▲Bodrum’s October yacht race schedule is getting crowded: two races in one week! Bodrum Offshore Yacht Club is the main organizer of the 8^th Bodrum Race Week which begins with the Bodrum-Turgutreis stage on Mon. 19 Oct. ’09 with the return leg sailed the next day. 21 Oct. will see the Bodrum-Mersincik-Bodrum stage sailed, with round-the-buoys races during the next two days. Full details available at http://www.bayk.net/ ▲The 21^st International Wooden Yacht Regatta begins on 20 Oct. with onshore fun activities, with the first leg of the races starting on 21 Oct. with the course between Bodrum-Gündoğan, followed by Gündoğan-Didyma (22 Oct), Didyma-Gümüşlük (23 Oct) and Gümüşlük-Bodrum (24 Oct). Prize-giving night at Halikarnas The Club beginning at 19:00 hrs on Oct 24. For full information

go to: www.bodrumcup.com. This is by far the longest annually running sailing event in Turkey. Participants in both of these races come together on Tue 20 Oct at the 21^st Bodrum Cup Regatta opening cocktail party given in the Milta Bodrum Marina to celebrate the beginning of this traditional race.

☻Two artistic events are on Bodrum’s calendar in this period, one is the “Bodrum Bienal” staged in parallel with the Istanbul Biennale. The Bodrum artistic happenings are created by four artists (Gül Gökovalı, İnci Iyibaş, Thomas Kutzli & Deborah Semel Demirtaş) in five locations in Bodrum. The second art event is an exhibition of works by 30 artists resident in Bodrum, members of the BodrumART association. The exhibit is on view until the end of October in Dibekli Han, the artistic complex in Yakaköy, a village off the road leading from Ortakent to Yalıkavak.

☺Anyone familiar with the history of Bodrum knows that the town owes a great debt of gratitude to Cevat Sakir Kabaagacli, a.k.a. The Fisherman of Halicarnassus, without whose books, articles and publicity efforts the place may well have remained an undiscovered small fishing village for years to come and the Blue Voyage may not have been invented. Over the past years The Fisherman has been remembered on the anniversary of his death with modest observances by a small group of people appreciative of his contributions, but finally this year he was remembered by those who will carry his memory on – schoolchildren.