Log of Black Wind - Part 5 / Blind Date

By James.

I wondered where I would go next and I soon found out. As cheap as Mexico is, boats unfortunately seldom are; and Black Wind needed a few new parts to keep her afloat. So I donned my professional captains hat and headed for...

Blind Date in a bay in Greece

The Southern Aegean and the surrounding coasts. Bodrum in Turkey to begin with. My new clients Paul and Feza had a new Jeanneau 50 DS (named Blind Date) which was to cruise the area for the summer, and I was going to run her for them to the Greek Islands and along the southern Turkish Coast.

An easy to sail boat (especially with full roller furling on both sails, electric winches, air conditioning, and all sorts of other extras) and an inexperienced owner defined the next few months; My role was to manage the yacht, skipper her, and teach when the owners wished to be taught. I actually enjoy teaching now, something I never thought I would, but if you can survive teaching on a flotilla holiday ( a later blog), you can probably do it anywhere.

James teaching Diving

As it was I ended up teaching many things on this trip, including my clients kids how to dive. And it was good to be diving again too. Checking the seabed with SCUBA outside of Bodrum for a mooring, it was warm, easy, and there were even some fish. It had been a while since I had dived but it was as easy as riding a bike again.

Living ashore while I prepared Blind Date was easy too, and Feza's sister Ferda cooked the most delicious food. In fact, for all of the restaurants that they used, I still preferred what they cooked themselves. Traditional cooking in Turkey cooked by the locals is some of the best fare I have eaten. During one such dinner an honoured guest and an old friend of theirs came to visit...

Sadun Boro is not hugely known to the rest of the world, but he is a hero here in Turkey, and rightly so (in fact, as I write this a statue is being built in Istanbul to honour him and his wife, and their first boat now rests in the maritime museum there). Turkish, but educated in Manchester UK, he sailed around the world with his wife back in 1960, near the beginning of the era for such adventures (not including Slocum of course). He is an older man now but still lives at sea (he is testing out Prout Catamarans nowadays). His writings and books from his many adventures and pilots have sold well in Turkey and other countries, but sadly he was never happy with the original attempts at translating them to English so to this day they are still not available in that language. Maybe one day somebody will manage it. After the evening was finished somebody said to me that he had lived with little belongings or riches, yet he was the happiest man that they knew. This is no surprise to me or anybody else who understands this way of life, and it makes me pine to be back with my own boat.

However, there was work to be done, and soon, the Jeanneau was ready to launch.

Without hanging around, we left Bodrum and began the relaxed island/coastal hopping route east to the area of Gocek. The sailing gentle, the bays, villages and islands we stopped at very picturesque, and the wine was very good too. Erkan, Ferda's husband (a kind of cross between my grandfather and the Godfather) was an old salt too it seems; I knew he was watching me quietly. I passed though, and I found I could communicate the closest with this man, even though he spoke the least English. It became a bit of a joke that I felt compelled to defend him from the playful onslaught of the rest of the family.

It is always good to visit other countries and cultures, but better still to know the people behind them... to know their world beyond the TV and the pictures and the hype. I have always tried to travel this way (apart from once when somebody took me to Benidorm, and I spent the first 30 minutes in shock, but that's another story).

Knidos out of season

Knidos (above) was a particularly beautiful place. We arrived the only yacht there and the entire area was a sea of wild flowers and ancient ruins. I would have been happy if we had just stayed there for the following month. I could have walked and walked and simply breathed there, it was incredible for the senses. It was however a little saddening to see the endless plaques pointing out that so much of the original archeology from this place now rested in the British Museum in London.

Great mountain walking

On a more lively stop we entered Symi for Easter. I soon believed the rumour that they had 6 tons of TNT to use over the weekend as windows and doors rattled and it felt like the island was under siege. A 'guy' was lit and burnt (worryingly called a Jew - but later explained that it was short for Judas), streams of firecrackers and explosives were thrown around near the crowds of people (I saw several people examining their burns with mixed emotions), and all this while the fireman kept watch. I ended up chatting to the fireman next to his wagon as he wobbled clutching his beer and threw his cigarette into the bush. We laughed together; he well understood the irony. Along with the folk dancers and the roasted goat the next day, it was a remarkable weekend.

After sailing on and several more stops we were at Selimiye on the Turkish coast. A quiet place where I was left to my own devices for a week or so. Jogging around the mountains to the next villages the locals must have thought me rather mad as everybody stopped to offer me a lift. In between my excursions I was cleaning the boat, writing this blog, and simply stopping to remember the past year, especially as I celebrated my fortieth birthday here. Scotland, Greece, England, LA, Mexico, UK again, Turkey, back to Greece...and so on. Like so much of my life; so many different places, people, jobs, and so on. Always on the move, but I doubt I would change anything.

Finally Rhodes, Castellorizo, Gocek, Kas, and Kekova were visited, before heading east back towards Bodrum to spend the last part of the season sailing around Nisyros and the surrounding islands, using the old town as a base. I also visited Istanbul which is a story in itself. Ultimately, Turkey proved itself to be so much more than what I had expected. A land of Eastern promise indeed, and people who I will forever hold close to my heart.

I will add one more note to this episode before moving on, as it is relevant. This 'brief interlude' was exactly that - 6 months cruising away from my normal life of voyaging. And what have I learnt? That there is a difference between the two. I'll explain. I once rode in a bike gang - what is termed a 'patch club'. There was a lot of attitude but I loved the camarade and the commitment. One day one of the older bikers was giving a lecture to us 'prospects' and he mentioned that "You can ride a million miles on a motorbike - it doesn't make you a biker". It took me a while but I got it in the end. It takes a more than just turning up.

Nysiros Main Harbour

But know this; the quest is worth it. And you have to quest - to voyage in life. Buddha said you cannot learn to see from reading alone, you must go out into the world.

So very true.

"You cannot pass wisdom on, you must find it yourself."

Herman Hesse  Siddhartha