Our Croatia sailing charter with Alex England, the last minute skipper who took six first timers around the islands and into a storm.
Alex was not supposed to be our skipper.
Our original skipper canceled at the last minute, and Alex stepped in to take six women, none of whom had ever spent a night on a sailboat, around the Croatian islands. We arrived at the marina in Split with an impressive collection of rolling suitcases. To his credit, Alex managed not to double over laughing.
For the next few days, Croatia unfolded from the water. Alex seemed to know when to linger in a quiet cove, when to point the boat toward another island and when an unplanned stop was worth making. We swam, explored, partied, laughed constantly and settled surprisingly quickly into life at sea. Those days remain among the most magical I have ever spent traveling.
Then the Adriatic showed us another side.
A wall of black sky rolled toward us. The water grew rough, funnel clouds appeared in the distance, and at some point—because apparently this is how we cope with impending disaster—we named the whole experience “Life of Pa,” after Parna and Life of Pi.
We had been lucky with our last-minute skipper.
Very lucky.
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