If you are ready, I will tell you about a wonderful journey experience that will leave you with water wrinkles from swimming, have you wake up in deep blue bays in the middle of the sea, provide time for long conversations with your loved ones at delicious tables and let you watch the sunset over the waves.

This article is a guide for those who want to go on a blue cruise before the end of September or at the beginning of October. If you are going on a blue cruise, that is taking a boat trip, for the first time, make sure to save these notes somewhere. I believe, after this article, you will not experience the problems we had due to our inexperience when we went on our first boat trip last year.

Last year, we did not want to go on a hotel holiday due to the anxiety of the pandemic conditions. Going to a hotel and using the same pool with many people, using the same restaurants and the same common areas made us nervous. We also enjoy swimming very much. However, preparing bags to go to the beach, leaving the hotel and then returning felt like torture for us. We were dreaming of a holiday where we could spend the whole day in our swimsuits and swim whenever we wanted, 24 hours a day.

At the same time, we wanted to do all this on a private boat, away from the crowd and noise, and to listen to the sea and nature alone.

Considering all these wishes, we thought of staying on a boat instead of a hotel that year. We were going to experience this great plan with my husband, me and two of our friends who are a couple.

We did a little research a month earlier and decided to take a blue cruise in Kaş.

I will share the boat rental and blue cruise details in Kaş in my next article.

We contacted a captain who could provide a tour a month ago. We made a reservation for two nights and three days in mid-July.

First, we arrived in the Demre district of Kaş from Istanbul in our vehicle. We were going to meet with the captain in the Üçağız village of Demre and set sail from there.

We reached Demre very early in the morning. While we were here, we visited Saint Nicholas Church, also known as Santa Claus Church.

This church was built in the name of Saint Nicholas – also known in some records as Santa Claus – who was born in Patara and died in Myra, formerly Demre.

It is believed to be the birthplace of Santa Claus and the place where he fell into his eternal sleep. The miracles believed to have been performed by Nicholas are also depicted in the church.

After this short visit, we contacted our captain and completed our food and beverage shopping in Demre. We then set off for a wonderful blue cruise with our boat waiting for us in Üçağız.

Food and drink on boat

Before getting on the boat, you should definitely do strict shopping for food and drinks. On the boat, besides you, there is a captain, his deck boy, and on some boats an attendant who cooks.

For this reason, you should buy food and drinks according to the number of days you will stay and the number of people. You don't want to be hungry in the middle of the sea.

We were somewhat unsuccessful in this regard on our first voyage. Actually, we did our shopping in Demre. We were going to get on the boat with four people and we thought we were shopping accordingly. However, the captain said what we bought was not enough. At the last minute, we got a list and we looked for a market in the village of Üçağız. We got what was on the list. At first we thought that the captain was exaggerating a bit, but on the boat we ate everything we bought, and it even turned out that we did not have enough bread.

Since we could not return to the shore, we asked for bread from another boat in the middle of the sea.

The sea makes people hungry, trust me.

I recommend that apart from breakfast, lunch and dinner items, you add plenty of fruit, hot and cold drinks and snacks to your shopping list.

When you swim, you get tired and very hungry, and believe me, the food tastes incredibly delicious in the middle of the sea, you can't get enough of it.

Our captain, Ali, and his deck boy Bilal prepared our meals. The unique dishes of Mediterranean cuisine turned into different flavors in the hands of Ali Kaptan and Bilal. While we didn't want to leave the deep blue waters, Ali Kaptan said, "Come on guys, dinner is ready." His call left us in a dilemma of choosing between the sea or food. One evening on the boat, Bilal lit a barbecue for us. Most of the boats provide this service. For this reason, you can definitely add meat, meatballs or chicken to your shopping list.

Apart from food and beverages, it will be useful to buy some cleaning materials such as napkins and wet wipes.

During the blue voyage, besides the meals, Ali Kaptan and Bilal prepared coffee, beverages, fruit or snacks.

So frankly, our only concern was sunbathing, resting, chatting, watching the blue waters and, of course, swimming until our bodies were wrinkled.

Luggage for voyage

Now, we learned that a little bit of planning should be done before joining the blue cruise.

After all, you are sailing and you have to consider all possibilities. When the air gets a little cooler in the middle of the sea at night, you don't want to spend the whole night in your cabin because you don't have anything on you, do you?

During the day, people generally stay on the boat in swimsuits, shorts and T-shirts. For this reason, you can buy such clothes with spares according to the number of days you will stay.

You should definitely put a long-sleeved T-shirt or cardigan in your suitcase. In the middle of the sea at night, the temperatures are quite cool.

Although we had our own cabins, we did not sleep in the cabins for two nights. We slept outdoors on the top floor of the boat. You should definitely try this. You lie on your back in the middle of the dark sea, thousands of stars illuminating the night before your eyes, you are gently swaying in the waves that break the silence of the night. The stars become a nightlight for you, the sea shakes at your feet to put you to sleep and sings you a lullaby. I don't know how to put this atmosphere into words. You must live it, experience it. You don't need an alarm to wake up at sunrise. The sun starts to dazzle you slightly and you wake up. You are in the middle of July, but you are watching the sun rise slowly from behind the hills wrapped in your blankets in the cool of the morning. You really won't believe how nature gives you a wonderful feast at all hours of the day during the blue cruise.

You are gripped by the same feelings at sunset. While you are immersed in a sweet conversation with your friends at a delicious table at sunset, you are watching the sun slowly sink with the wind that starts to gently hit your face, relaxing music and a wonderful view.

I was going to explain the tricks of preparing suitcases in this article, right? I guess let's get back to the topic at hand without delving a lot into the sweet dreams.

You can pack a few comfortable yet stylish clothes in your suitcase that would look good in pictures with the beautiful scenery behind you at sunset and also would be good to wear to dinner.

It is useful to put sea shoes in your suitcase and a pair of walking shoes depending on where you are going.

You may not always swim in deep coves. You can go ashore in some bays and some of the shores may be stony or there may be sea urchins and sharp rocks. At the first stop of our tour, we wanted to go ashore in Tersane Bay because there were church ruins from an ancient city on the coast. Since we wanted to see it up close, we jumped off the boat in this bay with our sea shoes.

Sometimes, there may be historical places spread over a wider area in the bays where you anchor. You may need walking shoes to visit these places. If there are such areas in your destination, it is useful to put walking shoes in your suitcase.

Apart from this, although you wander around on the boat without slippers most of the time, sometimes slippers may come in handy. If you are going to take slippers with you, you should definitely buy slippers with non-slip soles.

The choice of suitcase you should take on the boat is also very important. I do not recommend going with very large suitcases. You will be very comfortable if you combine your clothes according to the number of days and put them in your suitcase. Other than that, I have one more suggestion. It is very useful to find what you are looking for quickly if you prepare a separate bag with your marine supplies. For example, we put our clothes in a separate suitcase. We put swimming equipment such as snorkels, fins, goggles, towels and underwater cameras in another bag. In this way, we could quickly find what we wanted without searching.

Of course, don't forget this bag in the trunk of your car like we did. About 10 minutes after we took our suitcase of clothes and got on the boat, we realized that we had forgotten the bag in the vehicle. We were so far away that we could hardly see the port. But without this equipment, it wouldn't make sense for us to take a trip on a boat. So we went back to the port. We grabbed our bags and continued on our way.

Do not forget to put a mosquito-proof spray in your suitcase. Towards evening, mosquitoes come out. You should also take protective sunscreen and an after-sun moisturizer. Although there are shaded areas on the boat, you can be overexposed to the sun and your body may burn more with the wind.

Although it does not affect us, some people can be adversely affected by the sea and waves and suffer nausea. You can take medicine for this. Apart from that, sometimes you may experience headaches and earaches due to constant diving. For this, you can take painkillers with you. Frankly, we dived constantly because we were very interested in the deep blue waters and what was under the water. I had a little earache because we forgot to take painkillers with us.

Finally, I recommend that you put separate towels in your suitcase to use when you get out of the sea and after you get out of the shower. Because the sea towel can be stiff due to the salt.

The shower on the boat was not a problem for us, but it may not be the same for everyone. Usually, most of these boats have a showerhead with clean water. When you take a short shower with this clean water every time you leave the sea, your body is purified from salt. The use of shampoo is not always allowed because it pollutes the sea.

And this means a holiday with plenty of iodine scents, without the smell of shampoo. Frankly, this did not bother us at all. On the contrary, the smell of iodine from the sea, our salty hair and a light breeze hitting our sun-scorched faces in the evening made us very satisfied with the dinners we ate.

Entertainment on boat

You can create a playlist that will accompany you throughout the day on the boat. Most boats have a music system. We had prepared a delightful playlist to accompany us during the day and at dinner. These songs, which we put on a USB stick, accompanied us throughout the day.

You can take games with you to have fun in the evenings. You can have a pleasant time on the boat with board games such as playing cards, UNO, Monopoly and Taboo.

When it got dark, one of our pastimes was swimming.

I didn't believe I could do it, I was afraid, but I did it, and it was a great experience. When it got dark, we threw ourselves into the icy dark waters before going to sleep. On the first try, we let ourselves sink slowly by dipping our feet into the water from the stairs hanging down from the boat. We remained in the water, not leaving the bottom of the boat and each other in the wide-open sea. It was hilarious, funny, but also a little scary. It was the first time in my life that I had sailed at night in such an open sea and it was as if a lot of sea monsters were crawling under the water and hovering around our feet. We were even enjoying it, telling each other scary stories in the dark in the water. It was wonderful to lift our heads up in the middle of the darkness and see the stars wink at us and have this experience.

In short, for me, staying on a boat is an experience that must be experienced at least once in a lifetime.

In the middle of the deep blue sea and green during the day, under the stars and moonlight at night; I felt that I was clearing my mind in the silence and calmness. I returned to the city so light that I dreamed of experiencing this voyage once again someday.