Yet another unintentional gap in the blog! The weeks between trips morph into a frenzy of washing clothes and seeing family and friends. I am currently feeling rather tired and a friend jokingly called it ‘travel fatigue’. While it sounds extravagant, I think he is right (how lucky are we!). Travel is wonderful but the constant packing and unpacking is jarring and there are more than just a few days I wake up not knowing where I am. So it is that this week will be our ‘slow time’ where we play house in SE1, eat a simple diet, and catch up with ourselves.
Since my Italian blog we have had two trips: Sailing in Croatia and 5 days in Sherwood Forest. I ‘ll keep the remainder of this blog for Croatia and save Robin Hood for later….
When I think of our trip to the Croatian Central Dalmation Coast four words come to mind:
Sea
Lavender
Australians
Wine
We last holidayed with our friends Emma and Paul and their two children back in 2008 when we started our 6 months trip migrating to Australia. Our week, then, in Florida cemented a long friendship and knowledge that we travel well together. The sailing was their idea, which we agreed to, even though we’d never given it a go before. Their family is a lot more experienced in sailing and Emma booked us a holiday through ‘Sunsail’, which is a UK company. Cognisant that the Dunns, arbeit living in Sydney, have zero sailing ability, she also booked us a skipper for a week who would help us on our 53ft yacht.
We flew into Split, which is about 30 minutes by road to Agana Marina. Here we met ‘Captain’ Tom - A dashing, 30ish, easy going individual. The deal when hiring a skipper is that we must look after them at our cost. He goes where we go and eats what we eat. On such a large boat he had ample room to sleep in the bow (while the 8 of us shared 4 berths). Tom also ate well because we like to eat at nice restaurants of which there are plenty; providing ample fresh fish and meat with the trimmings. Breakfast and lunch were kept simple, by buying the essentials at the marina and eating on the boat, so we could be free to moor at sea.
Options from Split are to sail north or south. We opted for south and planned our route around the idea that we sail for an hour or so in the morning, anchor at a small bay for a swim and lunch for a few hours and then sail again to a marina or harbor for anchor by 3.30 for the evening. While this seemed an early finish to our sailing day, the truth is that sailing around Croatia is busier this year due to the migrant crisis in Greece and, Sunsail, along with other ‘sailing’ companies had moved more boats into the region earlier in the season.Even without even the UK school holidays the marinas were busy. Twice during the week we arrived at a marina to find no spaces (even reserved ones).
Saying this, the entire region is stunning with ample choices for mooring and plenty of historic towns bustling with Roman remnants, Venetian architecture and Christian influences.
Our days on the boat were spent playing scrabble, crosswords, puzzles and reading and listening to music. Lunch time stops found us in remote bays where we dived off into the warm crystal waters. We had a dingy, a canoe, water guns, noodles and our only concern was avoiding the hundreds of sea urchins nestling on the rocks and keeping our eyes peeled for dolphins (yes..we saw one).
Our night time stops meandered between small bays with 3 restaurants (Palmizana on St Klement Island), to marinas in small and not so small towns (Milna on Brac, Starigrad on Hvar and Vis town on Vis Island) and finally mooring at the magnificent walled city of Trogir. It was in Trogir, that Steve bumped into two Australian clients from the UK, who explained where the mass of young Australians were coming from…
Who knew sailing in Croatia was the Australian equivalent of 18-30s holidays? Several times at the marinas we spied huge party boats jammed packed with backpackers eager to ‘taste’ a bit of culture. Steve spotted them first: Board shorts, thongs, (flip flops not knickers), some rather loud shirts and of course……singlets!
In Palmizana we left Steve on the boat in charge of the kids while the four of us (yes, Skipper too…) took a 10 minute speed boat ferry from our harbour to the absolutely stunning Hvar town. Crammed with Venetian architecture, overlooked by a fort and with a large square dominated by the Cathederal of St Stephen it’s easy to see why this place draws the crowds. It was here that we met with half of Sydney’s uni student population on their winter break hitting the various bars. We gave it a good go but by 1am the eyelids were closing and we headed back to the quiet side!
Vis town was another hit. Local tradesmen made leather handbags while you wait and the lovely chocolate profiteroles didn’t help my bikini clad body. The open air cinema started at 9.30pm and like most of the Med in summer this is when towns come alive. The blond haired Baltic families were out in force and Erin and Kye bedtimes started to match our own.
At sea, one can smell the ocean, the bathrooms (keep those doors shut!) and occasionally the engine. On land the over-riding smell was lavender. Hvar is famed for it’s lavender farms and with Lavender season in full bloom, we found, along many of the islands stalls and shops selling a myriad of products associated with lavender. Erin went slightly nuts and bought 6 lavender bags and essential oil. Now in London, this is all I can smell!
Steve and Paul headed out most nights for a ‘quiet’ few with the skipper. The quiet few tended to get longer through the week and the quality of the local wine helped. The local red is called ‘Plavac. One vineyard on Vis produced a stunner and convinced Steve to grab a bottle or two for the new cellar…but why save for tomorrow what you can drink today and alas it never made it off the boat.
Pokemon Go arrived towards the end of the trip and I was surprised to see the kids catch one on the boat. Data collection at it’s easiest!! This craze aside we kept the gadgets to a minimum and Kyran got through 4 books but didn’t learn a thing about sailing. What they did learn however is that Europeans really don’t require clothes to have a good time. On several occasions we saw naked crew coming into the marina or harbour. Personally, I’d be a bit worried about sunburn but who am I to judge? Kids had their first view of ’free willy’ back in the Dolomites sauna (see previous blog) and didn’t stare after the first lot sailed by. Neither did we as it’s always the over 50s and not the nubile 20s that strip.
We had great weather until 48 hours before the end. The winds came up and the clouds darkened. We had to sail from our furthest point back to the mainland and for this we are eternally grateful that we had a very experienced skipper as the rest of us turned various shades of green.
It was a cold end to a hot week but what a fantastic time we had and just hoping it’s not another 8 years till we holiday together again because by then Em's eldest will be 23 and my youngest 18!
