Fred and Ita Adventures

 The last post left off with us anchored in Zlarin sheltering from some strong southerly winds and from there we went across to the town of Sibenik on the mainland where we stayed at a Marina for a few nights. We used this as a base to do some exploring in the KRKA National Park. We took a taxi up to the town of Scradin where you can officially enter the park.  Park boat takes you up to the falls at Scradinski. The MAP  shows the boat journey with the connected lines and the places visited in the park as locations with pictures attached if you click on the location. Picture of us returning on the boat trip up to Roski buk. About 70% of Croatia GDP is from tourism and the country works hard to maintain all tourist attractions in perfect shape. After the land based outing at the park we took CoKeMa up to Scradin to spend a night at Konoba Vidrovaca a restaurant with docking facilities recommended by friends. Overall the KRKA NP was another must visit if in Croatia. Our next...

It is hard to believe that it was just last month that we left USA and saw the boat for the first time, so much has happened. After the trip up past Greece and Albania our first port of call in Croatia was Cavtat which is the southern most port where you can check in. The check in process was a bit convoluted visiting 3 different offices some two times but overall, very straight forward if not so efficient. Once complete and the cruising fee paid, we can now stay for up to 90 days in Croatia. That was almost 4 weeks ago and the country is amazing. There is a reason there are more super yachts here than any other part of the Mediterranean or the Caribbean. We stayed at anchor for a few days in the pretty fishing town of Cavtat swimming during the day and eating ashore in the evening. The next stop was Dubrovnik where we anchored outside the city walls on the first night and then docked at a marina for a few days to explore the town. It is a living medieval walled city that is absolute...

 Yesterday we checked in to Croatia which marked the end of our first trip. From here we will spend the next weeks enjoying the coastline of Croatia moving slowly north to meet with some people in Hvar towards the end of the month. After launching CoKeMa we did a few day trips around Marmaris getting ready to depart from Turkey. Our original plan was to move slowly through the Greek Island heading north and west through the Corinth canal towards Croatia but the  tension  between Turkey and Greece meant our first port of call after Turkey could not be Greece. We made the decision to go directly to Croatia about 800 miles without a landfall. On the second night out we got blasted by the  Meltemi  with gusts greater than 35 knots and the next morning we decided to stop and anchor at a Greek island to make some repairs - an unofficial stop but at a remote island and we did not go on shore. With repairs to the lazy jack system completed we left early the next morning...

Great progress since we left from JFK on Sunday last. We arrived Monday evening in Dalaman and traveled over to Marmaris on Tuesday morning. The view coming down the mountain into Marmaris is spectacular.  Overall Turkey is fantastic, Marmaris is a real resort town with all the tourist amenities but because of COVID it is really quiet so it is a snap to get a table at a restaurant and the people are really friendly. We saw our boat for the first time on Tuesday and thanks to a local guy Mehmet it was looking pristine. We spent a few days organizing things and we launched yesterday and went out for the first sail. So far everything we dreamed of. Launch video below.  

One more step towards the dream this month as we both finish up work. Our close friends have known of this plan for many years but perhaps you are hearing about it for the first time. The person writing here describes the lifestyle very well and CNN Travel recently did a story about the impact of COVID on people travelling the world on sailboats. The CNN story estimates that in any given year there are about 10,000 small sailboats cruising the world. Our cruising life will begin in the eastern Mediterranean where the boat has been stored on land since November 2019. The boat we purchased is a Lagoon 42 built in France and first launched by an Australian couple in 2018. They shared their story on  YouTube but for us this blog will be enough to record our travels. We leave for Marmaris Turkey on July 18 th .

We have purchased a Lagoon 42 called Sabella and we will rename her to CoKeMa after our three boys Conor, Kevin and Mark. This first post on the blog is written as I contemplate retiring next month . The picture above is from the broker listing and was my first impression from Yacht World.