Istanbul, Turkey -October 12, 1997

 

Position: Istanbul, Turkey -October 12, 1997

The Chandlers and Fifields joined us in Samos. While in the main harbor of Samos, large ferry boats were having considerable difficulty reaching their dock. One of the ferries was assisted by a small tug. Due to lack of communications between the ferry and tug, the ferry boat sunk the tug. Our Captain Richard was watching from SeaQuell. He and Carol sped to the scene in the dinghy and pulled the two floundering tug boat crew from the water. It appeared that neither of them could swim or were too overwhelmed by the sudden sinking of their tug to save themselves. Our crew were the heroes of the day and of course, required considerable interrogation from the harbor officials as to what they saw relative to the cause of the accident.

The rest of our stay on Samos was very pleasant as we moved to a calm harbor with a charming cobblestoned fishing village in which to stroll. We toured the ruins of the Hcraion's (Goddess of Fertility) sanctuary and drove about appreciating the mountainous island's beauty. There are many grapes grown on the terraced mountainsides and numerous wineries. They ship some 2 million gallons of their wine to France. We had a delightful lunch at Luca's, a privately owned winery on the top of a peak we had to climb to - no cars allowed. The roof was a grape covered arbor and the food deliciously Greek - a memorable spot.

Leaving Samos we sailed to Chios. It is a large and mountainous island know for its gum mastic which is made into chewing gum, liqueur and tooth paste. We motored over the island to most of the island's historical sites and found a village totally patterned with different geometric designs - a most unusual sight.

The Chio dockage was in the noisy mainstream of the islands, so rather than spend another night there we had a nice late afternoon sail to a beautiful cove off the shore of Oinousses.

Continuing our sailing north, we found a quiet fishing village on Lesvos with good shelter, good weather and pleasant countryside. Lesvos is a large island that has developed a major olive industry with its over 11 million trees. All of these islands that are close to Turkey, only 3 miles away, were once owned by the Turks. They carry a rivalry with the Turks in the belief that they should own them again. This leaves cause for a significant military presence on each of the Greek Islands.

Dick Chandler and I were in the Navy together and have been out of touch for 15 years. It was nice to get reacquainted and meet his wife of 12 years. His first wife was a high school mate of mine who had passed away with cancer. We have a need to bring those memorable years together before it is too late.

The Fifields are friends from St. Croix that we have enjoyed playing tennis and golf with. There are only two golf courses in all the Greek Islands, so we did not play golf. Due to calm days we had limited sport sailing, but did some interesting island touring and relaxing.

We said good-bye to our friends in Lesvos and cruised on, making the 24-hour trip to Istanbul. Arriving on the night of the 12th we anchored nearby and docked at the marina on the morning of the 13th.

After cruising the Turkey coast for 10 days, we will be leaving on the 18th to start the trip back to the Caribbean.

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