Okyanus JD

Okyanus JD is a wooden gulet, hand-built by the boatyards of Bozburun and converted for diving since 2012 by its two owners: German Jürgen Janning and Turkish instructor Ahmet Durmaz. The vessel now sails under the Okyanus Blue Yachting name (the company was previously known as J Dive), and Ahmet himself is aboard for almost the whole season. This is neither a converted trawler nor a steel liveaboard: the hull is timber, there are two masts with a working sailing rig, and red awnings shade the decks. The gulet really does sail, but most of the passage-making is under engine, at six to eight knots.

The boat is small, and that is the point. There are six cabins, twelve guests at most and a crew of four, including a head chef and his assistant who have both been with the company for years. The compressor sits under the foredeck and tanks are filled in place through a separate port — you never have to take the regulator off. The dive deck is aft, under the awning, with a dedicated rinse tank for cameras. There is no nitrox on board.

The route stays the same all season: Bozburun — the Datça peninsula — Bozburun, seven days and six nights, departing on Saturdays. There are normally two dives a day, night dives included. The check dive is done in a bay off Kızıl island, and the week then takes in Çanak Bay with its stingrays and barracuda, the Atabol beacon that only overnighting boats can reach, Seven Pinnacles with a submerged reef running from 22 to 38 metres, Armutlu Burnu for day and night dives, Dick’s Rock — a scatter of granite boulders at 36 metres — and the sites around Aktur: Bozan Cape, Dıs Kalemlik, Lion Island and Sandal Rock. At Ada Tepe, at forty-five metres, lie two old iron anchors thought to come from Ottoman galleons.

Below the surface this is the Mediterranean at its best: meadows of Neptune grass, big sponges, caves and drop-offs, and good visibility. For marine life there are the largest groupers in the Mediterranean, barracuda, stingrays, turtles, octopus, moray eels, crawfish and slipper lobsters, and sometimes an angel shark resting on the sand near the wreck of a coastguard boat. Water temperature in season is around 18 °C and drops to 16–17 °C at depth, so a 5 mm suit is the norm here rather than an over-precaution.

The season is short and dictated by the weather: the boat is at sea from roughly the start of May to mid-November, around eighteen trips a year, and does not run in winter. The route hugs a sheltered coast, so there is almost no swell — the thing guests mention most often.

The money is simple and in the guest’s favour. The week’s price already covers VAT, national park and port fees, full board, the dive package with night dives, land excursions to coastal towns, snorkelling gear, a stand-up paddleboard, WiFi and daily yoga on the foredeck. None of the available sources names any compulsory payment on board: the operator leaves gratuities to the guest. Charged separately are the airport or hotel transfer, alcohol and soft drinks, rental gear, courses and beach towels. The operator’s own website is closed to automated access, so we do not publish figures for those extras — ask when booking.

Besides selling berths, the whole boat can be chartered: Okyanus Blue Yachting runs dive weeks, non-diving blue cruises, yoga programmes and freediving trips. The operator does not publish a whole-boat charter price.