Dalmatian Style

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Croatia: 11th - 18th July 2009

“Umm...now?” I wasn't sure if I'd heard Skipper Ben correctly. I thought he said to stand on the pier, and as the boat motored out of the parking spot (slip?), I was supposed to push a little on the hull so it wouldn't bump or scrape against the pier, and then just as the stern was passing by, I was supposed to climb on. But, Skipper Ben failed to take into account that I'm scatter-brained and uncoordinated, which meant that there were even odds that I'd forget or fail to board at the precise moment. Fortunately, some modicum of survival instinct kicked in at the appropriate time, and I made it aboard as we motored out of the marina at Primosten, Croatia, on the Dalmatian Coast.

And thus, our long awaited sailing trip began in earnest. Dreams of a Mediterranean sailing holiday were a reality, complete with good friends, mountains of food, cases of beer, vodka, gin, and enough tonic water to make malaria as distant a memory as the Macarena.

The crew was made up of Skipper Ben, Nicola, Baby Bea, Liz, Ali, and ourselves. The trip was a follow-up to our amazing 2006 sailing adventure in the Bay of Phukhet. That was a ton of fun, and we were looking forward to a repeat of good times, having conveniently forgotten any knowledge of sailing through any tight spots.

The weather on the Dalmatian Coast was picture perfect. It had rained the week before, but lucky for us, the weather changed for the better for the entire week of our sailing trip. And, topping things off, the morning we were leaving, the south-easterly “Sirocco” winds kicked up, rushing no doubt to a building thunderstorm that we would eventually drive through on our arduous trek out of Croatia.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself.

From the marina in Primosten, there are small islands along the coast to the north, and larger, more inhabited, islands to the south. We chose to head north.

Our typical daily routine started with coffee and breakfast followed by a swim and then lunch, and possibly knot school. Then, we would sail for 4 hours or so, dock/moor, then have a fabulous dinner at quay-side restaurant of freshly caught fish and lots of wine.

Again, the weather was perfectly clear with good sailing winds. While it may have been slow going at times, we never motored except when we were going in and out of an anchorage or marina. Most of all, the trip was educational for the crew, with several crash courses here and there (pun absolutely intended).

Like paragliding, it's the starting and stopping that can be very dangerous. Everything in between is just trying to keep going and avoiding other people. Our most humorous and ignominious moment was captured perfectly by Ali Warr in the Warrs' travel blog. Check it out.

Warr'sBlog

But, what Ali doesn't mention is that after our frenetic docking process, the Austrians who came to our rescue offered to (in their words) “make a sailing lesson for you” the next morning. While some would have waved them off and taken slight offense, Skipper Ben responded with “that would be really great...thanks!” And so we all learned the proper way to dock “Dalmatian style”, i.e., moor the stern to the dock and get the bow line attached to a buoy all while keeping fenders and life-boat/skiff moving to the right places at the right times all without tripping over Bea's pink potty...or something like that. After we successfully completed our docking procedure, spontaneous self congratulatory applause erupted from the crew, which was almost too loud to hear that unmistakable sound of Austrian eyes rolling.

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Comments

[sarah]

sailing trip
Wow guys, truly amazing. You all are having so much fun! I'm super envious.