Hello from a landlocked country!

[SailorSVK]

Hello sailors!

I fell in love with sailing recently and last year I got my day skipper licence. Now I have a whole two weeks and about 300NM of sailing experience as crew

I have a dream of one day retiring on a small island and buying an old wooden boat to fix & sail into the sunset.

Unfortunately, I live in a landlocked country (Slovakia), my closest coast is 400 miles away and I have 3 little kids to take care of (aged 3 and twins aged 5 months)...but a person can dream

In a few weeks I'm going to Croatia with my sailing buddy (we took the course together so we are at exactly the same level) and skipper a boat for the first time. Wish us luck!

Any words of encouragement are appreciated! Right now my dreams seem very far away...

[Don C L]

Welcome aboard SailorSVK! I wish I had the perfect advice for you but I think the best I can offer is to find the cheapest way to get to a harbor with boats and take the kids with you! Lots of folks take their kids sailing with them! Got any lakes nearby where you can practice with little boats?

[ozarkshark]

I live in Missouri and have been sailing 30 years. Not sure how many lakes you have but buy a trailer sailer. I have sailed several large lakes in Missouri, and Illinois, taken the boat to Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Chesapeake Bay, Atlantic off West Palm Beach.
Had several boats, McGreorger 21, Star Wind 22, and current boat a O"day25. Often used the sailboat like a camper on the long trips, just stopped in an RV park along the way.

[Joh.Ghurt]

If you live close to Bratislava, do what all Austrians do and drive to Croatia or Slovenia. Practically all Austrian Sailing Certificates are done in the Adriatic.

[SailorSVK]

Hey thank you very much for your replies!

I am indeed doing what the Austrians are doing and I am driving by car to Croatia to charter a sailboat for a week this September. So happy I get to do this!

In terms of lakes there are very few lakes in Slovakia and the ones we have are too small for sailing. The closest decent lake is Balaton in Hungary which is very shallow but I hear there are some sailing opportunities there, I'll have to check it out.

At this point I think I'll have to wait for the kids to grow up a bit. My idea is to learn how to sail a catamaran next year so I can take my family on a sailing vacation in Croatia perhaps 2 years from now. I feel like catamarans are more family-friendly than monohulls.

For now I am reading books, watching videos and practicing my knots

[more]

Originally Posted by SailorSVK

Hey thank you very much for your replies!

I am indeed doing what the Austrians are doing and I am driving by car to Croatia to charter a sailboat for a week this September. So happy I get to do this!

In terms of lakes there are very few lakes in Slovakia and the ones we have are too small for sailing. The closest decent lake is Balaton in Hungary which is very shallow but I hear there are some sailing opportunities there, I'll have to check it out.

At this point I think I'll have to wait for the kids to grow up a bit. My idea is to learn how to sail a catamaran next year so I can take my family on a sailing vacation in Croatia perhaps 2 years from now. I feel like catamarans are more family-friendly than monohulls.

For now I am reading books, watching videos and practicing my knots

No.NO Croatia. it espensive,dirty,ugly people. take airplane and go to greece or turkey.after gain some experience come to Croatia. but if must be croatia go to Istria dalmatia is ugly ,dirty,epensive.
i dont joke 1 kg fish start from 120 to 200 € per kg i pay hamburger last week 32€ in Hvar palmizana. Marina 144€ night.

but also dont go with family (meen children,wife who ****kkk) next 6-10 year when you beginning learning sail.

[Adelie]

Welcome to CruisersForum!

I would suggest updating your profile with your general location and your boat make & model or “Looking” in the "Boat" category. This info shows up under your UserName in every post in the web view. Many questions are boat and/or location dependent and having these tidbits under your UserName saves answering those questions repeatedly. If you need help setting up your profile then click on this link: https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...ml#post3308797

I would happily help more if the link above is not enough.