Day Boat Trip from Turgutreis Part 1:

Negotiating our Destiny

After a hectic week sightseeing in Istanbul, the first thing I wanted to do when I arrived on the Bodrum Peninsula, was to spend a relaxing day on a boat.  Our Saturday arrival, meant we headed straight to the weekend market in Turgutreis (video link) to shop for Mediterranean essentials – fresh fruit and vegetables in season, olives, feta cheese, sun-dried tomatoes and Olive Oil.

Then headed to the waterfront to enjoy an Efes while the heat of the day subsided.  I’d planned on arranging a boat in one of the smaller locations, like Yalikavak or Gundogan.  But as we could see the flotilla of  day boats lined up in Turgutreis harbour, we decided to run the gauntlet of captains to see if there was a potential vessel for our Sunday jaunt.

As anticipated, we were met with full enthusiasm, as we dodged and weaved our way along the line of Captains, to tour the boats that sparked our interest.

Our last stop was at a boat called “Destiny”, where were chatted to the Turkish Captain, who spoke great English with a Cornish accent (picked up during winter’s spent in St. Ives) — quite distracting.

There were 4 points of negotiation – Direction, Noise, Cuisine and Cost:

Direction:

• “Destiny” offered North (Islands) and South (Beaches) tours, and a Northern tour was scheduled on Sunday.  I really wanted the Southern tour, so the Captain offered to change the tour to the South tour, and assured us they would start out North – but aim the bow through the waves at an odd angle so that it appeared really rough.  Then they’d announce that we were going South, because it was too rough to take the North Tour.  Sounded like a plan…. but would it happen?  Direction agreed.

Noise:

• We didn’t want any!  We wanted a quiet, chilled boat trip, with no blaring music.  Tranquility was assured.  Noise level agreed.

Cuisine:

• We didn’t like to sound of the menu, so asked to be served Sea Bass for lunch.  Menu agreed.

Cost:

• Well it’s Turkey.  Cost is always negotiable – but it was more of a challenge than the direction change.  He insisted on showing us his Ticket stubs for the other confirmed passengers to show how much they were paying, but we eventually got him down another 10tl.

We strolled away contented – with happy visions of tomorrow’s quiet Southern boat trip.  I tiny voice in my head, questioned whether all of our negotiation points would be delivered against, but…….. only tomorrow will tell….

 

Read: Day Boat Trip from Turgutreis Part 2: