Croatia Sailing - Week 12

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Check-in; everything that could go wrong, did. I was late coming back from Mostar, and I got around 10 phone calls en route back to Split from the Katarina Lines girls (they couldn't get in touch with Simon because he had started his holiday already and his phone was off). One pax had booked with friends but wasn't on the same boat as them (their fault), another pax had the same problem (travel agent's fault) and others didn't like their rooms, or the boat wasn't how they expected or they were claustrophobic and didn't have enough door space. It was, well and truly, a gong show, but when I finally arrived I managed to switch some people around and appease everyone and I think they were all okay in the end. Some of them wrote on the feedback forms that they were disappointed no one was there to greet them at check-in, whi6made me feel really bad because they'd never mentioned that to me, and I thought they all understood why I had been late.
Oh well... We still ended up having a fantastic tour even after a rocky start.

Day 1; Hvar
Number of pax for dinner; 28 (picnic)

Excellent night of dancing, singing, doing the limbo at Kiva and drinking champagne with sexy Sasa.

Day 2; Mljet
Number of pax for dinner; 25 (bbq)

We had a lovely bbq on the top deck, and then sat around drinking and playing games. I really loved this group, and we all bonded that night. And then one of tge girls brought out her guitar and treated us to her AMAZING voice! I was glad I wasn't on the Victorija or Providnost because people were jumping off masts and acting like a bunch of 'shupaks' (Simon might know what that means), whilst my sweet group on the Novi Dan were having a grand old kumbaya.

Day 2; Dubrovnik
Number of pax for dinner; 27 (Aquarius)

All good in Dubs. The guys at Mirage were legends again when they reduced the price of their litre cocktail jugs to 60 kuna (from 85) for us. We danced like maniacs there, then again at Fuego.

Day 4; Korcula
Number of pax for dinner; 27 (Caenazzo)

I was very sad to discover that my favourite waiter at Massimo had quit, but I can't blame him as it would be a pretty annoying place to work; surrounded by tourists with cameras about to knock you off the edge at any minute.

Day 5; Makarska
Number of pax for dinner; 27 (Peskera)

It was really nice to meet up with Robbie and my long-lost Javorak, which I haven't seen since I last worked on it 8 weeks ago. Had nice coffees and drinks and chats with them, and also had a nice time at Deep, although most of the group came back early and drank on the boat. For a surprising number of people, these tours are very often more about the chilng on a sailing boat aspect, rather than the experiencing Croatia aspect.

Day 6; Omis
Number of pax for dinner; 25 (Captains Dinner)

We had an awesome pirate party, complete with dancing on tne roof to Abba and the Dirty Dancing soundtracks, vodka watermelons and water guns. Great night; unfortunately, our guitarist got too drunk to perform, so our much-anticipated second show was cancelled.

Day 7; Split
Number of pax for dinner; 27 (Golden Gate)

Golden Gate was Very slow; I usually enjoy the food and the venue, but I think our mission should be to find a second restaurant in Split for next season, because it's nice to have a final dinner together but it's a little hit and miss there.

LOVED THIS GROUP!!

Stay tuned for my next tour report, complete with the details about antics of the worst group, by a million miles, that I've ever had!

Ps. I know the other guides have had issues with the captain on the Novi Dan, but my experience on this boat was fine. Apart from the occasional ass-grab or leg-grope, Sime was very nice to me. Waiter's a bit of a Momo, though.

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