Monday Tuesday Amphorae Days.

We’re falling into a nice groove here on SwimVacation in the harbors and islands around Bozborun, Turkiye. A note on breakfast in Turkey: these people are not afraid of eating vegetables in the morning. You’ll find tomatoes and cucumbers alongside a lot of cheese and yogurt. Nuts are common. There’s always something hot, as well. They’re masters of coffee. 

Our Turkish gulet family is not only incredible at maneuvering and managing this enormous yacht, but they are master hosts who make every day aboard special. It’s such a treat for us to be hosted along with our guests. We ❤️❤️ them and this beautiful ship.

Some happenings from the last 48 hours: 

The Amphorae Swim - The ancient harbor of Hidirlik has seen boats coming and going for over 2,000 years, and they’ve left some things behind, mostly pottery fragments. Sometimes we find larger pieces, and during a swim here last year we found a mostly intact amphora. Maria spotted the same one again this year. It’s from about 300AD, and was probably filled with wine or olive oil. There’s none left in it now but we have plenty aboard our gulet. Peter and I swam in a different direction, and saw some more large ancient vessels in about 10 feet of water. Swimming among these artifacts is a thrill. 

Artifact swim! John came up from the deep announcing he’d found an ancient relic - a cassette tape! Maria and I found a 4 legged sea star who was regrowing its 5th, and right after I described what to look for in the hopes of finding our amphora from last year, she spotted it!! John and Kathy found a few others which we braved big waters to go see. And Kekau found a contemporary tea cup with a heart on it for Monica to get in on the artifact fun. - HP

Crikey, we had no sprigs of any kind of herb aboard for the garnishing of gin and tonics! Not to worry, scampering onto these islands in search of local herbs is a favorite pastime of mine. After climbing over some ruins, I located some oregano and wild sage that had a nice pine-ey scent. They both performed well in the GnTs. 

The Cliff Swim - There’s a harbor here called Germe Limani that has super high, dramatic cliffs. We pulled in late, and John found a good climb/leap. The next morning we all hopped in for a swim along the cliffs. The water is clear to at least 60 feet, with the cliff rising both above and beneath the water. Just a breathtaking swim. No wind. Glassy calm. Around the corner, there are small breaks in the cliff faces where olive groves were planted long ago on terraces made from stone. There are also some circular stone structures right at the shore that I imagine were used to hold olives or olive oil? More research is required. Kathy and I put in over 2 miles along this shore, getting into a smooth groove. 

An update on Maria and Peter, our new-to-open water swimming guests: I believe we have minted new open water swimmers. Maria charges into all kinds of ocean conditions without gulping saltwater, instead stroking confidently along. Peter is building a lifelong stroke, one he can use, injury free, in his upcoming retirement. I’m imagining he and Monica swimming together at home, an activity they can do together for years to come. 

Monastery swim -  I often use google’s MyMaps to gather information about a swim, including distance. It looks like this:

As you can see in the map above, there are 2 boat locations. The one on top is the correct location, where our gulet was actually anchored. The one below it is where I THOUGHT we were. One swim is 600 meters, which is what I told our guests we were doing. The other is closer to 1,000, which was our actual distance. My bad. Anyway, we arrived at the site of the ruins of an ancient monastery. Kerem and Sinan, our deckhands, delivered hiking gear and drinking water to us in the dinghy. The highlight here is a mosaic made from black and white river stones placed on their sides. And a tiny church. And an old stone olive press. And a chimney sticking out of a hidden underground room. And thousand-year-old olive trees. I love combining a swim with this kind of adventure. 

Turkish dinner tables are busy. On any given night there are 7 or 8 dishes put out. Grilled fish or meat, salads of all kinds, lots of seafood, and they have a way with calamari. Yogurt, eggplant, and tomatoes are a constant presence. Turkish food is not spicy and not bland. It’s adventurous at times, but not weird. It’s well balanced and healthy. On the Turkish Coast, it leans heavily Mediterranean. Tonight, ice cream wrapped in a wheat germ crust ended our evening. The big Turkish Gulet rocks gently in the waves. We rest. 

Hopper

Here’s a little video recap of some highlights from the last 2 days!