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| The 13 women of the 'My Mistress'. |
The early hours of the morning? The crew is getting ready to leave the marina for a hard day's training. Gülcin, today's helswoman is frantically busy putting on sun cream while others are searching for sunglasses and gloves...We are on board the 'My Mistress', once the champion of the 1987 'Admiral's Cup'.
On May 11, Turkey's first women's sailing team left their families and jobs behind and made this boat their home. These 13 women come from different backgrounds and professions. The only thing they share in common is that they are athletes as well as students of Cumhur Hoca at the Gökova Sailing School.
Sailing is a way of being one with nature. You have to be at one with the wind, the waves and the sea to succeed.
In the first test of their mettle, these 13 women came 3rd twice in the race class and 4th in the overall Today, most people believe women can be successful as individuals but not as a team. And it isn't easy to spend 24 hours a day together for 10 days. But we had the time of our lives. We became a real team, good friends and did better than most of our male rivals. Still, Cumhur Gökova?the only male on our team?worked the hardest to bring us together. He is one of the best teachers at a leading sailing school in Turkey. Our team consisted of Sabine (helmswoman), a German who is waiting for her Turkish citizenship; Bingul (mainsail), a Publishing Director at DB; Efsun (foredeck), a 42-kilo doctor; Umran (foredeck), a top-level manager; Elif (spinnaker), an international relations instructor; Gulcin (spinnaker), textile manufacturer; Merve (ropes), a lighting designer; Candan (ropes), a doctor; Sema (Genoa), another doctor; Ilknur (Genoa), a tour guide; Aysem (Genoa), another tour guide; Selva (backstay), textile manufacturer and finally Gülderen (backstay) an art historian. You'll hear a lot more about us!
