I spent an awesome week travelling from Split to Dubrovnik on the Voyager sail with MedSailors. Mornings in Croatia were spent reading books on deck, afternoons jumping in the water and exploring the islands, and evenings eating and drinking in the local restaurants and on the boat.

I really didn’t know what to expect when I arrived though.

– How much work was I meant to do?
– How much would I spend?
– What’s for dinner?
– Where do I sleep?
– Where do we even meet?

Seeing as I hadn’t had much (any) time to do any research I had lots of questions. If you’re planning on doing any of the Medsailors cruises – Turkey or Greece anyone? – then here’s everything you need to know. Obviously its Split to Dubrovnik specific, but will help give an idea of what to expect.

And if you have any questions at the end, let me know.

Here goes…

MedSailors Split to Dubrovnik

What to bring

Space is tight on the boat, so take as little as possible. Hard cases are traditionally thought of as bad luck on sail boats, and there’s nowhere to put them, so go soft.

– Shorts
– Underwear
– Tops to protect from sun
– Long sleeved top or jacket for evenings or for the wind when going fast
– Something nicer if you’re planning on going out in the ports, but not necessary
– Flip flops
– Beach towel
– Lilo – makes it comfier to lie on top, but you can buy when you’re there
– Booze – you can buy more at almost every port so don’t feel like you need to stock up
– Camera and phone – With Three I had 3G almost everywhere (not necessarily the best thing!)

That’s all you need. To be honest, you’ll probably end up wearing the same all week anyway.

What to expect

I’d wake up at around 7:30am naturally and stagger out on deck. If we were in a port I’d go to the toilet facilities rather than the boat, or grab a coffee onland so I could use theirs.

At around 9am breakfast was served. Some arrangement of eggs, fresh bread, cornflakes, jogurt and muesli. We did have fruit once too.

We’d then spend the next two/three hours-ish sailing the seas. Most of us would lie out on deck taking it all in, others went back to bed, and others sat up with Skipper Dan in the cockpit.

At around midday we’d drop the anchor and have some time to either chill, get paddleboarding or go for a swim. I loved jumping off the boat. At one point some of the guys wet cliff jumping but I can’t be doing that. Too risky for someone as clumsy as me.

Lunch would be at 1pm. Some sort of salad, bread, cheese and tuna. And then there was that day that we had sausage stew, which was incredible. Our Skipper Dan made all this.

3pm and we’d sail some more, to the night’s port. On arrival you could either get off and explore the island or stay on board and chill. It’d really depend on what there was to do on the island which option I chose.

7pm, dinner. We ate out every night. Sometimes there’d be a Medsailors chosen restaurant we’d all go to, other times we’d be left to find our own.

Drinks, party, bed. My latest night was probably about midnight. I was on the last Medsailors Voyager trip of the season so things were winding down. I’m sure if you wanted to stay out much later, you could. Skipper Dan told us lots of stories of people making the most of it!

The accommodation

The Medsailors accommodation is basic. Try and get yourself one of the double rooms. My friend Jen (fellow travel blogger from shegetsaround.co.uk) and I were the only non-couple on our boat so had the bunk bed room.

The width was smaller than my wingspan, and probably 6-foot in length. One move in the night and you’d wake yourself up. A twitchy arm could mean the end of your sleep. Here we are trying to fit in at the same time, the only time we did that.

My top tip would be to have a few drinks before bed so that you can pass out. The local drink ‘Prosek’ was great for that.

Whether you’re in the ‘coffin bunks’ like us, or you’ve got a double room, space is tight.

What’s the food like?  

I was definitely spoiled by the food on the boat when I went sailing in the Philippines. Before I left for Croatia I was telling my dad how we’d be fishing in the day and cooking it up on the stove on the boat. Not entirely sure how I’d made that up.

The food was still good though, especially for a cheese and tuna lover like me. Not so much for Jen who doesn’t eat either. Most breakfasts for me were a mix of cornflakes, muesli and jogurt.

Lunch was generally bread, meat, cheese and tuna. Apart from the last day when Skipper Dan cooked up a delicious tomatoey, sausage feast.

And then meals were on land in the various ports we came into.

– First night, Sesula – fish at beach bar – 160kr / £18.48 (pictured)
– Second, Hvar – cevapi (like lamb kofta) at a marina restaurant – 80kr/£9.24
– Third, Vela Luka – pizza at Alfa Pizzeria – 80kr/£9.24
– Fourth, Korcula – incredible Asian food at Silk – 240/£27.72 (included two beers and a lot of food)
– Fifth, Mljet – fish at Konoba Galicija –160kr / £18.48
– Sixth, Sipan – beef bourginon somewhere –160kr / £18.48

All the food was really good, but make sure you go for the beef stew in Sipan rather than the steak option – thankfully I picked wisely but the others had total food envy.

The toilet situation

The toilet on the boat stank for much of the trip. It turned out someone had put toilet roll down after we’d been strictly instructed by Dan not to in our toilet use lesson on the first day. I actually started to dread going.

Thankfully I soon realised there was another toilet down the other end of the boat that the four guys down there were keeping very quiet about. It was much nicer, fragrant almost.

The best thing to do is wait until you get into port and use the facilities there, especially for number twos.

Where you’ll go

The Medsailors Split to Dubrovnik Voyager trip doesn’t actually cover that much distance, to enable you to explore the islands and have fun there instead of sailing all day. The route on land only takes a few hours, but obviously, this is a much more interesting way of doing it.

I’d definitely recommend having some extra time on your trip afterwards to enjoy the best Dubrovnik beaches while you’re there. 

The route you eventually take can change day to day and depends heavily on the weather, but here’s what we did.

– First night, Sesula
– Second, Hvar
– Third, Vela Luka
– Fourth, Korcula
– Fifth, Mljet
– Sixth, Sipan
– Finish in Dubrovnik – check out my list of the best cheap things to do in Dubrovnik here

What can you do on the islands?

You need to be pretty organised to get the most out of the islands. For some bigger places, like Hvar, I saw the trip as a taster to come back in the future. Unfortunately it also rained while we were in Hvar, although the lightning flashes and storms we could see from the boat were amazing.

On Mljet we rented a soft top jeep to go and see the caves and just cruise around like we were off Clueless or something. You could also rent bikes to see the Mljet National Park there.

On Hvar we climbed up to the fortress but unfortunately for some reason decided not to go in, and have since been told it was amazing. So do it. It’s only 20 kuna.

We stopped off at one little island in the afternoon, just to get a mojito. Incredible.

We watched an incredible sunset from the boat in Vela Luca, if you’re going in September I’d recommend staying on the boat until it finishes as the way the bay is laid out means that you won’t see it from the restaurants.

Life is pretty chilled when you get to the islands, as in, it’s the best chance to chill out. 

Who goes?  

Jen and I ticked the ‘relaxed’ box on our sign up form, and were put on the boat with three couples. That was the end of our expected crazy week.

To be honest though, an hour in and we realised it was perfect. All six of them were really cool people, and along with skipper Dan we had a super relaxed week with no pressure for ‘forced fun’. We all got on well, had a few drinks every day, the odd intellectual conversation and some much needed early nights.

How fit do you need to be?  

You need to be able to move about the boat, so fairly agile, but unless you want to you don’t have to give any help with the actual sailing. Fitness doesn’t really come into it.

You do need to fit in the beds though. One of the guys on our trip was 6 ft 6 and was given the big room at the front, he seemed alright.

How much money will I need?  

You can spend as little or as much as you like on the trip. Food did end up being quite a bit more than I expected because of the restaurants chosen for the group meals on days 4 and 5, which were around 160 kuna for anything. Here’s the food and price list again from the food section above.

– First night, Sesula – fish at beach bar – 160kr / £18.48 (pictured)
– Second, Hvar – cevapi (like lamb kofta) at a marina restaurant – 80kr/£9.24
– Third, Vela Luka – pizza at Alfa Pizzeria – 80kr/£9.24
– Fourth, Korcula – incredible Asian food at Silk – 240/£27.72 (included two beers and a lot of food)
– Fifth, Mljet – fish at Konoba Galicija – 160kr / £18.48
– Sixth, Sipan – beef bourginon somewhere – 160kr / £18.48

On the first day I’d got over excited by the fish and ended up spending 160 kuna while everyone else had 80kr pizzas. Days 2 and 3 I ate for around 80 as I had the local speciality of cevpici, and then pizza. After that it was back to splashing out as we had Medsailors specific restaurants to go to.

If you want to stick to a budget then pizza is the best choice as it’s served everywhere. And that cevpici was delicious.

I drank either wine (70kr a litre), beer (20kr a small) or gin and tonic (20kr + mixer).

Our boat wasn’t really a boozey boat, although we did manage to get through three litres of gin by day, somehow.

Buy your booze in Split town before you leave, not at the port. It’s cheaper.

Jen and I also spent 300kr between us on the jeep hire. So 150 kuna + petrol at 1kuna per km.

Bought myself a hat and an ice cream. #happiness #medsailors @medsailors #croatia pic.twitter.com/2dYIPspC6I

— Victoria Philpott (@VickyFlipFlop) September 12, 2016

– Apartment accommodation in Split – 30 euro/£26.01
– Food on the trip – 880kr/£101.70
– Drink on the trip – 300kr/£34.67 (from bars and supermarkets)
– Night in Dubrovnik – £22
– Mljet car hire – 250kr/£28.89
– An ice cream on Vela Lucca – 20kr/£2.31
– My hat – 60kr/£6.93

TOTALish for the week = £225

What’s this regatta?

On the last day you might do a regatta with all the other boats. I won’t spoil it for you, just to tell you that it was really fun and out of the five boats, we won! Yay!

Also, I took on more of a ‘supervisory role’ rather than dirtying my hands with ropes and the like. Someone had to do it.

And then we got this cup.

That night we played a few drinking games and one of the girls off our boat drank out of it. The next day we wiped it out and it was absolutely filthy, as in the cloth came out black.

If you win, don’t drink out of the cup, ok?

Drinking  

It would totally depend on the people on your boat but on ours there was no pressure to drink, in fact, it was me and Jen who probably drank the most. Surprise, surprise.

Well, when you’re on a boat sailing in the Med, reading, a gin and tonic is a must, right?

You can buy all your drinks in the port and there’s a fridge on board where you can keep it all cool. Although, space is limited and it’s mostly for food. I’d recommend you buy some plastic cups as they only have glass, and glass, booze and boats don’t mix. 

You might also want to buy some ice. The kettle was always on too, brews a plenty.

Meeting point  

We couldn’t work out where we were meant to meet the group, but turns out it was at sign 5 at the Split Old Town bus station. The journey to the port takes about an hour on the mini bus. At the port you’ll have a few hours to buy any last minute things at the shop, there’s a little food market, a pizza place and a bar with Wi-Fi.

Once the boat is ready they’ll take you over and you’ll start introductions. Let the fun begin!

What’s expected of me?

– Yep, that’s me 🙂

You can do as little or as much as you like. Although, if you don’t do anything you won’t make many friends. I think my contribution to the boat involved getting people gin and tonics whenever I wanted them, and washing up and drying three times.

I didn’t actually contribute to the sailing of the boat, which is a bit silly seeing as I want to learn to sail. But it wasn’t laziness, it was the fact I was convinced I’d probably crash the boat if I was given any thing to do.

You don’t have to cook, clean, sort the toilets, sail, or anything, unless you want to.

Any questions?