Erdek
Arwenofbosham
Rob and Jacky Black
Sun 22 May 2011 08:41
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40 23.75 N 27 47.30 E Thursday 19th - Sunday
22nd May
Having been advised by our friends that Karabiga
and Kemer (both possible ports to stop on the south coast of the Sea of Marmara)
en route to Erdek were not good
we pressed on the whole way and were pleased to get
into the bustling harbour complete with trip boats, fishing boats, floating
restaurants and a resident pelican. Having eventually got
anchored and tied off stern to the quay along side
several other boats we were able to greet June and Steve again and arrange plans
for the next few days. The town is a Turkish tourist destination
and they certainly are not used to having many
foreigners - plenty of tea shops, cafes and fast food (Turkish style) outlets,
plus a plethora of DIY, clothes shops, butchers, bakers and small
supermarkets
including Bim, Dia and a large Migros ( a good 20
minute walk out of town past the otogar) etc! We enjoyed our stay here Jacky and
June took the local bus to Banderma to investigate this
large Port of Entry/ Exit but decided it wasn't a
good place to go in a boat the harbour was huge with facilities for ships not
yachts! It was a national holiday over the weekend so Erdek was busy with day
trippers
and plenty of trade was being done in all the
water-front cafes.
We had one potentially unpleasant incident on
Friday early evening when a Turkish man stood at the back of our boat and
started to accuse us of
polluting the harbour as we were running our engine
to get some hot water. This was totally ridiculous as the harbour was awash with
floating debris, plastic bags, jelly fish, empty bottles and oil etc from
the fishing boats
and careless passers-by. Soon a crowd of men were
there all talking rather animatedly to us and the first guy took photographs of
our exhaust! he then made a phone call and soon a white car arrived with two
more chaps
who started taking notes of everything. meanwhile
another man came off his motor boat and began to try and calm down the first
group - he was dismissed but did stay in the back ground and spoke to
Rob;
eventually everything seemed to calm down. We heard nothing further!
We went out for a lovely meal on Saturday evening
to a proper restaurant that Steve had found and enjoyed delicious fresh griddled
fish.
Today we are heading for a quiet spot on the island
of Pasalimani ( about 12 miles N.W of Erdek) where we hope to enjoy a BBQ and
some peaceful exploring.
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