A creation of Philippe Briand and Garroni Premorel,
A Similar Bareboat Cruising Turkey And Greece A Crewed Caique Cruising Turkey And Greece A Luxury Yacht Cruising Turkey And Greece A 5-Cabin Catamaran Cruising Turkey And Greece This page last updated on 01/24/2012 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 concerning bareboat cruising in Turkey and Greece may be obtained by clicking on the maroon
links immediately above. Thank You. Could you be surfing the internet in search of information
concerning Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra? The most prominent name in Spanish letters? Or for Don Quixote
de La Mancha? Cervantes' knight errant? Or errant knight? Or for Dulcinea, the love of Quixote's other
world? Or could you be searching for an oared galley cruising Greece as did Cervantes' La Marchesa?
Or for a fast yacht cruising Turkey as well as Greece? Perhaps for an ultra-fast Jeanneau 53 bareboat
cruising both Turkey and Greece? Well, you've hit the jackpot! This web page deals with all of these
matters, most importantly with bareboat cruising in Turkey and Greece, with fast cruising along the
cove-indented, pine-clad, coast of Turkey, and with idling on an azure sea among remote Greek islands.
But also with cruising the crossroads of history, for it was here that history was invented, here on the
coast of Asia Minor that Herodotus wrote the first history text entitled History, and here that
much of history played out. Could you be thinking of bareboat cruising at the crossroads of history? In
Turkish waters? Of a charter |
yacht cruising
between isolated pine-fringed coves along the Turquoise Coast of Turkey? Or are you dreaming of a charter
yacht cruising Greece? Of sailing among Greek islands blue and white under climbing bougainvillea? Or all
of the above? How about doing some or all of the above aboard a crewed charter yacht with accommodations
for four guest couples and two crew. Or with accommodations for five guest couples and no crew. Perhaps
chartering such a yacht to cruise Cervantes routes along the coast of Greece and among Greek islands.
While you holiday. While you cruise to Lepanto, now known as Navpaktos, where in 1571 the Holy League
fleet of Don Juan of Austria came up against the Ottoman fleet of Muezzinzade Ali Pasa in the bloodiest of
all naval engagements. In this one both fleets were largely comprised of oared war galleys, most about 137
feet in length and displacing about 140 tons. These were galleys packed not so much with artillery as with
soldiers and marines and, overwhelmingly, with oarsmen, Christian oarsmen on the Ottoman side chained to their
benches, Christian convicts on the Holy League side promised their freedom in return for combat. What has this
to do with Cervantes, you ask! One of these galleys was La Marchesa, the personal property of Gian
Andrea Doria, great-nephew of the famous Andrea Doria, and on board was Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. Born in
1547, Cervantes had fled his native Spain following a street brawl in which one of the participants had
been killed. Arriving in Spanish Naples at the age of 22 Cervantes soon enlisted in a local detachment
of marines which in 1571 was assigned to Doria's La Marchesa then lying at Genoa. Doria commanded
the Spanish contingent in the Holy League fleet and brought with him his own galley squadron. La
Marchesa was assigned to the Holy League left wing as the two fleets collided, a left wing very nearly
enveloped by the Turkish right under Mehmet Scirocco. The fighting was hand-to-hand and furious. Seriously
ill at the time, Cervantes rose from his sick bed to command the detachment of marines and inspired oarsmen
fighting in the ship's waist. While the sea ran red with blood, Cervantes took two arquebus rounds in
his chest and a third in his left hand, crippled for life, but held his post. He survived this the most
deadly naval battle in history, and unchained Christian convicts may have swung the tide. On one
side were arrayed 208 Holy League galleys, galleasses, and
additional vessels, and on the other side there were 251 Ottoman galleys and smaller vessels. These 459
vessels were manned by 141,000 sailors, marines, and oarsmen. Forty thousand of them lost their lives,
the single most deadly toll in the history of naval warfare. Four years later Cervantes and his brother
Rodrigo were captured aboard the Spanish galley El Sol in the Gulf of Lyon. The captor, Ali Memi,
was an Ottoman veteran of Lepanto. Taken to Algiers, Miguel de Cervantes was held for five hundred silver
scudos in ransom. The ransom was five long years in coming. What about Dulcinea, you ask? Dulcinea's nom
de guerre was Maria la Bailadora, a flamenco dancer stowed away aboard Don Juan's flagship El
Real. Don Juan of Austria, it may be presumed, had a good deal in common with Don Juan the libertine.
Yes, cruise the crossroads of history aboard a Jeanneau 53. Cruise leisurely from one idyllic locale to
another idyllic locale while you holiday with friends. Cruise all the way to Navpaktos where the depths
still harbor evidence of 1571's titanic clash. Take with you a copy of Don Quixote de La Mancha, the
Man of La Mancha. Look for references to war, or for inferences about war. Let literature enlighten history.
Contact Charter Yachts Turkey today at