Blue Cruise Day 1

My pickup for the Blue Cruise by Alaturka was around 1000.  The  term Blue Cruise refers to a recreational voyage on the Turkish Riviera, in the south-west of the country on the Aegean/Mediterranean sea.

I had had my breakfast on the roof terrace of the pension at 0800 and was ready before 0930. The ride hadn’t turned up by 1030 so I gave them a call. They said “five minutes” and a private car turned up at 1040. I wouldn’t have been worried except that there had been another pick-up earlier that left saying that I wasn’t his passenger but he didn’t know the name of the passenger!

I was taken to Lady Jane, an older gulet (traditional Turkish wooden boat) to await the remaining passengers. They arrived soon after. There were eight others comprising a German, French, three Brits (one of Turkish origin but didn’t look it), Chinese, Iranian and Turkish.

Another boat from the same company was nearby. It had more passengers made up of a younger crowd. After being shown our cabins and a quick briefing by the ground staff, we pushed off after 1100. It didn’t take long for our boatload to get along quite well.

I had been given a double cabin by myself (paid twinshare) but it’s really a moot point as I had the intention of sleeping on deck. The cabin would be just a glorified locker room. I suppose it is nice not sharing the private toilet with another person 🙂

The three crew comprised of the Captain, his young sailor and a lady who cooks and operate the anchor.It was a 2h cruise to the Oludeniz area where we parked up for lunch around 1300. Our first swim followed and we realised how salty the water was in the area. Great for buoyancy .

We continued our cruise. There were lots of paragliders around; the area is famous for paragliding.

We parked some distance off St Nicholas Island (referred to by the Captain as Santa Claus Island) and had afternoon tea before jumping in for a second swim. We could see the island and the many daytripper boats. As evening approached, we pulled up to the island and dropped anchor. The young sailor tied us securely to the rocks as well.

Soon it was cool enough for us to get on to the island and hike up to the summit (TL8 entrance fee). It was very sweaty but very worthwhile (perhaps not when we were there but certainly when we reviewed the photos). There were ruins of ancient churches there too but they weren’t intact enough for the average person to appreciate.

The dinghy brought us back to Lady Jane but most of us decided to jump in for another swim to cool off. Around 2000, we had our first dinner together of grilled fish prepared by the Captain accompanied by various side dishes.

We all retired on the deck around 2200 after a very enjoyable day. The scenery had been good, the weather hot and the sea refreshing. But unfortunately my sleep was very light that night. It was warm and slightly humid.