For the uninitiated, Sail Croatia involves 27 Kiwis and Ozzies living on a boat and Island hopping for 7 nights. Your standard day begins with breakfast from 8-9am, during which time the skipper leaves port and heads for a swim spot. We anchor up at 10:30am for ‘morning swim break’ which generally involves lounging around on Lilo’s, snorkeling, swimming to nearby islands and of course some elaborate flips, bombs and other variations off the top deck of the boat. At 12:30pm a 3 course lunch is served in the dining hall, generally washed down with the first pint of the day, while the skipper sets off for a couple of hours sailing to the ‘afternoon swim break’. See morning swim break for details, with a few extra drinks thrown on for good measure.
Around 5:30pm you pull into the port of a small Croatian island alongside 5 other Sail Croatia boats loaded with like-minded travelers. Into the township to find some dinner before hitting local clubs or heading back to the bar on your boat for some binge drinking ANZAC style. Wake up the following morning, rinse and repeat. The water is warm, crystal clear, and as blue as I’ve ever seen. It’s baking hot, the tunes are on and if your skipper is on the button you’ll be swimming with a bay all to yourself. She’s a tough old life that’s for sure.
We arrived into Split on a Friday night where our awesome foursome was joined by travelling friends Rosie Gowan and Darren ‘Dazzling’ O’Sullivan who are taking a very scenic route one the way to London. Built as the retirement village of a Roman Emperor, with white stoned facades and outdoor bars Split is part Spain, part Greece and is certainly deserving of more than the 18 hours we stayed.
Our voyage started at lunchtime on Saturday when we were greeted by our chief deck hand Duie, who promptly lined everyone on the boat up with a shot of Grappa to get the party started. Hayden Watson took out the man of Saturday award by declaring he was awful at remembering names and walking around with a permanent marker writing everyone’s name on their arms. Why have I not thought of this genius before?? The daily enthusiasm levels directly correlated to the previous night’s activities, so having your book/e-reader on hand helped to ease into some of the tougher mornings with 50 shades of Grey keeping Nicci and Cushla glued to their pages. The decks of cards put paid to a couple of brief rain delays; there were even a few games of 500 to make Nana Hegarty proud.
My boat jumping exploits were severely impeded following the discovery of a 20m cliff jump on day 3. The boys headed to the top with chests puffed out but after looking over the edge Chris Jackson took the man of Monday award by leaping off into uncharted water. The remainder were less than keen until Chris joyfully called from down below “so that’s Australia 1 and New Zealand zero then??” Daz had jumped 15 seconds later and I followed not long after to bring the ledger back in kiwi favour. A week of bruised bum cheeks well worth it.
Entertainment off the boat varied depending on our location. Hvar and Makaskar seemed to be the designated party spots and we hit them with everything we had. Ridiculously cheap cocktails, 100 kuna for 10 redbull vodkas, mechanical bull rides, dress-up parties and nightclubs in caves all combined for a few magic nights on the booze. We even ran into Japi in Hvar who was doing a van tour all the way from Melbourne.
My favourite evening came after the ship was diverted from Mivet due to bad weather and we instead anchored in the small town of Slano. With no real bars and few options for a party we stripped the local 7 eleven of their booze, scrounged up some ice from a few restaurants and set some music up on the beach. The inevitable bonfire also drew some new friends onto the scene as people from the other boats came to introduce themselves. Unfortunately it also drew the attention of the Policija from the neighboring town who weren’t as impressed as we were with our fire making skills and put a halt to proceedings.
After losing his lilo on day 1, Matty Marsden launched an all-out war on the other boats that didn’t end until the final swim break. Three other boats looked on with glum faces as almost every person aboard our ship hit the water with their own personal floaty device, the ill-gotten gains of a midnight raid. As is often the way the final swim was the most enjoyable as everyone did their best to take every drop of enjoyment they could out of such a scenic place.
Dubrovnik
After a week of debauchery on boats we were caught unawares by this breathtaking city that was built as a fort overlooking the Adriatic Sea. The entire town centre is a Unesco World Heritage Site on account of the fact it is O for awesome and many of the original walls and features are still standing. Walking along the top of the city walls is a truly unique experience as you look out to a string of Croatian islands. Of course it wouldn’t be a European city tour without some old school war history, so we jumped on the Gondola and headed for the top of Srd Hill for more incredible views and the war museum.
As a group we left with a lot more questions than answers about the civil war and I’ll certainly be hounding my man in the know Nenad Petrovic for some details on my return. We did see some amazing footage of missiles doing some serious damage to the city.
The final night meant saying goodbye to our new found friends on the ‘Madonna’ (our ship), so after splashing out on some oysters we sampled a local bar selling seriously dangerous cocktails in buckets. This was a shore fire way to ensure the week would end as it had begun, as the crew with Japi in tow did some shuffling to the monster
night club in Dubrovnik. Despite a seriously dazed group Saturday morning we managed to check out of the boat and make it into old town, packs and all, to a pre-arranged Irish Bar for bacon, eggs and the 9:35am All Blacks kick-off. Cushla gets grumpy if we miss kick off.
Some sad goodbyes over the course of the day as everyone drifted off to their next adventures/real world responsibilities. I’d only heard amazing things about Sail Croatia and even then it exceeded my expectations. We were so lucky to have the timing allow us to do this trip with Nicci, Matty, Rosie and Daz, but even with complete strangers you’d have a ball and we made some great friends along the way.
Nights stayed in Croatia – 8
We got to Split – train from Budapest to Zagreb for AU$40 each. Train from Zagreb to Split AU$31ea. 14 hours travelling all up, the train is the way forward for this journey.
It’ll cost you – oh my it’ll cost you. We paid AU$1600 per couple, which covers breakfast, lunch and your bunk on the boat. Pints on the boat go for 20 kuna which is AU$3.40 which is actually really cheap but is the equivalent to drinking in an expensive bar in Croatia. Dinners range depending on where you are but whatever the cost the trip is completely worth doing.
English – is 100% OK in the tourist spots at least.
Eating –Breakfast was either cornflakes and warm milk or white bread with jam, very missable. Lunch was a bit of a lucky dip. Any lunch that comes in 3 courses is a winner in my book, but the more discernible foodies on the boat would probably just describe it as average. Cush generally took the vegetarian option which was fairly poor. Not surprisingly, the towns have some incredible seafood at generally cheap prices but you do need to choose your restaurant.
What to bring – A healthy liver is essential for this trip because it gets one hell of a workout
Best feed – Cush and I managed to sneak off for a cheeky dinner date in Hvar where the garlic and tomato mussels in Hvar were comfortably the best thing I’ve eaten since departing home.
You know you’re living the dream when – You dive off the boat and swim to the nearest island. After a while the boys realise they’re thirsty so shout a drinks order to the barmen who loads up his tray, gets in the water and proceeds to swim the drinks to the island. Now that’s service.
Quote of the week – Goes to Mr Australia, John Fry upon hearing what was to be served for lunch “you had me at deep fried, but you lost me at eggplant.” Incidentally John also took the award for getting closest to being thrown off the boat, on the very first night. A class act.
A tequila slammer – Place army helmet on head, wrap tequila in shot glass in a towel and get repeatedly smacked over the head with the towel, a hammer, or whatever is within arm’s reach. Nothing like a cheeky concussion between friends.
What grinds my gears – I have nothing. A phenomenal week