Our endless curiosity for the unknown, for what has not yet been discovered, is also an indication of our belief in the miracles of life. Especially when it comes to the seas, especially for children. From now on, we will feature stories of sailor kids in each issue of Highlights. We are kicking off this series, which we have named Sailor Kids, with Ali Sabuncuoğlu.
Ali Sabuncuoğlu is 11 years old. He lives in Izmir and is in the 6th grade. He has an interest in mechanical stuff, tools and scientific subjects. He likes to mix things up and watch what happens next. When the conversation at the table intensifies, his attention is drawn to the glass of water in front of him. Whatever is on the table (salt, pepper, sugar, pomegranate syrup, cola, pieces of napkin) all end up at the bottom of the glass one by one. What emerges each time is an obscure mixture, a sour-smelling mystery, a kind of astrophysical plasma. This is how Ali builds his own cosmos. He has been doing it since he was a little boy.
The sea is also a mixture. The riddles sprouting in a glass of water call to children, multiplying like grains of salt in the vast sea. Ali is adamant on this: "Humans have discovered just 5% of the sea. Who knows what is out there in the remaining 95%!" So, what is out there? He starts screaming "Godzillaaa!!". (Of course, it is not. It is a joke. For him, these jokes are a way of having fun by making fun of adults and seeing their expressions freeze for a moment).
Everything starts with a book he got when he was three years old. "When I was little, there was a marine encyclopedia. There were a lot of animals in there. I had learned them all one by one. So when my mom asked me to count the marine animals, I could count them all." When he learned to read and write and the words stopped being obscure marks and revealed the meaning they hid, this album with all kinds of marine creatures turned into a dictionary that he could never put down. Those animals jump out of the pages of the album, one by one, go to the shore and strike: Here are the crabs!
The number of crabs that Ali collected in plastic bottles on his trips to the sea, introduced to everyone one by one, and then returned to the sea is infinite. He thinks crabs are the coolest animals. They are cool because "they have weapons for self-defense, have pincers, can travel on land and water, are very fast, and can be eaten."
Ali's explorations that started with crabs on the beach continue under the water as he grows up. One evening at Sivrice Harbor in Assos, a man is catching sea urchins in the cold waters. We are talking about colorful sea urchins with their spines missing. Ali immediately goes over to him. They dive together and collect sea urchins. "I dived to a depth of 8 meters without flippers!" Without flippers, he says! When he gets home, he immediately creates an electronic circuit, and thanks to the led bulb he places inside the sea urchin, it turns into a very beautiful lantern. As you know, lanterns are the indispensable companions of sailors.
His attempts at spearfishing have not been so successful. "We were diving with my uncle one day. Well, I could not shoot the harpoon. When I squeeze the trigger, the harpoon goes forward and I go back." The lesson he learned from that is: "You need to stand firm even in water to be able to shoot that harpoon." While his uncle was fishing for crabs of "this size", he watched moray eels on the bottom. He pointed at the fish and his uncle stuck them one by one. Another time, he and Çınar invented something like a harpoon with a knife at the end. They also managed to catch a fish from above the sea bed.
He always continued fishing. "A couple of times I was out at sea for an hour," he recalls. "I was able to do it three times. I looked for octopuses and caught three of them with my net. I had caught a really big one. The octopus was standing under water next to the rock, and I put the net over it like whaaam. It squirted ink but could not escape me!" His mother takes a picture of the octopus. Unable to resist the protests of his friends, they put the octopus back into the sea. When they show the picture of the octopus to Ibo in the evening, he says, "Oh dear, what were you thinking!", "Why did you not bring it? It is just the right size to eat!"
Just like any other explorer, he too encountered unforeseen circumstances from time to time. When he wanted to see what would happen if he dried a large starfish, he caused a lot of trouble at home. The (half-alive) starfish he left on the balcony of the summer house on the last day of the holiday slowly dried up over the winter, releasing such an odor that when summer came and they went to the house, they were unable to go inside for a few days because of the smell. Not to mention the ant invasion. The starfish has been on the balcony of the summer house ever since, but it continues to give off foul odors even to this day.
Ali started filming underwater when he really got used to the sea. When the camera he bought with his own savings took on water and broke down after a few shoots, Ali's career plans in this field were slightly interrupted. There is also a boat. "Explorer" engraved on it in fancy letters. Do not ask what he will explore in a plastic, inflatable boat with paddles the size of an arm, no cape, no head, no stern. Great explorations are visible only to great explorers. Though there is nothing that requires talent in it, Ali just rides for the fun of it.
Then one day, in Tekirdağ, where he spent his summer vacation, his sailing adventure began. "I could not stop myself in the summer. I was always looking at the screen, always! I could not spend the summer doing nothing, I had to do sports. I mean, you cannot go to the sea or the pool all day... Then my mother discovered sailing. I started going with her." He is now on a real boat, not the Explorer.
He comes to a crossroads in the second summer. He considers giving up sailing. "I had three reasons," he explains. "First, it was difficult at first. Anyway, I got over that a little bit. Then I had taken the sail at the wrong time; I could never go to the sea or the pool. Also, at that time, sewage was flowing into the sea right where we took the sails off."
That day was an important day. He had to make a decision. But he does something that surprises everyone, and decides to continue sailing. "If I stopped sailing, I would be back in my previous condition. Sailing is difficult but fun. The last summer, we started going out in stormier weather, but it became more fun. After all, if you can make the sail adapt to you, the sail will adapt to you and you will move on. If the wind is this way and you go that way, it will not work!"
Does he dream of sailing around the world on a real sailboat one day? "No, I do not! I mean, I am not saying that I would go on a world tour or that I would be the first in the world if I make it any further!" Your feet are on the ground, even on a boat. Yet he is an optimist, and remains so: "Of course, I will still participate in races and maybe I will buy a boat in the future." But are optimists always optimistic? "No," he says, "it depends on the person!"
After Tekirdağ, he becomes a member of the sailing team of Izmir Private Turkish College (ITK). But just as he was about to get his license, the club disbands. "There was a competition in the optimist class. I came first in the B1s there, together with a friend of mine. I was at the verge of B2, even the teacher said so." He now plans to join Karşıyaka Sailing. He already has seven of his friends in ITK going to Karşıyaka Sailing. His teachers are already there. New explorations will kick off in Karşıyaka. Ali has so many sentences that begin with "Explorer, exploration, discovering, what we have not yet discovered..."
Then he suddenly says "When will this end? I am about to sleep. I would like to use my remaining screen time on something else!". Of course, not like the kid is going to spend all of his limited screen time on Zoom. So, he leaves for now. But not without a message for the kids who are thinking of becoming sailors: "Start right away. Because it will probably be difficult at first. After a while -a year for me- you start to adapt and have fun with the boat. And I think it is a great sport. It is good for your body and you are one with nature. Do not quit. If I had quit, I could not be here today."
We ask him if he wants to add anything. (He thinks for a while...) "Always love the sea. Because there is so much to discover and have fun with in it!" He also adds...: "Make this the header, it would look nice!"