In Memoriam | Sadun Boro (1928 - 2015)

Sadun Boro lived in Okluk Bay, Gökova on board his catamaran named Sonbahar (Turkish for "Autumn"). Sadun Boro was diagnosed with bladder cancer a couple of years ago. He was first treated in Marmaris, where he lived, and then transferred to the American Hospital in Istanbul. However, he was airlifted by helicopter back to Muğla on May 14, 2015 as he wished to spend his rest of life on board of his sailboat. At 9:15 hours local time on June 5, 2015, he died at age 87 in the intensive care unit of a hospital at Marmaris, where he was taken into three days before. 
His last will was to be buried under the pine, to which his sailboat is secured mooring at İngiliz limanı (literally: English Harbor) in Gökova. For its realization, a cabinet decision is necessary. He was survived by his daughter Deniz (Turkish for "Sea"). 

Mavi Boncuk | 

Sadun Boro (1928 - June 5, 2015) was the first Turkish amateur sailor to circumnavigate the globe by sailing.

Sadun Boro was born in Istanbul, Turkey in 1928. He spent his childhood at Caddebostan neighnorhood of Kadıköy, Istanbul, on the coast of Sea of Marmara. He changed his rowing boat with a sailboat as soon as he became a high school student.

After High School in 1948, and went to the United Kingdom to study textile engineering at University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology.
In 1952, Boro made his first ocean voyage from British Islands to the Caribbean Islands on the 11 m (36 ft)-long sailboat Ling together with an Englishman. The story of his travel that lasted six months was published in serial format in the Turkish daily Cumhuriyet, and was compiled in his book titled Bir Hayalin Peşinde (literally: Pursuing a Dream) later in 2004.

His 10.5 m (34 ft)-long sloop was laid down at the workshop of Athar Beşpınar in Salacak neidhborhood of Üsküdar, Istanbul in 1963, and named Kısmet (Turkish for "Fortune"). The sail, he manufactured in the textile plant, he was working at Çukurova, southern Turkey.

Boro began his westabout (east to west) voyage to circumnavigate the globe on August 22, 1965, accompanied by his German-born wife Oda Boro.[4][5] He set sail from Istanbul, passed Strait of Gibraltar crossing Mediterranean Sea and reached Canary Islands, where they took a housecat aboard and named it "Miço" (Turkish for "shipmate").


On June 15, 1968, after 1,028 days of an ocean voyage, he arrived in Istanbul, where he was welcomed by his mother, and cheered as a national hero. Becoming the first ever Turkish global circumnavigator, he paved the way for global circumnavigation of Turkish sailors.

Between 1977–79, Sadun Boro sailed with his wife and then-eight-year old daughter Deniz to the Caribbean and the East Coast of the United States. After 1980, he settled down in Bodrum and Gökova, known for its idyllic coasts full of forests and turquoise sea.

He devoted himself to the protection of nature at the Turkish Riviera, in particular in Gökova, Göcek and Fethiye. Boro aimed to instil love for nature and sea to young people with his articles published in newspapers and journals. As a lover of Gökova, he had a mermaid statue erected with an inscription atop a rock in the middle of Okluk Bay. The inscription reads Boro's words as "This mermaid has traveled many seas and horizons to find the heaven that she dreamed of. She traveled continents, islands and bays, until she reached Gökova." His latest book, titled Vira Demir (Turkish for "Haul Up the Anchor"), is a guide for sailors.








Boro, Sadun (November 2011). Bir Hayalin Peşinde : Yarım Asır Evvel Bir Atlantik Serüveni. Ege Yayınları. p. 200. ISBN 979-975-807-0946.

Boro, Sadun (2010). Pupa Yelken - Kısmet'in Dünya Seyahati (in Turkish). Istanbul: Denizler Kitabevi. p. 423. ISBN 978-975-807-1678.


Boro, Sadun (2010). Vira Demir - İstanbul'dan İskenderun'a Denizciler (in Turkish). Istanbul: Ege Yayınları. p. 524. ISBN 978-994-426-4242.