From Apartment to Adventure
An Early Start… Sort Of
We were up early this morning—around 6:30am.
The sunlight was already streaming through the window, gently persuading us that the day had begun. We both woke, looked at the time… and very sensibly rolled over for another hour and a half.
Packing had been done the night before (a rare moment of organisation), so the morning felt surprisingly relaxed.
Getting everything into the car was straightforward, and we made sure to leave the apartment clean and tidy. Ros even found time to put her hair up in a rather impressive French plait—clearly we weren’t rushing that much.
We said goodbye to our host and set off for Split Airport. The journey? All of seven minutes.
Returning the hire car was painless—always a relief. We unloaded our bags:
Ros bravely carrying the rather heavy yellow bag
Me balancing an almost equally heavy collection of camera equipment
We staggered across the car park to the terminal and, thankfully, found a trolley. A small victory, but a very welcome one.
Finding a taxi was easy enough—though explaining where we wanted to go was slightly more entertaining.
“Marina,” we said.
“Which one?” came the reply.
Ah.
After a quick consultation with a map, we clarified: Agana Marina in Marina. Clear as mud, but it worked. "Marina Marina!"
The driver whisked us there in what felt like double quick time.
This time, I actually enjoyed the journey—taking in the scenery rather than concentrating on the road.
And what scenery it was—simply spectacular.
We arrived around 10:30am.
Bags were dropped, passports checked, and we were officially signed in with Sunsail. Then came our first introduction of the week…
Enter Tadeusz Szymamski. Please call me Tadek or Tad.
A friendly young Englishman from the south coast, of Polish descent, and—most importantly—our instructor for the week.
We gave him a quick summary of our sailing experience:
Dinghies on the River Thames ✔️
Yacht sailing ❌
RYA Level 1 and 2 ✔️
He nodded politely. One suspects he already had a fairly good idea of what lay ahead…
The boat wouldn't be ready until 3-4pm so our advice was to go and sit on the beach.
Next stop: the local supermarket, Tommy.
We purchased the essentials:
Fresh bread
A Mars Bar (clearly essential)
2 Cold 2l bottles of sprite.
Then wandered along the promenade to a bar stretching out into the sea, where I spent a good 20 minutes rotating like a well-cooked sausage—ensuring an even sunbathe.
It was warm—about 27°C.
The Mars Bar, like me, had been soaking up the sun.
Opening it resulted in an immediate and dramatic cascade of melted chocolate over my hands… and face.
Lesson learned.
Do not sunbathe confectionery.
We spent another hour or so relaxing in the sunshine before heading back to the marina to meet the rest of the crew and begin the real adventure.
Back at the marina, we ordered a couple of ice-cold Sprites.
That first sip—icy cold—cut through the heat beautifully.
Unbeknownst to us, however, we had already missed a message from Steve and Judy asking where we were. Not the best start to coordinated sailing logistics.
Tadek appeared and helped load our bags onto a trolley, then heroically manoeuvred it towards our boat—Petra III. On the way, we passed Papaye, a Sunsail catamaran, where Judy Aslett and Steve (along with Barry) were already aboard. They rushed out to greet us, and after a quick exchange, we continued to our own boat, arranging to meet shortly.
We followed Tadek to Dock B and carefully negotiated the plank onto Petra III—our home for the next week. Tadek gave us a full briefing, including the all-important instructions on how to use the head (never to be underestimated). As first arrivals, we were advised to take the rear cabin—with the air conditioning controls. A strategic win.
Soon after, we returned to Papaye, where conversations flowed easily.
Then it was back to Petra III, where we met the rest of our crew:
John
His daughter Emily
The team was complete.
That evening, we headed out to one of the few restaurants open this early in the season. It was still beautifully warm, so we ate outside. Steve and Judy, having been advised that chilled red wine pairs well with seafood, ordered two bottles of the house red. The reaction after the first sip? Absolutely priceless. Ros and I were quietly grateful for our Sprites.
After surviving the red, the group moved on to white wine—which, thankfully, was an improvement.
We walked back to the marina and settled in for our first night aboard Petra III.
With shore power connected, we even had a few luxuries:
Ros could use her sleep apnoea kit
And we could relax with an episode (or two) of Bones on the iPad
Not a bad way to end the day.
