Equipment
A Schooner-Rigged Gulet Sailing The Turkish And Greek Aegean A Ketch-Rigged Yacht Sailing The Turkish And Greek Aegean This page last updated on 04/13/2008 Dear Homo Sapiens, There is no need to continue reading this page. What follows is intended for search engine robots and spiders and not necessarily for human beings. Further information about sailing the Turkish and Greek Aegean may be obtained by clicking on the gray links immediately above. Thank You. You may be searching for a gulet charter sailing the Greek Aegean, or for a gulet charter sailing the Turkish Aegean. Perhaps you are considering a gulet charter sailing holiday cruising both the Greek and Turkish Aegean. Or a holiday cruising Turkey's southern, Mediterranean, coast. You may be dreaming of a cruise from one secluded bay surrounded by Calabrian Pine to another secluded bay pressing up against olive groves. Or you may be dreaming of a cruise from inviting beach to isolated blue-water cove, from remote Greek island to remote Greek island. You may even be dreaming of cruising the northern Aegean among Greece's rarely visited Eastern Sporades. Cruising Lesbos, for example, where the Barbarossas were born late in the 15th century, four brothers and two sisters. Or you might like to cruise the eastern Mediterranean off Turkey's Pamphylian and Cilician coasts. All the way to Syria!. Where Tabach Reis was born at about the same time. Maybe you already plan to holiday in the eastern Mediterranean. Perhaps with your family. Or with a small group of friends. If so, a rather intimate yacht with few guest accommodations may be just the ticket. Consider, for example, Primadonna, a 71-foot ketch-rigged charter gulet cruising the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean with no more than six guests in three guest cabins. Luxury accommodations. You might charter such a yacht to cruise the Aegean from Bodrum. Three of the Barbarossa brothers cruised the Aegean near Bodrum, the eldest Aruj, Elias the next, and Khizr the youngest. Aruj was to become Emir of Algiers, Elias was to fall in combat with Hospitaller Knights from Rhodes, and Khizr, later Kheir-ed-Din, was to become Lord High Admiral of the Ottoman Navy. You might like to pursue this bit of history while cruising from either Bodrum or Rhodes Town. You might like to trace Elias's galliot (small galley) track from Bodrum down the chain of Greece's Dodecanese Islands, Kos, Nisiros, Tilos, Khalki, and Karpathos to Kasos and Crete where off the latter's coast he met his end in an engagement with the Knights' large galley Our Lady of the Conception. Alternatively you might like to cruise the Knights' oft-sailed path from Rhodes Town along Turkey's southern coast to Kastellorizon and thence to Alexandretta and Latakia in search of Egyptian and Syrian Mamluk privateers for a time including Aruj and Khizr Barbarossa. Should you be searching for Bodrum in Turkey or for Rhodes Town in Greece, well, the first is about 70 nautical miles NW of the latter while the latter is at the northeastern tip of Rhodes itself. And both have international airports. At either place you may come aboard Primadonna, a charter sailing yacht affording unforgettable holidays. You may come aboard a crewed charter yacht with an experienced crew able to show you the paths of Elias down the Dodecanese and of the Knights east to Alexandretta. Able to show you as well the several tracks of Tabach Reis, by 1512 to become a Barbarossa lieutenant. Tabach Reis was born in Latakia, now Syria's major seaport, at a time of Mamluk stewardship but probably of Greek Orthodox parents still calling Latakia by its Greek name of Laodicea. While Tabach was undoubtedly a nom de guerre, there is no reason to believe it was derived from the popular Latakia tabac leaf as tobacco was not to be introduced to the Mediterranean until a century after Tabach's birth circa 1485. While that is neither here nor there, Tabach, too, cruised the Turkish and Greek Aegean, though at the time it was mostly a Latin Aegean. He did so with his own galliot, and he did so venting an Orthodox rage at Latins, particularly Venetian Latins, who had been primarily responsible for the Fourth Crusade's dismemberment of Orthodox Byzantium of which Laodicea had been a part. Consequently obtaining Tabach's attention were the mid-Aegean Venetian islands of Naxos, Paros, and Ios, among others. Primadonna, a fine charter gulet cruising the Turkish and Greek and Venetian Aegean can take you to these places and many more. Contact Blue Cruise Yacht Charters today at blcryacht@aol.com |
