WHAT TO EXPECT IF YOU'RE GOING ON YACHT WEEK

ABBIE JS
Aug 12, 2017
4 min read

Last Summer (August 2016) I went to Yacht Week in Croatia. We had all seen the insane videos on Facebook, the raft parties, soft waves, parties etc etc you know which ones I mean. Even though it was one of the most expensive weeks of my life it was also one of the funnest weeks of my life!

I went in a group of 8, 3 couples, 2 friends. I’d read it’s not really the place for couples but we had a mixed group so it worked quite well. Most of the boats were all one sex, and let me tell you Aussies and Americans are WILD. When we booked to go we found it quite hard to find info on what we should do/take etc so I'd thought I'd write a few 'what to expects' of going. Most importantly.... take sea sickness tablets. Take them even if you don’t get sea sick… and don’t stop taking them. I woke up one morning to the boat swaying okay I’d had a drink the night before BUT I felt HORRENDOUS until I took the sea sickness tablets. Buy enough for the whole week for yourself. No harm in taking them and sea sickness is the worst. While we were there we only had one/two days of ‘plain sailing’ the other times I was focusing on the horizon swaying from side to side. Stock up when you're docked up. When you first arrive you will have HOURS to wait between check in and when you get on the boat. Use this time to get to the local supermarket (it’s just up the road do not go to one directly at dock). Buy more than you need, you need to feed the skipper for 3 meals a day and plus you never know how long you may not be docked up for. We had to dine on crisp sandwiches. Buy LOADS of water, you’ll need it. Fridge space is limited and obviously alcohol will take priority so get in snacks like crackers/crisps/tuna/cereal bars to keep in times of hanger. We made eggs every morning (milk didn’t keep that well) but we also had cereal/bread and fruit to cure those morning hangovers. It is not cheap - but so worth it. We got a mid-range boat (don't go bottom of the range) and paid about 700 GBP per person. The skipper will sleep in the living room area, our boat 'slept 10'. If you can splash out for a Catamaran then do, they are soooo much nicer with a lot more room (and the cool net thing where you can get a good selfie). But you will be the party boat and have to clean up after parties so ask yourself if you want to be more of a party go-er then host.

Pick a good group. These people are with you 24/7 so make sure you pick people you get on with, the living quarters are small. Like no word of a lie, small. There is little storage and just about enough room to stand at the end of your bed before the door. People told me not to over pack and of course I did. I wore about 10% of my suitcase and spent the whole time finding things because my stuff was everywhere. All you need is swimwear, something for the white party and then like 3 other party outfits, do not even consider bringing heels complete waste of suitcase space.

Don’t detach your dingy So on the last night when you have the raft party where you line up your boats butt to butt (you know those cool photos) DO NOT unhook your dingy... do whatever you need to do, jump between boats, swim across the river, just don’t unhook it. Sailing back to shore on your last day one dingy down and a 250 euro fine. Yeah we hate the wind. Somewhere our dingy was in the middle of the ocean, free at last.

You will need a week to recover. Not just the hangover, I felt like I was swaying for at least 3 days after returning home, the motion sickness was REAL. TOP TIP: Go to the cinema, sitting watching a still screen did me the world of good. You will have to queue for hours in the airport on the way home. Everyone will be leaving on the Saturday morning and the airport is chaos… eat breakfast and stay hydrated, queues inside for food and water were longggggggg. We decided to fly to Finland on the way home. Croatia > Finland > London – to save 200 each. 200 seemed like a small price after 7 days of solid drinking and a 9 hour journey home. Fly direct home if you can. We also flew in for our trip on the Friday night and stayed in a cheap hotel which I also suggest doing as we got a night in split to walk around and see the place before the madness started. Your tan will be redic. You don’t realize how much you’re in the sun. You spend the whole day up on the deck, the only time we were inside the boat was to sleep, and sometimes even that we did upstairs. We were a little unfortunate with the weather the first two days so we only had 5 days of sun but sailing the ocean and lathering up in oil we all came home sun kissed. Make sure you smother yourself in sun cream and drink plenty of liquid preferably water but it probably won’t be in the fridge over the beers. Missing a party because of sun stroke is just not cool. See the image below, how you will spend 95% of your time.

Plan your trip before you go if you want to do certain things. We spent one afternoon renting mo peds and driving around the island, picked up some ice-cream and then sailed slowly to our next destination. If you want to do certain things yoga etc make sure you tell your skipper in advance as they will work around you.

And finally you will have the best time ever, meet some of the most amazing people from all over the world and make unforgettable memories. If you'd like to see a full video of our trip click below! :)