Open water swimmers are at the mercy of the water bodies in which they swim. Conditions can vary widely from swim to swim, even from minute to minute. It’s one of the things we love about it. Usually the water has some type of texture at the surface: ripples, chop, wind waves, swell, foam. Every so often, the wind stops and the water calms down, revealing a glassy finish. We were lucky enough to have those flat conditions this morning for a swim around Degirmen island. Normally, even small waves can block your vision when you’re swimming, but not this morning; you could see for miles across the bay. Even better, the water was gin clear, and we could easily pick out objects 100 feet below.

We noodled around the Gulet after the swim, Heather took stroke videos, Andrew and Erika went treasure hunting at a nearby island. They’re excellent at this, and we have a mish-mash of amphorae pieces that we are assembling to make something like a complete vessel.

Back aboard, we lounged around and enjoyed staring out at the turquoise water and listening to the baby goats on the island. Naps and reading ensued, usually in the reverse order.

We are eating well. C’mon it’s the Mediterranean diet plus Turkish pastries! The Turkish diet includes lots of vegetables like eggplant, tomatoes, and peppers, as well as a lot of yogurt dishes, which are either eaten on their own, or spooned atop other dishes. Americans and Turkish folks meet at grilling, with Turkish BBQ masters preferring real wood charcoal.

Another bay for our afternoon swim, which was busy with a lot of boats at first, but most of them left by the time we swam around the bay and the little island offshore. There were a lot of tiny caves and swim-throughs here that we took full advantage of.

Tea time after our swim, cookies and cakes. How is mustafa preparing such fine pastries in this ship’s galley I’ll never know. I reviewed stroke video with some guests. Zack mixed up a batch of Negronis that were really tasty. Kebabs and a dozen other dishes arrived. Our eating is only outmatched by our swimming this week, a ratio we will try to maintain.