It wasn’t just eating, drinking and sailing – we were here to view yachts and meet the crews.

Fortuna arranged inspections of a variety of gulets, motor-sailors and mini-cruisers. Highlights included the 25 meter motor yacht Korab with her extremely cheerful captain Mate and crew.  The formal dining room set forward of mid ship brought an old school feel to this roomy vessel, and several independent sources raved about the chef. Another highlight was luxury motor sailor Navilux, undoubtedly the most luxurious guletish yacht currently offered in Croatia. At 37 meters LOA, she sleeps 12 guests in 6 staterooms in the vicinity of 49,000 Euro per week during high season.  Another spectacular 27 meter transom gulet was Andjeo, which charters for 20,700 Euro during the high season per week.

When asked to compare Turkish gulets with those operating in Croatia, several observations included that Croatian yachts tend to have owner/captains and significantly higher running costs than Turkish gulets, which is why the charter rates are higher in Croatia than they are when comparing two similar build gulets in both countries.  We received excellent vibes from the crews that we met, all of whom seemed to thoroughly enjoy what they were doing.

In no particular order, we made the following interesting observations about Croatia

• Croatia is a dream for lovers of 80s and 90s pop music.  The radio played rare old songs that we hadn’t heard in decades.
• There are over 1000 islands in total along the coast.
• As of July 2013, Croatia is now a member of the European Union.
• Nikola Tesla was born in present-day Croatia.
• In addition to great sailing, the roads are excellent with spectacular views along stunning drops, rivers, waterfalls and valleys.
• There is a 16 kilometer stretch of Bosnia-Herzegovina along the Dalmatian Coast, meaning that drivers heading north or south to or from Dubrovnik will exit the EC and re-enter Croatia again.
• Marco Polo was from the island of Korčula.
• The columns of the White House were built using stone from the island of Brač.
• The Croatian language is very difficult, but we did master ”moje” which roughly translates to ”ok