Next step: Alanya - Turkey [BLOG]
I did not expect to sit right now at a lovely pool, overseeing a beautiful bay, while having the most weirdest sailing ships I ever seen floating by. To my back 3 medieval looking walls cascade up the hills while the sun is burning and the temperature reaches 35 degrees.
Welcome to Turkey my friend I'd say if i would have talked to my self.
The Covid pandemic struck the sailing world hard, as so many other industries too. It was a struggle to find work in the beginning of the year. To put it in other words: there was no work what so ever. But in the past 2 months I managed to work on several sailing vessels. Overall, I do have plenty of experience and skill regarding sailing and maintain sailing vessels. That's why I managed to work in Hamburg for a month and went to Kiel (Germany) afterwards. The time in Kiel was pretty decent sailing a 36 meter Dutch Klipper called the Pegasus (photo below).
We sailed a lot in Denmark since Kiel is right close to the boarder and the waters there are perfect for charter sailing. When chartering, a group of people hire the a boat (including a Rating Deck Officer as well as the Captain) and go for a sailing adventure / holiday. In that one month that I was working on the Pegasus we sailed about 500 miles, of which I consider to be quite the decent mileage.
Anyhow, since there was no work in the beginning of the year, I applied for a job that happens right now. Per usual that is not really my thing since this was five months in the future at this point in time. And it is quite hard to know, if you are a charter / delivery sailor, where and when you are in the future. But, rule number one as a sailor is: be flexible.
Some how I managed to work 2 months of a season that was not meant to be and here I'am in Turkey. If everything goes accordingly we will sail from Alanya - Turkey to Stockholm - Sweden. That's some 7000 Kilo meter or 4000 nautical miles. With a bit of luck we will need around 1.5 to 2 months to make this distance.
And that's the boat we are sailing with - The Spirit of Ziana
Ziana is a 26 meter Ketch (the 1st mast is higher than the 2nd). She was build in 1994 and was equipped with the latest tech while being very luxurious. And then a French men showed up and rebuild the boat completely. To my understanding the whole interior was ripped out in order to make the vessel as light and fast as possible. The boat is very narrow too, she is just 3,80 in with and was outfitted for racing as well as to act as a regatta vessel. Later in her life she ended up in Turkey as was used as fast charter boat until 3 years past, Martin - a Swed - bought the boat. And now it is time to bring her home.
At this moment the crew - Helene (a Swedish doctor) - Richard (a entrepreneur from the UK) and me haven't seen Ziana since the captain, Martin is still in Stockholm preparing his trip. He will join us on the 4th in the evening and we will start our journey when we are ready. Of cause there are plenty of things to do - let's hope this does not end up in a repair-o-thon.
As you please, I will take you with us on this trip and do my usually photography shenanigans. :-)
About the weird looking boats:
Clearly these vessels were never build to be sailed, but they should look like. As a sailor this is very weird, from a business perspective that's quite logical. You do not have to worry about the sails, rigging and everything related sailing and you can give your customers a "pirate" vibe. I do not want to judge these vessels too much. Just do this for your self :) They go around the harbor and motor a few 100 meters away from the shore in order to let masses of people go swim, drink and eat.
You are not setting sails with this canvas =D
They are big, they are bulky and they show some decent craftsmanship.
The alanyans really like to sell you some thing. I never saw a figurehead on the aft of a boat. Well, there we go =D
And of cause you will find a lot of straying cats all around town, here is one of them.
