Having just seen Pirates of the Caribbean III, Victoria Aitken decided to set sail in Turkey with fellow scallywags on a pirate boat.
Exhausted and about to die, and crying (not from exhaustion but from reading Whit Stillman’s touching film script Creation) I was fresh off the plane from New York. My destination? A Turkish gulet anchored off Bodrum. The gulet was a 40 inch sailboat of traditional design, but with modern amenities. Suddenly I had gone from polluted air to fresh warm air and from concrete motorways to olive tree lined bumpy rocky roads.
My Turkish friend Selda, a beautiful, fun and very successful businesswoman invited a bunch of her friends sailing, including a Spanish couple with three adorable children. The first night we stayed in Turkbuku and had dinner at the Markaska hotel, they have the most delicious buffet.
The restaurant overlooks a beach with swimming platforms lined with huge cushions. The platforms extend at least 80 metres into the sea. The hotel’s famous spa,Dreamlands, is owned by Liz Hurley’s best friend Alistair Dundas.
Two years ago Isabella Blow was there in full force planning a fashion show Turks in Tartan, having cast her friends the Wilson sisters as models – and sailing with Alexander McQueen, who was looking for inspiration.
I soon realised that although gulets look like (and are called) sailboats they are not! The sails are merely a fashion statement, as they could never carry such a heavy boat at a reasonable speed.
All of us would soon realise that sailing in Turkey is very different from sailing in western Europe, where huge yachts occupy the ports, businessmen hold meetings and during the night, Blackberries beep away.
Around the Carian coast the majority of boats are gulets filled with relaxed holiday makers. We started sailing off for the Datca Peninsula, where there are some beautiful islands only accessible by boat.
It’s not called the turquoise coast for nothing. And unlike France, the water here is as warm as a bath. As a result the waters are abundant with fish. Alfonso’s son Pepe fished whenever the boat set anchor, but luckily, we weren’t dependent on his fishing skills for lunch.
The chef on the boat was amazing and prepared traditional Turkish food for every meal. At breakfast we ate olives, tomatoes, cucumber, honey, yoghurt, and nuts. At lunch and dinner, we ate variations of yoghurt salads like Cacik
(Tatziki) roasted pureed eggplant, stuffed peppers, Borek, various stews and spiced lamb meatballs.
Interestingly, the herb that seemed to be used predominantly in Turkish cooking was fennel, used just as we use parsley. Afterwards there was a choice of syrup filo dough deserts and coffee – the coffee was more popular, however, as Selda had a secret talent for reading her friends’ futures in the cups.
The following morning we arrived at Knidos, which as early as 360 BC had been a rich town due to its two harbours. It was on most pirates’ routes, and they exported large amounts of wine and olive oil.
The ancient city includes an Acropolis, a small theatre, a Temple of Aphrodite, and a strange sun clock. For further reading check out The Travels of Lord Charlemont who was one of the first visitors there. He was on his way back from Rhodes to Athens when winds swept him to Knidos, and these August winds known as Maistali and Meltemi are known to keep sailors stranded on the Greek islands.
Unfortunately, as we sailed on, biting flies swarmed us; luckily our host had lots of DEET prepared – but any romantic tension developing under the night stars was ruined. The flies were so bad that we had to stop off at Datca to get petrol and more DEET. Along the way we passed many beautiful shops selling carpets, water pipes, evil-eye jewellery and other nick-nacks.
The following night was Pepe’s 6th birthday. His father had bought him a sultan costume that he had spotted in a shop in Istanbul but only when the crew started laughing did we discover that the outfit was a circumcision costume and nothing to do with sultans at all.
All the team were given an evil-eye necklace then we tucked into birthday cake and belly dancing followed.
Most other days or nights were spent lazily swimming, reading and talking under the stars. I had to miss dinner, because I had land sickness from all the rocking – but the Turkish half moon in the sky reminded me of what mystical and wonderful trip this had been.
Who knows, if you sail around Turkey, you might even find romance with a Jack Sparrow. There are hundreds of Gulet Cruises to choose from – with or without crew- for more information, visit Pupa Yachting www.pupa.com.tr or try
www.flamatours.com
