Solo sailor who sheltered on Aran islands gets hero’s welcome in Turkey

A 68-year-old Turkish-Canadian sailor who was "adopted" by the Aran Islands after being caught in a hurricane has been given a hero's welcome in his final destination of Istanbul.

Erkan Gursoy has paid tribute to the "warm hospitality" of the "seafaring people" on Inis Mór, and says the Aran islanders inspired him to continue his journey halfway round the world on his self-built 11m boat.

Mr Gursoy had survived entrapment in ice in the Northwest Passage, a collision off Greenland and the tail-end of Hurricane Gonzalo in the Atlantic when he was greeted by the RNLI Aran Islands lifeboat off Inis Mór late last October.

At that stage, Malin and Valentia Coast Guard and the Air Corps had been monitoring his progress.

"I didn't need to be rescued – the lifeboat came to salute me," Mr Gursoy told The Irish Times.

"I spent 10 days on the Aran Islands, with beautiful people, including the lifeboat crew and Garda John Kavanagh, who told me his washing machine was all mine to use."

He carried out some repairs in Dingle, Co Kerry, before setting off for the Mediterranean.

Dardanelles

He reached Canakkale on the Dardanelles straits several days ago, where he noted that many Irish troops had lost their lives on the Gallipoli peninsula one century ago.

He has berthed this week at a marina in Istanbul.

Mr Gursoy, a former teacher, built his boat of aluminium in his back garden, some 600 miles inland in Fernie, British Columbia.

He and his wife Renay and two children lived aboard the boat for some years before he set off from Vancouver.

“My wife said I had better go and get it out of my system, so we could then live out our lives,” he said.

Mr Gursoy’s mission now is to teach young, unemployed Turkish people how to build boats, while helping them to learn English at the same time.

“I want to make sure these skills are not lost, and I want to give Turkish young people a chance to live a normal life,” he said.

Mr Gursoy, who left home last April, had to bang an empty barrel to keep polar bears at bay when his boat was stuck in ice in the Northwest Passage.