Summary
The strait, leading from the Sea of Marmara to the Aegean, is designated international waters, beyond Turkish jurisdiction, so an "ask nicely" policy operates whereby the cruise liners, ferries and hulking, rusty tankers that ply the straits slow their approach to keep the channel between Çanakkale and Eceabat clear for the two-hour duration of the five-kilometre race. [...] we were, an hour past midday, crammed barefoot on the burning iron deck of a local boat carrying the second cohort of swimmers to the starting point, Eceabat Pier.
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Extract
Troubled Waters
"I plume myself on this achievement," Byron wrote of swimming the Hellespont on his second attempt in 1810, "more than I could possibly do any kind of glory, political, poetical or rhetorical." His inspiration was an even meaner feat - Leander's nightly swim, so Ovid says, across the Hellespont ...
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