First Yachting Adventures

The ship has returned to port. After 11 days on the sea, I am still rocking despite being on solid ground. The trip however, was wonderful. There are a whole slew of visitors and guests that we had on the boat along the way, so instead of going into detail about who was on the boat which days, I will rather surmise where the boat ended up. We (there started out with 9 of us) flew from Istanbul to Dalaman, Turkey and a relatively short taxi trip later we arrived in Fatihye.


Marina in Fatihye


We spent the first night in Fatihye seeing the town and spending our first night on the boat. Ah, speaking of the boat, I am sure you are wondering what type of contraption I am actually referring to. This was, unfortunately, not a sail boat. However, it was a wonderfully equipped yacht, 25meters long, staffed with 3 crew members. 5am the next day, we set sail for Rhodes, Greece.

When we arrived in Rhodes (a Greek Island) we were not permitted to leave the boat until passport control arrived. I suppose this makes sense, and was just a technicality I overlooked as I tried to jump onto dry land before we were even properly docked. Something else that I hadn’t considered before is that my host family all needed visas in order to enter the country as they are Turkish citizens. Of course they got the paperwork all in order, but due to the necessities of visas, we couldn’t make an impromptu visit to Crete or Cyprus.

Back to Rhodes however. When I finally did get off the boat, I was greeted with hoards of locals all doing their best to market their goods/services ranging from scuba diving lessons to private train tours (cars that look like trains: think Biarritz for those of you who have been). After navigating through that commotion I found myself at the front gate to Old Town.



Old Town is an open market filled with both tourists and natives determined to escape the sun by darting under the scattered shadows while scanning even shop for their purchases. Scattered amongst the shops are outdoor cafes and crêperies where the purpose it to mutually enjoy a refreshing treat while people watching.



After ducking out of the Old Market for awhile, while my host family returned to the boat, I wandered around the ancient buildings of the Island. Rhodes, located between Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, has been a stomping ground for centuries—many societies vying for control of this perfectly located land. Therefore, Rhodes has endured countless changes in leadership as evidence proves in its architecture. It has been used as a base by the Persians, Romans, Egyptians, and crusaders to name a few of the more well known historical societies. The Island once was home to one of the seven ancient wonders of the world, a statue of the sun god, known as the Colossus of Rhodes. Yet as the Island was taken over by competing forces after the statues inception, it was destroyed shortly afterwards.

A more recent evidence of conquest was left by the Knights Hospitaller. As I was not sure who the Knights of Hospitaller were, I have since looked into it. They are the successors of the Knights of Templar, and I should thank Dan Brown for my education on them. The Knights of Hospitaller fought for the protection of the Christian pilgrims. However, they were forced to leave their homeland, and thus needed to relocate. They selected Rhodes, where they controlled the Island and created fortresses, a castle, and strong city walls.




These walls protected the city for many decades, but eventually fell to Ottoman control, where the Island remained until the Empire dissolved this past century.

Rhodes was the only historically cultural place we visited, so no worries, my other landing destinations won’t be nearly as tedious for you to get through to satisfy your curiosity as to what I have been up to.