Çanakkale

“Look left, right and then left again before crossing the shipping lane”     

Looking back at our anchorage at Anit Limanı. The Turkish Martyrs’ Monument is to the right of the picture with the Commonwealth Helles Memorial to the left

On 21 May we lifted our anchor and left Anit Limanı to head up the Dardenelles to Çanakkale. Our pilot book suggests that the current is slightly weaker on the south side of the Dardenelles and so to get there our first task was to cross the shipping lanes again. The high ground to our east obscured the view and the AIS signals for the nearest lane so we manouevred up to the corner so that we could take a good look before commiting ourselves to the crossing.

Despite it being early in the morning, the AIS picture and the photos show that it was still pretty busy. However, once we had crossed we were able to motor northeast largely unaffected by the shipping.

As we approached the narrowest part at Çanakkale we could see the old castle fortifications on either side and the more modern figure on the hillside urging people to forget their minor struggles and remember the sacrifice of the soldiers in the Gallipoli Campaign. These narrows at Çanakkale were the strategic key to capturing Istanbul and so were one of the main objectives for the British and ANZAC forces in the Gallipoli campaign.

Moored up in Çanakkale is a replica of the Turkish Nusret minelayer which stymied the 18^th March 1915 Allied naval assault up the straits. As a result, the Allies had to attempt to take ‘The Narrows’ via an amphibious landing and land campaign across the Gallipoli Peninsula.

The 18^th March success still has huge significance for the Turkish people. “Çanakkale geçilmez” (Çanakkale is impassable) became a common phrase to express the nation’s pride at stopping the massive assault.

Our visit to Çanakkale gave us the opportunity to catch up on admin (including blog writing), take a tour to visit the Gallipoli ANZAC sites and to visit the site of ancient Troy (see later blog entries).

How will we fit it all in the fridge?

We also took the opportunity to visit the city’s Friday market to buy fresh fruit and veg. We were so overwhelmed by the number of stalls and the vast quantity of beautiful looking produce that I totally forgot to take any pictures, so we recreated one of the stalls back on BV with our purchases!

Trojan horse from the recent film ‘Troy’ now at Çanakkale 

Çanakkale, Turkey