Istanbul

Crews Letter #2006 10 Istanbul, Revisted

Byzantium à Stam Boul à Constantinople à Istanbul

Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen:

During the month of August we cruised through the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmara and docked at marinas in both the Asia and Europe sides of Istanbul.

You may remember that we toured Istanbul in August, 2002. We were amazed then. We were amazed again by the magnitude and splendor of this ancient, old and modern city. For details of the 2002 trip, see

15 Let’s Take a Holiday

16 On to Istanbul

17 Europe on the Left, Asia on the Right

18 Topkapi Palace and Home Again

This time around, we visited many of the same places at a much more leisurely pace. We also took a bus tour that drives around part of the city with the possibility of “Hop On, Hop Off”. It helped put things in perspective.

The more interesting part of this visit was the yachties at the Fenerbahçe Marina in Istanbul. A husband and wife, just retired, with a new Jeanneau 39: she was their first sailboat. They were preparing for their first cruise. The cruise satrted a week after we arrived. They took with them a sailing instructor.

A man, not yet retired, who was leaving the next day to take delivery of a Bavaria 42 in Isola, Slovenia. He planned to sail from Isola to Istanbul in two weeks. That’s about 1200 miles as the albatross flies.

Several couples came to the marina in the evening after work just to be on the boat.

The marina has an active sailing club, private boats and non-cruisers who come and go all hours of the day and night. It is a lot like the marina on Garza’s Little Elm where Snowdrop had a berth in 1964. Snowdrop was the first boat Phyl sailed on. She was Fred’s dad’s first auxiliary. Fred thought she was his, too. Garza’s Little Elm, now called Lake Lewisville, is not far north of Dallas. The summer of 1964 we lived in Denton. The lake and the boat were convenient.

Other than the marinas in Istanbul, we found the area not well developed for cruising. In the Princes Islands we anchored over a weekend in Çam Bay. It is about 10 miles from the city and there were as many as 75 boats at any given time. South of Marmara Island there is a lovely anchorage at Paşalimani. At Çanakkale on the Dardanelles, there is a working marina with space for maybe 6 to 8 transient boats. The real surprise was the Yat Limani at Bozcaada.

Bozcaada is an island 10 miles south of the Aegean entrance of the Dardanelles. The 1999 pilot showed an undeveloped breakwater and warned that because of the military base, a yacht needed prior approval before entering the harbor. Now, a quay has been added to the breakwater with electricity and water. There are WC and shower facilities at the quay root. The operation is well managed and quite nice.

We now have 75 hours of use on the new coupling. It is working.

While we were in Istanbul, there was a rash of bombings in Marmaris, Istanbul and Antalya. A Kurdish separatist group claimed responsibility. It was a terrorist attack on the tourist industry. The bus in Marmaris that was destroyed was probably one of the ones that Fred rode to or from the hospital in spring 2003. Kurdish separatists have killed over 37,000 people in this country since 1984. It is not unlike Mexican separatists demanding a chunk of the US Southwest to be returned to the Mexican people. How big a chunk? Say, everything south and west of the Louisiana Purchase. It was all Mexico before the US stole it. And backing up their demand by attacking some successful industry, like Walmart.

We are concerned, not only for ourselves and fellow tourists and cruisers, but for the Turks we know who have invested and work very hard at the tourist business.

Sail, Full and By,

Phyl & Fred

<<Previous ^Crews Page^ Next>>