Croatia Sailing Retreat in 2018 with Captain Edo
As I mentioned in a recent blog post, I’m a big fan of retreats. I like how they bring people together, I like the bonds they create, and I think it makes for a much more interesting trip than your typical vacation. Over the past couple of years, I have participated in many retreats, including entrepreneur, fitness and sailing retreats put on by several different companies. So that’s why I’m now excited to launch the first retreat I am actually going to lead!
In participation with Marcela Korver from Active Workcation, we will be leading a sailing trip in Croatia next year from May 26th — June 2nd. I’ve sailed Croatia 3 times already in my life, and it is truly one of the most spectacular places I have been on the planet. Not only that, we will be sailing on the Senia with the amazing captain Edo to many locations I have done in the past, and a few new ones.
The first time I sailed Croatia was when I graduated from graduate school in the spring of 2009 from Virginia Tech. I booked a 3 week backpacking trip before I started my first job and headed off to Europe. One of those 3 weeks included a sailing trip.
I sailed on a traditional local Croatian sailing boat, having stops on many of the beautiful islands. Each day we would spend about 3–5 hours sailing and then arrive in port to explore, have dinner and enjoy our time on the boat.
I must say, I really lucked out for the boat I was placed on. I’m sure the people on all the other boats had an amazing time, but in my opinion, my boat, the Senia, was special. It was special because of the captain; as I mentioned his name is Edo and that’s me and him below on the Senia in the summer of 2016.
Edo had purchased the Senia only a couple years before, and it was his true life passion to lead groups of people around Croatia. Edo is from Croatia and while he had spent much of his career working on cruise ships around the world, he knew he wanted to return to Croatia and share this special place with others.
To this day, that first trip on the Senia I remember so clearly and it puts such a positive energy in my mind when I think about it. During that trip, we visited Hvar, Korcula, and Makarska before ending in Dubrovnik. I remember Edo telling us stories about the coastline and the war, I remember delicious fresh fish cooked for lunch, pirate parties, and good friends hanging out at the captains dinner. I also remember waking up early and Edo letting me sail the boat out of port on our way to the next destination while listening to Joe Cocker, his favorite artist; I’ll never forget those mornings. It was definitely a unique trip and wouldn’t have been the same without Edo.
Fast forward about 8 years and I was back in Europe for the summer of 2016. I had been in contact periodically with Edo over the years but since I was finally back in Europe, I figured I would try to meet up with him. Little did I know that he would actually invite me back on the Senia without a reservation.
I spent the next week back on the boat with Edo and a group of Aussies. It was a great week and this time there were a few more even special twists. When we stopped in Stari Grad on the island of Hvar, we had dinner at a farm where all the food and wine is grown on the farm; the decor of this place looked like something out of a movie. We again visited Hvar town, Korcula and ended in Dubrovnik; I was definitely happy to be back.
So now to get back to what is happening next year. We have rented the the Senia for the week of May 26th — June 2nd, 2018. We will be taking all the amazing pieces of my past trips, and adding on a few twists including fitness, entrepreneurship and kite surfing!
Each day while we sunbath on the deck with our Pina Coladas and Corona’s, we are going to have a mastermind session where we will discuss the tools needed to build a business and work on location independence. We will also have a common project during our journey and we will debut at the end of the trip, a promotional video and photos like others I have done in the past, as shown here.
Edo is also one of the most unique aspects to this trip. You will get to meet and interact with him, he’s going to teach us all about Croatia, and you may even get to hear him sing once or twice!
It’s not going to be all work and no play, each day we will stop for dip in the Aegean sea, we will go kite surfing, we will do some acroyoga, and most importantly we will have fun.
Early bird pricing runs though December 31st at 1100 euro. The trip is going to include all accommodation and port fees, the captains dinner, the dinner and dinner on the farm. I hope you will join us on this adventure, it’s going to be a ton of fun and I hope you will learn something along the way too! See you in Croatia!
