5 - Marmara Adası

Istanbul to Kekova (approx 575 nm)

6 August 2009, 08:00. We said our goodbyes to Ataköy Marina and left for Bozcaada which is 162 nm (nautical mile, 1 nm is 1852 metres) away. On our way we wish to explore several islands within the Sea of Marmara and maybe we shall even stay there depending on the weather and sea state. This is our first long trip aboard a (primarily) power driven privately owned watercraft.

Bye Bye Ataköy Marina (I doubt I will ever miss you)

On board, we have our 8 month old baby, my wife, me and our captain, deckhand and babysitter. We are new to our boat this is our first long cruise with our staff. We were a bit anxious but very excited ! How can one forget the wonderful feeling of leaving one place to discover some new territory ? But here we are, departing for Southern Turkey !

Our first destination was Bozcaada, 162 nm away from Istanbul and we expected to complete the trip around 8 hours. Cruising above 20 knots (nautical miles per hour) is almost like a time-warp to us since sailboats are much slower, 7 knots is nice, 8 is fast and 9 is wow speed !

Two hours into our trip we had reached the Marmara group of Islands. There were no rough seas or strong winds to slow us down. The islands looked nice so we decided to motor around them and see if we could find a nice anchoring spot. If we didn't, then we would keep going to Bozcaada.

But we were lucky and not only had some nice sightseeing but also found a good anchoring area with a nice view. The islands are mostly empty, there is little population and a few houses scattered around. They are also unsheltered and thus open to wind yet, this makes several areas perfect for sailing as seen in the below photograph.

Sailboat around Marmara Islands

Once we anchored then I attempted to swim. Indeed I asked our skipper to drop me somewhere far by our tender so I could swim long distance. I did swim for 45 minutes but it was a mistake I would not repeat again as the sea had a slightly metallic taste, a strange color and some particles floating on the surface. My advice is do not attempt to swim anywhere at the Sea of Marmara.

We were next to a small village and our skipper went to visit a friend of his. On his return, we were told that the village had no facilities at all so we did not go ashore.

The next day we saw rain clouds approaching us from the east. We were heading west and hoped to avoid them. We decided to go faster around 30 knots and started heading for Çanakkale Boğazı, aka Dardanelles. It was quite a race, as we could feel the strong wind coming before the rain and as the weather got darker we sped towards the Çanakkale Strait.

One thing I remember from the strait was, for the first time in my life, I was overtaking ships ! With a sailboat this is out of question but with a motorboat we can overtake slow moving ships easily. I was excited and even though it was daytime with good visibility, I turned the radar on, kept a very attentive lookout including the aft for fast moving ships (that can silently but suddenly overtake you if on a sailboat), calculated the currents and overtook some ships. Other than the ships, the bad weather was beyond us too. Clear and sunny skies welcomed us when we arrived at the Northern Aegean sea ! Ahh, finally I would be able to swim (in comfort) !