The first morning comes and I awake to Turkish
breakfast on the yacht.  After a bit of chilling, we
head back to Fethiye, where we pick up a rowdy bunch
of Kiwis and Aussies - or is it Ozzies?  It doesn't
matter - I call them Marmites and Vegemites anyways,
after their famed foods.  The new guys are a fun
group, but the tiny gulet is packed to maximum
capacity (20), making the voyage pretty uncomfortable
at times - and a real battle at meal times. 

OK, I'll be honest here.  The Blue Voyage was a real
mistake. I thought it would be a cool and cheap way to
get from Fethiye to Olympos.  Over the course of the
trip, the ship's engine failed again and the anchor
wench broke.  Even without these problems, the rate of
travel was much to slow for my taste.  I mean, it's
advertised as a 4 day excursion.  However, on the
fourth day, you simply sail across the bay for half an
hour in the morning, swim near the docks of Demre,
have lunch, and basically wait 4 agonizing hours to be
let off there, and then get to Olympos via a 1.5 hour
bus.  So, it takes 4 days to tackle a 3 hour bus ride.
 Other problems include insufficient food at meal
times, a sully crewmember, cramped quarters (I
couldn't unpack all my things as I would have hoped),
crowded deck, and price gouging on drinks.

My book notes that these trips are BYOB.  On the
second day in Fethiye, my roomies and I got wise and
tried to get off the boat for 5 minutes while everyone
was getting on. However, the captain prevented us by
repeating that the ship would be leaving for an hour,
and knowing that they could charge twice the price for
beer on the first day, where there are no stops into
any towns.

Finally, the Turkish Mediterranean, as blue as it is,
is devoid of life from a diving perspective.  As I
snorkel, I only see dead sea urchins - no coral. There
are schools of fish, and some colourful ones, but
nothing overwhelming or exciting really in terms of
quantity and quality.  We're always stopping for
swimming, but there's nothing to see!

So now that I've put out my warning on this overrated
excursion, I can list the highlights, which amount to
about 2 day's worth of sights (not 4).  

1) The first day makes a stop in the remote Butterfly
Valley.  The only accommodations are a handful of
wooden shacks, and it's a beautiful secluded beach
surrounded by high cliffs.  At the rear of the valley,
there's a waterfall and lots of butterflies. There are
only 4 of these kinds of places in the world. 
However, the butterfly season is over and the
waterfall has diminished in size.  The butterflies are
also moths.  Regardless, being the only one with
reefers in my boat, I make the ironman marathon 2km
run to the waterfall and back, as well as the swim
back to the boat.  The hike gets pretty tough as it
goes through the waterfall stream and parts of the
waterfall, where the rocks are smooth and slippery. I
spot a few butterflies, but am more enchanted by the
lush forest around the waterfall.  I hear tropical
birds singing, and it smells like the Amazon section
of the zoo or biodomes.

2) The boat has hot showers, which is a real luxury
given the conditions of everything else.

3) We stop at St. Nicholas island - yes, it has some
relation to Santa Claus. A small group of us hike
through the ruins of an ancient town and end up at the
peak of the island, with a fantastic and scary view of
the mountains across the bay, lit by the moon.  As
it's dark, our hike back takes a really rough trail,
but we somehow end up where the boat is tied and flag
a rowboat to take us across.

4) Fishing.  Although I didn't catch anything, I did
get some strong bites (and some fake ones thanks to a
practical joke).  My roomies fared better, catching
sizeable palamut (tunny) fish, and making dinner more
diversified.

5) The rowdy Kiwis on the ship play an interesting
game of Euchre, with unmentionable but very
entertaining stunts performed by the losing team.

6) Kas. A small town with paragliding and other
activities, but it's just nice to sit there and have
cay or pomegranate juice.

7) Simena village.  A quaint fishing village with a
huge castle and Lycian tombs at the top, friendly
locals, and a small village charm.  I wished we stayed
here for a night.

8) The Sunken City - caused by an earthquake, part of
a town built on an island became submerged.  It's
forbidden to swim in the sunken city, but I think it's
overrated - it's mostly doors of ruined houses halfway
in the water.  Supposedly, there is some pottery still
down there, but none of us see any.  

9) On the final night, my roomies and I offer to take
some work off the captain and his wife, which he
gratefully accepts.  We grill dinner - marinated
chicken, palamut, peppers, tomatoes - over a fire
(embers) on the shore.  I work my Chinese magic using
two long sticks as chopsticks for manipulating the
food, while my roomies use thetongs.  The captain
gives us pillows to sit on the rocks around the fire,
and we have a pleasant dinner with him and the crew in
the moonlight, while everyone else devours or good
cooking on the boat.  It was a meal to remember.

10) Also on the final night, after dinner, a motorboat
takes us to a club across the bay, where we join up
with people from other yachts for a wild party.  Mix
in raki (I guess, Turkish vodka), and things get
really crazy.  Needless to say, breakfast is served
really late the next morning.