Won't be able to post any photos from the boat -- the wifi signal is too weak and it is taking too long to upload photos. We will update posts with the appropriate photos from Dubrovnik.
Today was loading day onto the Kapetan Jure. The boat is named after the current Captain’s father. The Kapetan is the fourth line of sailing boat captains and is very proud of the sailing vessel he built in 2000. It is now used exclusively for tourism.
The loading process was very organized given that there were 5 boats docked parallel to each other. Bags were dropped off at the front of the row of boats and they were color tagged with the boat and cabin number. The crew took them on board when the cabins and boat were ready for boarding. We boarded our boat which was second in line at the harbour by walking through the first one onto ours. There were five boats in this line so the people on the fifth boat had to walk through four other boats before they got to there own.
After a short orientation from the tour crew (Bruno and Neven) we set sail for Split while we were served a beautiful lunch of soup, salad and roasted chicken with noodles and vegetables. It was absolutely delicious and if it is a precursor to what is to come we won‘t be packing any less weight on the way home.
Once in Split we got our assigned bikes off the boat (crew did this) and set off on our first trial ride. We only did about 20 km through Morvan Park which had some climbing (about 180 m) to a view point for photos. We then descended back into the town through narrow cobblestone streets and back to the harbour front. It was a very warm day so we did get hot but enjoyed the ride. It was not a difficult ride and we have been told we will be climbing a lot more than this on subsequent days.
We share the tour with mountain bikers as well so they were off in their own direction while we “trekkers” as we are called cycled elsewhere. There is also a group from another boat tour who are cycling with us. This is because the tour was so popular and filled up so early in the booking year that they decided to add another boat and combine the groups for cycling. They sleep and eat and travel along on their own boat, the Adonis.
Dinner is served promptly at 7:30 each evening with the sound of the gong. Tonight’s fare was as impressive as lunch -- fettucine el mare for a starter with shrimp, mussels and calamari followed by grilled dorada (white fish) with potatoes and spinach and a beautiful fruit compote (with obviously some liquor in it) for dessert.
Our cycling group is varied with lots of German speakers, six Canadians and a couple from Australia. Almost everyone else is either from Germany or Switzerland so English is not the dominant language on the boat. Our guides repeat everything in German and English and sometimes you already know what they are saying before they translate - interesting phenomenon! Our dinner table conversation tonight was learning how to say a few things in both German and Croatian -- one of the tour guides was at our table along with a lovely woman, Barb, from Bern, Switzerland.
Following dinner Bruno took us English speakers as his group into Old Town Split for a tour of the Diocletian Palace. Amazing that a lot of it still stands as it was originally built around 300 AD. It was 30,000 square meters when finished and was the beginning of the settlement of Split. Pretty impressive but difficult to take good photos in the dark and we won’t have a chance to get back in day light to try again.
Tomorrow we sail while we are having breakfast to Omish. We will cycle about 47 km except for those who are opting for a water rafting trip which will cut the cycling down to bout 25 km for the day. The raft tour will take about 2-3 hours. And guess who’s signed up to go……………………call me crazy but Louisa is taking the raft! Somehow I was convinced this will be a good thing to do and will be a lot of fun. Stay tuned!!
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