town, but didn't get any further than a couple of boats down the quay, where we found another UK flagged boat Key West and said 'Hi' to its occupants, Murray and Cate. They invited us on board for a drink, and as they had just come from the area we are heading to, they got out the Greek Pilot book and gave us some info on places they had visited.  As none of us had eaten, we then found a taverna where we tried the local speciality of fried mussels and enjoyed a pleasant meal together.