This Is The Best Trip I've Ever Been On

It's hard to have a bad day on the water, unless you are on the Edmund Fitzgerald or on Superyacht off the coast of Italy.  Then, of course, it's easy to have a superbad day on the water.

Marija Papek, the women who hosts the "Eat with Locals Dubrovnik" dinner that we had a wonderful time at, also offers a day or half day excursion on a boat to the Elaphites Island right near Croatia.

At first I dithered on whether to book the 28 foot sporty motorboat named the Cap Camarat.  But everything I read and heard about Croatia is that you have to spend some time on the islands -- staying land-locked isn't really an option.

Eventually I decided to book the boat -- figuring private was more fun than some crowded boat of 20 people looking to get drunk and sing ABBA songs at the top of their lungs.  Croatia is a popular place to do that, as legend has it that the Italy-based movie, Momma Mia, was actually shot on Croatia, although Wikipedia says it WAS filmed on some Greek islands.

I'm not here to adjudicate where it was filmed, but I am here to say, no matter where it was filmed, Mamma Mia is fun.

(By the way, there's nothing wrong with singing ABBA songs at the top of your lungs, drunk or sober.  I just didn't want to be with a group of strangers doing it.)

So I booked a half day (from 2-6pm) through Marija.  We met the boat and our captain, Ciro, at Marina Frapa, hopped on the boat, and immediately felt comfortably both on the boat and with Ciro.

Chugging slowly out of the bay, we passed by the picturesque Franjo Tudman  Bridge, a cable-stayed bridge that connects the main road from Dubrovnik to the north/west of Croatia.

The bridge is 1,700 feet long and take vehicles near the port of Gruz, framed by mountains in the background.  

Part of the Franjo Tudman Bridge.

The bridge was finished in May 2002.

After we got past the last spit of land from peninsula, Captain Ciro sped up the boat, and we were cruising to the Elaphites.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day, the boat was quite comfortable, and the water was calm and clear.

First, Ciro took us into one cave for a quick look around.  Then, continuing on, we bypassed one very busy cave that had around eight-to-ten boats hanging around outside of it and ended up at a beautiful rocky cove by ourselves.

Carol, still banged up from my losing control of our ATV, passed on getting in the water.  Maddy jumped in, I slid in (still cautious with the newly-replaced knee), and we swam for a bit in the perfectly clear water.

Ciro threw us snorkel gear, so we checked out the fishes swimming around the cove, slid near massive boulders, and just generally reveled in having an island cove on the Dalmatian coast to ourselves.

For your trivia lesson of the day, Dalmatian dogs are named after the Dalmatian Coast, which is the Croatian coast.  It's called the Dalmatian Coast because of a Illyrian tribe called the Dalmatae, who lived in the area in classical antiquity.

There are 79 islands and around 500 islets on the Dalmatian coast region, which is how they came up with the idea for "101 Dalmatians."  

(Editor: Now you are just making stuff up.  Writer: The dogs/Dalmatian coast part is true. . .the 101 compared to 79 and 500 is, quite possibly, fiction.)

The first island we went to is Kolocep, and then we went to Lopud.

After swimming in our private rocky cove with bright blue water and fish, we went around to the other side of the island where the small town of Kolocep is.  We walked over to the resort, then doubled back and had a drink at a bar on the water.  

Carol and Maddy's Aperol

Spritzs.  My beer was not

deemed worthy of being

in the picture.  My stomach

deemed the beer worthy

however, so don't feel bad

for me or my beer.

Our next stop was the bay of Sunj on Lopud Island.  The place definitely had a "Whitefish Bay on Jost Van Dyke in the BVI" vibe to it, also known as a WBJVDBVI vibe.  I half expected to hear Soggy Dollar Radio on loudspeakers, but we can't all be lucky.

There were tons of boats of all kinds, and tons of people of all levels on the "S to I" scale ("Sobriety to Inebriation").  Totally different feel from our private cove on Kolocep, but marvelous in its own way.  

Maddy and I swam/walked in close to the beach, but never got out of the water.  After a while people watching, and, even more entertaining, watching boats vie to get close to the swimming area without actually crashing, we headed back to Carol and Captain Ciro to head home for the day.

It wasn't until then that we each cracked a beer on the boat.  All in all, it was a wonderful day on the Adriatic.  It was peak relaxation.

Here's the link for the boat in Dubrovnik.