After two months in Croatia, it was time to sail and change country. We are in Montenegro. In spite of being very “similar” countries, and that both were part of Yugoslavia during half a century, when one passes a border, one is with the differences. The language, currency, culture, customs, meals, are different. Even the shape of supermarkets or the type of breads and jams varies.

In the two months we were in Croatia, we traveled a lot by boat and by land. Split, Trögir, Biograd, the islands of Brâc, Solta and several others. So when we plan the sailing to Montenegro, we set up a route with small navigations for the day, which will pass through the islands that are towards the south of Split, so as to know almost the whole country. So it was that we stopped at Hvar, in the port of Stari Grad, which was one of the ones I liked the most. Then we went to Vis, a small, well-kept island, famous in recent years because Mamma Mia II was filmed there.

We went to Körčula, the island where Marco Polo was born. Years ago I read the book about Marcopolo’s trips and I remember that there were two things that impressed me a lot. That after ten or twelve years of travel, and having made contact with the Emperor of China, Kublai Khan, Marcopolo sent an advanced group back. But just arrived and told the Pope, about everything they had found and about the relationship with the Emperor, the Pope (I think Gregory X) decided to send them back full of gifts to return courtesies and affirm the new business relationship, what that delayed the return of the travelers in several years. In total they were more than twenty years! Marcopolo also revolutionized European cartography and was one of Columbus’s sources of inspiration.

On the island of Mijet, we enter a small cove in the south, called Okuklje, where we moored at the dock of a restaurant with great hosts, and excellent fish dishes with white wine and incredible homemade liqueurs.

During dinner we were chatting about the advantages of renting a boat in Croatia either with a captain or without a captain and take this trip on a sailboat. As Croatia is a small country with a large number of islands, the traveler who travels by land, must be changing hotel practically every day, hire boats to get to the islands and visit them in a hurry to return to the mainland, do and undo suitcases all the time, etc. We went to sleep on board and got up on the same beautiful pier, surrounded by turquoise waters and went sailing to discover the next destination.

Our next stopover, and last port of Croatia, was Dubrovnik, a great walled fortress where history is breathed into every stone, with steep lanes and medieval churches everywhere. A must-see destination for anyone who walks around here. There we said goodbye to Croatia and its people, with the feeling that it was worth the cold weather and the harsh winds of winter, and with the promise of returning one day in summer to enjoy the white sandy beaches and beaches. super-crystalline waters of the Adriatic and tour them again in a rental boat