His -long sloop was laid down at the workshop of Athar Beşpınar in Salacak neighborhood of Üsküdar, Istanbul in 1963, and named Kısmet. The sail, he manufactured in the textile plant, he was working at Çukurova, southern Turkey. Boro began his westabout voyage to circumnavigate the globe on August 22, 1965, accompanied by his German-born wife Oda Boro. He set sail from Istanbul, passed Strait of Gibraltar crossingMediterranean Sea and reached Canary Islands, where they took a housecat aboard and named it "Miço". Crossing the Atlantic Ocean, he arrived in Barbados and Caribbean Islands. Passing through the Panama Canal, he sailed crossing Pacific Ocean to Galápagos Islands, Marquesas Islands, Tuamotu Archipelago, Tahiti, Society Islands, Tonga Islands, Fiji Islands, New Hebrides and New Guinea. His route went then through Torres Strait to Timor, Indonesia and Singapore. Crossing the Bay of Bengal, he was in Ceylon. He sailed then on Arabian Sea and Red Sea and then was carried by a truck from Eilat to Haifa. In Mediterranean Sea again, his last stop before completing his globe circumnavigation was Israel. On June 15, 1968, after 1,028 days of an ocean voyage, he arrived in Istanbul, where he was welcomed by his mother, and cheered as a national hero. Becoming the first ever Turkish global circumnavigator, he paved the way for global circumnavigation of Turkish sailors. The memories about his voyage around the world were published as newspaper serialization in the daily Hürriyet at that time, and were written down later in his popular book Pupa Yelken. Erected in front of the Kalamış Marina's main entrance in Kadıköy, Istanbul, a monument featuring Sadun Boro at boat's wheel of his sloop and his wife Oda standing next, both sailing on the globe commemorates his achievement.
Later years
Between 1977–79, Sadun Boro sailed with his wife and then-eight-year old daughter Deniz to the Caribbean and the East Coast of the United States. After 1980, he settled down in Bodrum and Gökova, known for its idyllic coasts full of forests and turquoise sea. He devoted himself to the protection of nature at the Turkish Riviera, in particular in Gökova, Göcek and Fethiye. Boro aimed to instil love for nature and sea to young people with his articles published in newspapers and journals. As a lover of Gökova, he had a mermaid statue erected with an inscription atop a rock in the middle of Okluk Bay. The inscription reads Boro's words as "This mermaid has traveled many seas and horizons to find the heaven that she dreamed of. She traveled continents, islands and bays, until she reached Gökova." His latest book, titled Vira Demir, is a guide for sailors. Boro donated his sloop Kısmet, he sailed 46-year long about with, to the Rahmi M. Koç Museum, a museum in Istanbul dedicated to the history of transport, industry and communications, which was founded by the wealthy businessman Rahmi Koç, who also circumnavigated the globe between 2004-06. Sadun Boro lived in Okluk Bay, Gökova on board his catamaran named Son Bahar.
Illness and death
Sadun Boro was diagnosed with bladder cancer a couple of years ago. He was first treated in Marmaris, where he lived, and then transferred to the American Hospital in Istanbul. However, he was airlifted by helicopter back to Muğla on May 14, 2015 as he wished to spend his rest of life on board of his sailboat. At 9:15 hours local time on June 5, 2015, he died at age 87 in the intensive care unit of a hospital at Marmaris, where he was taken into three days before. His last will was to be buried under the pine, to which his sailboat is secured mooring at İngilizlimanı in Gökova. For its realization, a cabinet decision is necessary. He was interred in Karacasöğüt Cemetery in Marmaris following a memorial tour in the bays of the Turkish Riviera he admired on board of his catamaran Son Bahar accompanied by many boats and vessels of the Turkish Coast Guard and a frigate of the Turkish Navy. He was survived by his wife Oda and his daughter Deniz.
Works
Other Turkish circumnavigators of the globe
Turkish sailors circumnavigated the globe following Sadun Boro, listed chronologically:
