Koen BlanquartSailing in Croatia
After a crazy summer, time for a break in Croatia!
So I found myself sailing in Croatia.
The summer of 2021 had me in Antwerp and Amsterdam to finish a few projects. A large consulting mission, where I was in charge of merging the technology of 9 acquired brands for a client on the one hand and finishing my management book on remote work, on the other hand, had made it a pretty busy couple of months.
In need of a break, I found that a local sailing school with who I trained before, Altair, organized sailing experience trips in Croatia. It felt like the combination of a few requirements I had:
- A bit of an active vacation in Europe, since traveling back to the USA was pretty impossible with the travel ban still in place;
- Gaining some extra sailing experience, since I am negotiating to own sailing vessel (more about that soon, I hope…) and I never can have anough experience;
- Some time with people I didn’t know yet, but that at least would be passionate sailors;
- A bit warmer climate than the lower countries where I had been hanging out the past weeks
Sailing in Croatia ticked all the boxes and sounded like the perfect destination. Especially since many of my nomad friends had told me how Split was one of the better spots in Europe to hang out in a great place while still having the facilities digital nomads crave.
Kastela Marina
Our point of departure was the marina of Kastela, a few kilometers west of Split. As this was my first trip to the Adriatic Sea, I was surprised to see this marina being filled with charter sailboats.
The ship that Altair chartered was a 55 ft. More, a pretty comfortable and large sailing boat.
Getting ready to Explore the Adriactic Sea
I met the rest of the crew at the docks:
- A couple from Ghent, Dimitri and Marianne,
- Stephan, an engineer,
- Rudy AKA Ronny, a liquor salesman,
- Carlo, the owner of the sailing school,
- and Huub the skipper.
And so, after raiding a local supermarket for food and drinks, we were all set to settle in for the first night on board. We felt ready to sail out the next morning.
Our boat was one of a small flotilla of sailors, in three similar boats. Always nice to know friends are around,
Sailing in Croatia: Islands!
The area surrounding Split is an amazingly beautiful area. The islands in the Adriatic Sea not only provide incredible views but there are also pretty cool anchorages.
Trogir, Croatia
Trogir is a small town near Split, Croatia. Very small streets, cool restaurants, and more souvenirs shops that you would expect a small town can hold.
The advantage of sailing between anchorages and marinas is that our crew could have dinner in some of the better restaurants in Croatia. While Dimitri made incredible food onboard for our passages, it was well deserved for all of us to sit and enjoy a meal prepared for us.
After a week onboard, we ended this sailing in Croatia adventure in the Kastela Marina,
Koen Blanquart is a strategy consultant, journalist, and author.
Wanderlust is one of his driving factors, and he shares his travels here on Boarding Today. Koen is also the skipper of SV Bagabonda, a sailing vessel making a slow circumvention of the globe..
Koen recently published a book on how to manage a remote team: The Suitcase Office.
