The Open Sea

Everyone has some sort of phobia and until now I've always thought it was primarily just being scared of rodents.  Small spaces, heights, or spiders don't bother me.  Well, when we were out at near the Aegean Sea a few weeks ago we had the chance to go to the Greek Island of Samos, off the coast of Turkey near Kuşadası.  I was excited for the chance to see a Greek Island.  We boarded a small ferry boat with some friends and started out on our journey.  It was a sunny day, but being early in Spring a bit cool, especially out at sea.  We ride ferry boats quite often in Istanbul, to get from the Asian side to the European, so I didn't expect for this ride out to the island to be a big deal.  Well, we started out alright, but the further we got from the shore the more uneasy I began to feel.  The wind was enough that it was a rocky sort of ride and I got to feeling a little sea sick.  I sat on the side of the boat the whole ride just focusing on the shore line far in the distance and the anxiety in me just kept building and building.  The truth is, I was suffering far more from fear than from sea sickness.  The difference from our frequent ferry boat rides in Istanbul is that there we are crossing a small body of water whereas this was "out" at sea.  That really freaked me out.  I kept thinking, if we sink for some reason, there is no other ship close by to help and we are way out here!

We made it after 1 1/2 hours but I have to say that all I could think was, "We still have to make it back!"  We had a great time on the island though.  We ate some gyros and went to a small museum and then found a park for the kids to play.  But even in my lack of pictures and stories from Greece you can tell that the fear of being out at sea again kind-of put a damper on things for me.  I kept wondering what our ride back would be like.  I know enough about weather to know that the calmest time of the day is usually in the morning.  If there is to be wind it usually picks up as the day goes.  And I was right.  When we got back to the dock to board our ferry home, the wind was stronger than when we came in that morning.  It ended up being a fairly rough ride back.  Nothing like a storm, but we had one wave come over onto the boat completely drenching one poor girl and we were rocking from side to side enough that it was a challenge to walk.  Nearly everyone we were with either threw up from sea sickness or felt sea sick (except Sonora).  Malachi threw up and poor Aaron was helping him while trying not to throw up himself.  I think the kids not feeling well was a good distraction for me.  They needed me and it kept me from panicking though at one point I almost started to cry because I was feeling so stressed.  The whole way back as we were riding the waves out at sea I kept praying we'd be alright (though we weren't in any danger that I know of) and I was so glad to get my feet back on the ground.  As charming as Greek islands are, I don't think we'll be doing anything like that for pleasure anytime soon. .  . or ever.  Here are some of the few pictures I did take.