July 6 - halfway through the trip. At least the luxurious yachting part of the trip. It is a challenge to find time to blog as the people on this trip are all interesting and have lots of stories to share. If I disappear below I get FOMO (fear of missing out)! But it’s pretty quiet right now as we motor to yet another beautiful cove, bay or town. I’m not sure where we’re headed today, but thankfully, it really doesn’t matter.

Our typical day starts at about 7:00 – 7:30, which is what time we naturally wake up. We generally have been donning swimming togs for a quick dip – anywhere between 1000 – 1500 meters. We have to do something to counteract all the great food and alcohol we are consuming! That, and the water is an impossible shade of blue, cool enough to be refreshing but not cold, and salty enough to make swimming pretty darn effortless. It’s like swimming with a pull buoy because you’re so buoyant.

After the swim, breakfast is usually ready and the bell rings. That’s our signal to gather around the food laden table. A typical breakfast includes: eggs of some sort, cucumbers, tomatoes, 3 kinds of cheese (feta, halloumi, and another local variety), fresh fruit (watermelon, honeydew-type melon, apricots, cherries, bananas, nectarines, pears, oranges), sometimes sausages that look suspiciously like baby Oscar Meyer wieners, bread or toast, 2 types of honey, and 4 types of jam. Not that bad of a spread!

After breakfast, we typically have been motoring off to another bay. It might be a small town, it might be some ruins, it might be a long sandy spit. It doesn’t really matter – we just get to relax, read books, and watch the beautiful islands sail by.

We will explore for a bit, play in the water for a bit (pig in the middle anyone?), float around on pool noodles, maybe try water skiing, or tubing, or hang about and read some more. I’m halfway through a book already! It’s totally luxurious to have this much time to read and to visit with people.

Sometimes when we're anchored, local people will come by in a little boat offering to sell us Turkish towels and tablecloths, or ice cream.  The towel sellers were the most charming as they sang out "Hello lady!" to get our attention, and then tossed stacks of towels up to us so we could check them out.