London to Auckland

Waking at 7.30 we ate breakfast and then decided to head down to customs via the Seadoos. When we got to the Seadoos, we were again thrown into shock. Some one had got on them to steal from the glove boxes and front compartments and had untied Ivan’s front rope. This meant that his machine had thrashed around in all the boat wash and the upper front end was completely destroyed with bits of Seadoo all either floating around or sitting on the bottom. To top this off his Seadoo had damaged the boat we had tied up to and the ACTUAL boat owner(not last night’s scammer) was there and yelling at us in Turkish.

While Ivan and Travis tried to retrieve pieces of skis and put the jigsaw back together again, I paid the owner off and apologized in sign language. We decided to skip customs, regroup to a friendly marina and do customs by taxi and were getting ready to leave when the water police turned up and demanded to see our passports. More time was wasted there before we were invited to follow them by water to customs.

This wasn’t as easy as it might sound because Ivan’s machines steering cable was broken and he was steering using cable ties(don’t ask).
When we got to customs there was a huge slop hitting the wharf and we asked if we could go to Kalamis Marina across the Bosphorus to clear customs in more peaceful conditions. After much ringing of hands and more phone calls, this was approved and we were escorted to and left at Kalamis. Contrary to all advice, including that of the water police, there is no customs at Kalamis. But all was not lost as the visit to Kalamis afforded me the opportunity to lose my Seadoo key.

Now we had to call Vidal Itkin from BRP Turkey who had been waiting for us for 4 days and for the whole of this day at Pendik Marina further down the coast. Vidal was organising our service for the machines. We had to tell him that while we appreciated that he had been waiting for hours at Pendik, that it would be more helpful if he could come to Kalamis and bring a laptop to program another key. To his credit he did and later we did make Pendik and Vidal and his men pulled us out and took us to the BRP HQ for a service. We are very grateful to BRP Turkey and Vidal for all their help. It was outstanding.

Later that afternoon George and the crew turned up and we sorted the gear out, shook hands and sent them on their way back to the UK. Thanks guys.

In other news, it was always only going to be three riders from Istanbul and the 4th would jump ahead and join us as necessary. Due to the ride being severely underfunded, we have had to can that idea and unfortunately Jed now goes home to go back to work and earn some money instead of spending it. We thank Jed for his contribution and enjoyed his time with us.

Now we are down to three. We are on our own.