Croatia Sailing - Week 14

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Here is my tour report for the August 22 Split-Dubrovnik tour on the very best boat in Croatia, the Istok.

Check-in; Odlicno ('excellent' in Croatian). And I was pleased to find out that not only was group very nice and down-to-earth, but one of the girls was the fashion editor for GQ Magazine, so I knew there were some fantastic outfits ahead!

Day 1; Omis
Number of pax for dinner; 14 (bbq onboard)

Another great bbq like only the Istok can do. Food and drinks on the little roof (instead of meat we had fresh sardines; Cookie force-fed us all about 30 sardines each and we loved each and every one!). Afterwards, we sat around chatting for a couple of hours and went to bed early; I breathed a sigh of relief that I had a normal group again after my last bunch of misfits!)

Day 2; Makarska
Number of pax for dinner; 14 (Susvid)

We had a great night in Makarska, except that dinner was a little disappointing. The bill was wrong, the food was either wrong or really average, and Gogo was not his friendliest. Even though they gave me a couple of bottles of cherry brandy at the end of the night, I was pretty unimpressed and would not be super comfortable going back to Susvid. I'm afraid that those restaurants have become a casualty of our non-tipping groups, because the service has seriously declined over the season.

Anyway, we moved on and brought drinks down to the beach and then had a lot of fun at Deep. We ran into the Contiki guide, Christian, who was on holiday for the week, so he hung out with us for the evening.

Day 3; Bol
Number of pax for dinner; 5 (wine tasting)

We started the day off well with a beautiful swim stop and snorkelling, and then we went to Zlatni Rat for a few hours and one of my guys went kite surfing.
This was our last night at the winery while it was still owned by Vinko. It was a really bittersweet night and all of the girls enjoyed it even more than usual because they felt lucky to be the last group who got to experience it.

Day 4; Bol/Hvar
Number of pax for dinner; 14 (picnic)

My favourite day on any route is the Bol/Hvar combination, and today was even better than usual. In the morning, 6 of us went kayaking, and then 5 of us decided to go biscuiting! It was the scariest 10 minutes ever, I fell out once and my entire body hurt for the next 3 days, but it was great!

Big Michael Jackson dance party on the roof and in the captain's little room (I was simultaneously driving the boat and rocking out) and then we had a big swim over to the beach bar (not the Carpe Diem one, but another cool one). After all that exercise you might think we'd be far too exhausted to enjoy Hvar, but we ended up having an amazing night there as always!
Probably the best day I've had thus far in Croatia.

Day 5; Korcula
Number of pax for dinner; 14 (Caenazzo)

Broken like twigs after Hvar, as usual.

Day 6; Sipan
Number of pax for dinner; 14 (Captain's Dinner)

We had a great time in Sipan; we played for an hour on the playground swings and see-saw, petted my cats, then had a couple of quiet ones in the bar. I felt so sad to say goodbye to this group, as they were all interesting, fun, funny and cool.

Day 7; Dubrovnik
Number of pax for dinner; 14 (Kaptain's)

Before we left the boat to go for dinner, I met the cook who would be replacing Cookie for the week on the Istok. This was how our first encounter went:

(Andrea and Nikola shake hands).
"hi, I'm Andrea" (staring into Nikola's eyes)
"hi, I'm Nikola" (staring into Andrea's eyes)

(Andrea and Nikola stare at each other with stars in their eyes, not realizing or caring that they have been shaking hands for two full minutes and it's starting to get awkward for those around them. They both know without a doubt that this is the beginning of a beautiful romance.)

Back to Dubrovnik... Great dinner, great wall walk, great time at Mirage. I love Dubrovnik, and I loved this group. What a difference a week made!

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