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We've completed our charter in Croatia, and I've just put up my first blog post about it: Croatia Sailing Trip Report - Part 1 . More to come.

In terms of the basics, we book-ended our trip with days in London (including a day at Wimbledon). So our flights were pretty easy, since we have non-stop service to London Heathrow from the DC area. Once in London, we flew Croatian Airlines directly to Split, and on the return flew Croatian from Split to Zagreb to London. (Croatian only has 6 planes, and flies limited routes, but everything was comfortable, efficient and on time).

We sailed with Sunsail out of their base in Agana (about 30 minutes from the Split airport). Our boat was a 44 foot catamaran with 4 cabins and 4 heads -- there were 6 of us plus a skipper. YES, unless you have a license, you must take a skipper regardless of your experience (mandated by law). So, even though we'd chartered larger boats bareboat, and 4 of us had experience as cruisers including open ocean and overnight passages, it didn't matter. However, in the end, our skipper proved to be a very good value, because things are very different in the Adriatic than the Caribbean.

Feel free to ask any other questions in the meantime, while the other blog posts are in the works.

Hi Eva

You could have got an appropriate 'license' very easily. The International Certificate of Competence (ICC) is recognised in Croatia, and most if not all European countries. The ICC is very useful for experienced but not qualified sailors as it just requires a one day assessment, practical and theory.

The ICC is issued by many countries and can be obtained in the USA from training organisations in Annapolis and Florida. Here's a link to the Annapolis centre... http://www.yachtingeducation.com/#!contact/c1lmq and also the RYA website that provides more info... http://www.rya.org.uk/infoadvice/boatingabroad/icc/Pages/default.aspx

Sunsail should have told you about this possibility (they run ICC courses in the UK!!!!!)

Wish we had known about that -- far cheaper than the options we were told about. Nevertheless, our skipper was really good value, and it made it more of a vacation to have someone else in charge.

Made this a seperate note so we can archive it later.

It was nice reading your report. My wife and I are going in September. We rented a 38 foot Oceanis from Ultra. We are really looking forward to to it. Your pictures are awesome.

Funny thing about the licensing. They wouldn't take my US Masters ticket. I had to get the ICC from ASA.

We are really looking forward to the trip. We fly to Rome first, then Split we are sailin for a week and then we are spending a few days in Paris prior to flying home.