Maiden Voyage
March 2, 2025
Princes’ Islands

Crew: Aslıhan Demirtaş, Merve Yücel, Eylül Şenses, Kerim Bayer, Ali Cindoruk

It is the transition from winter to spring. The prevailing winds are from the north and northeast, at times gathering strength. Daytime temperatures average 12–14°C, dropping to 6–8°C at night. Along Istanbul’s shores of the Sea of Marmara, the water temperature is approximately 11–12°C, meaning the sea still carries the chill of early spring.

We are setting out on our first expedition, fair winds and following seas! We are not quite sure what to do. “Turn things while being turned by them,” wrote the 13th-century Japanese Zen master Dōgen in Tenzo Kyōkun. In much the same way, we let the sea —and the condition of being underway— turn our ways of thinking, making, and knowing. Yet alongside this, confronted with the overwhelming complexity of the issue, we keep returning to another question: why has it proven so difficult to cultivate the regional coordination and attunement that the situation so evidently demands? Throughout February, we read reports detailing comprehensive studies. Every possible roadmap seems to have been mapped, everything that could be written has been written, every kind of research has been undertaken. As our passage through the Sea of Marmara gradually opens up other ways of thinking and understanding, one question continues to surface: if the course for preventing mucilage is already charted, what keeps us all from setting out together?