Yacht Week, also known as one of the greatest weeks of my life. How could it not be when you’re sailing through brilliantly blue waters from island to stunning island then partying into the night with all your new yacht week mates. I had been looking forward to Yacht Week since the day I booked it, all the way back in December though it felt like so much longer with all the build up. It did not dissappoint.
Our Yacht! A Hanse 45, trust me that’s a fancy boat for a bunch of 20-somethings to party on
We started in Split, Croatia with the first of many amazing sensational fresh caught seafood dinners at an alfresco restuarant in the midst of the winding alleys and laneways of the Old town. We’re talking a feast of prawns, calamari, whole fish, mussels and for about a quarter of the price you’d pay for it in Sydney. Followed up by drinks in the square, thats when it really began to sink in how lucky we were to be there, I mean its quite a cocktail location. Talk about a map moment. From there we hit up the opening party where people were letting loose, and getting high… I mean literally they were climbing anything they could find. There we made our first friends of Yacht Week, I mean when you see a guy with this written on his arm you have to join the party amiright??
The next morning we set sail to our first island port destination, Vis. It was not all smooth sailing. Not a pun. The first day almost everyone was seasick. I was so thankful to have grown up on boats to be able to handle it better but even I was getting to be a little queasy by the time we reached the island of Vis.
All problems were quickly forgotten as we entered the stunning port town. Vis was hands down my favourite destination of Yacht Week (even above Hvar!). It just had this authentic, classic sea town charm to it that made you feel instantly relaxed but at the same time desperate to explore its secrets. Luckily for us our skipper jumped ashore as soon as we arrived and reserved the few remaining scooters (vespas, motorbikes, whatever you want to call them). I highly recommend this, it was the ultimate way to see the island with the wind through your hair and sun on your back.
We had a bit of a rocky start, I hadn’t actually driven any sort of vespa/scooter thing before. I thought, how hard can it be?? Yeh quite hard it turns out, especially with a second person balancing on the back! Our skipper had to tell the guy we rented them from we had all driven one before. I think the man realised this was a lie when I couldn’t even start it (he even questioned it, I was all like “of course, its just, umm, been a little while). After a quick practice down the street, almost crashing into the wall (but I made it!) Cassie nervously hopped on the back and we were off!
It was a slow journey at first as we were so unstable we could barely make the endless hair pin turns up the mountain behind the town but once we got the hang of it and weren’t in mortal fear it was one of the most fun experiences of my whole time in the Mediterranean.
After driving through vineyards and rows of olive trees we eventually arrived at this secluded cove beach on the other side of the island. Our skipper had told us before we set off ‘maybe don’t wear flip flops’, yeh turns out what he meant by this was ‘wear your most extreme hiking boots because we are going to pretty much mountain climb our way to the beach’. After lunging and sliding on our butts the whole way down to the beach it was fully worth it for this.
After getting our weeks exercise coming back up we had some well deserved gelato before heading back to the yacht to get ready for that nights yacht week party at the official Yacht Week castle on the mountain. Yacht Week, they do it right.
Are you hooked yet? Seriously go sign up. Right now. You won’t regret it.