I can’t believe it’s been four years since our lives changed dramatically from the World Trade Center disaster.
I wasn’t even here at the time. I was on holiday sailing around the bays in Turkey with nine people. We were all brought together by one friend who was originally from New Zealand. It was the greatest experience as the boat had nine personalities from all over the world. We were from Madrid, Auckland, New York, San Francisco, Brussels, and Sydney.
We were sailing from September 6th to the 16th. The holiday started out wonderfully. The weather was beautiful, the views were amazing. We had a Turkish crew that included a captain, cook and a steward. We’d sail in the morning to a set location and hang out all day. We only needed to purchase the alcohol and the crew provided breakfast, lunch and dinner.
On the 11th, it started out as a day the same as others. We’d docked close to a beach and in the middle of the water was this astonishingly high rock protruding from the sea. Everyone climbed as far as they could and dove from the highest area of the rock. Around 7pm our CD player that had been playing non-stop for the past five days, finally died. So as we were sailing to the next bay to prepare for the night and dinner, we asked our captain to take us back to the beach to go ashore and buy batteries.
Three of us took the small row boat that was attached to our larger boat and went ashore. As we were climbing out of the boat and wading, calf-deep in the shallow water I looked around and noticed the clusters of people lounging on the beach. They looked relaxed and calm and then I heard this voice coming across what sounded like a sound-system. It seemed odd to me that this vast beach could carry a voice that far. The boardwalk area was about a city block away and it just seemed strange to hear this deep, British voice speaking in an eerily hushed tone. The first thing I thought was this guy sounded like a golf commentator. But then I realized, what would a golf commentator be doing announcing something across a beach.
Only when one of the friends with us froze in his steps and then took off up the beach to the boardwalk did I start to listen to what was being said. Instead of how it was being said. I heard him say, “this is the worst event in U.S. history…” and then my heart stopped. I immediately thought there was an earthquake or some other natural disaster. Never did my mind go to the area of a terrorist attack.
At the boardwalk there was only one bar with a rooftop deck that had a large screen TV playing. Once we got to the deck, we realized that was the voice we’d heard on the beach. When we arrived, the place was empty. We stood at the bar, too much in shock and fear for what we might see to sit down. As we looked at the screen I heard the BBC reporter say, “what you’re about to see is quite disturbing”. Then came the image of the twin towers. A plane was flying through the air heading towards the buildings. My first thought of denial came about when I thought to myself, “wow, I didn’t realize the towers were so high in the sky that they were at the same level as planes”. Then I watched as the plane disappeared between the towers. I instantly looked to the other side of the buildings waiting to see the plane come out on the other side. I assumed it was flying in between the buildings. And then the explosion filled the screen. I gasped and our friend sank into the bar stool.
We watched in shock and horror as the events unfolded and realized it was happening live. We were about 10 hours ahead of New York. Then I remembered that the friend who sank into the bar stool was from New York. I asked him if he was okay and he couldn’t speak. He finally couldn’t take watching the footage anymore and asked us to leave with him. He stated that it wasn’t a matter of which of his friends were in the building but how many. When we turned to leave, the bar was packed. We were in such shock, we didn’t hear or feel the place fill up.
Upon reaching the boardwalk, our friend could barely walk. I and our other friend had to hold him up and we went to the nearest pay phone. He wanted to call his family. The phone lines were all busy and congested so we walked until we found an internet café where he could try and email his family.
By that time, our other friends had heard the same announcer from the boat and come to shore to find us. We continued to watch the footage on the internet café’s TV for the next three hours.
The tragic thing about it was when we had a group of European men arrive in the café and asked the owner to turn the TV to a sports game. Our friends were shocked and the group told us to relax. That we were arrogant American’s to think that the world stopped because something had happened in our country. They wondered if our world stopped when tragic events happened in Europe?
We left soon after and upon arriving back to our boat, we were all exhausted and still in shock. Then the captain from a neighboring boat came over and started to tell our captain that the U.S. now knew what it felt like. He assumed we were all Europeans and he continued that we deserved it. We instantly told him to get off of our boat.
For the next several days we felt isolated and scared. We’d received a notice from our travel agent that upon our arrival to Istanbul on the 16th (our date to return home), we should not let anyone know some of us were Americans. That Turkey was the ‘Gateway to the Middle East’ and for us to be careful and lay low.
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