Sailing...Finally

Now…you might be asking what we were doing on this trip…after all, staying in treehouses doesn’t seem to be worth spending all the time and money and honestly, it wasn’t. However…it was the first step to our sailing adventure. After yet another 1.5 hour journey by van, we arrived at the harbor where our home on the ocean stood waiting for us. Twenty-three of us, including the crew, were going to spend the next 4 days traveling among the islands of Turkey along the Mediterranean Ocean, basking in the sun – more shade than sun, thanks to the covers, sipping tea and other genial beverages, jumping in the water, snorkeling…ah what a tough life we live.

All summer long we had walked along the wharfs of Croatia, looking at the sailboats ready to go on excursions. I spent a lot of time wishing we were the ones getting on the boat rather than just walking by, wishing. Well…this time we were the ones getting on…and a rather long process it was. You can’t just tell 23 people to go to their rooms at once…the doorway isn’t large enough. There’s a ton of luggage all over the deck, the captain doesn’t speak much English, (he’s the man in the back without a shirt on- I think the twins are older than he is) the rest of us are quite noisy…it just plain takes a while to sort it all out.

 Fortunately, they have it all figured out, having done it on many occasions and once they got all of us to quiet down, they let us know where our rooms were. I’m sorry to report that once again the vision didn’t match reality. The rooms were quite roomy if you were about 8 years old – plenty of room to turn around, jump on the bed and easily take a shower. However, for the adult sized passenger…the rooms were…cramped. Two of us could not move around in it (hence I’m on the bed while Jeff is standing in the only available space in the room outside of the bathroom). It’s also quite hot below decks as it was…and the air conditioning comes from the tiny window above the upper bunk…and it only works when the boat is moving and then not all that well. I'm happy to report, we would be sleeping up on the deck…more about that later.