Croatian#1 Soledad Sailing Challenge 2025
Soledad Sailing Challenge 2025
We are starting.
Excitement is at its peak. Adventure guaranteed.
Bodrum is the starting point.
D-Marin Borik Zadar is the destination.
Two boats.
7 crew members.
Soledad – Comet 46
Pero – Grand Soleil 45
Departure date known – Ferragosto or more formally August 15, 2025.
Date of arrival – it will be whatever Poseidon decides for us.
We plan to reach Zadar by the end of the month, Man charts the course, but God steers the ship.
We know that we have two or more weeks of adventure ahead of us.
CREW
Basak
Captainess on Pero.
She has been actively, passionately, madly, and unrestrainedly engaged in sailing for 30 years. Recently only with that.
Born in Türkiye but lives wherever the wind takes her, she spent the last year in the Caribbean and settled somewhat in Panama, coming to Croatia by sea for the first time. But surely it won't be her last.
Just a month ago, she set a world record for solo sailing around Asia Minor: 1,500 nautical miles in 15 days, 6 hours, and 41 minutes. Alone. Every earlier record was held by men — until she came along.
In 2024, she sailed around Cape Horn but - from the wrong side. Because she doesn't like it when it's easy, with the wind at her back, that's boring to her.
In 2023, she crossed the Atlantic alone in 24 days, setting a women’s record and she is the first Turkish women to do so.
Before we convinced her to join us, she was ready to head back to Panama with her husband and continue sailing slowly around the world. Luckily, we changed her course.
Omer
Behind every successful woman who flies, there is a man catching her so she doesn't fall. This is Omer, Başak's husband. If there were medals for patience, flexibility, and versatility, they would all be his. His main flaw is that he's a lawyer.
Omer will be our captain on Soledad.
Ozgur
If we were speaking in the literary language of commedia dell’arte, where the same roles appear in different improvised scenarios with different actors, Ozgur would be the priest.
Perhaps years in senior positions at global corporations trained him to be authoritative, moderate, and elegant all at once — but I suspect he was simply born that way.
He is also the most stylish member of our crew. Whatever the weather, his clothes, hair, and even his manicure are always impeccable.
Feridun
At the great risk of sounding biased — which I am — Feridun is the engine that powers everything and everyone within reach.
If he hadn’t become a neurosurgeon, he’d probably have aimed for a life on board, just like Basak — only he’d bring his three dogs along for transatlantic voyages.
He showed remarkable modesty by handing over the captain’s hat on his own ship to a woman — because he is, after all, a Turk. We’ll see if he can stick to his “assigned” role as the expedition’s medical director.
Nikša
Nikša is our big baby of 20 years, he has been born into boats, so it’s perfectly normal for him to skip showers and drink warm beer for breakfast.
Nikša could have applied for the position of cabin boy if he weren't a medical student and a classical gymnasium graduate, but instead, he will be our advisor for Ancient Greek and Latin, Feridun's medical assistant, and our ship's favorite crew member.
Arif
There’s a category of men fairly common in Türkiye — bred, it seems, for very specific purposes. These are men who can raise an army for anything and conquer everything.
Since no one has (yet) invited Arif to lead a military invasion, he currently channels his talents into running a massive textile factory and managing every operational detail of Soledad — both the company and the boat.
He’s handed the captain’s rank to Omer so he can focus on planning strategic “market conquests.” And it was Arif who insisted our hashtag be #soledadsailingCHALLENGE2025 — despite my warning that Feridun and Nikša lose all self-control when competition is involved, and that in trying to race, we’d likely crash somewhere around Corinth or Otranto. He didn’t listen. In fact, his eyes just lit up with excitement.
Ana
I like to think I’m a valuable crew member because I’m the only one who speaks all our working languages — Turkish, English, and Croatian — and because I make a fine pasta. But I admit it may also help that I happen to be Feridun’s wife.
Following good old seafaring tradition, a ship’s log must be kept. I claimed that task for myself. With utmost delight!
Being the bookworm that I am, even the thought of going to a bookstore to choose the perfect notebook made butterflies flutter in my stomach. (For the record, the date of my manufacture predates the mass use of the internet. Yet, carried by the zeitgeist — and perhaps by ego — I want to share my work with the world, not just with paper.)
