The Parade

Trogir, Croatia

We were told by our Croatia cruising experts to spend at least one night on the town dock at Trogir. It was mentioned several times, with the stress on a “must do” experience. We did not know why it was so important to be on the town dock, but we have learned to follow what they told us, so we called the harbormaster to see if we could get in. Whenever we have to pay for a dock, we typically try to make Berkeley East smaller than she is, as the cost depends on length of the vessel. But the Trogir town dock typically only takes yachts 25 meters or more and BE is a mere 16.5 meters. She could never pass for 25 meters, so when we got to the dock, we called and said BE was 18 meters to see if they would take us. They asked if we were the boat with the American flag and then quickly helped us tie up right in front of the bell tower, a primo spot, especially if you like the ringing of the bells. They positioned us precisely, as they said there were two other boats coming in fore and aft of us.

We didn’t think much of that and went off to tour the town. Before we got off the boat, people were on the dock posing with BE’s flag and sitting on her deck for pictures. We were stopped and asked if we were really from America, if we made the passage, etc. It appears that many Croatians flag their boats in America in order to avoid taxes, so a lot of American flags seen on boats over here aren’t real.

We walked all around Trogir, seeing it from every view,

and by the time we got back to BE, our dock mates had arrived, two 30+ meter powerboats. Berkeley East looked tiny between the two.

We went below to escape the heat and came up a few hours later only to be shocked by the parade of people walking along the promenade, thousands of people. We watched with mouths open as people approached the boat to talk. A couple from Seattle who had seen our flag through binoculars across the harbor, a young couple from Croatia who wanted to go cruising some day, a guy from San Francisco who had a boat in the anchorage. It was incredible and we realized that this was why Fi and Eddie had insisted that we put Berkeley East on the dock in Trogir. We spent the evening watching more and more people wander past snapping photos. As it got darker, we were less visible sitting in the cockpit, and people would come right up to the boat to look and talk, unaware that we were there. The procession continued late into the night. The next morning all was quiet, except for the bell tower, and the crews cleaning the promenade for the coming evening parade.