Sailing Croatia
In my opinion, sailing through the turquoise waters of the Adriatic Sea from island to island was the best part of The Yacht Week. Having your skipper show you the ropes and teach you how to sail, suntanning up on the top deck, partying during one of the infamous raft parties, or napping in the holds below, there was something for everyone between the islands.
Our second morning on the Yacht Week (and the night after our tropical retro themed party at Fort George in Vis) kicked off our first raft party - the famous ‘circle raft’. The boats connect to one another to make a giant circle, and the ‘buzz’ boat, with a DJ in the middle blasts beats for the day while we swim and dance in our floaties. At 10 AM. Hungover. Note to future self: When you have bottle service the night before, don’t drink straight out of the vodka bottle (no matter who pressures you) to help prevent the hangover for this party. Lesson learned.
Between the island and float parties, there are lots of other things to do around the islands nearby. There are many different caves to check out - blue, red, green, beautiful lagoons, or even Submarine caves that were used in WWII. The island of Vis, is one of the more well-known islands in the sense of its military past and remains left behind (and was the island that we spent our first night on). During World War II, Tito, the ex-Yugoslavian leader took shelter on Vis and used it as the Military base for the Yugoslav army. Vis was actually closed to the public from 1944 to 1990 as a result. Now, Vis has numerous forts (like Fort George where our first party was held), bunkers, and tunnels which can be explored, including a submarine tunnel which we accessed by boat on our way to the next island of Hvar.
To venture back towards the starting marina from Bol, TYW hosts the Regatta Day. After departing from Bol, all of the boats lined up and started their journey back. The Yacht Week regatta is a boat ‘race’ to show off your speed and skills learned over the week (I actually drove our sailboat on day 1), dress to impress - we were butterflies with the lone male on our boat a caterpillar - and show them you can party and have a good time. We thought we had a decent shot at actually winning this, given that our outfits were very unique. Turns out - we didn’t - but it was still fun to dress up and get in the spirit. Its also worth organizing costumes for this ahead of time, otherwise it can be pretty tricky trying to throw something together last minute. Huge shout out to Haley and Shannon from our boat crew who organized this for us!
The last, but certainly not least float party that TYW hosts is the ‘tunnel raft’. Following the Regatta, we ended up in Starigrad Bay to all join up for one final day & night on the yachts. This was by far my favourite party on the water, for a few different reasons. Similar to the circle raft, all of the boats link up in 2 lines with space down the middle for us all to float, and for the ‘buzz’ boat to sit at one end to keep us all dancing until the sun goes down. This is the only night where you stay docked this way - no island, just floating and walking/swimming from one boat to the next all day/night.
What made this day for us was a ‘tip’ that we got from 2 Canadians on the opening night party in Trogir. What had been known as the ‘sugar’ party the previous week, they gave Mara and I an idea for a trick (or treat as you will) up our sleeves for the day. The ‘tip’ was to go to the nearest island prior to this float party, buy out ALL of the whip cream and chocolate sauce (which we did before we left Bol), and ever so innocently bring this on our floats with us, creating a line so that as people floated by, they had no choice but to get ‘creamed’ in order to get through. Little did we know, as we moved this party from a line of floats to a much larger, round float, it would become known as the ‘floating orgy’. People were piling on to this raft like no tomorrow trying to sink it, but because of the cream and chocolate sauce, it was so slippery, everyone was being sucked into the middle pool vortex and piling one on top of each other. It was insane, but it got people into the party spirit. We never did actually sink the boat, but it sure felt like it should have gone under. Eventually most hopped off and we floated and partied along the tunnel for the rest of the evening. What a day. It was the perfect ending to an even more perfect week.
After 7 days of creating new friends, and many that turned into family, I would 100% do it again if given the chance. I know that I will see many of the people that I met again. If you’re thinking about doing The Yacht Week, but have any hesitation, just book it. It may take a couple years off of your liver, but it’s worth every penny.
Overall, some tips to make the most of your Yacht Week:
Go with the flow - even though it’s a tour company, it’s likely not going to be nearly as organized as you may expect. Timing and events can shift your week pretty quickly, or very little information about events passed on prior, so don’t have too many expectations going into it or you may be disappointed.
Don’t go on a tight budget - The Yacht Week, and Croatia in general, is not cheap. Drinks were as much as $15-20 in some of the clubs or TYW hosted parties, and bottle service even more.
On that note, splurge. Get a hostess to make you food. Get the A/C (though that’s not always a given either way). Get a catamaran vs. a sailboat to have a spot to relax. It’ll be well worth your time (and $$!)
Put yourself out there. Even if you manage to fill up a boat with only your friends before going, meet people. Everyone on this trip already has something in common or you wouldn’t have signed up. Go meet them, I promise you won’t regret it. #LFG baby.
And finally, Buy the whip cream and chocolate sauce for the tunnel raft party. Regardless of how your day ends up, or what your ‘party’ gets called, you will be the ones who made that memory happen for your week to look back on. To the two Canadian guys who chose us to share this ‘tip’ with and entrusted us to do this - thank you.
