Submitted by Drummond Robson on Fri, 16/09/2016 - 16:17

It wasn’t possible to be part of the Croatia Rally unfortunately because of the need to be in Cambridge where my wife, Carol has been selected to exhibit at The Cambridge Printmakers while it is on. The next best thing was to have a charter holiday the week before. Although the Bora tried to spoil it, it ended in fine style as The Commodore was arriving under spinnaker in the Spirit of Osprey in Trogir. He was being joined by others in the flotilla as we were packing up in the neighbouring Marina. 

We had chosen to sail north in an Allures 45 which is an interesting boat with aluminium hull and swinging keel as well as the refinements of bow thruster, electric winch and other electronic gismos. Below is a picture of us in Maslinica, a delightful harbour about 10 NM from the even more fascinating Trogir.

Trogir began as Tragurion, an offshoot of the Greek colony of Issa (on Vis) in the 3rd century BC. The Romans developed it as a port. It grew in the 7th Century but got walloped in 1123 by the Saracens before resurgence. It was run by the Venetians from 1420 and then part of the Austro Hungarian Empire, apart from a brief period under Napoleon before it became part of Yugoslavia until 1991. Beautifully floodlit and car free it is a lovely profusion of Romanesque and Renaissance Architecture fronting its shiny cobbled streets and has a fine Cathedral of Saint Lovro, Benedictine Convent which The Commodore and some of his crew explored in the period I was waiting for a plane home. We also sampled the first rate Calebotta restaurant where the Rally’s first night was also to be held a few hours after I left. DR 15.9.16