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Another Luxury Yacht Sailing Turkey And Greece Still Another Luxury Yacht Sailing Turkey And Greece This page last updated on 04/28/2008 Dear Homo Sapiens, There is no need to continue reading this page. What
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information concerning luxury yacht sailing in Turkey and Greece may be obtained by clicking on the
gray links immediately above. Thank You. You have found a luxury yacht sailing Turkey and Greece
in sumptuous comfort. A sailing yacht on Blue Cruise in the eastern Mediterranean. Cruising among Aegean
islands of Greece. Cruising along the pine-clad coast of Turkey. Sailing through history.
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If you weren't thinking before
of a luxury yacht sailing Turkey and Greece, think about it now. Think about a crewed charter yacht with
luxury accommodations for five couples. Think about the sailing yacht Carpe Diem III. Think about a crewed
yacht sailing Greece and Turkey not merely under an Aegean sun or on an azure sea but in the wake of
master mariners, in the wake of history, in the wake, for example, of Aruj Reis. Cruising the coast of
Asia Minor and among neighboring Greek islands, Aruj Reis (Aruj Captain) was the eldest of six children
born to Greek parents on the Aegean island of Lesbos, the father a former Ottoman janissary, the mother
Greek with Andalusian roots. Four of the six children were boys, two later known as Barbarossa, Aruj the
eldest. Aruj got his sea legs fishing the waters off Lesbos and his habit of command in the service of
Prince Korkut, son of Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II and at the time Governor of
Manisa Province. He learned
even more as a slave in the galleys of the Knights of Rhodes. Ransomed for far too little by Prince
Korkut, Aruj went on to become a free-booting Aegean sea captain flying the colors of the Mamluk sultan of
Egypt, his victims Venetians and Genovese and, occasionally, Knights Hospitaller. All Latin. By 1503
Aruj had migrated to the western Mediterranean and by 1516 had founded the emirate of Algiers, the youngest
brother, Khizr, his principal lieutenant. Two years later Aruj lost his life in combat with forces of
Charles V's Holy Roman Empire and was succeeded by Khizr. Over the next fifteen years this second
Barbarossa became the scourge of the western Mediterranean, his maritime exploits leading to a summons
in 1533 from the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman. Khizr was thereupon re-named Kheir-ed-Din and made Kapudan
Pasha or Commander-in-Chief of the the Ottoman Navy, and as such
five years later met and defeated at Preveza (depiction at left) the
combined Latin navies under Andrea Doria. Thus established, he maintained Ottoman naval supremacy in the
Mediterranean until his death from natural causes in 1546. Arriving on the scene soon after the
brothers Barbarossa was yet another superhero of the Aegean. Turgut Reis was born in southwest Anatolia
perhaps seven years after Khizr in 1485 and also took to the sea at an early age with hook, line, and
sinker. The offspring of a Greek mother and of a father lost in the pages of history, Turgut was
conscripted into the standing Ottoman Army at the age of twelve. Perhaps six years later he appeared
in Cairo with an artillery expertise and fluency in Arabic apparently acquired in Istanbul. Shortly
thereafter Turgut returned to the sea at Alexandria where he became a protege of Sinan of Smyrna, future
brother-in-law of the Barbarossas. He quickly established himself as a master mariner while training
Sinan in the laying of naval cannon, and in time became part owner of a merchant brig and then full owner
of a galliot. 
By 1508 he had
succeeded the departed Barbarossas as the scourge of the Aegean, by 1510 commanding a flotilla of 12
galliots preying on the same Latin shipping and Latin held Aegean islands that had been Barbarossa quarry:
Kos, Leros, Nisiros, and Tilos among them. By then known to the west as Dragut, he commanded a unit of
Kheir-ed-Din's fleet at the 1538 Battle of Preveza and succeeded him as Kapudan Pasha upon his death in
fact if not in title, remaining the preeminent "admiral of the middle sea" until his own death at the siege
of Malta in 1565. Through these 70 years of Aruj, Kheir-ed-Din, and Turgut, from Aruj's coming-of-age in
the 1490's until Turgut's death in 1565, Turkey ruled the Mediterranean waves. Why not charter a luxury
yacht to sail their Aegean wakes? While you holiday in style and comfort. While you proceed from
pine-encircled cove to remote island. Why not have an extended-family holiday aboard a crewed sailing
yacht cruising through history in these waters. Reach out to cousins if need be. Or have a group of
friends holiday with you aboard a charter gulet proceeding leisurely from fascinating locale to
fascinating locale. Perhaps cruising into the Cyclades. Cruising from Turkey into the central Aegean
once a favorite haunt of the Barbarossa brothers as well as of Turgut. Starting in Bodrum. Are you
searching for Bodrum in Turkey? Well, it is eleven nautical miles NE of Kos Town on the north shore of
the Ceramic Gulf. And it has its own airport. There or elsewhere we can put you aboard a luxury yacht
with an experienced crew able to show you tracks left by the Barbarossa brothers, able to show you tracks
left by the other two brothers without auburn beards, able to show you Turgut's tracks up the coast of
Lycia to Caria where his mother and brother made their home. Carpe Diem III, a superb
luxury yacht sailing Greece and Turkey sumptuously. And knowledgeable, as well, of local history. Contact
Blue Cruise Yacht Charters today at