Tuesday: Private bay, private room, pink moon.
Many of our neighboring Gulets had celebrations going on well into the night, so we didn’t mind making a little noise at 8am as we leapt from ours into the glassy waters here in Kekova. If I could design a place to swim, it would look a lot like this place. Lots of little islands, clear, clean water around 79 degrees, little to no development on land, no power lines, no cell towers, no signs, no roads in sight. We plotted a course to the third inlet around the corner, and I had made a plan the night before with our Captain Seyfir to meet us there, so an A to B swim. Along the way we felt cold water on the surface that must come from underground springs. I also spotted some suspicious looking round rock in a pile on the bottom very close to shore, perhaps a very old collapsed wall. I love that stuff.
On our morning swim, our group split organically into a distance group and an exploration group. The exploration group scanned the intricate walls of the shore lines (and of course, Natalie did some climbing!) for cracks and crevices we could enter. Sure enough, we found a secret hidden room, just big enough for our small group to claim for ourselves. - HP
Seyfir decided to anchor in the second cove, so we swam past our Gulet La Mia Stella and into the third cove. We spied what we later learned was a Roman era fort atop a hill, crumbling but still commanding over the harbor. I’m hoping to put together a swim n hike here at some point. We spent the day lounging around the yacht, the only boat in this cove, surrounded by azure waters, rocky hills, and a gentle breeze. We normally charter bare boats, yachts owned by large companies or multiple private owners, and while very convenient, there’s something nice about living on a yacht with the family that owns and operates it. La Mia Stella was only built a few years ago, and I think it must be one of the nicest yachts in the Turkish fleet.
Pretty hard to not find a place to relax on this gorgeous gulet.
We started our afternoon swim with Heather taking stroke videos, then we swam over to the next cove to play around. Heather and Kendra had found a slot in the stone wall that led to a hidden room open to the sky. They are always talking about this sort of thing in Greece, so many of our gang appreciated the opportunity to jump into a space that probably very few have ever ventured into.
The sun dipped lower in the sky, lighting up the surrounding hills. As we approached our Gulet, we could see Seyfir and Mustafa grilling on the bow in a plume of fragrant charcoal smoke. This boat has at least 3 bars that I’ve seen, which is odd for a country that doesn’t drink a whole lot, but there you have it. We had to stock the bar(s) on our own, and we make our own cocktails every night. Tonight we used the cherry as inspiration for our cocktail, which was 2 smashed cherries in syrup (which we’ve been putting on our waffles and crepes), 2 shots of sour cherry nectar, and a shot of scotch, with a soda water topper, on the rocks. Scotch was substituted with tequila for our non scotch drinkers.
The moon was nearly full and VERY large and pink as it rose above the Mediterranean tonight. Lots of oohs and ahhhh and photo making.
Fiona got this fantastic pic of our late night dip from her cabin window! -
The fruits of the men’s grilling labor were chicken and koftas, or small fried meat balls, with some delicious sides. Frozen parfait for dessert, and we all sat around and talked story for another 2 hours. This is a genuine group of friends, and it feels good. We’ll see more cool stuff tomorrow and go for a couple of swims. I can hear my fellow guides with some guests swimming around our Gulet right now, a late night dip. I’ll be asleep before they climb back aboard………….
Hopper
