Yachting in the Turkish Med
A Clayton Lynch blog of a recent Turkish Med cruise
For me, travel has always been about doing rather than seeing. Action suits my chronically short attention span better than exploring a new culture. Snowboarding, climbing, paragliding and hiking all around the U.S. and parts of Europe have historically topped my favorite reasons to travel. Luckily, my wife loves to see new places and explore new cultures and so between the two of us and a great group of friends we have managed to maintain a great mixed itinerary of doing exciting things and seeing cool cultural spots and people.
We recently headed off to Turkey for our first bareboat sailing trip and were pleasantly surprised by the amazing opportunity to do both high adventure sailing in big sea swells and considerable wind, as well as immerse ourselves into the Mediterranean Turkish culture. We sailed several hours each day and then docked the boat in beautiful coves along the shore where we had the opportunity to meet with the local people who ran the restaurants, shops, adventure tours and the marinas.
Our guide book had warned that some of these spots have been completely washed out of any true Turkish culture by mobs of English and German tourists. However going early season before the rush of tourism hit and with a small group of eight Americans and one Portuguese guy, all of us fitting comfortably on a 49-foot Bavaria yacht, we were treated to almost empty marinas, truly astonishing unspoiled coves in which to drop anchor, and the most amazing service at isolated restaurants that specialize in the eco-friendly food trend of growing or catching most of what they serve. They called it “slow food” which encouraged us as a group to slow down and spend a few hours on dinner. Most evenings, the marina host would spend time filling us in on Turkey’s surprises. For the super busy people in our close-knit group (which included one company commander, a nurse, two doctors and several pilots) this slow pace of eating, as well as the slow pace of travel, was a great reminder that many things in life are missed when we rush through everything.
For those of us with short attention spans, and I wasn't the only one, the excellent food and the excitement of assisting our skipper George Tomai with the sailing and navigation held our attention nicely. George brought us to several romantic and remote coves which could have been out of a movie. He also explained the basics of sailing to the less experienced members of the crew, so that any one of us could have safely sailed/motored the boat to a safe harbor. We were even able to take in some amazing views of the ancient ruins from the comfort and security of the boat. Dolphins and giant turtles swam right next to our boat!
Overall, this trip ended up being the perfect combination of both seeing and doing and after enjoying a full week on board, we are already trying to figure out when the next sailing trip can happen.
The details:
Phoenix yacht company is one of many charter organizations that rent out private yachts. We decided to go with Phoenix because of the excellent service they offered, the incredible yachts we could rent, and the good reputation that other sailors gave them. Phoenix took care of transportation from Dalaman airport which we flew into via Istanbul. The price of flights down to Turkey was fairly high (350 euros), mostly because it was off season. However boat rental and meals were very reasonable, again because of the lack of tourists, so you have a definite trade-off there, depending on what time of year you want to go. From talking to Bobo, the Austrian guy who runs Phoenix, I disocvered that if you come early you get real sailing conditions, whereas coming to the Mediterranean in the summer will most likely give you lots of flat water and gentle breezes. One other major consideration to think about is space on board. For a slightly higher price you can have a lot more room per person. A larger group than ours would need to find two boats and more skippers; it could be a challenge during high season to find marinas or coves with room for multiple boats, but working out such details is quite a bit easier than you may imagine.
To sum up, we all enjoyed a beautiful, unique and rewarding vacation. We think this is obvious in the pictures we brought back with us and we have no doubt that the memories will last a lifetime. Or at least, the memories will last until we are able to get back down to the coast and sail some more.
Clayton Lynch
West Point Sailing team 1998-2001
Go Army Beat Navy!!
May fair winds be with you
Captain's Log
No, this is not your conventional vacation (if you want to be waited on hand to foot this is not for you), but you won't have to worry about having to set it all up - it's an adventure that you'll want to remember and repeat. It may sound expensive and complicated - but it is'nt! In fact, it's cheaper than staying at a hotel! (And more fun too!). Group briefings, with details, references & pictures of past trips, are available on request.
Trips are based on number of interested people who can travel at the same time. April to October are prime sailing times.
For information please contact:
George Tomai · 0172-675-2299 · gtomai@aol.com or
call by the “American Auto Protector” insurance office
Boelke Str. 62 (next to McDonalds) in Mainz-Kastel - Wiesbaden
Internet: Tomai Sailing(external link)