Once upon a time, long ago, on the Adriatic Sea, at the foot of the seven mountains, Zaro, Serpente, Ghiro, Magno, Paradiso, Rizzi and Vidal, developed the city of Pula. I wonder whether the Brothers Grimm, and back in 1812 years, as well as many today’s croatian writers and poets in their works, were inspired by this old town and writing the story of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, actually wrote about Pula.

Pula is the largest city and the administrative centre of the Istria. It is a city with a mediterranean climate and the whole region is known for its mild winter, warm summers, calm sea and untouched nature. The city has a long tradition of winemaking, fishing, shipbuilding and tourism, and is a transit port.

Pula is best known for it’s preserved ancient Roman monuments, of which the most famous is “Amphitheatre”, popularly called “Arena”, which dates back to the first century. It is best – conserved amphitheater from antiquity and is the sixth largest in the world. Today, during the summer period, is still used for maintenance of traditional film festival and various cultural events.

The natural beauty of the Brijuni National Park and the turquoise blue Adriatic sea, made the city an internationally popular summer destination.

It is not easy to describe the beauty of Istria and Pula and take a walk through its thousands of years of old history, with a few sentences. Franko Krajcar, famous ethno musician, through one of his songs, gave a credible picture of Istria, the sort that she really is.

The song of Istria

Picture of our dear Istria I’ve carried in my heart

It lays flat and the precipitous on the Adriatic sea

Her head is Uchka Hill and beech her voice

Plateaus, forests, pastures, green belt around waist

Rasha, Mirna and Dragonja flowing through her veins

Look islands, lovely children on mother’s skirts

Our Istria, mother of us, I carry you in my heart

Most beautiful country for me you are on the Adriatic sea

 Franko Krajcar i Indivia, Pula 2012

Peter and I are not so often visited Pula but enough is well know that we can say that we love this city. Due to its geographic position and security we decided to leave our boat in one of its marinas.

MARINA VERUDA

Marina Veruda is the city’s tourist district in Pula, which is located in Veruda Channel in the South of Pula between Verudela peninsula in the West and Rudjan or Sandy Bay in the East.

It is surrounded by Mediterranean vegetation and is a place where even today meet daily strokes of fishing. It offers complete services for sailors and its attractive position on the Istrian Peninsula, is perfectly suited to nautical tourism. Marina received the “Blue Flag”, international recognition in environmental protection. This is the point from which you can very quickly get to the Kvarner Islands, such as Rab, Cres, Mali Losinj, Krk, Susak, Silba and Unije. Some of these islands are the destinations in which we will also sail.

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At the end of this short walk through Pula, as the initial destination of our journey from which we will sail full heart and sails, we want to inform all of you who are with us that we have reached the end of the first part of writing from the territory of Australia. Meermowe’s Great Adventure that will continue in the month of May upon arrival in Croatia when we will again be together in the way of our life. Through our blog, you’ll experience a lot of excitement, discover new places and enjoy the many adventures. We thank everyone for the given support.

See you soon.

Peter & Jasmine

Preparations for our journey around the world began two years ago, when we bought sailboat “Meermowe” in Split. Therefore, the period from 2013 until the end of 2016 years, when should our journey around the world finished, it will be for us in the most beautiful living memory.

Be ready for a cruise across the Atlantic and the Pacific is not the same as preparing to make a cake for an afternoon. It is a process that takes months and even years. Staying and living on board is the experience not to be forgotten. This journey for Peter and me is a synonym of life and we just wish surrender to them. We are sure that the invested effort, time and money at the end of three times back through everything that we experience and learn. Life is not magic and does not need Harry Potter’s magic wand to overcome all the problems that we are on the way to enjoy these rare moments of life.

Our previous period was full of activities. We studied the sea charts, administrative provisions of countries and ports where we sail and we searched the Internet for the purchase of the complete electronic equipment for communication and security to the ship and the entire crew, which is for us in the first place. Unlike travel planning, everything that can happen we cannot determine but because we can create feelings comfort on board and preparedness to deal with everything that befalls us on the way.

When we were students, we noticed the difference between school knowledge and real life in which we have learned and applied. So it is with dreams too. For years my husband and I dreamed to reach our great dream of a lifetime and when we got to step away from reality we realised that this period of life will not and cannot be the same. The only good psychological preparation will restore security and faith in ourselves in this new life conditions with which we will soon meet. So far we have always had a safe harbour but from now on all environmental and natural storms we’re going to have to go without bending down respecting the sea and nature because they are stronger than we.

Life at sea, on the other dockside, is full of adventure to which also we are ready. Some of them will be good and some not but they always end up leaving you with a good story. The organisation of our entire trip is such as to avoid season weather conditions such as hurricanes and monsoon areas and uses a period of stable winds.

Peter and I still possess a great love, the strength and the will for this trip. In it we put a large part of our self and anything else we cannot miss. We feel psychologically strong and ready for this adventure in which sharks represent home pets, when we sail for weeks unseen land and long nights thinking about what we did not have time or did not want to think.

Our crew will be increased and decreased at different sections of the cruise and the participants will be those who want to be part of this adventure, the members of our family and friends. Only two and a half months separates us from traveling to Croatia, which is why our good luck and excitement never ends.

Navigate the world and discovering new areas are the most powerful determinants of our life that simmers in us from an early age. To dream trip did not become important thing in our lives we would not never had a chance to realise it and turning it into a way of life because they will always find at least one good reason to give up.

Each of us in life has a great desire. To some it seems inaccessible so immediately discarded it while the others are trying to achieve but because of problems in life they give up and it becomes oblivion. Peter is one of those people that his every wish realizes sooner or later.

When starting from scratch, as we started, it is not easy to achieve a lifelong dream. My husband was the first time experienced the sea when he arrived in Split and then he could not imagine life without the beaches and waves. That was the time when we were in love to the ears, when we were self-sufficient and when they, along with sandwiches and beer, like the tide began to create the first ideas about the ship and sailing without realizing how much we have and give our best to achieve this.

As the years passed love of the sea are transferred to our older son who also sees himself in the future on the big boat going around the world with the wind under full sail while younger son praises sea but rather remains on the coast.

The political situation of that time brought many changes in the country and with that has greatly changed the conditions of our lives. Life has become difficult and cash assets more than limited. The only thing that is still left to live in us was our life dream to sail around the world on our boat with two wheels.

By moving to New Zealand we have changed our whole former life. We had to forget everything and start anew. We worked very hard on a daily basis, weekends and holidays in a variety of jobs and nothing we were not difficult, a new life again brought hope and prosperity. The idea of the boat we were besieged all the more so we decided to buy our first 6-meter-long sailboat “Tequila” in which we have invested all our savings. Unforgettable are the moments of our happiness when we went sailing and fishing around the nearby islands of New Zealand.

Two years later we sold “Tequila” and we bought a sailboat “Ellie”, 9.5 meters long we just redecorated and with which we cruised the islands for a longer distance for a few weeks. Business we had not allowed us enough time to enjoy sailing. “Ellie” is less used, which was the reason to buy a small motorboat 5.5 meters long, with which we have enjoyed in frequent fishing. This period of life was very difficult but we brought a lot of happy moments and events.

Plan a trip around the world has become part of us from morning till tomorrow so after selling a motorboat we decided to wait for a favorable opportunity to purchase sailboat of our dreams. Life in New Zealand, with time, it became increasingly difficult due to the financial crisis that followed and had a major impact both on our business and on our proper budget. Not long after we moved to Australia.

In Brisbane, my husband and I had a short time hired. We have worked hard abjured of anything and everything to manage, after 20 years of waiting, turn our dreams into reality. With such a long period of time, knowing the cost of this type of ships, several times we thought to give up money and invest in something else, maybe a smarter investment. Finally, it became clear that we went away and stepped deep and that somewhere within us there is something that we could not do it.

In the summer of 2013, during a vacation, we bought so much desired ship of our dreams in Split, Commodo 51, a sailboat 15 meters long with two wheels. The ship is currently located in Pula in a dry dock and patiently waits for the beginning of a life’s big adventure from Pula, Croatia, across the Mediterranean, high seas of the North Atlantic and the South Pacific to the Port of Mackay in Australia. After assessing the Plan, ship should leave the port on June 15, 2015.

“Meermowe”, the name of our sailboat, which means “Seagull”, has become part of our lives and we are happy about it but it is obvious that the realisation of our dream life, after 20 years of waiting and all the trouble we went through, comes from a love of the sea. Only love and infatuation can give us the strength, will and perseverance.

People are always saying, “from a cradle to the grave nicest are student’s days”. Childhood, a happy and carefree period of our life, which is keep coming back when we are talking funniest events first our children than our grandchildren. Just this causelessness made a children’s happiness clean in what is hiding its wondrous beauty.

Like many children, so are we, my husband and I, were growing up in their own midst. Peter into a large family in a small and picturesque Slavonian village Londzica in Croatia while I spent childhood in sunny Split on the Adriatic coast.   That was the time when we were not burdened with television and computer, expressing either the pleasure for games and entertainment and defiance and laziness towards learning and school obligations when also our school holidays represent the best part of education. Then of course, we were not able to think of the future, how we live and how far will our lives take. We both lived in own little world without thinking further than the nose for no longer than tomorrow.

My great love in life was blue sea that I was caressing by the waves of the birth and all my dreams were linked to ships, seagulls and fish until in my life has not entered Peter.   His arrival in Split on education in Navy School Center has greatly changed his and my life. From our first meeting and to these days gave birth to another great love so we all, blue sea and I have become part of his life.

Enjoying long night walks and play of the moonlight on the surface of the sea has begun to bring forth our life dream to sail around the world with our sailboat with two wheels. This obviously was a time when thinking about our future, ceased to be children and childhood became part of our history.