A logbook of a life at sea

Born in Marmaris in 1996, in a town where the marina is the main employer and everybody's father has a story about a boat. Primary school at Kenan Evren; then, at an age when most children are choosing a language class, a maritime college in Malta. Economics in Milan afterwards, which turned out to be the part he uses least and regrets least.

He holds a Turkish seafarer's book and a yacht master's licence, and he did the work in the order the sea prefers: deckhand first, then mate, then captain. Somewhere in there he founded Sparkles Yachting, which grew to a fleet of twenty-seven boats and, at its height, ran seven large yachts serving D Maris Bay on the Datça peninsula — the same water Nimara works today.

He speaks Turkish, English, Russian and Italian, which on this coast is less a talent than a job requirement. He now splits the year between Marmaris and Chicago: the boats and the crews on one side, the contracts and the American season on the other.