I’m on a boat… again.

This is Bryan posting for Katie...

It honestly feels like I never left. Everything was exactly how we left it; floating on top of the water, happy as a clam. There are so many familiar faces, and a lot of new ones. A lot of the people who left before we arrived are returning and de-wintering their boats in preparation for who knows what.

Most of the same activities are going on give or take a few and we are falling back into the swing of life at the marina. The first step was to get over the jet lag we experienced for a couple of days.

The flight here left Jacksonville at 10:30am… we were up at around 6:00am. We arrived in Kemer, Turkey at 4:30pm… the next day. Three extra cities in-between, including a 5 hour layover in JFK and a 4 hour layover in Istanbul made it a very long day of traveling. There was also a 6 hour time difference. It’s 6 hours ahead in Turkey so adjusting to that was a challenge. Many naps and random bedtimes later and I think we have finally adjusted.

Since we arrived on Tuesday, we missed the Monday market and have been eating at restaurants or off of bread that we can purchase at the small marina store. (the peanut butter and jelly I packed in my bag has been a nice taste of home)

We have planned a trip to meet up with my Aunt Karen who will be on a tour of Turkey and visiting a place called Cappadocia which is one of most interesting places to visit in the interior of Turkey. I’m excited to get out and take a small road trip (it’s about an 8 hour drive from the marina) and see some more of the country.

After that our plans will be to start getting the boat ready to go on the next leg of our trip. We have scratched participating in the EMYR. Something about a civil war in Egypt (where it would’ve ended) and then even bigger problems in Libya (where we would have to sail past to get out of that area) that made us second guess visiting the eastern Mediterranean. We had a “crew meeting” about whether or not we wanted to try and go and we all agreed that we’d probably have a better time traveling without a huge target on the boat. So the new plan is to travel up the coast of Turkey towards Troy and Istanbul.

We have plans to leave May 1^st, but depending on the weather could leave before then if we really felt like it. My Mom is flying into Istanbul to meet up with us mid June and then the three of us will ride the wind down the Greek Islands exploring some of the Northern islands we missed before and returning to some favorites we thought Mom should see.

After an hour of being on the phone with a nice lady named Vanessa the night before I left to come back, I finalized my return ticket for July 10^th out of Rome. I’ll be leaving the boat in Santorini and making my way back to the states then.