After two days of midterms, we were ready for a vacation from school. We had no class on Wednesday or Thursday, making this our "long" weekend. Parker invited Dave, Matt, and I to join him and his parents on their 42 ft cruising yacht that they rented. The picture below is a map of the route we took along with numbers that I will refer to when describing our adventures.
We took an overnight ferry from Ancona to Split Tuesday, June 1st. (1) From Split, we took a ferry to Hvar (2), where we met up with Parker's mom, her friend, our skipper Darko, and our yacht. Unfortunately, Parker's dad was not able to come because he broke his ribs right before they were scheduled to leave the states. The first day was a gloomy one with the clouds blocking out the sun and giving us some rain. We got on the boat and headed to Stari Grad, Hvar (3). There we got some food to bring on the boat and supplies for my toe. I covered my toe in tape in order to protect it in the water and because my nail was very close to falling off. And in order to prevent my toe from getting infected from the water, I bought hydrogen peroxide. From there we traveled around the western point of Hvar dropping anchor around the Marina we planned to stay at that night (4). We swam for a bit and conquered our own small island that we walked all the way around before swimming back to the boat. After the swim, we went to the old town Hvar of the island Hvar (5). We explored the town for a few hours, walking up to the castle on top of the hill which had an incredible view. Then we returned to the marina for dinner and to spend the night there (6). The next morning brought the sun and beautiful blue skies. The weather was great and the clouds looked like they were painted in every direction you looked. We anchored in a cove on the western point (7) of Hvar where we took advantage of the sun and spent the majority of the day. We kayaked, played cards, sunbathed, simply enjoyed swimming in the clear turquoise water. While we relaxed, our skipper Darko went spearfishing and caught an octopus and eel which he prepared for us the next day. After some clouds covering our sun, we sailed to the next town, Milna (8), on the island of Brac. We had enough wind to put up the sails and cruise through the gates of split. When using our engine, our max speed is 8 knots, which can be surpassed with the sails at 10 knots. We averaged about 4 to 5 knots while sailing to Milna. It was a beautiful ride. The combination of several ships near us with their sails up and the blue skies contrasting with the detailed clouds presented the most picturesque moment of the trip.
The Dalmatian Islands: (click the image to enlarge)
Darko had a nifty GPS that I loved looking at whenever we were sailing to the next location. I love maps and loved recording the route we took from town to town. Imagining being on that boat for a long time and exploring other lands and seas intrigued me so much.
Once in Milna, we walked the town and had dinner with complimentary sardines as appetizers. We stayed the night in the Milna marina and woke up the next morning to the same great weather as the day before. We crossed the gates of split over to the island of Solta (9) where we found a private cove to enjoy for the morning. Then we headed to the town of Stomorska (10), where we had pizza and croatian beer. This town did not even have paved roads along the port. All of the smaller towns had old stone buildings, narrow streets, and very few tourists. While we walked the town, Darko prepared us octopus salad. As we headed towards Split (11), Darko turned on the auto pilot, finished cooking the stew, and served us as we sat around the table. The food was fresh and delicious! The octopus was a bit chewy, while the eel melted in my mouth. Once in Split, we explored inside the old castle walls, which is now the main center of the city. Then while we took a bus to Trogir, Darko sailed and docked our boat there for us to have it for ourselves until the next morning. Matt, who went to culinary school at OCC, cooked dinner on the boat that night. As we sat around the table, we played cards and sipped on wine enjoying the boat for the last night. The next day we took a bus to Zadar and an eight euro flight to Bari, Italy. Then an overnight train back to Florence. Below is the link to more pictures on facebook.
Croatia
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