CROATIA - Sailing Trip up the Dalmation Coast

Well what can I say?!? What an absolutely fantastic week, couldn't have asked for anything more!! Anna and I had the most amazing time on our sailing trip! We got to see so much of Croatia, small and big city ports, island ports and a national park, as well as sailing along the coast and through the islands every day and jumping off the boat to have a swim stop every few hours. It was such a relaxing and beautiful way to experience Croatia and get a feel for the culture. The weather was perfect and the people on our trip were all so lovely, we got along with them all so well which made the week even better. The boat we were on was pretty small. Our cabin only just fit the two of us and with our packs as well we had no room to move at all...made for some pretty funny moments when the boat was rocking and we were both trying to move about :) it was a tight squeze, but we got used to it and called it home for the next 7 nights. After departuing Dubrovnik we sailed (oh and when I say sailed I really mean used the motor - the boat we were on was a real sailing ship, but the crew only had the sails out about three times) on to Sipan a very small port where we moored for the night. We walked around town, which was very quiet and peacefull...very much off the tourist track. Apparently the normal population of the town is about 70. We then had dinner on board and went out again for a few drinks with the girls.
The next day we sailed from Sipan to Mljet. Another small island town, a little bit more livley then Sipan though. We went to Mljet national park which was quite stunning, there were several salt lakes with monastry on an island in the middle of one of them which we caught the ferry across to and wandered about for a bit. The perfect place for some reflection, the monks certainly got it right! We spent the night in Mljet - sat around drinking a few beers in the evening on the marina with all the people from our boat. From Mljet we headed to Korcula, probably my favorite city of all the stops on our sailing trip. It was a great little city, almost like a mini Dubrovnik, with a lovely old town and great night life. We had dinner at a lovely little restaurant over looking the water and a water polo training session and game (water polo is a massively popular sport in Croatia so it seemed! At most of the beaches there were water polo nets set out and there was always a game going on.) Anna and Bailee finally satisfied their desire for fresh mussels and we tried the local white wine and olives - all very delicious! That night we had a great night out. We found a bar that had litre cocktails (that we shared of course :)) and then after a few of those several of us continued to party the night away at a funny little night club up in the old town. Fun times! :)
From Korcula we sailed to Loviste. Loviste was nothing terribly exciting and was quite similar to the other towns we had been to but was lovely all the same. After the night in Loviste we sailed on to Hvar. It was quite a long sail and we experienced some rough seas along the way. It then took us over an hour and a half just to dock at port. Hvar is a very popular island town there were about 10 other boats that come in at the same time as us, so we we sailed around in circles just outside of the harbour as our captain got angrier and angrier and continued to run off not very nice sounding Croatian sentences.
Hvar itself was a very pretty town. Once we had finally docked we walked up the hill to the old castle where we had a great view of the harbour below. Unfortunately the city was extremely touristy and packed with people, which kind of ruined the laid back feel we had experienced in the other towns. It was also much more expensive then the other places we had been.
From Hvar we sailed to Bol, which was another very touristy summer town, but it also seemed to be a very popular place for Croatians to spend their summer vacation. There were great beaches in Bol, we sat and watched the wind surfers and para sailors/surfers for ages. We had a lovely dinner that night at a cute little restaurant with all of the people from our boat. We had great meals and were given complimentary traditional Croatian pancakes with berry jam for dessert and a shot of Grappa (not so delicious, but we downed it anyway :)).
From Bol we sailed to Split, which was our last stop and was the end of our sailing trip. Split was a much bigger city and was fun to explore. The old town was quite different to that of Dubrovnik and Korcula. It was all much more compact and the streets were much more narrow and dark. There was also an old palace there and a massive statue of a guy who's name I cant remember, but he was a warrior of Nin and saved the city at some point and as tradition demanded, we rubbed his foot for good luck :) We had an awesome night out that night only getting back to the boat at about 6am for a quick nap before having to catch our 7.30am train to Ljubljana - oops only just made it by the skin of our teeth. We had so much fun with everyone that night just partying and celebrating what was a fantastic week of sun and sailing and good times all round. It was so sad to say goodbye to everyone, but we have already made plans to meet up with some of them when we head back to London in November.

ok photos are
very top - sunset at Mljet
Me at Korcula
Anna and Me drinking our favorite Croatian beer - Karlowacko
Bailee and Anna at Mljet national park
The gang at Mljet port - Emma, Ryan (our guide), Anna, Me, Rob, Bailee, Hayley and Chris
Bailee and Anna sunning themselves on deck
Me doing the same
The girls at Hvar Castle - Hayley, Bailee, Me, Anna and Emma
The view of Hvar harbour from Hvar Castle
Hvar port and Castle (view from the boat while waiting to come into port)
Me rubbing the the Warrior of Nin's foot for good luck in Split
Bailee, Rob, Darryn, Emma, Joe and Anna enjoying the litre cocktails in Korcula
Anna on deck with the real sails flying!
Bailee and Me having lunch on board - soup every day in 36 degrees weather - it took a while to get used to, but is traditional Croation lunch so we stuck with it :)
Everyone from our sailing trip infront of our boat
Anna and me out in Hvar
Emma, Bailee, Rob and Me out having a blast in Split
Emma and Anna on our noght out in Split