Guest Trip # 4. 3 More to Go.

Hello from the Aegean Sea! I'm zooming along at 20 knots towards the caldera port of Santorini, Greece. If you've been following along with me this summer, you know that this will be the yacht's 3rd visit there. We have a pretty full boat this time though. Aside from our usual nine crew we have Twelve guests aboard, comprised of two families; the group is mostly kids ranging in age from 7 years to 19 years. They are a great group, and 90% female but these girls aren't scared to be active and have fun. On the way to Santorini, we'll stop at a secret location near the Greek Isle of Paros, the preferred anchorage of Brad Pitt's yacht. The diving, and water sports in general in this area are reputed to be fantastic. Underwater caves are there, as well as a pinnacle or two. I've been thinking back on my favorite movie with Brad Pitt in the cast on the small chance that I will encounter him. Its a toss up for me between Fight Club, Snatch, and Seven Years in Tibet.
This guest trip started in Kusadasi, Turkey on Friday afternoon. Yesterday we left there and stopped in Patmos where the guests did a tour of the Church of the Apocalypse. Next we anchored in a small bay on that island to give the kids and adult kids an hour to play in the water. While tubbing, my crew member ran over the tow line with the jet boat and sucked the line into the impeller. A knife had to be heated with a blow torch in order to cut the mess out of the suction housing. It was a funny site, because the line became fouled in the tender while it was very close to the yacht. I watched it happen from the window in the wheelhouse, and another crew member went to rescue him with the sea bob; a diver propulsion unit. I snapped a photo as the tow package came near the swim deck. My friend looked so proud he had towed the incapacitated tender back until the tenders forward motion continued it ahead and ran over his head as he stopped near the yacht. It was a funny sight since he was not hurt, I should have been video taping that one.
A side note, Turkey is an amazing country from the small part that I have seen and the bulk of information I have learned through other people. There is a chance we will be seeing more of the country during our next guest trip, and hopefully getting to see the capital of Istanbul. My experiences there thus far have included walking through the historic streets of Ephesus, smoking in a hookah bar, shopping in the Bazaar, dancing in a Turkish night club, riding the public buses, and kitesurfing on the beach there. Each day there was memorable, and Turkey is currently the most exotic place that I have kiteboarded. From the moment my two friends and I stepped out of the cab at the beach, we were a spectacle. Two young boys were admiring our boards, and followed us far down the beach, nearly to where we set up to launch. Once we began inflating the kites, people really took notice. My funniest kite experience happened when an elderly Turkish man picked up my kite lines as I was unwinding them on the beach. He proceeded to yank them, as if he was going to send my kite aloft from it's position on the beach. The lines were not yet connected to the kite, but this did not stop the man from pulling more and more of my kite lines in an attempt to get some movement from the kite. I and his grandson stood in awe as he did this and spoke to me in an unintelligible language, but eventually I had to take the lines from his hands as he was about to turn my lines into a ball of string. Kiting by the women there in full dresses and head coverings was an unforgettable experience.