The Story...

“Cevat Sakir” a writer of novels and short-stories, as well as being a keen ethnographer and travelogue. Later in life he referred himself as the “Fisherman of Halicarnassus".

He is the man responsible for bringing the formerly sleepy fishing town of Bodrum, as well as the entire shoreline of the "Blue Cruise", to the attention of yachtsmen around the world. Here's his story;

The year is 1925. The setting is a courtroom in Ankara. The judge makes a verdict: Exile to Bodrum! He knew there was nothing that could be done other than set off as soon as possible and serve his sentence. It wasn’t easy getting to Bodrum due to bureaucracy and the transport conditions back then. So he struggled to get to his place of exile for six whole months. His arrival in Bodrum however became the first paragraph of a long story. When the old minibus had turned the curve at the top of the hill, the navy blue sea spread all the way out. The line of sight became clearer…  then the islands, the shores that envelop the sea in crowded capes and bays, two harbors in the shape of a crescent right in the middle, then a peninsula that carries a castle…  He thought the name Bodrum (Meaning basement in Turkish) has darkness, an emptiness that troubles the soul, this place lit his inside instead. He was already in love with Bodrum. The man wasn’t wrong; During his exile days, Bodrum lit his life up first and then ours from his writings.

After the exile was over, inspired by the name of Bodrum in ancient times, he adopted the alias "Fisherman of Halicarnassus". He chartered the gulet 'Yatagan' of a sponge hunter for some adventure trips along the Aegean coast and succeeded in writing numerous well known literature work. In his writings, Cevat Sakir tells us about his journeys and people he met. He later named these very humble sailing trips "Blue Cruise".