Ahoy!

"Ahoy! I'm sailing!.. Look at me, I'm a sailor!" If you can name this movie, a big props to you! I am sincerely impressed by your abilities.

On a more serious note, John and I were sailors for 7 whole days. It was spectacular. The water was so blue and clear and incredible. It was simply Beautiful. And at times Sea Sickening, of course. We kept thinking, this is really an opportunity that we were given that we will probably never be given again. Not in a were so great, look at us kind of a way but, rather a how did we get so lucky way. Let me explain...

We had planned to come to Turkey a while back and while we were making plans, Ayse was conversing with her Turkish friends and family about us coming and what we were going to do whilst being here. Two of her dearest and closest friends, Pelin and Negoti, were trying to come up with a good plan for all of us. They discussed it over with another good friend of their's named Mehmet and he suggested that we all come on his boat and sail with him for 7 days. The only thing he wanted was gas money for the boat and of course the food taken care of for the trip. Anyway, we all agreed that it would be a great experience and so we did it, we sailed.  

Basically, throughout the entire trip, we just went along the Mediterranean coast from cove to cove. We would sleep in a cove one night, wake up the next morning and eat breakfast, then go swim and then set sail to another cove. The next cove we would swim, snorkel, eat lunch and then set sail again for the cove where we would dock and eat dinner and sleep, shower, etc. 

It was so beautiful. I kept finding myself overwhelmed by how incredible this world is and how grateful I am for a loving God to give us such beauty to behold.  Hopefully, the pictures will do justice to beauty that we saw. While I was there, I kept wanting to share it with everyone I know. I wanted everyone to feel the same way about it that I did. But, I felt it was almost personal to me. Like, it was my piece of heaven that God was giving to me even though it was for everyone. I took it personally because I know he created this beauty for all of us. I guess I am just lucky I had the eyes to see it....

This will need an explanation. There were a large amount of boats docked at the Marmaris Marina from where we set sail from. All boats ranging in age, size, type. One boat that we came upon was this one. At first, we were incredibly unsure what to make of it. What was it? Did it come from outerspace? Was it for the furture? Was it a joke? and then we started observing that there was someone that was there inside... after looking at it more closely, we came to the realization that someone must live there and even more important, we think this boat was home made. I wish this photo could show true detail of what it really looked like. Just notice the details as much as you can... very very wierd.

Our boat, named Deeper Blue. Our captain (the one without the shirt)

Our sleeping quarters for the duration of the trip...

The marina...

We set sail!

Us at dinner with Pelin and Negoti.

Stray animals are everywhere! These kitties came to join us for dinner.

The litte boat we would have to take to shore sometimes.

Turkish people drink a lot of tea. Like the english. We always had tea breaks.

One of the dinner locations we ate at. I want to eat at a place like this every night.

Like I mentioned stray animals, this dog really took a liking to John... He was a handsome one.

At one of the Ports that we docked at, there was a kid going around and offering people boat rides to the dock. He was a pretty smart kid, making money off of all these people! We decided to support him and hop on for a short ride to the dock. We got on and immediately almost tipped over! I love Ayse's face in the photo below! It says how all of us were feeling!

In some of the ports and coves that we went to, there would be these islands in the middle and some of them would have old architecture castle like remains on them. This one is on top.. Look closely...

Here is another up close.

This one particular port had young kids (6-12 years of age) learning to sail in there own little boats. They were so wiggly and quick! It was so fascinating to watch them.

John got some new snorkling gear. Looks great, right??

Most of the places we docked had goats right on the shore line. Not the greatest photo but you can see them. Also, our captain took off and went on shore one afternoon and came back with a back of fresh oregano that he had been picking from the hillside. It was just growing naturally! It was so insane to me that it was growing there so freely!

The End.