kateandjohnsail.boats

This is the rare real-time update on our adventures. Today (May 8^th) was one remarkable day.

We began by taking turns keeping watch on an overnight passage (20 hours total). Boat repairs complete, it was finally time to say arrivederci to Italy and head for a new country—Croatia, across the Adriatic Sea. We checked into Croatia in a small town south of Dubrovnik, paying a few obligatory fees to pleasant officials. We began negotiating mooring rates with the port authority there, but the rates were higher than we wanted, so someone gave me the number of his friend Antonio at the next harbor over. We moved to a delightful city quay in next to a bar in a town called Srebreno, and Antonio got us all situated. That done, we took a water taxi 30 minutes to Dubrovnik.

Old Town Dubrovnik has ancient stone streets, many cathedrals and fountains, many souvenir shops, and evidence of war with Yugoslavia as recently as the early 90’s. Looking at the street names, I had an aha moment, realizing that Italians must have raided Croatia at some point in the past, because a lot of vowels seem to be missing! Someone really needs to look into the vowel inequity on the two sides of the Adriatic. But I digress…

The city wall is a beautiful part of Dubrovnik We had been referred to a bar on the ocean side of the city, and sure enough, this place was literally a hole in wall where we were fortunate enough to get a table high above the beautiful Mediterranean, looking down on waves crashing into the cliffs and nearby islands. At another place near the wall we came upon film crews following contestants of the Israeli version of the Amazing Race, a television show where teams follow clues in a competition as they travel to exotic places. We were shocked, shocked to see that in reality the contestants would sometimes have to reenact their adventures several times for the camera. But it was still fun to watch.

Gelato in hand, we headed for the last water taxi back to Srebreno. It must have been that goat milk/caramel gelato that put me off my guard, because for the first time ever I dared to step onto a boat when my phone was not zipped into a pocket or bag. And darn if that phone didn’t jump out and take a swim in Dubrovnik Harbor. That phone with all those photos, all those files, all that special technology that is getting us data on our feet in foreign places. D’oh!

The boat crew were kind and sad for the loss, but they had to get underway, and we chose to stay on the dock. We couldn’t see the phone, but it had to be right there, and the water didn’t look too too deep (although It was very clear). The harbor officials nearby were kind, but the best they could do for the crazy Americans was to scrounge a snorkel mask from a nearby boat. Well, Birthday Boy to the rescue. John stripped down to his shorts, put on that mask, and dove into the harbor. And didn’t he just bring up that phone on his second dive. MY HERO!  

At this point, we felt like Amazing Race contestants ourselves, needing to find the next destination. Fortunately, we knew from earlier research that a local bus ran down the coast, and a half hour and 5 euros later, we were on our way. To our surprise, when we arrived at Srobreno Harbor, the water taxi was parked for the night, right behind Quintessa, and the crew were still on it, cleaning up. They were extremely happy when we arrived and told them the story of retrieving the phone. Then when I told them it is John’s birthday, they said okay, time for grappa. The server pulled out some shot glasses and we all tipped the brew down the hatch. (I guess that stuff can be like fire, but I survived).

The last bit of our day consisted of having a hamburger at the aforementioned bar next to the boat, a convenient way to get the wifi password; I am now sitting on Quintessa using that same connection (shhhhhh!). Birthday phone calls are coming in from the kids and it’s almost time to turn in. There would not be a photo at all for this post, except that I had already WhatsApped a shot of John from my phone, and I can grab that one from the laptop. BTW, the phone is now sitting right under a fan, and a bag of rice is in its immediate future. Please please please let it work when I try turning it on tomorrow. We’ll see.

So, while my original thought was to post a tribute to the wonderful man who originally dreamed up this sailing dream, I instead get to tell the story of the kind of day that can only happen when a dreamer like him is set loose. I love you, sailor man.