harbormaster in Canakkele, Turkey

This man greeted CHARLIE when we first tied up in Turkey. We were flying the "Q" flag for the health officer, but the harbormaster started shouting, "My friends, my friends, lower the flag NOW! My friends, quickly." It was a strange request, but I did lower the flag, which is completely against international law. After the boat was tied up, he told me that it was a difficult and long process to obtain the proper ships' papers, BUT, that he had a friend who was a ship's agent and "for only Euro 100., would do all the work for us." We agreed, and he organized the whole affair for us. We had to pay him for the mooring position, for the water and for the shower. He was friendly, but we definitely had the feeling that we were being charged for too many extras. As we were drinking a coffee, another sailboat entered the harbor. It was flying a Ukranian flag, and had two families on board. There were two men, three women, and a couple of kids. These people had made a great voyage from the Ukraine all the way through the Bosporus, the sea of Marmara and the Dardanelles to arrive at Canakkele. We stood there to applaud them. The harbormaster came out of his office. Other sailors looked up. Then we noticed that the boat was going rather fast. Too fast. The harbormaster began to shout and wave his arms. The people on their boats next to the empty slip began to shout. We began to shout. The people on the boat began to shout at the man behind the wheel. He didn't pay any attention. The boat entered the slip too fast and smacked into the railing of the sailboat next to it. It hit the dock so hard that the people on board were thrown around. The harbormaster was hysterical and angry. After money changed hands and a couple of bottles of wine were handed out, things calmed down, but we said to ourselves that our planned trip to the Ukraine might be a bit more risky than we thought. We never made it, because the European Union had a huge meeting in Istanbul and the Bosporus was closed for three days. Too bad I guess.