The October 1987 cover of the National Geographic Magazine featured an underwater excavation of a Bronze Age shipwreck by Dr. George Bass, which launched the fascinating field of underwater archaeology and put the fishing harbor of Bodrum firmly on the map as the center of this new world of scientific exploration. Bass and his team had gotten to know the local sponge divers, and given them some specific images to keep a lookout for, offering rewards for finding any of these unusual shapes. The sponge-divers on the southwest coast soon turned up the oddly shaped ingots of tin and copper that were shipped from ancient Cyprus to make bronze, and along with dozens of amphora and a treasure trove of other basic shipping cargo, the 13th century BC shipwreck of Ulu Burun was painstakingly and methodically excavated.
The Ulu Burun Bronze Age shipwreck is only one of a number of fantastic excavations so beautifully presented in the halls of the Bodrum Underwater Archaeological Museum, which is housed in the spectacular 15th century Medieval Crusaders’ Castle of St. Peter. The mighty limestone walls and massive steps incorporate a lot of pieces of columns and marble taken from the ancient city of Halicarnassus that thrived two millennium before, which was the site of King Mausolos’s famous Mausoleum—one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
Most of us chose to walk the one-mile waterfront from the dock at Bodrum to the dominating Castle of St. Peter, which would open for us by special arrangement on this lazy Monday morning with perfect Mediterranean weather. The bay and harbor were highlighted with the gorgeous wooden yachts called “gulets,” which are still handcrafted to this day in Bodrum and ply the coastal waters of the Turquoise Coast. After hiking through the towers and along the ramparts of the Castle and exploring the excavated shipwrecks of antiquity, we wandered through the streets of old Bodrum dodging vendors and merchants and drifting back to Sea Cloud at the pier outside of town.
While the galley set up lunch as a five-star kebab kiosk on the lido deck, we cast off and set the sails for an excellent afternoon of sailing. Anticipating light winds, Captai Pushkarev again set all the square sails and three headsails, so when the wind gusted up to over 20 knots we were racing along at over 7 knots and heeling hard to port. It was a fantastic feeling, transcending time with only the power of the wind. National Geographic Emerging Explorer Katy Croff Bell gave a talk on her work in underwater archaeology and cutting-edge undersea exploration in the Aegean and the Black Sea, before we ran out of sailing room in the Gulf of Bodrum and had to douse sails for the evening.
We finished the day at anchor at the Greek island of Kos, where we took on our Greek guides Laura and Stella for the remainder of the voyage. We bid farewell to Turkey with an open deck buffet dinner that featured an unforgettable locally caught 40-kilo yellowfin tuna that was served as both sashimi and seared along with many Turkish specialties. On to the Cyclades!
