40.00N  26 13E

Entrance to the Dardanelles

13 April 2008 

Now it is catch up time we arrived in the Island of Lesbos at the port of Mithilini tied up to the quay in glorious sunshine.

Moored down from us was the first of this year’s rally yachts we have encountered Silent Wings, Enrique had just come from Greece where he was to pick up his wife who was flying into the local airport from Madrid.

To prevent a prospective mutiny and for another Liddell’s trip the skipper gave the crew a day off.

We managed to fuel up and fill the water tanks on the quay side so we were all ready the next day to say goodbye to Greece and enter Turkish waters for our final few days’ passage to Istanbul.

Despite Nav Text giving a gale warning our check of the weather both on Poseidon and Turk Meteo showed no more than a F5 and mostly 2 to 3’s.

We slipped at 5am and motored up to the Lamu channel in again sunshine as we turned the corner the wind freshened and we switched the engine off and sailed to Baba Kale just at the end of the straight were we would turn starboard and head up for the island of Bozcada.

Smooth seas and good wind saw us making 6 to 7 knts for mostof the way despite the current against us.

We arrived in a freshening wind about  1500. Unable to get on left of the harbour we were forced to moor on the quay with the wind pushing us on.

Fender board and lots of fenders saw us reasonably comfortable.

We where joined here by Snow White a Czechoslovakian boat on the rally the customary greetings and a drink on Mashona was the order of the day.

During the later part of the evening and night the gale arrived not that real strong but the position we were in made sure that the crew had a sleepless night the skipper of course being in the rear cabin didn’t hear a thing and managed to sleep through most of it.

A couple of visits deck side during the night just to inspect things and back to sleep.

 

Gwyn and Mandy in the fore peak had of course the creaking of mooring lines to contend with and didn’t sleep at all.

By 8am the wind dropped although the sea was still pushing us on to the quay we rigged a spring and got off with very little problem in the end.

We are just passing the war memorials for the soldiers of both sides that lost their lives in the Gallipolis campaign, it will soon be ANZAK day and we suppose that Chanakale will be full of Kiwis and Aussies making the annual pilgrimage to the peninsular.

The Gallipoli campaign was where Kemel Ataturk first came to notice and after that the birth of modern Turkey.

We visited the battlefields some two years ago and felt very moved by the memorials and the poems written there I urge all you to try and visit there it demonstrates the futility of war most poignantly.

The Turkish people hold this site in as much reverence as us and the sight of Turkish children touching the Turkish flag in the cemetery illustrates the pride that they have in their country.

We still haven’t decided if we will stop in Chanakale maybe we will push further up to an anchorage at the top.

At the moment we are trying to keep inside the current line and are making about 5.5knts but we do have a favourable wind with us.

Dave and Kath
S/Y Mashona