Sunday, October 5, 2008

Geriatric Cruise in Croatia

With an unexpected deviation from my original Trash Tour itinerary, in late September 2008, I went sailing off the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia with my parents and their friends.
While my parents don't always point in the same direction (see photo below), they have managed to stay in the same boat for 40 years. It was really nice to spend this time with them (and their longtime friends Betsy & Bruno, Peggy & Michael, Barbara & Chip, Alice & Peter, and Stan). They joked that it was a geriatric cruise... but I hope I am half as adventuresome when I am 65 years old. Yes, I weathered a few discussions about hip replacements, scars, and grandchildren. But they all graciously let me take pictures of trash cans and get more excited about the local dump than Dioclecian's Palace. So we sailed...

Croatia -- nestled on the Adriatic next to Bosnia & Herzegovina, Hungary, Serbia, Montenegro, Slovenia, and Italy -- has some sweet sailing.Here is the rough map I sketched in my journal of our route: Split --> Brac --> Hvar --> Korcula --> Komiza --> Stari Grad --> Split.










When there was wind, we sailed.
When there wasn't wind, we motored.

There was always something to look at by day...
...and by night.

It was neat to go ashore and see towns that have been around for thousands of years. My favorite part was all of the church towers that tolled on the hour.













I am ashamed to admit that we did very little recycling on our boat. I was terrible and quickly acquiesced to an excuse mindset that included thoughts such as, "There's not enough space," and, "Even if we do separate our wine bottles and paper, there aren't any recycling options at the marinas anyways." Eeek. I'll do better next time.

Here is Peter with 7 people's garbage from 24 hours.


Here are dumpsters typical of Croatia. Overall, it was a very tidy country (from what I saw).

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