It is interesting that when I received this number, I did everything in reverse order. First of all, I wrote a letter of resignation, to which I received an offer to double my salary, but after refusing, I left in accordance with the law. Then I took my due severance pay and went back to Petrozavodsk, where I joined the labor exchange for benefits and just started fishing in the winter. I also gave my dad the Internet and studied English, watching all my favorite movies from the local network in the original.

For three months, I gathered my courage to call Alikhan from Turkey and prepared my speech in English, sketching out different versions of the text and assuming different answers.

- “Alihan, hi, my name is Gleb, and I'm calling from Russia. I heard that you need a Russian-speaking skipper. Is this true?”

- “Nice to meet you, Gleb. Shall we speak Russian then?”

What? I've been preparing for one call for three months to finally find out that his Russian is better than mine. Alikhan said he would be happy to hire me, but I needed an international license to fly a sailing yacht. I promised that I would receive this certificate by summer and would be with him as soon as possible.

It is not clear what these rights are, where to get them. I ran home and started searching the Internet for everything I had to say about this topic. The only thing Alikhan said was that there seemed to be schools in both Fethiye and Marmaris.

🔎 sailing school Fethye, Marmaris...

I found several sites where it was not clear how and when the courses were being held and what courses I needed. And it's all in English; for now I'll write, until they answer, while I figure it out. It's better to fly to them right away and find out everything on the spot. I called my dad and said I made it all up. “Look, dad, these two cities are very close on the map, I just need to get to either of them and start somewhere.” I showed my dad Google Maps while teaching a lesson for later personal use. “Look, on these maps you can always type in the name of the city or village from which postcards will come.” I really wanted us to switch roles, so now he would receive letters from me and read them at the bar, just like I used to do in my class.

As an example, I entered “Gleb” into the search box and pressed Enter. On a selected piece of the map, Google showed a point approximately in the center of Marmaris Bay, an ordinary blue geotagging with the signature “Gleb”. “Look, some Gleb has already been here, or someone tells me that I should start from this place.” It's solved! I bought a ticket to Istanbul on June 11, 2009 and back on August 10, based on the maximum possible 60 days.

Later, the coordinates of this point will become the main symbol on all Sailing Time products, but there was still a lifetime before that.

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