Monday 29 June 2009

Anambra

Anambra is a state in SE Nigeria. The state theme is "home for all."

We have not traveled as far south as Nigeria but we have traveled to beautiful Croatia and are aboard "Anambra", our home for the week. Anambra is a 46 foot sailboat and we chartered her for our summer holiday.
We flew to Dubrovnik on Saturday, loaded our things in our boat and headed in to this ancient walled city. It was breathtaking. Stupendous. We walked the city walls taking in the sights of the sea, the mountains and the city. There is evidence of the war on the rooftops; new tiles in large sections. But otherwise, it's like most old European cities. Great contrasts of old and new.




We set sail Sunday morning.

Here are a few of the highlights so far:
  • driving the boat out of the marina for the first time

  • 3 mini captains learning the ropes from their very capable father

  • SAILING in the sunshine!!!!

  • anchoring in coves to swim and play on the unspoilt beaches

  • swimming with an octopus in 3 feet of water and within inches of this beautiful creature
  • driving the dingy

  • eating in local restaurants sometimes as the only foreign patrons

  • having lunch at a restaurant where we watched the cook clean the squid just before putting it on the grill (this place was like being in a Croatian home for a meal-fabulous!)

  • relaxing and decompressing from work

  • being disconnected from our phones, laptops and busy daily lives
We've had a few mishaps that come with the territory but we've learned from them and have moved on. The only thing I haven't gotten over is that we lost all of the pictures from these first few days because of my deleting mistake. Ethan put it into perspective for me by reminding me that we could take more and were there any that were "really important?" Not really E. Not in the big scheme of things! Taking more by the boatload!(photos above courtesy of Holidaysincroatia website.)

So we're off to a National Park this morning to hike and swim and tour a monastery then we are sailing on to Korcula. Bon Voyage!