Never Too Old For A Field Trip

It’s pretty common as you sail around, to find yourself anchored near the same boats you were anchored next to at a different bay. You get to know the super friendly ones and look forward to meeting again sometime in a future anchorage. Over the last couple of weeks we’ve been anchoring near many of the different cruisers we’ve come to know. 

Our latest collection of friends, as always, are from scattered places across the globe; This time we’ve got some Kiwis from New Zealand, a few Australians, a couple of sailors from Spain, a Greek, a fabulous woman from Peru who cooks and bakes the most amazing things in her galley—we seem to be the only Americans in the bunch. A little floating United Nations, of sorts.

Recently when a bunch of us all ended up anchoring in Didim—and then later in Bahce Koyu, we all decided the neighborhood should venture out together for some field trips.

Mark and I used to love going on field trips when were kids. It was always the highlight of the school year when we got to hang out with all our school friends and in one giant collective of energy and often impish behavior, all go for an adventure—it was school time nirvana. And even though we’re all grown up, we’ve never outgrown a good old fashion field trip. Does anyone? What could be better than a hodge-podge collection of friends headed out to explore?

So we hatched a few impromptu plans and without having to get a signed permission slip from our mothers, we headed out in mass.

First, Peter from “Delisiosa”, led us on a walking tour through Didim to see the Temple of Apollo. Thankfully, he was a good leader who led our talkative bunch safely through the gauntlet of traffic. Most of us, just like in our school days, weren’t really paying attention, and in need of some serious shepherding through the tangle of cars and mopeds in order to arrive at the ruins unscathed. 

A few days later, when most of us were anchored off Bahce Koyu, we all shuttled over to shore in a couple of dinghys and Karen from “Kiri Maia 2” led us up the hill on a cool evening to see the other side of the bay. There, we also got a great view of all our our boats tucked away in our little neighborhood. 

These field trips are just like the ones from school. There’s always somebody that walks too fast, there’s another who stops and reads everything, still another that finds a little trouble along the way, and always one slowing the group down by taking too many pictures (yep, sorry, that’s me.)  But it’s a great way to get off the boat, enjoy some camaraderie, and a nice gathering with friends.

Here’s to never growing too old for a good old fashion field trip.