Sailing in Croatia

I was so lucky to be asked to work as a sailing instructor and skipper in Croatia this summer. What a perfect summer job!!

I was in charge of a 44 feet Elan Impression named Nora (from the famous Ibsen play). We sailed from a marina just outside Split and visited several small harbours and islands in the area, such as famous Hvar, Solta, Brac and Vis.

Hvar city was the biggest and most known place we visited. Beautiful place, but a bit crowded for my taste. And the temperatures on land was over 40 celsius, so we were happy when we were back on the boat and came out in more open water where we could go swimming!

Apparently, the big yacht in the middle is owned by some famous Russian or something.

It is very easy to sail on Croatia's coastline, as basically what you see is what you get, which means there are no hidden rocks etc. Most places is is also deep, so easy to get into land. Only thing is that it sometimes is hard to use the anchor if you do not have a very long chain, as it is too deep...

From the west side of Vis, one of the places I liked the most. 

Enjoying the view at Vis island.

Late one night we "borrowed" an inflatable zebra from a sailboat chartered by a big group of young Americans taking part in the infamous Yacht Week. They had so many inflatable animals onboard that we decided they would not miss the zebra. And I doubt they ever missed it, as it was impossible to use it for bathing (and they were probably never sober enough to ever notice that it was gone...).

One of my crew went swimming with his money, so we ended up sailing around with them drying one afternoon...

I would highly recommend sailing in Croatia. It is easy, the marinas and harbours have good facilities and the prices are still reasonable (compared to Norway). The food is good (great seafood!) and the people are really, really nice and service minded. If you are staying on land, it is a good option to rent a room at someone's home instead of staying at a hotel. I did that a few days at Hvar after I finished my work and it was really cheap and you also get to see a bit more of the local culture.

Oh, I miss the sun and sailing already!! :-)