Ever since my friend Bob Stone said that his favorite vacation was sailing on a wooden sailing ship off the Turkish coast, I’ve “harbored” an interest in doing the same.
After a five hour bus ride beautiful bus ride between Selcuk and Gocek, Leon, Jim, and I met up with Beth and Mark. We boarded our gullet on the Fourth of July. Her name is the Metro Star, and she is a wooden beauty. We have three crew: Our captain, our cook (who is the captain's mother), and a deck hand. The Captain helped build the ship himself—including rounding the masts from square Russian olive trunk timbers. These were not small trees; the main mast is 23 meters.
The first night we motored a fairly short distance, then dropped anchor in a bay of crystal clear, cobalt blue water. Each of us took a swim. (Beth and I took several.) We had a delicious seafood/fresh fish supper, then sat up talking- swapping old family stories and making new ones.
The bad news – It is quite hot for sleeping. No air conditioning, the portholes in our cabin provide only sporadic, anemic wafts of air. The good news - the heat drives me up on deck at 2:30 a.m. The night sky is amazing. It reminds me of a camping trip about 10 years ago. Jim took Emily to the bathroom in the middle of the night. As they crawl back into our tent, they are both gushing and we’ve always remembered Emily’s line, “I never knew there were so many stars!” I feel the same.
Leon is already up here sleeping on one bench. I spread out on another. Life is good. Good night.
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