ANZAC Cove. A surreal experience and the best sail ever back to Limnos

Something we had to do before leaving Turkish waters for good was to sail into and if tenable, anchor in ANZAC Cove for the night. We were told that it is protected from the Northerly wind which was and looked to remain persistent but anchoring was a possibility.

We needed to officially check out of Turkey in Canakkale, even though we would be anchoring in Turkish waters before finally leaving. It was a Sunday. Bad choice of day to get any bureaucracy sorted. It started at 9:00am and we cast off and left at 1:40pm.... It was the first time we had been fully legal since Sal and the kids arrived on the 17th of June so that felt good..

Entering the current and the tail wind in the Dardanelles had us at 12 knots in no time, but as we turned north at the mouth to head up to ANZAC Cove it was boom bang time but we were still hoping that the predictions of protection when we reached the Cove were valid.

On arrival a sense of the ridiculous took over..

What were they thinking!

In the black of night those guys jumped into water in places so deep they drowned under the weight of their own gear. Those that made it ashore came under heavy accurate fire from the top by a detachment of only 80 Turks. Cover was hard to come by and everything needed to logistically manage a full scale attack had to be deployed in a space that was almost non-existent.

At either end of the Cove is a cemetery. These are rare because we actually know who is berried in them. This was where they started burying dead soldiers from the very first day they arrived.

Rather that than the very last...

It was still a little rough in the actual Cove so we moved a couple of beaches north. From here we could actually see the final point the ANZACs managed to reach at a place called The Neck where it all stale mated, trenches 8 meters apart until the withdrawal 7 months and 240,000 lives later.

We lowered the dinghy and went ashore to do some souvenir hunting. There are no restrictions here as there is with the antiquities.We figured that there must have been millions of rounds of ammunition expended or lost, who knew what we would find? I came back with a rusted gun barrel, Al with a fully intact un-expended round.
The following morning Al got up early and swam ashore, returning with a hand full of cartridge cases and un-expended rounds in various states of decomposition. The place is literally littered with them.

That night we watched the sun set and couldn't but wonder at the mayhem of 100 years before in this very spot compared to the absolute serenity of it now.

It was powerful...

The massive ego's and the shear intransigence of the British leadership at the time and the deep and lasting effect it would have on future mindset of Australia and New Zealand.

Bring on the Republic already! What in hell are we waiting for?

Lest we forget

At 7:45am on the 24th August we weighed anchor, set the sails and headed tail wind on a 70 mile run to Myrina on Limnos Island in Greece. The wind and waves behind us, Gokceada island to our north taming the waves, the best sail we could remember.

Well into the trip, the crew in various states of relaxation when from the helm I saw a dolphin...

I called everybody to quickly join me on deck in case there were more, and then, this happened..

Courtesy of Al and his GoPro
Dolphin extravaganza

Do please click on the link. If you're a FaceBooker you probably already have. We were surrounded by a pod of 40 - 50 dolphins, all showing off, surfing in teams, running both hulls for an hour and a half. Stina checked the time of her first photo and they were still with us all that time later.

We've seen dolphins in the Med before, but nothing like this!

A couple of hours later another small pod joined us for half an hour. Summer and Will were with me, but do you think I could rouse any of the adults from their slumber? "More bloody dolphins...." How easily we are spoiled...