Adventures with four girls: Turkey (2/3): Our gulet on the Mediterranean

Second portion of the trip was the raison d'être of our trip: our six day gulet charter on the blue Mediterranean where our fourth family finally was able to meet up with us. You'll see pictures below of the gulet but Anna said it looked like a pirate ship so you can kind of go with that in your head for now. Big enough for our four couples, 11 kids, one fabulous teenage babysitter and a crew of five to look after us. I oh-so-carefully mapped out prospective cabin assignments (something I worried about...and may have entailed a spreadsheet...) which got all turned around the minute the kids started looking around, making friends and wanting to bunk together and then cabin assignments *really, really* didn't matter as most of us only slept in our cabins for the first night (before we discovered the ~~relief~~ joys of sleeping ~~away from the stuffy cabins~~ under the stars). Our lovely cabins became large dressing rooms with bathrooms and showers attached.

I must say the eight adults on the trip did a superb job of choosing which other three families to be with on a small boat for multiple days. We're all still friends! Kids, too! Quite a feat! Actually it really wasn't difficult to have our four families together - we all got along remarkably well and had a wonderful, wonderful time together (well, at least I did - not sure what the others will tell you about us behind closed doors!).

Our days and nights on the boat were quite special - good company, fun activities, beautiful scenery. Just look at the photos (and check back later - others took better photos so if they send me some (ahem, ye people with whom I am still friends...), I'll add some more.

I do know that I missed some key photos. The ones that come to mind now are the dolphins than swam alongside our boat on Day 2, the seasick friends hanging off the boat on Day 2 (they are probably glad I didn't get those photos!), pictures of Stephanie and her ukulele which was so much fun and some pictures of the truly amazing food that our chef managed to prepare for us in a tiny galley kitchen. We had a fabulous breakfast spread with hot food, yogurt, fresh fruits. A mid-morning snack. Another "real" meal with lunch. Almost a 4th meal at "tea time" that often involved something warm coming out of the oven. And dinner. Wow, dinner. Fresh fish caught off our boat. Chicken grilled on coals on the coast right off the boat so the aroma drifted over to us while we watched the sunset. Lots of fresh, beautiful vegetables and fruits. We especially loved all the new eggplant recipes we were able to try. The food was very, very, very good on this boat.

Basically we would typically motor somewhere in the morning (it could be near or far, one big trip, two little trips or just one little trip). We would stop somewhere and hike, see some ruins or visit a village. By afternoon we would park ourselves in a quiet cove for some swimming and relaxing. Overall a pretty good schedule.

The saddest moment was when poor little Duke's special blanket blew off the boat. You should have seen the teamwork spring into action to try to rescue it. At least 3 people immediately jumped into the water (including Asli, our guide *with* her clothes on) and the 1st mate had the skiff out within about 60 seconds to go back for it. Unfortunately the motor has churned up the water enough that the blanket got soaked quickly and sank like a stone. Not a good memory for sweet Duke.

I will say that the challenging moments (and there were a few) were far, far outweighed by the special moments of catching up with old friends, seeing beautiful new things, watching the sunset and rise in a new place and seeing our kids beam and squeal as they jumped into the crystal clear water.

There she is - the Grand Acar. Our fun, adventurous home for six days.

Robbie and Andy looking relaxed on our first day on the boat.

Beautiful babysitter extraordinaire - Currie!

THIS was the spot on the boat. Lots of hanging out happened here,
some reading and a LOT of card games. This is on the very
back of the boat. Oh, and this is where a lot of the sleeping
took place, too. I think about six of us lined up on this each night.

Jane, Laura and Anna

This is the front of the boat. Similar cushion as the back but this
place evolved into the quiet spot. A good place to catch a quiet
few moments to read, snatch a nap or just enjoy the scenery.

Swim time.

See how clear and blue the water was? The brave ones
would jump off the top of this step platform. We were *so*
proud of Regan as she finally did it the final day on the boat
Jane and Meredith did it on Day 2. Yippee!

Anna and Eliza

Sunscreen pox!

Phase 10 was a very popular card game during our boat trip. I
don't think I will ever play Phase 10 again without
fondly remembering our gulet.

Jake and another gulet in the background. We spent a few hours in this
cove as it was close to a good hiking spot.

This little skiff is how we would get to shore. It took 3 trips to
get us all where we needed to go. Our guide (Asli)
is on the far right in the gray shirt.

Off goes the first group to the hike

Now our group is off.

Temporary farewell to the Grand Acar and Sophia and Robbie
who stuck around the swim.

Supposedly Saint Nicholas spent time in this church long, long ago.

Next the water sports boat came by and we had a few
loops around the bay. Meredith was happy to jump in right
away and get ready for the ride.

Stephanie (back) and Jane were happy to jump in with her.

The fresh bread boat came by, too! There were also ice cream
boats and grocery boats!

Can you see all the little hikers along the rocks? We not so smartly
only sent one adult along with them (thanks, Brad!) but
he managed to get them all back to the boat safely.

Early morning sleepers (Currie and Jane)
sleeping out on the deck.

We had these blue cushions from the top sun deck that we pulled
down for the rest of the kids and they slept under
the big dining table. Here is Meredith with trusty
Angelina Ballerina (her sleeping buddy)

On a boat ride where we saw a water cave (behind), lots of big turtles,
some more ruins and a cute village

Big turtle

A king's tomb and we learned about the hierarchy
of who got which tomb.

Regan gets a turn at the wheel

The parasailing boat came by, too, but we
didn't have any takers (Meredith was tempted
though but we didn't encourage it)

We christened this beach, "Booth Beach" in honor of 6 of the 8
adult's alma mater

The 8-year olds

Anna and Currie made a fairy house while the rest of us hiked

The Puryears are making good progress on our hike

Pretty Regan taking a rest

A lot of the big kids made it to the top!

Looking down on our gulet

Currie and Anna managed to have plenty of fun while we hiked

Jane was so excited to get to fish with the captain
(and he loved how patient she was)

First catch and, yes, we did eat these for dinner.
The captain stuck at it until he caught 20+ fish
for us

Kai had a real knack - he just walked right up,
caught a fish his first try and checked the box, he
was done!

Laura and Meredith

The back of the boat - the social hub. The little table was the
big girls' table. Anna and the boys had to join the grown ups

Currie

Souvenirs with saved up allowance money

I don't remember the name of this village
but it has this bakery with ice cream cakes that are
quite well known (and yummy).

Coming back from the village trip

Jake and Laura

The grown ups

A ticket to the kids' performance (written, produced and
performed by the talented kids!)

Anna even had a few lines and remembered them.

The Puryear girls doing their part in the show. Jane didn't want to say
anything so they wrote a song including the "silent daughter" to the
tune of Rudolf ("Phyllis the silent daughter, didn't even say
a word....something...something...it was absurd!"

Taking their bows

The boys got to be Olympic athletes in the show

Stephanie, the fearless producer who kept the cats herded pretty well!

Our very talented chef bringing out a special
treat for our last night. I really wish I had more photos
of some of the meals. He really did churn out 5
meals a day for 20 of us (breakfast, snack, lunch, tea
time and dinner). Incredible