How Croatians StoryThe Greek hero Odysseus was shipwrecked and imprisoned on the Croatian island of Mljet. While visiting there in May, we and 6 other sailors were inspired by the parable when the engine of our 54-foot yacht failed.
“Remember, Odysseus spent seven years on Mljet,” said Ivan Ljubovic, our captain. “We can spend two nights there.”
Overall, the clogged fuel filter hampered our trip on a seven-day island hopping tour. Cruise from Split to Dubrovnik on a yacht – which the passengers helped sail – wasn’t so bad. Although an engine, even on a sailboat, is crucial for docking on calm days and keeping to schedule, most of my shipmates agreed that being held up in a village with Roman ruins in a turquoise bay was an appropriate fate.
I had accepted what I considered to be the more severe inconveniences after I signed up for the trip last November. Then, the tour operator G Adventure had several trips on sale over Black Friday weekend. The best deals were out of season, which potentially meant cool weather and closed restaurants and attractions. But heading out for seven nights of island hopping in late April for around $1,300 – after 30 percent off – was too tempting to pass up.
My cousin Kim agreed and we made plans to pack rain gear and meet in Split to determine the budget situation.
“Everything in between is an adventure”
Before departure, little was released concerning the itinerary and none of it was binding.
“Split and Dubrovnik are set,” said the captain, who could be steering the ship alone and likewise our guide, on our first day. “Everything in between is an adventure.”
It began with the Sauturnes, a stupendous Kufner yacht with 4 comfortable guest cabins, 4 economical bathrooms where the pull-out faucet also served as a shower faucet, and a spacious galley. Our “crew”, a combination of Australians and Americans aged 18 to 75 – all of whom had also jumped on the special prices – spent most of their time on the boat, where foam mattresses invited us to sunbathe and a cockpit awning provided shade.
The weather, which was sunny and pleasantly cool, was not our biggest concern. The G Adventures website had mentioned well-known islands, including beach islands. Brac And Viswhich served as a convincing Greek idyll within the film “Mamma Mia 2”. However, since many restaurants are closed within the off-season, the captain said we’d proceed depending on the weather and conditions on land.
Meals weren’t included in the value, so finding open restaurants was essential. For breakfast and lunch on board, each of us contributed 50 euros (about $54) for shared food purchased at local markets. In the evenings, we ate out; G Adventures advisable budgeting $250-325 for the week, which was true, although we frequently spent a whole lot of money on Croatian wine (a carafe of the home red wine cost a median of $15).
Small ports
After a busy shopping spree and moving into the bunk-bed cabin Kim and I shared, we experienced the zen of sailing because the ship set off on a sunny morning for a 43-mile Hvarthe longest and supposedly sunniest island in Croatia.
The neighboring islands drifted past because the wind threw changing ripples and waves into the ocean. A flock of shearwaters floated past at eye level.
Within a number of hours, the ridges of steep Hvar appeared, revealing terraced lavender fields and olive groves. We sailed down a protracted, narrow bay and reached Old Towna village with stone houses and terracotta roof tiles, as travellers have known it since 384 BC, when Greek sailors from the island of Paros settled here.
From our berth, we had a front-row view of the fishing boats and cafes that bustled along the waterfront. Stari Grad’s attractions, including the Greek ruins of Faros and a Seventeenth-century Venetian cathedral, weren’t yet open for the season, but we enjoyed exploring the narrow streets and deserted squares of the Old Town.
From the waterfront, an aerobic 20-minute hike up a steep hill crowned by an enormous white cross offered views of Stari Grad and the Levels Behind it lies a UNESCO World Heritage Site of agricultural fields dating back to the fourth century, with stone partitions framing vineyards and olive groves.
That evening we visited her to Tavern Kokota farm restaurant specialising in ‘peka’, a form of grill where meat is cooked under an iron lid piled high with hot coals. The family who run it opened within the off-season and greeted us with strong shots of rakija, a neighborhood herbal liqueur. At a protracted table under a gazebo, we stuffed ourselves with homemade goat’s cheese, wild boar pate and stove-roasted lamb, veal and octopus, together with unlimited jugs of red and white wine for 35 euros per person.
Starry nights
Small ships cannot easily enter small harbors, but a yacht trip can also be a bit like camping, since it starts most mornings with homemade fast coffee. Marinas offer free bathhouses with showers.
Cool temperatures apparently deterred the celebrity-filled mega yachts which might be known to anchor in town Hvar on the south coast of the island of Hvar. Our captain referred to it because the “Mykonos of Croatia” as we passed the harbor, which was bustling with visitors carrying shopping bags and ice cream cones.
As clear weather was forecast, we moored in an undeveloped bay east of town. The berth belonged to the owners of Molly Onte Restaurant that took us ashore in a motorized dinghy in order that we had enough time before dinner to go to the fortress above Hvar and drink an Ozujsko beer in St. Stephen’s Square, the most important within the Dalmatia region.
Back on board, with no artificial light to light up the night sky, we went to the upper deck to stargaze. While my shipmates went to bed, I grabbed a blanket and hat and lay under the celebrities to observe the unfolding spectacle, waking in between to witness the drama of the rising moon reflected within the still water.
Little Dubrovnik
As we made our technique to the neighboring island of Korcula, fingers of gray rock stretched to the vineyards on Hvar’s south coast. On our longest day of sailing, five hours, I used to be glad to have the chance to play first mate and handle the foresail lines.
To break up the trip, Captain Ljubovic navigated to a quiet bay off the Peljesac peninsula, where the Caribbean blue water, cloudless skies and sandy bottom convinced us to leap in despite the freezing sea temperatures.
Fifteenth-century partitions surround Korcula’s historic center, earning the town the nickname “Little Dubrovnik.” Behind stone gates carved with a winged lion symbolizing the Venetian Empire that controlled much of the Adriatic after the thirteenth century, narrow streets result in ornate churches and mansions. There’s no higher technique to wander away in history than to wander away within the network of pedestrian paths. That’s what we told ourselves as we passed the alleged house of Marco Polo, still closed within the off-season.
Along the ocean partitions, restaurants served pizza and seafood under lights strung within the pines and we watched the sunset from a former tower that’s now in Massimo Cocktail Barwhich requires guests to climb a ladder to the roof, a warning of second rounds.
The most romantic port of the trip was also the noisiest, at the least within the marina where a Polish sailing regatta was going down. When I went to the showers at 6am the subsequent morning, I discovered a bunch still dancing happily on a yacht plagued by empty liquor bottles and crushed potato chips.
Stranded on Mljet
We left Korcula in a powerful 20 knot southerly wind (Jugo) and Captain Ljubovic set sail and said: “You paid for a sailing holiday, not a motorboat.”
As we crossed backwards and forwards towards Mljetthe boat tilted at a clumsy angle and we took face photos of the spray.
On Mljet, on the western end of the island, is Mljet National Parkwe rented bikes (10 euros) to ride a panoramic route over the park’s ridge. On the opposite side we cycled around two inland lakes and took a ship trip to a twelfth century monastery built on an island in certainly one of them (park entrance 15 euros).
Arriving within the still sleepy town of Polace, we heard stories from the high season when as much as 100 yachts anchored within the bay and members of the band U2 were once spotted cycling within the park. After a brief rain shower, the town shimmered at sunset and the restaurant Stella Maris welcomed us with grilled sea bass (25 euros) and shrimps (20 euros).
“I’m so glad I chose this time because I don’t like crowds,” said fellow shipmate Nova Hey, 46, from Sydney, who was travelling together with her 18-year-old daughter.
In the morning I had made my technique to the summit of Montokuc for me. The roughly five-kilometer circular hike led to certainly one of the best points on the island, a rocky outcrop with a panoramic panorama, which can also be enjoyed by a family of untamed goats.
Not long after, the Sauternes’ engine stopped starting and we were stranded in a national park on a distant island and not using a mechanic.
The teeming Dubrovnik
The next morning, Captain Ljubovic tried to improvise to repair the issue, but it surely didn’t last long since the engine stopped again, this time right opposite a cave on Mljet that we joked have to be the refuge of Odysseus.
After a morning of easy sailing, a mechanic from the mainland arrived by speedboat and inside an hour we were heading towards the Franjo Tudman Bridge, which spans the doorway to Dubrovnik’s marina, where a hot shower awaited us.
“Dubrovnik is the most expensive city in Croatia,” said Captain Ljubovic as we spent the remainder of our collective money (70 euros) and hired a minibus to take us to the walled heart of the traditional city, about quarter-hour away, and back again.
With two large cruise ships in port, Dubrovnik was teeming with visitors and the doorway fee to climb the stone partitions surrounding town was a shocking 35 euros. (During the 2 days that Kim and I spent in town after the cruise, we bought the more extensive Dubrovnik Pass for 35 euros, which included entry to the Wall and a number of other museums and the usage of public buses.)
On our last night, we compared the small crowds with closed museums, the proper mountaineering weather with swimming water, ample dock space with a wider collection of restaurants – and decided we could be higher off sailing through the bargain season.
