Week22 – June 22nd – June 28th Croatia

Saturday June 22 Trogir to Adriatic Sea

Today is boat day. We are renting a Moorings 514 PC Power Cat for the week starting today. This boat is really more floating hotel and water-play platform than boat and is perfect for a family vacation for four adults and four kids. We have equipped our boat with two double kayaks and four SUPs. This was originally a bareboat charter as is our usual pattern with me serving as captain, but in Europe one needs an actual license as opposed to just the bluster and confidence to take the boat out. I was planning to get a license end of last year or early this year (in part by mail order) but decided we would add a captain. I have mixed feelings about this, nice not to be responsible and on duty for all things boat, but the reality is I like being responsible and on duty as part of my vacation and in particular I like having the boat to do what we want as opposed to have

a captain pick the compromises.

We start the morning with a bit of breakfast and a bit of family disciplinary business. Clay had returned from his evening with friends later than anticipated. Max is in trouble as the nice hotel staff share with me a video of him walking up the white walls of the hotel in his hiking boots leaving marks on the wall. I can’t speak for Clay, but Max clearly feels horrible for both his transgression (and for getting caught) and when asked why he did I get the typical 13-year-old boy answer – “I don’t know.” One of the things one learns as a parent is that it is the truth, 13-year-old boys do things and truly have no idea why.

We have time to visit Trogir in the daylight and then we split up with the boys heading to the grocery store to finish our provisioning and the girls meeting us later at the Moorings

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Agana Marina for a 3PM boat check-in. We meet our Captain, Ed who seems like a reasonable fellow. By shortly after 4PM we have stowed all our gear and are off for a short transit to a Maslinca, a marina with good protection from a rising North wind. We arrive in time for a late afternoon swim and then a bbq dinner on the back deck. I am not Captain, but I have retained my duty (and pleasure) as cook.

Sunday June 23 Adriatic Sea

Winds have picked up a great deal with rough water and strong cross winds for the sort of side-by-side, stern in mooring that is the standard operating principle in the

Week22 – June 22nd – June 28th Croatia

Mediterranean. I watch the first boat of the morning depart – an older husband-wife pair working with quite a bit of help from the marina hands and still near crash into the downwind boat as the try to undo the four lines in proper sequence holding steady with the engines. We are not trying to go anywhere early so we do a bit of morning swimming, breakfast, provisioning and then secure the boat and we are off for our 2nd stop when the dock is nearly empty, and the winds have died a bit. For our next stop we are heading South, which was not our original plan, but it is the best plan with changing winds. We arrive early afternoon at our home for the night, a protected lagoon just North of Stari Grad. At this we now deploy our fleet of toys with SUPs and Kayaks available for play. I will be curious upon return to Seattle to see if the great pleasure I am getting from my SUP time in warm, calm waters and the superior paddling skills are retained in Seattle with our colder, rougher water.

A boat has the perfect balance for an extended family vacation: beautiful settings, lots to do, lots of ways to dissipate energy and lots of spaces for people to relax or read, but largely everybody being trapped together in a small space both enjoying and forced to enjoy quality family time.

Monday June 24 Adriatic Sea

We are not going far today, again looking for protected anchorages safe from the weather and I suspect also picking a route that is most convenient for our Captain for having free time to visit with his colleagues and to pay for mooring at “concessions”

Week22 – June 22nd – June 28th Croatia

where he has relationships. This is of course not all bad, as we are able to get good anchorages and in this case a reservation at a wonderful small restaurant, but this is a clear distinction from bare chartering where we go where we want and when we want if

even much less informed – at times for the better, at times for the worse.

After a few hours of morning water play and breakfast we depart Stari Grad for a short trip to Hvar which includes a brief harbor tour and then onto Milna Hvar – a small cove with nice beaches perfect for swimming and paddling. Hvar is one of the older cities in this area though we unfortunately do not make the time to stop and learn as this is more a family time and play segment of travel for

us.

We again deploy our fleet of toys with SUPs and Kayaks available for play. We add to the mix a bit if “surfing” by towing on of the SUPs behind the dingy which is great fun for the kids (and adults alike).

Week22 – June 22nd – June 28th Croatia

Our mooring here is free as long as we take advantage of our dinner reservation so instead of cooking we get “picked” by the teenage son of the owner of the family owned restaurant and transported around a point to a picturesque waterfront table with a menu of various treats, but in particular various choices of the daily catch. We settle on a salt crusted Sea Bass to share for half the table and the other half picking and choosing various treats. We make it back to the boat for a mix of evening star watching (or topside napping as the case may be).

Tuesday June 25 Adriatic Sea

Today is going to be a multi-stop adventure on the island of Vis about an hour channel crossing from Hvar. Our fist stop is a WWII submarine bunker complex attached to a network of tunnels that house abandoned artillery sites – a quick anchor, a bit of swimming and paddling in part in the submarine bunker and then a hike to the top of the hill to explore the network of caves of an artillery bunker.

Week22 – June 22nd – June 28th Croatia

Next stop is an hour run around the island and then a hop across a small channel to the island of Biševo, Komiža for a “blue cave” – though instead of the standard tourist blue cave in a relatively safe anchorage with a ferry boat and a fee our Captain Ed proudly takes us to a less traveled “blue cave on the backside of the island with unfortunately rather strong winds and still enough boats to require the swim to the cave and back attentive to prop traffic. Our home for the evening is an anchorage back on Vis at Komiža – all told a long day of running with wonderful views, warm sun and relatively calm seas.

Week22 – June 22nd – June 28th Croatia

In Komiža we have a good anchorage against the rock wall with a nice view of the town. Arriving at 3PM, I swim our line into the beach to secure a stern line and as long as I am wet take off for a SUP paddle session. We now have a boat full of hungry kids and brother-in-law Erik oversees lunch going for all the healthy snacks – the Dino the Dinosaur Chicken Nuggets, the frozen pizzas and a stack of grill cheese sandwiches – if I am not careful, I am going to lose my perch as boat chef. Post lunch everybody heads in different directions, swimming, reading, doing a puzzle, heading into port town – the

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perfect boat vacation afternoon.

We are doing dinner on the boat again this eve as – both easy and at least to my taste far more pleasant than finding a restaurant for 8 that makes all the kids happy as well as all the adults.

Week22 – June 22nd – June 28th Croatia

Wednesday June 26 Adriatic Sea

After extensive negotiations we had planned to make a four-hour run North from Vis to a chain of islands that form a National Park, but the longer-term weather projection makes the return from there on Friday potentially a long and rough ride. Plan B. We are now waiting to fill up on fresh water at the dock at Komiza and we will do a short run around the island of Viz to a pocket anchorage with a few houses, a few buoys and one small house turned restaurant - great scenery and lots of places to swim and paddle. This is much more to my taste and more similar to what we have done when we bare charter and I am captain picking routes. It is increasing clear the “Mediterranean” boating scene is more about being seen; finding a dock at a trendy town with great restaurants and a fashionable nightlife. Our captain Edo is young and enjoys this lifestyle having friends at every stop for morning coffee and evening gatherings and is pushing for plans that seem to have a pre-ordained route of stops, buoys and business relationships - at times it is not clear if we are on his vacation or he is on ours.

With this new plan and stop at Stoncica, we are much more in our sweet spot with a

Week22 – June 22nd – June 28th Croatia

perfect pocket cove for water play. I am guessing if we had done this as a bare charter, this type of cove would have been the rule for us rather than the exception.

After a swim and a paddle, Erik and I head into the beach to check out the beach bar (which is being assembled and will open tomorrow) and the small restaurant where we have a couple of beers. My ideal would be to stay two nights here using the boat more as play platform than transport.

With our shorter run this morning we have lots of time for playing and relaxing gently easing into another boat deck dinner and for this evening’s entertainment we do a slide show of the animals from the Africa leg of our trip. Sitting on a boat looking at Africa pictures from a few short weeks ago is a good reminder what an incredible adventure and privilege we are enjoying these six months.

I am now less than a month out from returning to work. I had a plan for how my re-entry would look, feel and work – but as with so many plans, things have evolved enough and I now need a new plan and have begun to think quite a bit about this.

Thursday June 27 Adriatic Sea

Lazy morning of swimming, paddling, reading and breakfast at our Stoncica anchorage before setting sail for a deep harbor on Sveti Kelement.

This particular harbor is filled with boats – a 90 foot catamaran here, a 110 foot yacht there – but lovely water, fun scenery around the harbor, more harbors a short paddle to

both the North and South and a handful of competing restaurants and bars.

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This will be the last night with the Swanson clan – it has been wonderful to have them join for a week of our 25-week adventure adding another lovely family dimension. The kids are of various ages and personalities, but are to our good fortune all good, happy and healthy kids – each different and weird in their own ways, but all enjoying each other in the relatively close quarters of the boat for a week.

The Sveti Kelement harbor is quite a party scene with a few beach front pubs, plenty of boats at anchor making a party-day of things and a modest number of speed boats racing out from Split for boat and lunch or boat-beach-booze tours. We have a great last night dinner at a smaller (and quieter) restraint on the beach.

Friday June 28 Adriatic Sea

Friday is a travel day for the Swanson clan – they will need to head from the small harbor where we anchored on Thursday to Trogir where we will refuel, and they will disembark from the boat to fly to London as a stopover on their way home to Denver. They are on a wonderful 3-week family summer vacation before their eldest, Clay heads off to college. Lori and I have enjoyed more than twenty years of a rich friendship with Erik and Amy and have always loved their children and we have done many adventures in the past as families usually with the addition of Jim and Sue, Lori and Erik’s parents. This trip has been particularly special for the opportunity to get to know and enjoy time

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with Clay, Brooke and Reid as they are now all interesting people, not just family.

On our way to drop the Swansons we make a brief stop in Maslinica for a swim and breakfast, then onto to Trogir. We leave the Trogir a bit lighter – missing five crew members and a bit heavier, with $1K of fuel restored. A boat like ours burns about 4

Week22 – June 22nd – June 28th Croatia

liters per hour at its hull speed of 8 knots, but at twice the speed, 16 knots, burns ten times the fuel, 40 liters per hour.

Over the years we have gravitated towards power boats for these types of trips as we use the boats more as floating hotels and water play-platforms and a power boat typically has more above the waterline living spaces. To this end, this boat was perfect for our families.

I am thinking more and more I want to refresh my sailing skills and get the appropriate paperwork done as far as an EU license so we can bare charter any boat we choose anywhere we choose for future trips. For me having a Captain has been a mixed blessing. I realize that when I am Captain I know where everybody is all the time – it has been nice to enjoy my time without needing to keep track of who is swimming, on the beach, on a kayak or just hanging out. Edo, our captain has been a great addition as a seaman and a reasonable additional as another traveler with our families. For me though, I would have preferred just families and I realize I get great pleasure and a certain sense of accomplishment from having safely piloted and navigated a new boat for a week and I particularly enjoy the engineering bit of being responsible for all of the various systems on a boat.

Less five crew we depart Trogir shortly before noon and do not have to have the boat to

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dock until 5PM. We stop at a beach off of Okrug Gornji for a few hours of swimming and paddling with a now quiet and empty boat.

The system for Agana Moorings is all charters must be at the dock by Friday 5PM and guest off the boat by 9AM Saturday morning and then new guests depart 3PM Saturday. This is a bit unusual as you usually have more flexibility on the last morning enabling you to anchor somewhere close to the charter center the last night instead of the dock, but this works fine for us on this trip. We get back to dock by 4PM Friday and do a bit of sorting of boat gear and our personal gear and then I head off with Captain Edo to the Airport (which is on his way for his evening off) to rent a car for the coming week. We have a lovely evening on the dock with our huge boat now just for the three of us.

Max and I have spent a great deal of time on this trip talking about boat engineering, physical oceanography and wave mechanics (the title of my PhD thesis was “Ship Wakes and Solitons”) which has been a joy for me. Max has also spent a bit of his time over the last 18 hours researching every place that Moorings charters boats and as part of dinner provides a report on the relative virtues of all the various options for our “next boat trip.” As with so many things on this trip, it is a wonderful outcome for Max to have a great experience, a learning experience, an adventure experience and develop a new passion.