www.shoretechnology.com/tgeweb AEGEAN AND EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN
(Links in Underlined Teal Text) Crew ProfilesGordon Abercrombie, Skipper S/Y T.G. Ellyson. Gordon Abercrombie was born in Alexandria, Virginia. He spent much of his youth in Annapolis, Maryland, and in Ankara, Turkey, returning to Annapolis to study at the U.S. Naval Academy. For five years from graduation he served on destroyers with the Atlantic and Mediterranean fleets, frequently visiting Greece and Turkey. Following subsequent tours of duty in Viet Nam, in Washington, D.C., and with the Pacific Fleet, Lieutenant Commander Abercrombie resigned his commission and entered the investment banking business where he eventually rose to positions in senior management. Leaving investment banking in 1981, he purchased the T.G. Ellyson and set sail for the eastern Mediterranean where the yacht has remained since arrival in 1983. From 1975 through 1997 Mr. Abercrombie was a member of the Board of Directors of E Capital Corporation and from 1988 through 1997 of Wedbush Capital Corporation, both in Los Angeles where he also served on the Audit Committee of Wedbush Morgan Securities. The author of two manuscripts concerning a fictional sailor, Mr. Abercrombie has been on yacht charter in Greece and Turkey since 1996. He resides with his wife and their children in Gocek, Turkey. Jennifer Abercrombie , Crew S/Y T.G. Ellyson Jennifer Abercrombie was born in Derbyshire, England. After taking her baccalaureate in computer sciences, she obtained employment in the Aero-Engine Manufacturing Division of Rolls-Royce PLC, eventually becoming a Systems Project Leader. She first began exploring Greece and Turkey in 1988 and relocated to the latter country in 1994. In 1995 she took employment as co-manager of marina facilities at the Club Marina, Gocek. There she obtained proficiency in facilities management as well as an appreciation for the needs and wishes of both the yachting community and holiday-goers. She also acquired a modest fluency in Turkish and experience working with both Turkish nationals and others from different parts of the world. The knowledge and experience of Turkey, culture, cuisine, and holiday-goers that she acquired, together with her love of sailing and people, help Mrs. Abercrombie provide charter guests the support they need while on board, coming, and going. Mrs. Abercrombie has been on yacht charter in Greece and Turkey since 1996. She resides with her husband and their children William and Sian in Gocek, Turkey. Isabelle Outin , Crew S/Y T.G. Ellyson Isabelle Outin was born in France in 1959. After studying languages at university she lectured at the University of Wisconsin in Madison for one year, then moved to Britain where she taught both at university and secondary level for fifteen years. She has now returned to France where she continues teaching at the secondary level. She has visited Turkey in each of the past ten years and enjoys the country and its culture. Isabelle has been on yacht charter in Greece and Turkey since 2002. She speaks French, English, and German, and is a wonderful cook. Geoff Parsons , Skipper S/Y Panta Rhei of Fowey Geoff Parsons spent the first ten years of his life in Brazil, before being educated at Bedford School in England. On leaving school, he trained as a marine engineer and then worked in Europe and Africa as well as South, Central and North America. His interest and amateur involvement in motor racing led him into the building of Formula 1, 2 and 3 racing engines for Cosworth before starting his own engine-building company. It was while re-building Formula 1 engines in 1972 that he became interested in sailing. Upon returning to the UK, he sold his engine business and built his first yacht, a 34' sloop. Since 1974, Geoff has built and chartered four yachts the last two of which were to his own design. Geoff is an experienced skipper with over 150,000 sea miles under his belt. He is also a fully qualified British DOT and RYA Commercial Yachtmaster, and is fluent in Portuguese while conversant in Spanish and French. Patsy Sanderson , Crew S/Y Panta Rhei of Fowey Patsy was brought up in the sailing community of West Mersea on the east coast of England. After leaving school she attended university at Trinity College, Dublin reading mathematics. She has sailed all her life, initially in the family’s East Coast Smack and later in various classes of sailing yacht. She is a qualified RYA Coastal Skipper who has cruised Britain's east coast and completed two classic yacht cruises to the Baltic and back. In addition to her keen interest in sailing, Patsy is an accomplished horse-woman and a qualified riding instructor. She has managed a small 13th century country-house hotel on the east coast which still enjoys an enviable reputation for fine cuisine and excellent service. Patsy speaks French and lists her hobbies as sailing, cooking, riding, yoga, medieval history, architecture, art galleries and museums. Becci Stevens , Crew S/Y Panta Rhei of Fowey Becci was brought up in Hampshire and was educated at Brockenhurst College before studying at the University of Wales in Cardiff which she left with a BA in French and Spanish. She has worked in Project and Event Management and has fulfilled various roles in the hospitality industry. Becci is an RYA-qualified dinghy and windsurfing instructor and holds a PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) Open Water Diver certificate as well as an RYA Day Skipper certificate. She was also captain of the Cardiff University windsurfing team. She is a creative person and, having cooked professionally, she considers cooking one of her favourite pastimes. Her other main interests are sailing, dance and yoga, the knowledge of which she is happy to share with guests on board. She is a keen linguist and has a strong grasp of both French and Spanish. John Helliwell , Skipper S/Y Astral Music Born in Yorkshire in 1953, John Helliwell spent over 20 years in South Africa, living in and around Cape Town from the age of nine. There he studied electrical and mechanical engineering before returning to England where he spent 15 years in the computer business with Memorex, EMC and Hitachi. John started sailing around the Cape of Good Hope at the age of 12 and much of his early experience was gained on an old, winchless, gaff-rigged ketch skippered by a sergeant major in the South African army. He is a qualified RYA Yachtmaster and has over 20,000 miles sailing experience. Louise Helliwell , Crew S/Y Astral Music Louise Helliwell was born in 1962 in Emsworth on the South Coast of England, moving to London in 1980 where she trained as a nurse. After traveling in Asia, she returned to study psychiatric nursing and qualified as a Cognitive Behaviour Therapist. She has since obtained masters degrees in Health Psychology and Business Administration. She started sailing dinghies at the age of 11 and continued to sail and race thereafter. Her interests include walking, reading, and sewing as well as Turkish language, culture and travel.
Contact Us About Charter Sailing in Greece and Turkey This page last updated on 01/09/2008 Dear Homo Sapiens, There is no need to continue reading this page. What follows is intended for search engine robots and spiders and not necessarily for human beings. Further information about charter sailing in Greece and Turkey may be obtained by clicking on the teal links immediately above. Thank You. You may be searching for a sailing yacht on which to cruise the Aegean Sea or eastern Mediterranean. You may have read something about charter sailing along Turkey's Turquoise Coast. Or your thoughts might be of charter sailing among Aegean islands of Greece. Or you may be dreaming of both Greece and Turkey, of the Aegean and of the eastern Mediterranean. Well, you have come to the right place. You have found a page with thumb-nail sketches of the crews of three yachts charter sailing in Greece and Turkey. Additional information concerning holidays and honeymoons, itinerary alternatives, and costs is readily available and may be obtained by clicking on the teal links preceding this paragraph. You and your family or you and friends might like to charter one of these three yachts to cruise the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean coasts of ancient Caria, a part of southwestern Turkey. Or to sail the Aegean coasts of neighboring Ionia, Aeolis, and the Troad, cruising among Greek Dodecanese and Sporades islands along the way. While you holiday on blue water under blue skies at the crossroads of history. The first historical narrative to have come down to us in poetic form is the Iliad attributed to Homer, said to have been born either at Smyrna (Turkish Izmir) or on the Greek island of Chios immediately offshore of Smyrna. The Iliad and its sequel The Odyssey deal with larger than life individuals populating pre-historic Greece including what is now western Turkey, people such as Agamemnon, Helen of Troy, Hector, Sarpedon, and Achilles. The first actual history, one dealing with a world of barbarians as well as Greeks, was written by Herodotus in the middle of the 5th century BCE. Herodotus was a native of Halicarnassus (Turkish Bodrum), and his history dealt with Xerxes, Pericles, Cimon, Artemisia the Elder, and Croesus among a multitude of others. Since those early histories there have been many more dealing with an infinite number of magnetic personalities passing through this crossroads of history. One such personality receiving all too little attention on the pages of history was Paolo Simeoni. A Piemontese born at Cavoretto in 1488, Simeoni became a Knight of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem at 18 years of age and was immediately assigned to a Hospitaller outpost on the Dodecanese island of Leros in the company of one other knight and a small number of sergeants at arms. Within months of his arrival on Leros, in June of 1506, Paolo Simeoni received a visit from the Ottoman admiral Kemal, known as Camali. Camali had come in from the western Mediterranean with eight galliots and fustas and was in need of provisions. First, though, he had to take the Knights castle dominating the anchorage at Pandeli. Having breached the castle walls with ships cannon and storming those walls at dawn the following day, his 500 janissaries were amazed to find not a handful of defenders manning the parapets but rather scores wearing the knights' familiar scarlet tunic with white cross. Camali called off the assault re-embarked his janissaries, and set sail. Paolo Simeoni was in fact the lone knight present, but earlier had the foresight to have spare tunics available for the island's shepherds and fishermen, young and old, man and woman. No small deed, this. Twenty years later sixteen of Barbarossa's galliots were surprised in the channel between Tuscany and Elba by a flotilla under Andrea Doria. Paolo Simeoni commanded a Knights galley in the company of thirteen other vessels. The flotilla put Barbarossa's own galliot to flight and took the other fifteen, Simeoni's galley taking up the Barbarossa chase; the lighter galliot escaped only under cover of darkness, and Barbarossa never forgot his pursuer. Taken captive by Barbarossa's brother-in-law Sinan of Smyrna in 1531, Paolo Simeoni was imprisoned, Barbarossa refusing all offers of ransom. It was not until the Holy Roman Empire's troubled 1535 assault on Tunis that Simeoni regained his freedom. It was not emperor breaching the prison walls, however, but rather a Simeoni break-out at the head of 7,000 Christian slaves which turned the tide of the entire battle. Three years later he was instrumental in the taking of Castelnuovo (modern Hercegnovi at the head of the Gulf of Kotor), and in 1539 emerged victorious from an engagement with seven Turkish galliots off Brindisi, capturing three of them. And for this untarnished career in service to the Knights of Jerusalem, Rhodes, and Malta, Paolo Simeoni has been largely ignored by history. Come join us at the crossroads of history. Come learn about these overlooked chapters of history. Starting in Bodrum, perhaps. Charter sailing from Bodrum to Pandeli in Leros among other idyllic destinations. Are you searching for Bodrum in Turkey? Well, with its own international airport, Bodrum is about eleven nautical miles NNE of Kos Town on the Greek island of Kos (Cos) where there is also an international airport. In Bodrum or elsewhere we can put you aboard a sailing yacht for the holiday of a lifetime charter sailing north through the Aegean, past ancient Iasus, past the Greek islands of Pharmakousa, Agathonisi, and Samos, past Ephesus, Chios, and Lesbos, crossing the wake of Agamemnon coming and going, all the way to The Troad. A cruise through Aegean history and a cruise from one idyllic destination to the next. Contact us today at tgeweb@aol.com |
