Gallipoli, Lemnos and Lesbos Rally

8th September to 21st September 2024

Click to download the full Itinerary

Join us to sail the Dardanelles Straits in September 2024.  Check into Cannakele, the port for Gallipoli, on September 8th.   We will visit Troy by minibus on Monday 9th September.  On Monday we will engage a guide to tour the battlefields, the ANZAC beaches and the extraordinary preserved trenches from 2015.  Tuesday will see us visiting the Helles memorial and the Gallipoli Museum in Eceabat.   Wednesday will be more light-hearted with a visit to the Suvla winery and a formal dinner in the evening.   On Thursday we will check out of Turkey and sail to the British landing beach at Helles for a walk ashore and a simple ceremony to respect the 213,980 men lost or seriously injured during the campaign, anchoring that night off the beach.

The fleet then moves to Lemnos, hugely significant as the British base and command centre for Gallipoli, with battleships and land forces based in Moudros Bay.  It is a 60 nm passage from Helles to Lemnos and we will flex the date to suit the weather.

Berth in gorgeous Myrina harbour, where we check into Greece.  On Monday 16th we will climb to the Byzantine fortress.  Some will hire cars to visit the War Graves cemetery.  We will take two days to explore the remote anchorages to the south of Lemnos.   Perhaps a small group will visit the wonderful olive oil farm of an elderly Greek architect whose wife will make us lunch.  Then on to the vast bay of Moudros, from where the Gallipoli campaign was managed and where, in 1918,  HMS Agamemnon hosted the signing of the British:Turkish armistice which heralded the agreement ending the First World War.

We will dine in Moudros village on Thursday 19th to mark this, and formally to end the rally.  Spaces at Cannakale Marina are much in demand so an early indication of boat numbers is imperative. 

For those who wish, the rally leaders will move on to explore Lesbos (approx 60nm), perhaps pausing overnight at tiny Evstratios island.