CRUISING
48 http://www.yachtingmonthly.com MARCH 2016
PHOTO: ALAMYpolitical and sporting life in the city. Just
off the Hippodrome, the Basilica Cistern
emphasises the modernity of ancient
Constantinople. A vast dendritic system of
aqueducts and tunnels brought water from
up to 90 miles away to be stored in great
cisterns. The Basilica Cistern, which looks
more like a palace, was one of the greatest,
holding about 100,000 tons of water.
After Yalova we moved to West Istanbul
Marina, which is new and impeccable,
but with less easy access to Istanbul than
Yalova. You really need a car, but it’s
handy for the airport. We were here to
meet the irrepressible Hasan Kacmaz.
I’ve known Hasan since he was assistant
manager at Kusadasi Marina in 1983 and
over the years he has been a great help
to many of us in smoothing the way for
yachts visiting Turkey. He showed us plans
for several planned marinas; in the near
Rod and his wife Lu
have written many
of Imray’s Med pilot
books including
Turkish Waters and
Cyprus Pilot, now in
its ninth edition. Rod’s
most recent book is
Sailing Ancient Seas
(Taniwha, £10.50)Rod Heikell
future there will be yacht berths dotted all
around Istanbul and its nether regions.
We’d had our fi ll of city living so headed
back along the north coast and across to
the Marmara Islands – the ‘marble islands’
from which the sea takes its name. The
marble mined here, from antiquity to the
present day, is some of the fi nest in the
world. These are comfortable and homely
places much removed from the hustle and
bustle of Istanbul and its satellite cities.
Port Marmara is one of my favourites
with a sheltered little harbour and a lively
village ashore. We dropped in for a day
and stayed three, taking it easy. At the
other end of the island is the tiny hamlet of
Asmalikoy with nothing more than a café
and a tiny grocery shop. Entertainment
here is sitting with the locals sipping
black Turkish tea and attending to local
problems. A couple of men came up andproffered two cans of oil, asking if they
were suitable for an outboard as the
descriptions were in English and French.
One was gearbox oil and the other was for
diesel engines, so probably not.
After pottering around the other
Marmara Islands it was time to head for
Canakkale and clear out for Limnos in
Greece. North-easterlies were forecast
but the wind was light and we only got to
sail the last 20 miles or so. Mirina on the
western end of Limnos was the start of our
little tour through the Eastern Sporades
and on through to the Saronic.
Greece is as close to the old Byzantine
Empire as you can get today. The
distinctive round cupolas of the churches,
the language, and the religion, embodied
in the bearded and robed orthodox priests,
are the remnants of a vast Mediterranean
empire. As far away as Monemvasia on the
Peloponnese, the walled Byzantine town is
mostly intact. The houses are all restored
to refl ect their Medieval origin and atop
the steep-to hump is the Church of Haghia
Sophia, a little cousin of the church in
Instanbul, in grand and windy isolation. WIstanbul’s many names
Istanbul was originally called Byzantium,
a Greek name, although an earlier
settlement probably existed here. For
a brief period it was called New Rome,
then renamed Constantinople after the
Emperor Constantine in the 4th Century
AD. A thousand years later, the city was
being referred to as Istanbul or Stamboul
from the Greek istinboli (‘to the city’) and
has retained the name to this day.Istanbul’s Sultanahmet quarterABOVE: Galata
Bridge in
Istanbul
LEFT: Haghia
Sophia in
Sultanahmet,
Istanbul