July 9: Boating Around Brač & Hvar

This morning we went to breakfast at about 7:15 and then we gathered all our swim stuff and walked to Bol to meet up with the boats we were going to ride on all day. They were both Colnago boats and they were outfitted really nicely. The back deck had lounge cushions that we could lay down on and the inside cabin had nice couches to lounge on.

Living in Luxury

We split up into two boats and at first both Julie and Paul were going to stay back because it was a little breezy this morning and they were worried about getting seasick, but luckily we were able to convince Julie to get on the boat. Unfortunately we couldn't convince Paul to come too. The captain of our boat was Simon and the other boat's captain was Rocco and they had a deckhand named Dora. We set off across the Hvar Channel to explore some locations on the island of Hvar, the first being the town of Stari Grad.

Stari Grad Harbor

It was an old port town that has been populated since close to 400 BC according to some of the archeological discoveries they've made. The kids and Andrea explored a fortress that had a fish pond in it where they would feed small fish from the sea and as they grew they couldn't leave the fish pond, much like the fish ponds in Hawaii, but on a much smaller scale.

The Fish Pond

The adults and Maddy wandered around the town through most of the old streets and we bought a few souvenirs along the way. Eventually we met up with the kids a few minutes before we were supposed to get back on the boats.

Strolling Through Stari Grad

Our next destination was the town of Hvar, which is also the largest town in the island of Hvar (imagine that). It was definitely much larger than Stari Grad and there were quite a few very nice houses in the surrounding area. There was a fort at the top of the hill just behind town so everyone but Maddy, LB, Christal and Yeh-yeh hiked up to it and we took some pictures from the top.

Hvar From Above

Unfortunately there was a long line to get into the fort and we didn't have time so we walked back down and walked around the main square and harbor area for a little while before being picked up by the boats again.

Hvar Town

Next the captains took us to a little cove with a restaurant that they said was only reachable by boat or foot, called Notos Beach House.

Beef Tagliata

The food and service was very good and we all enjoyed ourselves. I had the Pasta Adriatic that included mussels, clams, prawns and scampi with a slightly sweet tomato sauce.

Pasta Adriatic

LB got the tagliata steak and almost ate all of it and Christal got the sea bass filet with vegetables.

Sea Bass

After we finished lunch LB went down to the water and skipped rocks until the slippers came and picked us up, which was only a few minutes.

Waiting to get Picked Up

From the restaurant area we rode to another location known as red rocks where we were able to jump in the water and swim around a bit. The kids and Vaughn and Andrea did some cliff jumping and we could swim into some small caves.

The water at the red rocks was quite a bit cooler than everywhere else we have been swimming, probably low to mid 70's instead of high 70's to low 80's, so it was quite refreshing and a little cold for some.

Evolving to New Heights

After the red rocks we went back across the Hvar Channel and visited the Pomorski tunnel over on Brač Island, which was an old Yugoslavian submarine dock where they could attack ships in the channel and Adriatic sea and then go hide quickly. It was pretty eerie going into the tunnel and then docking pretty much all the way in.

Eerie

We got off of the boats and walked around the tunnel and through some of the passages and then some other people that were on a sailboat found a rope swing at the mouth of the tunnel.

More Inviting from this View

All the kids enjoyed doing the rope swing, trying to make it to the other side, even LB did it multiple times. When Yeh-yeh tried it he made it to the other side, but there was no one there to catch him so he missed the landing and had to fall into the middle of the water. Unfortunately when he did that he lost his phone in the water.

Way to Go Charlene!

Eventually everyone made it back onto the boats and we headed out of the tunnel and then back to Bol for the conclusion of the tour. After the boats dropped us off we walked back to the hotel and took showers before meeting up in the lobby to head out for dinner. We walked back into town and just found some little random places to get food and then ate on the sea wall while the full moon rose. Most of our group ended up getting food from a seafood place called Fish Delish and Luke didn't want that so he got a beef burek from Mlinar, which is a bakery chain, that was pretty tasty. Maddy really wanted the fried shrimp and chips and Christal got some mixed veggies that turned out to be deep fried, and I just ate some of everyone's food for my dinner.

When we were done eating Wyatt, Cedric, Evan and LB went to get shirts with some pictures and sayings that are AI generated and apparently very funny to the young kids. Eventually Maddy joined them and wanted a shirt too so she could match them. After we finished souvenir shopping we walked back to the hotel and turned in for the night.

Brain Rot Poster Children