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.