Growing up by the Bosphorus, I was captivated by the daily movement of hundreds of boats crossing between two continents or venturing from the Black Sea to the oceans and back. My bay, a perfect natural harbour inhabited for over 2,000 years, was home to families who lived as fishermen, captains, boatbuilders, and dockworkers for generations. I was fascinated by them and, whilst watching their continuous struggle with the sea, I aimed to learn those hundreds of skills and become a ‘real seaman’ like my masters.
From a young age, I devoured books about the sea, starting with Turkish pioneer Sadun Boro’s journal of his historic circumnavigation between 1965-1968. My dream of sailing around the world got stronger as I learnt English, German, and French and read about other sailing heroes, such as Joshua Slocum, the Smeetons, Bernard Moitessier and Robin Knox-Johnston.
At that time, there were no sailing clubs or schools in the Bosphorus; we had to start building our boats and learn to sail on our own by watching fishermen and the very few amateur sailors.
Sailing Adventures
1970 – At age 9 I tried to build small sailing dinghies with my three year older brother Feyyaz in a house on the hills far away from the sea, before our family moved to the Bosphorus.
1972 – Launched my first sailboat: a self built 3 meter plywood dinghy from the ‘Do It Yourself’ plans of the revolutionary journal of the 1950s-60s: Popular Mechanics, I started to sail on the Bosphorus.
1973 – Built another, revised and larger version of the same dinghy, sailed in the Northern Aegean.
1974 – Installed a 4 meter mast with lateen sail in the 5 meter wooden fishing ‘kayik’ of our family – ‘Sev’.
1975 – Started competitive rowing, gave a break to sailing, became an elite sculler, and later a coach.
1988 – Purchased and restored Snapper (similar to more famous Shield) Class 31 feet wooden racing sloop ‘Forsa’, which was built in 1965 in my village, I sailed mostly on the Bosphorus with no engine. It was not easy without an engine because of the strong current and dense shipping. I broke my first mast.
1992 – Purchased Bruce Roberts 28 feet steel sloop ‘Ada’, sailed extensively in the Marmara and the Aegean, broke my second mast in the strong ‘Meltemi’ of the Aegean Sea.
1996 – Purchased Gary Mull designed Pala 37 fiberglass sloop ‘Anka’ (built in 1984) kept sailing farther and farther in the Marmara & Aegean after a major (self done) refit.
Transported new mast from Istanbul to Bodrum for ‘Ada’.
1999 – Re-rigged Nadire’s wooden Folkeboat ’Badem’ and sailed in the Marmara Sea.
2006 – Purchased my first brand new sailboat: an Elan Impression 434. We named her Ekip, sailed in the Adriatic & Aegean with our three children.
2011– Decided to sail around the world, ordered an Alubat OVNI 445
2012- Sailed from Les Sables d’Olonne to Le Havre, entered the Seine river, took the mast down and crossed Europe from the rivers and canals all the way to the Black Sea. Visited Paris, Frankfurt, Nürnberg, Vienna, Budapest and many other historical cities. 3000 miles and 224 locks later we arrived in Istanbul.
On August 4, 2012 we set sail from Caddebostan, the beach in front of our former home where Keyif was anchored, and started our voyage around the world. The Marmara and the Aegean were our home ground, but the passage in the Mediterranean was a brand new adventure. Crossing through the Gibraltar Strait we were finally in the Atlantic Ocean. We stopped in the Canaries and the Cape Verde Islands before crossing to the Caribbean. We toured South America in the hurricane season, and after spending another season in the Caribbean, went through the Panama Canal into the Pacific. The sail on the Pacific Ocean to the Galapagos and the Marquesas was the finest passage imaginable. We truly did not want those days to end.
After the Marquesas, we spent time in the Tuamotu atolls, French Polynesia where we witnessed the Heiva festival, and sailed to Cook Islands, Tonga, Fiji and New Zealand.
After 6 months in New Zealand we sailed up to New Caledonia, and through the Torres Strait into the Indian Ocean where we visited Indonesia from east to west, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Maldives, after which we decided to sail south to Rodrigues, Mauritius, La Reunion and Madagascar. Rounding Cape of Good Hope, we sailed to the Caribbean and from there back home to Turkey.
Since 2018 we sailed four times to the Caribbean and back to the Mediterranean and continue to live on our boat.