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Two Totally Inexperienced Sailor-Girlies Tackle the Adriatic

Ok. Was this such a good idea? Two complete landlubbers and country girls decide to take a holiday on a 100yr old sailing ship on the Adriatic? Two complete travel novices decide to go abroad.. has disaster written all over it?

If it were to go horribly wrong the blame would fall directly at the feet of my boss Graham Amiss owner of Bosmere Travel. After all it was he who cajoled and persuaded me to take such a trip.. and I persuaded my equally un-sea-worthy friend Cathy to come with me. ‘After all’ (says he) ‘We do send our clients on the cruises and you (note the ‘you’!) really ought to know more about the trips by first hand knowledge. ‘ erm, yes Graham.. being the boss means delegation I guess. Nonetheless I made the arrangements with the operators of the ship, who seemed delighted in the prospect of showing their country and their trips to me. With Anamaria’s words ringing in my ears 'its like camping at sea' (Oh yes.. we can do that.. having spent many a day camping out in horseboxes at shows, its just the ‘at sea’ bit that bothers us!) we boldly made our travel arrangements.

A few weeks later, after a well arranged car transfer from Trieste Airport Italy, and a drive which showed us the stunning countryside of Slovenia and Croatia, we found ourselves looking up at the impressive façade of the Hotel Opatija, in Opatija, Croatia. Our first Night in Croatia was spent here, in its seemingly 20’s style splendour. Boris the head waiter made us very welcome and we were treated to Croatian entertainment whilst we had our evening meal. The following day after Boris spoiling us again at breakfast, we repacked our bags and headed down to meet the representative and to be taken to meet our ship for the first time.

The Maestral sat gently hugging the quayside. She is a 31m long wooden sailing ship, with two masts. She seemed to us to be a gentle beast, positively encouraging us to go aboard.

It was here we met our fellow passengers. We totaled 25. The ship can actually take 40. Zdenka our representative cheerfully showed us on board and we found our cabins. Ours was an under deck 3 berth cabin with a bathroom. A compact room to say the least, but considerably larger than a tent (still thinking of the camping bit!) AND it had hot and cold running water in the bathroom. It sufficed our needs anyway. Our two portholes looked out to sea.. Cathy and I shrugged at each other.. what will be will be!

We were then whisked upstairs (oops I mean up on deck) to the saloon for the first of many meals provided for us by the crew. This was our first chance to chat with our fellow passengers. As well as us two Brits there were 10 Germans, 2 French, 2 Kiwis, 5 South Africans, 2 Croatians, 2 Americans, so a good mix of Nations sharing the Maestral, to say nothing of her Croatian Crew of five. To write a day to day account would become lengthy and I’m sure I’d miss out some important piece of information, so I’ll tell you about our cruise as a whole.

As mentioned earlier Cathy and I were total novices when it came to anything on sea, and traveling around foreign climes.. But this holiday was so relaxed and laid back. We sailed at a very sedate and relaxing pace from Island to island, the further south we traveled the better the weather became. Bear in mind, we were there the last week in September, the beginning of October.Our first island hop from Krk to Rab was somewhat rocky, but we soon found our sea legs. Our Captain promised us better weather as we traveled south and he was right. Our lightweight waterproofs were soon replaced by shorts and skimpy tops as we exposed our English skin to the Mediterranean sun (with sun cream on of course).

Our time at sea while we were Island hopping was spent reading, relaxing and talking to the other passengers. Hearing about their lives and their tales was fascinating in its self. The crew were friendly and helpful and skilled at their work. The Captain gave us plenty of chances to swim in the beautifully clear and turquoise Adriatic. He’d park (oops I mean MOOR) the Maestral on her anchor in a cove, or a sheltered bay, and we’d dive in and enjoy the wonderful feeling of the sea.

Each day we marveled at this water. It was so crystal clear. Sometimes the cry would go up.. ‘DOLPHINO!!’’.. the Captain would notice some Dolphins and he would call us.. We’d all crowd to the front of the ship, cameras at the ready and we were not disappointed. What a sight to behold. Wild dolphins coming to play with our bow wave, or feeding just a few metres away from us. Our Captain would turn the Maestral around a few times so that we could have another chance of seeing these wonderful animals.

We were given breakfast and lunch on the Maestral. How the chef prepared such lovely meals in such a small galley always amazed us, However, lovely they were, and by the sound of scraping knives and forks on empty plates Cathy and I weren’t the only ones to think this. Obviously the sea air gave us all healthy appetites!

Upon arrival at the islands we would wander around taking in the lovely buildings and finding out some of the history of the places. We walked down a Roman Aqueduct in Pag marveling at the ingenuity of the people at that time.In the evening the inhabitants of the islands would seemingly appear after the siesta time. The islands would come alive. We would then find somewhere to have our evening meal. Thanks to Cathy’s small but perfectly adequate knowledge of Italian we were able to understand the menus at the restaurants. But the waiters/waitresses or owners were always there to help us. The menus were mostly written in Italian, German or Croatian. Some were in English too.

The islands of Krk, Rab, Pag, Dugi Otok, Ilovik, Mali Losinj, Cres all became reality to me as I’d known them before only as names and locations on maps. We went to a National Park and marveled at the salt lake, a natural phenomenon, seemingly only populated by some donkeys. Here we walked up the steep cliffs, under which several hundred feet below us lashed the sea.Some of the islands like Ilovik and Dugi Otok were sparsely populated and others like Mali Losinj and Cres were larger, even so they seemed untouched by tourism, wandering away from the port and more inland gave us an insight into the traditional way of Croatian life.Our pace of life quickly fell into that of total relaxation.

As we sailed from island to island we’d gaze at the barren but beautiful countryside of the areas we passed. On land we even found ourselves walking at a stroll.. something unheard of for both of us! We found the Croatians to be gentle, willing people and communication was easy. Most people spoke English and those that didn’t were keen to understand and be understood by means of hand and facial signals!

Our time in Croatia came to a close far too quickly, we arrived back in Opatija for our last night on the Maestral. We made sure to have a ‘group photo’ of everyone on the vessel.It was sad to say goodbye to friends we made while aboard, and it seemed strange whilst waiting on the quay for our car transfer that other people would be soon be going aboard OUR ship, The Maestral.

So Graham, I have nothing to blame you for other than a lovely, gentle relaxing holiday in good company at a wonderful location. Would I do it again? You bet!

Ann Williams

(salty sea dog)