#14: [23-Oct-18]

#13: [20-Jun-18]

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#10: [18-Mar-12]

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#1: [30-Dec-01] (incomplete)

#2: [05-Nov-02] (incomplete)

29-Mar-2004 -- We have discharged the Egyptian oranges at Novorossiysk (Russia), and today we passed the Bosporus (İstanbul Boğazı) southbound, thus leaving the Black Sea again.

A good opportunity to visit 41N 29E again, and this time in the afternoon.

At 1 p.m. we entered the Bosporus at its northern entrance, where the small village of Türkeli is located. Although having arrived here already shortly after midnight, I had to wait at the anchorage, as the Bosporus was again closed for southbound traffic due to an incident... another one in the long, long list of incidents in this extremely narrow, whirly and busy area.

In my first visit I had already written about this fact, and I did it not without due reason. See what happens when you are not exercising extreme caution in the narrow bends and whirly waters of the Bosporus!

This second visit offers a good opportunity to add a few more pictures of the shores of the Bosporus, like one of the town of Büyükdere on the NW shore, then the picturesque area around the western end of the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge, the Noble Fort a little bit more south, and - already close to modern Istanbul, a beautiful mosque.

Arrived at the Confluence I could take a better picture of Istanbul's modern port at Haydarpaşa, as it is seen towards East.

Old Istanbul, as seen when looking towards West, is already well known to us. Between the Hagia Sophia Mosque and Sultanahmet Mosque we see Ahırkapı Lighthouse, - which played an important role in the movie "Topkapi", of which I have talked in my previous narrative and which I would like to recommend again.

And finally, looking North we see the southern exit of the Bosporus.

Now we have to pass the Sea of Marmara, which will take us about six hours. Then we are again in the Dardanelles (Çanakkale Boğazı, Hellespont), and at midnight we will have cleared, what we navigators call "The Turkish Straits".