Sailing the amazing Adriatic Sea - Split to Dubrovnik and back via Hvar

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A very early morning flight from London saw us land in Split right on time to catch a bus to the huge harbour and board our Katarina Line boat for our epic sailing adventure of Croatia. We avoided booking the ones that we knew were notoriously full of Aussies (e.g Fanatics, Top Deck), however our sailing group was still at least 70%!A(MISSING)ustralian - but at least having gone for the expensive boat, they were classy Australians. Our sailing ship, Ocean, was a magnificent boat with 36 on board plus crew (our captain Mario was quite funny as was the heavily tattooed chef and cheeky barman). We weren’t exactly sailing though, as there wasn’t much wind, so the twin engines sucked up 100 litres of fuel per hour to make sure we arrived at our destinations along the way!

We departed Split harbour at 1pm and spent all afternoon sailing along the Dalmation coast before arriving in the town of Makarska around 5pm where we were docked for the night in the rather large harbour. The town of Makarska was surprisingly big and was thriving on the hot summer Saturday. After spending much of the day sunbaking on the deck of the boat, we jumped into the cold blue water at the harbour. The sea water is more salty than I am used to but refreshing anyway. We then strolled along the harbour front restaurants and bars before wandering through a market and realising that on the other side there was a proper beach. We swum at the beach, which was a shale beach and every step was agony for my flat, soft feet which is more accustomed to sand beaches. It wasn’t a wave beach but was perfect to float around in for a while and enjoy the sunset over the surrounding mountains.

We were then spoilt for choice for magnificent seafood restaurants along the waterfront and settled on one that delivered us very tasty squid and salmon before walking along the waterfront enjoying a gelati. All of the fresh sea air and food had made us quite tired so we retired to our cabin at a decent hour before the various bars on the beach became too rowdy.

The next morning we were set off to the island of Mljet before we even woke up. On the way we stopped in the middle of the sea so that we could jump off the boat and cool off a bit. A few of the guys jumped off the top deck of the boat, which is about 10 metres high. I decided to do it too which was a lot of fun but resulted in significant water up the nose.

We docked at the town of Pomena, which despite being the largest town on the island of Mljet, was actually very small, with just 1 hotel and a handful of restaurants. The drawcard of the area though was a trip to the National Park Mljet, which started at the edge of town and after walking through the forest for about 20 minutes, you stumble upon a beautiful turquoise lake, called Malo Jezero (or small lake). We stopped at the serene lake and floated around in the warm, salty water that felt more like a bath. We continued around the lake before hitting the much larger Veliko Jezero (or large lake). From this lake we got a boat which took us to an island in the middle of the lake which contained a 4th century basilica and from the top of the island had majestic views of the lake, which was massive and perfectly still. After some more lake swimming we headed back to Pomena for some seafood pasta and a game of cards and some drinks on deck with the six other couples on our boat that were around our age. The way the boats dock in these small ports requires then to all be side by side so that you have to go through other boats to get to your boat. At midnight it was lights out on all boats and thankfully the Fanatics boats even complied with this and we got a good night’s sleep.

The next morning we headed off to Dubrovnik, the jewel of the Adriatic Sea. We docked at the Gruz harbour, which is a bit north of the old town but quickly jumped in a cab to the old town entrance, the imposing Pile Gate. The gate has a drawbridge, a tower and has two huge entrance archways. We wandered up the main street, Placa, with its wide limestone path leading to the huge clock tower. We wandered down the narrow streets to the right in search of Buza Bar, the bar outside the city walls perched on a sheer cliff overlooking the sea. You can also jump off the rocks and into the sea from the bar if you wish. We simply chose to have a beer and enjoy the view and the sunshine. A fairly blissful way to spend an afternoon. However, we didn’t hang around long as we were dying for a swim. Thankfully we found a small bay just near the Pile Gate for a paddle around in before our walking tour commenced.

Our walking tour took in the sites including the 15th century Onofrio Fountain, Franciscan Monastery complete with shrapnel holes from the 1991 Serbian invasion, St. Blaises church, Rector’s Palace and finishing up at the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin. Our guide rattled off at a million miles an hour and we couldn’t take in all she was saying, but we enjoyed the tour nevertheless. The late afternoon sun was losing its intensity, making it a perfect time to do Dubrovnik’s best attraction, climbing the city walls and walking around the complete 2km circuit of city walls. The walls give you an amazing vantage point of the entire town from every side, the tiled rooflines within the huge walls surrounded by the bright blue waters are picture perfect in every way.

After the city walls walk we had well and truly earned a beer, and the large group from our boat (12 of us – 4 aussie couples, 1 kiwi couple and 1 English couple), had a glorious dinner out on one of the little plazas off the Placa. Our service was amazing and we even got a free shot of a local liquor that tasted suspiciously like tequila. We thought about having a massive night in Dubrovnik, but having to figure out how to get back to the boat in Gruz, and the cheap beer on board, we were better off heading back to the boat for some cards and drinking. The next morning we had some spare time and just did some shopping in Dubrovnik, enjoying some fruit from the fruit market before turning around and sailing back up the Dalmation coast.

The next day we went to the very sleepy town of Trstenik and because there wasn’t really anywhere to get dinner, this night was the captain’s dinner on board the boat. We had mussels as entree, whole fishes for main and then birthday cake for desert as it was one of the girls on boards 24th birthday. We then proceeded to have a massive night of drinking shots on the boat and far too much while rocking out to some bogan music. This ensured that the next day I was moving very slowly and not far, although a swim in the morning certainly helped fix the hangover.

In the afternoon we headed to Korcula island, docking at Korcula town, the main town on the island and the alleged birthplace of Marco Polo, who invented that game you play in the pool. We went to the Gradski Museum where we learnt that Korcula was originally settled by the Greeks in the 3rd century BC and was renowned for its limestone, which many of the buildings and streets of this small town are made of. Korcula also became a world-class ship building town and the museum also showed off some ancient ship building tools. The town itself is very compact, typical of the area it has a nice harbour with pristine turquoise water, an old church and some old city walls. The 12 of us went out again and found a nice little cocktail bar near the harbour for pre-dinner drinks and then a pizza restaurant also overlooking the water. By this stage I could just conjure up the courage to have one beer before calling it an early night to catch up on sleep.

The next morning we started our cruise into Hvar. As is with every other day, it starts with breakfast at 8:30, lounge around in the sun until 11:00, have a swim until lunch at 12:30, then cruise into our destination. Our swim stop was in a little bay area with a couple of small houses and a jetty. I swam over to the jetty (about 300m) and found lots of fish, clams, sea urchins, etc. Our afternoon swim stop was at the nudist beaches of the Pakleni islands. It was weird when our boat anchored down between two islands full of nude old men. We were told there was a really cool bar if we could swim out to one island and then walk across it. I was sceptical at first, but to my amazement, there actually was a brilliant bar on the other side of the island without any nudists in sight! The bar had huge lounges sheltered under pine trees, its own pool and sun lounges and a little private beach as well as massage beds. Quite amazing considering the remoteness of what is around it.

At 5pm we arrived in Hvar and we headed straight up the steep steps to the Venetian Fortress that towers over the harbour town – but not before our daily gelati stop! The fortress was built in 1551 to defend Hvar from the Turks and gives amazing panoramic views of the town. The fortress also doubled as a prison and also contained a small shipwreck museum. We decided to stay up there and watch the glorious sunset and had a drink at the bar up top. After dark we headed back down the mountain for dinner and a wander through the markets, which were dominated with lavender products which Hvar is famous for.

The last day of our tour took us back to Split, via the island of Brac, which has an amazing shifting promontory beach called Bol. The beach was most like an Australian beach that we had seen and while it was still pebble, it was small little pebbles that were easier to walk on and the beach was more gradually sloping, meaning I could get the frisbee out for the first time which was great.

Our last night was spent docked at Split harbour. The 14 of us "young ones" on the boat went out for one last dinner and given the early start the next day decided against going out on the town, instead enjoying one last night on the top deck of our boat before saying goodbye to our glorious week of sunshine, beautiful blue waters, fantastic seafood dinners, quaint seaside towns, too much gelati and alcohol and lots of good times. Sailing the Dalmation coast was certainly one of our best holidays of the past 2 years, we loved every minute of it!

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