The Dardanelles

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<strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Dardanelles and the Marmara Sea

In the night Nautica sailed out of the Aegean Sea and entered the narrow passage through the Dardanelles. I couldn’t sleep so I got up at 3 am just in time to see the floodlit memorial on the cliffs at Gallipoli. This is the infamous spot where during World War 1 many Australian and New Zealand soldiers were slaughtered in an ill-fated attempt to subdue the Turkish army. On this evening the sea was calm and there was a full moon hanging directly over the site evoking a celestial requiem for those lost that fateful day. I always treasure these times at sea under a full moon. The shimmering white light reflected across the sea is completely unchanged since the beginning of time. I find that particularly comforting.

By day light we had entered the Sea of Marmara a quite large body of water between the Dardanelles and the Bosporus Straight at Istanbul. This is an area heavy with sea traffic because it is the route used by Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Russia, Georgia and to a lesser extent Turkey to move military and commercial vessels in and out of the Black Sea. Soon the huge city of Istanbul appeared as we neared the narrowest point of the Bosporus where it is only 1800 meters wide. There are two bridges that connect the Asian side on the east to the European side on the west. The European side of the city contains the great mosques and historical sites as well as the more developed and modern side of the city with high rise offices and apartment complexes in this city of 13 million. The Asian side appeared to me to be the more interesting part of the city at least visually. I noticed many beautiful old mansions lining the water which recalled homes described in the writings of Orhan Pamuk the famous Turkish writer. I particularly remember descriptions of these homes in the book “The Museum of Innocence”. I understand that Pamuk is in the process of building an actual Museum of Innocence in Istanbul which I may get to see when I am there later this month.

The Bosporus soon opened into the Black Sea and Nautica began its eastward journey following the north coast of Turkey to our next stop at Sinop.

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