The crew consisted of the people that I had met on the earlier stop on the fez tour, Sarah, Jacinta, Fiona, and Jen and Linda from the beginning . Also two others, Mike and Deb, would also join the boat cruise. They both turned out to be great as well.
Mike was finishing up his year-long trip, and had certain expectations of searching for enlightenment, that turned into more of a search for a good time and just enjoying life. He was a tv news director from Detroit and was one of the most laid-back people I have ever met. He hangs out with the guys who were making the movie in the great documentary "American Movie", and if you have seen this movie, this fits Mike to a t. He also did a dead on Nicholson from "Five Easy Pieces" and we made him do it over and over. AND it was nice to have another guy on the boat. Really.
Deb was yet another australian, living in london and working as a speech therapist. She was working in London since she could earn 3X more than australia and save money for travels. She was a really cool, fun girl as well.
There really isn't much to say about the boat cruise, since not a whole lot happened on the cruise. That was the beauty of the whole thing. Our days consisted of getting up, having a great breakfast of fruit, eggs, and bread prepared, then maybe taking a short boat ride to a lagoon, swimming, snorkeling, sunning, reading and listening to music on the deck, having a great lunch, more swimming etc. etc., having a great dinner, drinking and talking on deck to finish off the day, and then sleeping under the stars at night on deck. I've never seen so many stars in my life! It was pure bliss.
3 days and nights of the same thing, and trust me, it didn't get old. First of all, the company was great. We laughed so much and had so much fun together, we didn't get sick of each other. Of the passengers we were all laid back and there was absolutely no drama the entire time.
The turkish mediterranean was also beautiful. Especially since we went to a lot of places that aren't accessible by foot, to avoid crowds you would see on the beaches.
The crew, consisting of two turkish guys, were great cooks, and despite not being able to speak any english except for a few phrases, "now you swim."now you eat." "now beer and wine.", was plenty for us. Thankfully Deb brought her mini-disk so we hooked it up to the stereo and had great cruising music-Ben Harper, Jack Johnson, John Parker Trio (aussie band!)- to keep us happy.
Spending all that time together really bonded us as a group and we really looked forward to hanging out together the rest of the time in Turkey.
I have met a lot of people on my travels, but this is the first time I have to say, that I would go out of my way to go all the way to Australia to visit these guys (not that Australia is any great hardship..).??Visiting Detroit on the other hand..