Turkish couple lives on boat for 6 years

BALIKESIR, Turkey

A married couple in the town of Bandirma in Turkey’s northwestern Balikesir province sold their home to rent a boat and spend the four seasons at sea.

55-year-old Hukumsur and 50-year-old Zumrut Canarslan decided to live on a boat when Hukumsur retired six years ago.

Selling their home and renting a 1989 model boat dubbed “Baray” for 10 years, the couple has been living at sea for six years.

The boat has a bedroom, a kitchen, a bathroom and a toilet on the ground floor.

The couple spend their time near the town of Marmaris in Mugla province and the bays around there.

Coming to Bandirma to see their two daughters, Hukumsur told Anadolu Agency they have been living with normal home standards on the boat.

“We will spend the winter in Bandirma. We will be here until April. We live in a beautiful region, in nature. Sometimes we visit the Greek islands.

“Just like all sailors, we dream of voyaging on an ocean. We want to go to at least the Canary Islands,” he added.

His wife, Zumrut, said she is happy to be living on the sea.

“We are very happy on our 12-meter-long boat, in our blue world,” she said.

She added that her husband is a professional captain and she holds an amateur mariner certificate, which allows her to navigate her own boat.

Noting that they are not “land people,” she said they chose to live on a boat, which is no different than living in a home, to be nested on the sea.

“The landscape we live in is gorgeous. We have always dreamed of oceans,” she said. “We live a small but happy life on out boat. We are free because we can travel anywhere.”

*Writing by Dilan Pamuk in Ankara