Adriatic Sailing Day 1: Am I Diva?

• ACI MARINA, DUBROVNIK •

Zdravo Croatia!  I’ve just arrived in Dubrovnik.  With this being only my second solo trip, I’m feeling a lot of things at the moment, but right now I’m mostly relieved I even made it here.  It was quite a stressful trip… long story short, several factors made getting to JFK airport difficult (but what else is new…) and I was in complete panic mode as I ran to the check-in counter just 50 minutes before take off, begging them to let me check my bag and get on the plane.  They had already closed the flight, but reopened it for me, phew… but I was pretty sure my suitcase wasn’t going to make it, especially with a connection in Madrid.  So you can imagine my excitement when I saw my bag on the belt in Dubrovnik.

Now I can just focus on the stress of what’s coming next… boarding a 52-foot sailboat with eight strangers for a week long adventure to Montenegro!  I’m not a huge fan of group trips, but I figured this one would be a little different and a fun way to meet new people.  I mean, how bad can it be sailing around the Adriatic for seven days??

My taxi dropped me at the marina outside of Dubrovnik and I found my sailing mates hanging out at the bar getting to know each other.  Our group consists of three girls from Toronto who all came together: Lisa, Jen and Namita; Kate from Australia and then four Americans: Jillian who lives in Portland, Oregon; Jas and Erin who live in NYC and myself.  Our skipper is Nik, from Split, Croatia, who claims this is not his first time captaining an all-female boat… so I’m glad to hear he knows what he’s in for, lol.

After spending some time getting to know each other, we boarded the yacht, Nik gave us a safety briefing and went over logistics and then showed us our rooms, which might be the smallest space I’ve ever seen shared amongst two people.  I was prepared for small, but not sure I was quite prepared for this… Kate and I can’t both comfortably be standing in our room at the same time.  And the bathrooms had to come with a tutorial… they are also super tiny and the sink faucet becomes the shower nozzle that pulls out on a hose.  Guess that’s my sailing naitevé.  But it’s all part of the experience, right?!?

I am also the girl that didn’t follow directions and brought a rather large suitcase instead of a collapsible duffel or backpack.  I waited until the last minute to pack my bags and was having trouble getting everything into my backpack as it got closer to the time I needed to leave for the airport.  In a panic, I decided to just take my large suitcase and figure it out once I arrived… big mistake!  I felt like such a high-maintenance diva with my large wheely and even though Nik assured me it was okay and we’d find a place to store it on the boat, I’m sure he wasn’t so keen to spend the next week with me and my gigantic suitcase.

Once we found a place to store my monstrosity, we all headed to the store to stock our kitchen for the week and then ordered dinner in.  It was a relaxing night hanging on the boat, learning more about each other and getting ready for the week ahead.  We are pulling out early tomorrow morning and heading south for Montenegro.  Ahoy Matey!