Learning How to Sail - Sailing in Warm Climates

Arriving in Pula marina is some spectacular sight having the back drop of the marina looking onto one of the Worlds largest Colosseum. We were on a week's sailing holiday setting off from Pula, Croatia.

Eight of us had chartered two Yachts, a 50 foot Dufour, and a 40 foot Elan, having loaded all our bags, checked safety equipment, water, fuel, closed all the sea cocks, we were off.

Our first port of call was a one hour motor away, as the wind had dropped, called Medulin, a small marina with plenty of moorings available. This time of the year is just slightly out of season so we can hopefully expect the marina's having berths available, unlike we were told around July, August. So we had picked the right time of the year.We had hired a skipper, Nemod, for one of the boats as some of the crew were doing some sail training and he would act as a guide to local knowledge. This was his home port and he guided us to the marina bar where he new everybody and introduced us to the local vino Grappa, i am not sure what we had for dinner that night!

The next morning we set sail for Mali Losin, had a great 6/7 hour sail, winds 3/4 and fantastic sunshine all the way, both Yachts sailing well, but as you would expect the 50 foot Dufour leading the way.

Having moored up and had our first tipple we decided to have a look at the new scenery and find a nice place for dinner. Croatia is a great place to explore having beautiful little square's with bar's and restaurants. We chose a nice fish restaurant, but found the fish to be very nice, but quite expensive.

All the marina in Croatia have you stern moor your yacht, which means, due to the jetty changes of height, you have to place a plank to safely get from your yacht to the jetty. This is fine in daylight, but not good at night after a night out!

The next ports of call we visited were, Silba, Rab, and Nerzine, the last night we had a night at anchor off Premantura, before returning back to Pula.

I would seriously recommend Croatia for a great sailing holiday, we had constant winds 4/5 generally, sailing 6 to 8 hour every day and with the added sunshine, great. The marinas are good but sometimes can be a bit pricey, the food and wine are excellent, but i would keep clear of the Grappa!

Chartering a yachts in warm climates is a great way to learn to sail. I would say nearly all the main yacht chartering companies offer flotilla learning to sail packages where you would sail with other yachts and a qualified skipper. Learning to sail as you discover some great ports of call, i would recommend it.

Happy Sailing in Croatia.

Clive Peterson
P.S. More information on "Learning How to Sail" can be found on my web site and purchasing a copy of my eBook, please go to;

http://www.learntosailnow.com