Zadar – pre arrival day
Friday evening, straight into the iconic city of Zadar to meet our group! It’s hard to ignore the cosy atmosphere between the small allies and goblet streets. Live music is echoing lively around the square of the Dišpet wine bar, ready to be topped off with a mixer at Svarog Bar. The bar is located right in front of the Captains Tower which gives you castle vibes, it was originally built by the Venetians to protect the city in the 15th century.
1 WEEK SAILING ADVENTURE
Biograd na Moru – day 1
Show time! We’re on our way to Biograd na Moru where we find our floating private island for the week. Finally, after months of high belief we get to meet our Hanse 588!! Antonio, our skipper is right on spot and starts cracking jokes from the moment we arrive. The mood is set, we’re ready to rock the boat! As we glide towards our anchor spot for the night, we get a gorgeous sunset inviting us to the mysteries of the Dalmatian archipelago on the Adriatic Sea, counting up to 1244 islands.
Skradin & KRKA – day 2
Rise and shine, we’re on our way for an early departure to the famous waterfalls of KRKA. As we’re sailing through the island formations, we can see hilltops and lemon fields arising besides us. The impressive and HUGE KRKA bridge is pretty hard to ignore. Antonios local friend organised a spot for us to park up, and as we enter the marina of Skradin we pay a breadcrumb fee to the local swan mafia who’s not letting us pass without. From here we jump on a little ferry that brings us to the Croatian fountains of youth, aka the KRKA waterfalls.
Wait.. Did someone say fresh oysters & mussels on our way out?!
Brač – day 3
The vibes on the boat are legit, the sound system pops us straight into the Adriatic heaven. It’s hard to get life better than this and it’s the perfect getaway from the daily buzz. Little did we know what magical surprises our skipper had for us! When the evening falls, we arrive in a cute bay where we attach the boat to our buoy. We made it to the gorgeous island of Brač! A sunset snorkel and dinner served by two passionate guest chefs is hard to beat.
Stari Grad
Back on the road again after a refreshing morning dip and swim. It’s time to fuel up our water tanks, let’s hit Stari Grad! Us boat rookies forgot that supplies are not unlimited as we soaked it up. Again, what a beautiful warm sunny welcome to another gorgeous town. There are tiny boats attached to every angle of this marina, the locals did not get life wrong here. We stroll through the allies, finding cute terraces and local purple flowers growing upon the buildings. We get some extra shopping’s in and we’re ready for the real deal now, HVAR here we come!
Hvar – day 4 & 5
We can see the famous beach bars from the sea and once again park up with a sunset. The guys decided to give town a go that night, and whichever happens in HVAR - stays in HVAR -. The following morning, we pick up the anchor and start making a move with the motion of the ocean. We’re in between the 2 formations of the Yacht week where the waves of sound are being ridden. The boom comes out, the rope is attached, time to fly and bomb that wave!!!
That day Antonio tells us about an amazing local restaurant overlooking the seafront and suggests we park up in the bay right beside it. Hello paradise! So peaceful, ready to get Sunkissed, jump into the water and give the paddle board a go. After the binoculars popped out of a secret storage, we soon discover there’s a nude beach on our right. Aperols are served, no complaints here, as we take the tender for a cheeky ride. Wherever we go, our neighbours seem to have as much fun as we do.
The local restaurant turned out to be an indefinite winner and by this time the Croatians have stolen our heart. They are incredibly friendly, and their level of English is insane! The lads got a few romantic shots, we munched fresh fish platters, dip in on different types of rakija (a local brew) and are awaiting our taxi on the street. Antonio calls us out stating our taxi is here, NO JOKES – we get to ride the banana boat straight into HVAR city centre – what an adventure!! It truly feels like we enter a phenomenon of a Morgana. Terrace drinks besides the seaside, ready to swap places with a party night in HVAR. We got baked and made it back to our yacht with the banana boat – obviously.
Vis – day 6 & 7
This is the Dalmatian Island our new skipper friend has grown up, so his friends made sure we got a decent spot in between all the other yachts parked up in the marina.
We find a local restaurant that serves us the most incredible calamari platter and tuna carpaccio for lunch. The rose is a welcome invite to give it a bit of a French twist here. As I stand up and walk to the toilet my whole body feels like it’s moving, I got severely caught by a good pair of sea legs! The funniest is when you get back on the boat - aka new natural habitat- it simply just disappears back to a normal state of ecstasy.
The adventure of Vis only started.. Once again Antonio steals the show and sorts us a taxi to a winery, not just a winery noo that’s not his style. We soon make it to the Lipanović winery which is located in an old army tunnel, and the only one that’s been allowed to be commercialized out of the 26. We get introduced to the stories of the local wine and get to taste a fair few of them. I’m not going to lie, obviously we had to bring some back to our new friends for life back on the boat, including a sage rakija liquor. When we go for a stroll at nighttime, we find miles and miles of yachts. We drop down on a terrace for a chatter and some old fashion banter.
Early in the morning we leave the marina and hit sailing course to drop anchor in front of another marina on the island of Vis. 2 cheeky bevos – 1 tender away. As we pick up the tender and load in our gang for a return to our enlightened yacht, we’re joking the rope might rip. It snapped resulting in loads of laughter, and us rowing back to the boat in between all the massive expensive superyachts. Let’s call it a day, and an adventure we’ll never forget.
Biograd na Moru - day 8
It felt like having been in a time capsule of incredible adventures all along, where the clock just simply disappeared. Yet it’s time for us to start heading back up north to the yachts home base. As we start cruising, we sail alongside the gorgeous peninsula of the Primošten. The wind is blowing knots and lots of sailing is happening around us, we couldn’t have dreamed of a better trip. It would be tough to beat the group cohesion, yet this is magic boats seem to carry as if ferry dust on earth. As we arrive in the marina of Biograd we have 1 last night to cover onboard. The bingo set comes out and I get to surprise the guys with a first prize of 1.5-hour executive speed coaching by Esther van Toledo. Never ever in my life have I ever seen people so excited playing bingo. Malte congratulations with your prize, we’re curious what the outcomes will be!! ‘Leadership from the Heart at its best’.
In special, I would like to give out a big thanks to Malte & Pieter who have made sure we only got the best meals throughout the day and evenings onboard. I must admit that the tzatziki baths, homemade Cevapcici (local dish), battered hand cleaned squid and 4 hr cooked pasta Bolognese were my personal favourites. Time to step up my game next time.
WORKATION VILLAGE - Work hard, play hard. Right?
The location is made up by private tiny houses with terraces attached to it, in the middle of a forest. All day and evening long you can hear the crickets working hard to make sure you get the well-deserved orchestra of the Dalmatian experience.
Obviously shortly after arriving we had to test out the pool beds and jump in for a dip. The massage cabana leaves us with a frown of mystery and our friend Elia decides to give it a go. He’s got a problem now as it turned out to be an all-time winner and it’d be pretty tough to move the masseuse to Dublin. Kurt mentions the forest on the background of the pool might as well have been in the African savanna. What can we say, we can’t complain, it feels like magic.
(Videos are coming party people, forgot to take a picture of the pool).
Monday’s workation game on – back to action!
We’re working remotely from inside our accommodation, the terrace and restaurant when the breakfast has cleared up. The location has installed 4G routers reaching 4.6Gbps for our group specifically. In addition 5G is covering the area for backups making sure we can crush productivity. In the afternoons we go for a swim and enjoy an evening stroll over the boulevard. I could tell you more about the magic that Biograd na Moru itself has to offer, but perhaps you might have to join us for the next adventure so you can experience it yourself. When it comes down to the village, mark Pieter’s words;
“every day when I’m here, it feels prettier than the day before”.
Will we see you our next Croatian adventure in May, July, or September 2024?
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