Pointers for the uninitiated:
We chartered a sailboat in Croatia this fall (2011). This was our 1st venture chartering in Europe. I read all I could on the Web about sailing in the Adriatic, and there were no bad surprises. However, there are a few things that a North American sailor might not expect, so notes below may be helpful. Caveat: these are one person’s opinions, based on one charter, your experience might be entirely different.
- Tie up in the Mediterranean: you likely know that in most marinas you are expected to tie to the dock stern first. It isn’t as difficult as I feared —in most marinas there are a lot of people to lend you a hand. If you never done it before, you might want to practice before you get there. Hint: good communication between members of the crew is essential.
- Channel buoys: Port & Starboard colors are reversed.
- Tides: in the Adriatic there do not seem to be any.
- Marinas and tieups: Expensive! In Croatia most marinas with power and water charge an average of €90-130 a day –depending on the length of your boat and the season. Tie up boys cost between €30-€50 unless they are owned by a restaurant (most are), in which case you are expected to dine at the establishment that owns the buoy. This arrangement can be a very reasonable deal, however you do end up cheek by jowl with neighbors who may have very different plans for the night than you do. In Croatia we found a lot of charter boats manned by 6 to 8 slightly over the hill gentlemen (mostly Croatian or German) whose appreciation for the beauty of their own singing voices far exceeded my own (and my crew’s).
Of course you can drop an anchor for free; however anchoring spots can be tight and you should expect the wind to pick up quite a bit after sundown for at least 2 or 3 hours (catablastic winds).
- In high season, if you want to stay at one of the more popular marinas, best call ahed —we could not find a spot after 3:00 PM even in off-season. If you make a reservation at an ACI marina, you usually have to pay 20 to 30% extra.
- VHF: nobody seems to use it. We thought our radio was broken because it was silent on all channels. Occasionally you hear somebody on channel 16 talking to a marina, otherwise everybody uses a cell phone. Supposedly continuous weather broadcasts are often either not continuous or do not exist. Periodic weather updates do come on various channels —you need to know the local arrangement— 3 times a day in Croatian and in English; they both sound the same.
- Weather: best way to get it wether broadcast is to pick up a hard-copy in the Marina or in the local tourist information center. I found the 24 hour forecast quite accurate, but beyond one day, it is anybody’s guess. In the part of the Adratic we were sailing (Central Dalmatia) the wind shifted a lot and there was a great deal of local variation. The easiest way to get around in the sailboat –if you want to sail–is to make your plan after you picked up the morning report. Otherwise get a boat with a good motor.
- Most charter boats come with furling jib and main; the former is an unqualified boon. My crew and I were used to a conventional main and found the loose footed furling main something of a pain in the unmentionable.
- Bow-thrusters; I thought these were for sissies: I learned to depend them in tightly crowded marinas.
- When at anchor, take a good look at what your neighbors are doing. I came to believe that most folks chartering Croatia have very strange ideas on how to set the hook, and how much scope to let out. We saw a few very nice boats making contact with the terra firma.
- In Croatia, boats do not have holding tanks. In spite of this, the water is crystal clear. However, in close quarters, the lack of holding tanks is something to consider before you go for a morning swim.
- Buy a SIM card from the local cigar/magazine store and program your Charterer’s number in your phone. There are things you likely want to ask from time-to-time. (Like the the location of the breaker for the windlass --in a closet in the Port cabin).
- Charter boats have a lot of wonderful equipment that runs on electricity (fridges, freezers, hot water makers, radios, plotters, lights, etc.) Plan to spend every 2nd or 3rd night plugged into shore power, otherwise you might wish that you have paid better attention to your celestial navigation course. Our lesson: since we motored for 6 hours 2 days previous, we thought that we had little to worry about when we planned to get up at 5 o’clock on our last day to make way before the sun rose. First the freezer, next hot water, then the plotter and the GPS died, followed by the autopilot, instruments, and last most of the the nav lights went out (all this while we were motoring). Luckily it was a clear night, but it was an interesting run…
