Sailing Croatia 2026
I spent 6 days sailing some of the islands norhwest of Dubrovnik Croatia to learn the basics of sailing.
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20260912
The car return at the Dubrovnik airport felt like one of those older electric car rides with the poles touching the ceiling when the ride comes to an end and the cars are just left at their spots when the electricity was turned off. Cars were just randomly parked. It didn't seem to bother the attendants.
The airport bus dropped me near the south gate of the Durbrovnik castle. I plopped down at a cafe on a plaza sipping on a coffee and enjoying both the many tourists and a group of local friends sharing conversation while drinking coffee. Finding the library resulted in me wandering up and down narrow streets. The goal was to sit and study sailing a couple of hours before heading to the ACI Marina.
I finally started to understand the bus system. Google and Apple maps do not have the buses loaded for some reason. I connected with the instructor, Paul, early at the marina. Nautilus who Paul works for charters the boat from another company. The boat needed to be cleaned from the previous week so we didn't board until after 6PM.
Paul had made a reservation at a family run restaurant in the mountains nearby that served a fixed menu with three kinds of meat. Some locals were celebrating a birthday and we got caught up enjoying them all singing together.
Our sailing group consisted of Paul the instructor from America, Tim from San Diego, Dan and Mike from Maine/Florida, and myself.
20260913 (Sail Day 1)
Most of the morning was spent with Paul giving us instruction and learning the boat. We motored out of the marina, then under the dramatic road bridge, and looked back at the massive docked cruise ships.
Our first exercise was driving the boat under petrol engine power. Then we had to pick up a fender thrown overboard acting as the man-over-board (MOB). (A fender is a plastic ball or sausage placed on the side of the boat when moored.) Eventually we anchored the boat in a shallow island bay. Most of the water depths are well over 100ft too deep for the anchor system on the sail boat.
20260914 (Sail Day 2)
We spent the day sailing the vessel to the village of Okuklje with its protected bay. Restaurants will provide mooring balls in the harbor for use by boats for the night provided one dines with them. We had the first of several meals out on this basis.
20260915 (Sail day 3)
This was a long sail day on a close reach to the ancient city of Korcula. Paul placed me in charge of the boat for the day. This involved doing the daily equipment inspection, deciding on the sailing course, deciding how to set the sails (or trying!), assigning crew roles, and discussing any safety concerns.
Tim, Paul, and I wandered Korcula and had dinner at a local restaurant. The old section of the city has narrow walkways. There were many large elegant yachts moored.
20260916 (Sail Day 4)
The sail this day started the return trip to Dubrovnik. Paul selected a relatively private bay on the mainland just north of the island Otok Olipa. On the way I spotted a pod of dolphins. Paul has us follow them briefly so we could enjoy them. At our anchorage for the night we snorkeled. It offered the best assortment of marine life of the trip.
20260917 (Sail day 5)
Today was a short distance sail day, but the wind was not in our favor and we conducted a series of MOB drills under sail only so it took all day. We moored at a restaurant buoy, but the group split with some going ashore to eat using the dinghy and myself and a two others cooking on the boat.
20260918 (Sail day 6)
We motored up to a protected very small bay and took two written tests to finish the requirement to earn our certification to be able to charter a bareboat. Paul opened a bottle of champagne and we drank to our success. The weather started to turn to rain and thunder for the first time. We sailed and motored back to ACI Marina getting soaked by the rain at the very end. It took over an hour to top off the diesil tanks on the boat. We then secured the boat to the dock before sharing dinner together at the yacht club in the marina.