A travel day at sea. Nothing but sea. It is a wonderfully relaxing experience in nice weather and a calm sea. We are going to the Black Sea. From now on it is a trip of passages, passage through The Dardanelles where Xerxes whipped the water (Byron's Hellespont), through the Marmosa Sea with its huge boats and transports, then through the Bosporus, surrounded by Istanbul.into the Black Sea where, for the last three thousand years, everything bound from the East to Europe has passed.
There are two currents in the Bosporus, the upper one from the Black Sea through the strait to the Mediterranean and the lower one back through the straits to the Black Sea. It is 2000 meters deep, fed by four of the five largest rivers in Europe. Those rivers bring huge amounts of organic material from cities and farms to the Sea, organic material that needs oxygen. It is so demanding a cycle that the O2 is quickly used up and O2 is stripped from sulphate creating hydrogen sulphate (H2S), a poison which makes the water below 200 meters anoxic and poisonous. Nothing lives there and wrecks lie frozen in time.
We pass through the Dardanelles at 5 a.m. and work our way up to Istanbul and into the Black Sea. It is inky but, as it is still early in the year, calm. It was here the Scythian settled, then the Pontic Greek traders, then the wonderful Sarmatians, the Goths from the north, Huns, Khazars, Turkic nomads and the Mongol-Taters of the Golden Horde. Here Genoa and Venice became the navel arm of the Ottomans.
It was here that Jason and his Argonauts sailed to Colchis (up the river Phasis) to get the golden fleece because it was the end of the world.
A formal night at dinner and I am under-dressed. I regret it.
After dinner there is an announcement: An engineer has fallen below decks and is badly hurt. After some debate the ship turns around to meet a helicopter from Istanbul. They are going to do a helicopter transfer in the dead of night off the ship in the middle of the Black Sea.
There are two currents in the Bosporus, the upper one from the Black Sea through the strait to the Mediterranean and the lower one back through the straits to the Black Sea. It is 2000 meters deep, fed by four of the five largest rivers in Europe. Those rivers bring huge amounts of organic material from cities and farms to the Sea, organic material that needs oxygen. It is so demanding a cycle that the O2 is quickly used up and O2 is stripped from sulphate creating hydrogen sulphate (H2S), a poison which makes the water below 200 meters anoxic and poisonous. Nothing lives there and wrecks lie frozen in time.
We pass through the Dardanelles at 5 a.m. and work our way up to Istanbul and into the Black Sea. It is inky but, as it is still early in the year, calm. It was here the Scythian settled, then the Pontic Greek traders, then the wonderful Sarmatians, the Goths from the north, Huns, Khazars, Turkic nomads and the Mongol-Taters of the Golden Horde. Here Genoa and Venice became the navel arm of the Ottomans.
It was here that Jason and his Argonauts sailed to Colchis (up the river Phasis) to get the golden fleece because it was the end of the world.
A formal night at dinner and I am under-dressed. I regret it.
After dinner there is an announcement: An engineer has fallen below decks and is badly hurt. After some debate the ship turns around to meet a helicopter from Istanbul. They are going to do a helicopter transfer in the dead of night off the ship in the middle of the Black Sea.
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