Calm

Gullet: Day 6. After our wild ride of last night and this morning, the rest of the day went by peacefully. Mark and Beth and Leon and Jim separately explored our new island; their favorite part was Cleopatra Beach. I spent their hiking time getting some of my memories down on paper; then, I went snorkeling through a nearby ruin sticking half in/ half out of the water. I had forgotten how much I enjoy the undersea world.

I should mention the meals on board. The Captain’s mom is our cook. She makes wonderful traditional Turkish meals, with lots of garlic, lemon juice, and olive oil. The meals are heavy on vegetables (yum!), and fish. Fresh fruit (melon and peaches) are our dessert. This may sound as if we are eating healthy, but it’s so good that I eat twice what I do at home. (I pity my horse in Kyrgyzstan.)

We each try a few new foods; here's Leon trying seaweed salad.

One night we celebrated the Captain's birthday- is 39th. We sat together and had birthday cake and raki. (It was a Muslim holy day, but he "forgot" so that he could drink with us.) We presented the Captain a T-shirt with the map of Minnesota on it. He immediately put it on.