London to Auckland

We had planned to leave Port Tomis at 6am to avoid the wind and after a minor mechanical, got going at 630am but the wind was up already. The wind was howling from the north west and the sea was getting rougher all the time so we curved in towards the Bulgarian coast to avoid the worst of it. It was very rough the whole time and we were working hard.

We had left with less than full tanks so had made the decision to call into Igneada on the Turkish side of the border with Bulgaria for fuel and a break. Due to the slow going and heavy weather we limped into Igneada with nothing in the tanks accept the smell of an oily rag.

My research had led me to believe that there was both fuel and customs available in Igneada. For the record, there is neither.

When we rode into the harbor we were summonsed (with much waving of arms) to the coastguard center where a group of coastguard guys and one officer were taking tea in a pavilion. They were all very friendly and we were forced to take tea with them. Then we were escorted to the local petrol station with a 44 gallon drum in a coastguard van and refueled (at great expense) efficiently and quickly and sent on our way before we became a paperwork problem for them.

The weather on the sea had been crap but we worked out that we could cover the remaining 120km to Istanbul in 3 hours. This, however was not the case as our run of bad luck continued and it took us 5 hours to cover the distance and the last two hours were in sloppy 4 meter waveswith strong wind from the north. Our pace was glacial and the sun was going down. This was not fun.

We eventually did make the Bosphorus(or I wouldn’t be talking to you now) just as the sun was going down. Again I ask, “What’s new?”

Positive note: Istanbul is the most beautiful city from the water I have ever seen.No ifs or buts.

We were running out of daylight so headed through the Bosphorus to Karakoy marina for customs clearance and to park for the night. It was pitch black on arrival, customs wasn’t opened and the marina was full of large passenger ferries all charging around at high speed making huge wake. No one wanted to know us. One place we tied up at had killer dogs salivating at the prospect of eating Travis(i am too tough and old).

After being told to bugger off from anywhere we tried and being absolutely exhausted a friendly old man said we could tie up to his boat(Burfoots fifth law:If it seems too good to be true then it probably isn’t true. See the next post for verification of this). He then dragged us to a very seedy place for a beer each and some chips for which he charged the princely sum of 30 Euros. Ripped off again but what can you do? We eventually found a hotel and crashed.

Stats: 12 hours 45 riding in ugly conditions for a total of 430 hard earned kilometers and that, ladies and gents, should impress you.