Day 6 - On a boat - Hvar

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Sorry for the delay in our blog, but we have been off the grid. We are currently on our last night of island hopping. We are hanging at a marina bar on some island in Croatia writing our blog.



We left our hotel in Split to board our vessel for the next 4 days. We met our captain, Bartul, at the port. He is all of 23 years old but looks 16, but he has “lots” of experience. He showed us around the boat and then we were off. No safety briefing of course. We think there are life jackets but not sure. We got settled in and picked our cabins ignoring the captain’s hints that 2 could fit in one cabin. We paid and he’s young, so he is on the couch. Get over it.



The water is cobalt blue and amazing. We motored over to the first cove and set anchor. We took our first refreshing dip into the Adriatic Sea--and by refreshing we mean shocking and a bit cold. But it was warm out, so it still felt great. We hung out there for a bit and were relaxing on the bow. As Dan was talking to the Captain, he alerted us to a group of men who came down to the rocky beach. We thought it was an uninhabited beach. Not only did these men show up, but also they quickly striped and got naked. Now everyone knows there is good naked and bad naked. About 80% of these were bad naked. They had ridden their bikes around the island and stripped down to their white speedos (think about it). Then they started walked on the rocky beach in all their glory to get into the water. Some decided to lean over and come in backwards. That is bad naked. We took our pictures, giggled like teenage girls and the pulled up the anchor and fled away. Chester still says it counts that they saw naked men.



We sailed to the next cove which is always positive when you are on a sail boat. This cove had a bar and restaurant on it, so we did what any thirsty tourists would do, we swam into shore and hung out at the bar for a few hours. There was a group of Croatian men drinking and swimming around. Probably ranging from mid-50’s to mid 70’s. Dan was hiding in the shade while Chester and Kirsten were on the lounge chairs. The oldest one quickly made friends with us. We were pretty sure he was the only one to speak English. They bought us some wine and took some pictures with us. They laughed a lot, but we are not real sure what about. Likely us in swimsuits.



From there we headed to Hvar. This is a big city as far as Croatian cities go, so we docked and had a 10 minute boat ride to a small secluded marina with a grocery store, a few restaurants, and bars. We got tied off, stopped at the store and replenished the beer supply as Dan realized drinking on a boat is fun and it goes down quickly. Boats continued to come into the marina, which is always fun to watch, but we kept noticing that every boat was full of men. At one point 4-5 boats of men traveling together pulled in and all jumped into the water. By this point Kirsten and Chester were excited and Dan was just drinking more. The Sausagefest continued through most of the evening. After a few drinks at one of the bars in the marina, we got dressed and headed into Hvar. We waited for the next water taxi with almost all men. Apparently in Europe they take the boys’ trip in June and July and August are for family trips.



We arrived in Hvar which has a similar look to Dubrovnik with mediaeval walls around the city. It was a Catholic national holiday and they were having some type of mass and processional in the town square. Men on one side and women on the other. We had expected the town to be busy, but according to our Captain it will start getting very busy in a week or so. Which does not disappoint us at all.



We ate at one of the restaurants on the water front recommended by the Captain. Remember he is 23. Their service was great, as has every place we have eaten in Croatia; however, the food was not so great. We had a 1KG St Pierre grilled fish to share. We all ate it but at the end with a $200 bill, we decided it was very average and we should have gone for the Doner Kabob instead.



We walked around the town a bit after dinner trying to find a bar not filled with men and had some partial success. We had a few drinks and then after looking into all of the empty dance clubs with loud music and lights, we decided to head home a bit before the last water taxi at midnight.



Our first night on the boat was a bit warm but not too bad. But there was something banging outside of Kirsten and Chester’s cabin all night that prevented any good sleep. Our first day on the boat was great for Kirsten and Chester, but as it was a first for Dan, he felt it was a huge success. Even with the sausage fest and bad naked.

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