At last we are on our lovely yacht called the Ugur, which comes with a captain and four crew who are great eye candy (if you’re a girl or a gay man).  It was a bit of an ordeal to get the boat stocked with “supplies”. We each bought a bottle at the duty free so there were already 9 bottles of gin and 2 bottles of vodka packed (because what’s a vacation without the requisite gin and tonic?) However, it’s hard to know just how much wine and beer 11 people are going to drink in 10 days!

At breakfast we came up with the shopping list and Neena, Chris, and I went to the Carrefour grocery store near our hotel to quickly stock up:

·         7 cases of wine (3 white, 3 red, & 1 rose)

·         150 beer

·         One bottle each of Campari, Vermouth, and Raki

·         36 litres of tonic

·        -Fanta and sprite for shandies

·         Lemons and oranges for garnish

Just a little grocery list, but it proved to be a bit of a challenge, to be sure. When one doesn’t speak Turkish, and is in a country where the people don’t drink much, it’s a little difficult for them to conceive of the amount of booze we were buying. So after 90 minutes (!) of working through explaining what we wanted, and trying to pay for it, we were loaded into a taxi and on our way to the marina. Interestingly we topped out the cash register at 850 Turkish Lira. That’s about 425.00 Canadian, and was the maximum they could process. We had to pay the bill and start again. In the end it took two stores and three transactions.

Bodrum is a playground for the rich. The town has a lovely marina kind of like Cannes or Monte Carlo with boat after boat tied stern to along the quay. The Van Dandies (Vanda, Dan & Brandie) spotted the Ugur the night before we were to embark, so we actually got to go aboard early for a short introduction to the owner and crew.

We left Bodrum at 1:15pm which was actually 45 minutes before we were originally supposed to embark. So great! There was a welcome bottle of bubbles, and we motored out for about an hour, then dropped the hook and stern tied to shore in a small cove. It took all of 5 minutes before we were in the turquoise Aegean water, but let me say, it was a little more refreshing than expected! Lunch was shortly thereafter, followed by naps and reading and general chilling out.

Later Dandie, Mark, and I did a 1.5 km swim – we hopped off and swam around our yacht and went away around the point together. There are very many beautiful yachts in these waters and there’s also the requisite party boats of course – we saw the Black Pear which upon closer inspection was called the Black Pearl. D’oh! It was hilariously decked out with fake black tattered sails as if it was from the Pirates of the Caribbean.

Dinner was late-ish, around 8:30, and surprisingly it was almost chilly in the breeze on deck. The food has been wonderful. We opted for a variety of Turkish food instead of say, European food. Definitely a good call! Stayed up late playing humdingers and finding out more about everyone. Just when you think you know someone, an interesting question comes up and you find out more. This has already been a fantastic trip, and there’s more yet to come.