First Sail by Che Walling

After a year of being on land, away from the gentle breeze and crystal-clear waters, we started prepping for our very first sail. We left the marine and waved goodbye to Trogir. Trogir was quite different from all the other places we have been to. Usually the places that have been in war are incredibly old but the war that was fought in Trogir only ended 25 years ago. Amazingly, they recovered wonderfully well, and markets started to blossom again, bringing wonderful arrays of fruit and vegetables. I thanked it for giving us many special memories. 

Soon after getting fuel for the boat we set sail for a new destination. With strong winds blowing in our faces and smiles, we were off. 30 minutes later Dad spotted a huge tuna fish jump out of the water! It was amazing and he told us, “Turn around, look!”  I turned around quickly and saw it. It was massive! I would say it was 3-4 feet long. At the same time, a huge school of bait fish jumped out of the water too. The bait fish were around a foot long which is still big in comparison to other fishes we have seen. 

We sailed around many different points and saw some neat things on them. I continuously asked Dad if where we were going was just around the points and he kept saying yes. After going around nearly 5 different points I started to give up on asking him. Finally, we arrived at our destination. It was a large bay surrounded a small city. The city was built to the very end of the peek and gave an amazing view upon entering. to the right of the bay, there were vast rows of olive groves. We found a nice place to set anchor and started relaxing. Of course, after being away from the boat for so long and seeing the clear waters before us, how could anyone say no to swimming there. We got on our swimsuits and jumped in. It felt amazing and I loved that I could see my feet. We swam for a couple hours and dried off, ready to eat dinner.  

Dinner came around but there was one problem. The gas line was unplugged, and we found out that it has been leaking gas inside of our boat, filling the air with the smell of gas. Gherty, Quinn and I had to go to the front of the boat and wait for Mom and Dad to get the gas out. It took an exceedingly long time but, in an hour or so, we could come back. Since we did not want to risk using the gas again, we had a cold dinner. It was not all that bad. We got a huge plate and made all sorts of things for dinner. We had amazing time during dinner and went to bed listening to mom read Italian folk tales about hand- chopping- off and bloody-death. All in all, it’s been a great day.