Dubrovnik to Boston, Massachusetts

I ended up in Boston, Mas by accident.

After a month or more of sailing along the coast of Croatia around the beautiful Adriatic on a super yacht I was hoping to join a sailing boat and do a transatlantic crossing from Gibraltar to the Caribbean. Not that I know how to sail, or have ever done a transatlantic crossing, or any crossing for that matter, I just have a deep desire to learn new things and that sounds rather exciting and challenging. Plus, I’m a water child, so anything to do with the water sounds good to me.

That option didn’t pan out, as the captain I was initially speaking with was verbal about his sexual desires that weren’t on my menu, all I could think was about being stuck with him for ten or fifteen days or more with no access to data or land while we did the transatlantic. What hell is this?

I’m a member of what I would describe as boat Tinder, but the demographics are definitely different from your average Tinder. Close your eyes and imagine this… middle age white guys with too much money and or retired or both, mostly retired because they have too much money. They want a hot sexy, intelligent, fit, educated, good looking, well-spoken, water loving, outgoing boater girl to live their dream with. That dream is of travelling the word on their new toy, because let’s be fair, those types women are so readily available to live your dream with you mate.

It sounds reminiscent of Stockholm Syndrome, just throw in a boat.

So, then I get an offer to join a small crew sailing out of Newfoundland to the Caribbean, actually at that point it was only the captain, (Later I was to learn that this would have been a death wish move on my behalf). Quickly looking up the location I decided why not, it’s so incredibly beautiful? The captain sounded nice and it was starting to get cold in the Adriatic (although in saying that it had been an extraordinarily long and warm summer. I ended my super yacht experience in the middle of the night when I went on a tinder date and he asked me if I wanted to come and see the only house on this beautiful island in Croatia near Kornati, I was getting rather tired of the female on board the yacht giving me shit because, actually I don’t know why! Women are awful to each other and I don’t get it. Anyway, so after a dinner and some gelato I went to the yacht packed my backpack and left and off I drove to Kornati in the dark of the night with some random stranger, where I stayed until the day I was meant to leave for Boston. Kornati is so insanely beautiful, this guy owned a tiny traditional house on an island even more stunning, the water was like glass, the remoteness and the beauty was hard to believe.

I stayed with him a week and met the locals, did a Michelin star restaurant and got to know Kornati then off to Boston I went. I was meant to get the bus but as we waited on the side of the road on what I think may have been a bus stop, no bus came and then the one that did drove past us. The ensuing bus chase started where we followed the bus for 30 minutes trying to catch up with it. It didn’t happen, legro (the guy) ended up driving me all the way to Beograd so I could catch another bus to Dubrovnik.

Have you seen Dubrovnik? If you haven’t then you should, I mean I don’t watch GOT but it made me wish I had. What a beautiful and historic city. The night I got there I climbed with my 23 kg backpack up 100 or more of the steepest stairs on the planet (well that’s how it felt), all I could think as I made my way to my accommodation in the old town was that if I even slightly fell backwards, I was fucked. The backpack nearly outweighed me and if I started to roll down those steep steps there was no coming back. Once I checked in the cutest and I mean cutest room ever I decided to head out to explore the sites that I had heard so much about. Dubrovnik did not disappoint. I can put photos here but go visit there yourself. You can thank me later.

I was standing in the main square and saw 2 men having a cigarette, I generally don’t smoke, except for when I do. They happened to be musicians and were doing a gig in a hotel with the best views of the city wall. They invited me in, VIP. I gladly accepted. They ordered me wine while they played jazz and entertained the wealthy that could afford such luxury. And tonight, I joined them in a stunning historic building looking out through large bay windows made of cream stone out over one of the most savage but beautiful coastlines in the world. Slow jazz, deep bodied red wine, dim lights, walls with stories and good food. I love my life.

After the gig Vicko, the piano player offered to show me around Dubrovnik. He was born there and grew up near the top of the infamous Game of Throne steps. They are absolutely magnificent. His story was so interesting, but also sad. Times were hard during those years and people were rather poor, well his family was very poor. He talked about what it was like to grow up in this a beautiful and now incredibly famous city. It wasn’t all good, I learnt so much about Dubrovnik that night that I may never have known. He offered to drive me to the airport the next day and I also learnt that the planes rarely take off on time…..

I boarded one of the worst international flights I can recall with Aer Lingus (Dubrovnik to Boston) which allowed me to go through USA customs in Dublin, saving the need to do a long line up in the US. I need to mention that the reasons for my score of 3/10 for the flight were as follows;

It left late, we boarded late, it was completely full, some random Irish dude decided to have a smoke in the toilet which set off the smoke alarms and the captain decided to do an emergency stop in Germany. Added to this was no WIFI, no food, no movies, no anything, just a squashed load of people complaining about the guy who smoked and giving him death stares. He gave no fucks at all. The Irish…..haha

I finally touched down in Boston, met with the captain and off we went to dinner. That night we headed to the boat which was moored just out of Boston at Marion, which looks like some made up place on TV, so many beautiful American New England style homes, we sailed past Martha’s Vinyard where Barack Obama has a home and wow, I mean wow and then there are the boats, what a magical part of the world to live. It was only over the next week that I was to discover that the engine was playing up, there was also sewage issues and no hot water, also we had to go shower in the public showers on the mainland near the ship repair buildings. I met some very friendly men going in and coming out of those showers.

I told him one night when he decided to crawl into my bed at 1am apparently due to the smell of the engine, that I couldn’t do it, and that was his fault, so he had to work out a solution for my now being in Boston with no plan, no accommodation and no idea what to do. In all fairness he did a great job, and wasn’t a bad person, just incredibly ADD and super lonely and all alone of that boat for years wasn’t helping. He did sort me out, he had a mate living in Gloucester, Mas, and he would meet us half way and I would stay with him for a couple of weeks until I worked out what to do with myself. I fell in love with that place, it will remain one of the most beautiful moments of my USA adventure, and the road trip there in Fall, I mean you can’t beat that kind of beauty. The colours of the trees, orange, red, yellow, brown and ginger will be forever etched in my mind.

Next blog Gloucester.