More Sailing Review: My 3-Day Croatian Islands Sailing Experience

“It’s just like driving a tank” our skipper Julius explained in the hope this would make me understand how to steer the Lagoon 42 catamaran on our second day on the Croatian seas.

Having never driven a tank, or a boat, before and with two hands on the silver levers that controlled the yacht’s right and left propellers, Julius’s comment was unfortunately little help.

However, after a few tries, and a lot of patience from our Julius, I finally got the hang of it. I was driving a boat! The girl from Yorkshire, who lives nearly 2 hours away from the sea, was driving a boat. Admittedly I was driving a boat with little skill but still, for a brief moment, it was me at the helm of the boat.

This moment, along with many others, were some of the many memories I made on my recent trip with More Sailing. 

Who Are More Sailing?

More Sailing is a Swedish company, founded in 2009, who aim to make sailing on the seas more accessible to everyone. With a More Sailing trip, you don’t have to hire out the whole boat – you can book on as a solo traveller, a couple, or a group of friends and enjoy a crewed trip where breakfast and lunch are included. The main thing for you to do is just sit back and enjoy your holiday.

For me, I got to enjoy my More Sailing trip with my best friend. Never ever did I think that when we became friends in school, that 23 years later, we’d be sailing the Croatian seas together. Along with 6 others, we got to explore Trogir, Solta and Brac stopping in quiet bays and small towns along the way.

If you don’t fancy Croatia, More Sailing also does trips in Sweden, Italy, Greece and The Caribbean. All of those destinations are calling me for a future trip and I can just imagine enjoying a week with a bunch of my school friends, creating more lifetime memories to add to the ones we already treasure.

What You Need To Know About A Sailing Trip with More Sailing

Food and Drinks

Breakfast and lunch are provided each day. I didn’t know what to expect in terms of food but our host Julia was an absolute whizz in the kitchen serving up, and presenting so incredibly beautifully, the most delicious meals each day. 

Breakfast was a great choice of fruit, cereal, tea and coffee, porridge, cereal and croissants – a great way to start the day if you ask me. Lunches were a variety – we got to eat prawn pad thai with accompanying salads and sides one day, and grilled chicken with courgette salad and halloumi another day. 

Then, what I wasn’t expecting was our mid-morning snacks which were a selection of fruit, crisps, crackers, cheese, chocolate – everything was delicious. Also, with More Sailing being a Swedish company, we got to enjoy the Swedish tradition of Fika every afternoon which is something I could get on board with in my daily life. I already mentioned Julia was a whizz in the kitchen, well somehow for Fika, she managed to whip up banana bread one day and a warming apple crumble dish with custard the next. 

We were fed incredibly well and the food was definitely one of the highlights of my trip. Drinks were also included on our sailing trip and after 11am we were able to help ourselves to a good selection of wines, beers, and soft drinks. The group we were with weren’t particularly boozy but I could see there was a good amount on board so I don’t think you’d ever go without if you were enjoying a good trip with a group of friends.

Bedrooms

On our boat, the Lagoon 42, there’s space for 8 people and 2 skippers. We weren’t assigned rooms on our trip but I think me and my friend got pretty lucky with our pick although I was pretty impressed with all the rooms on board. 

Our room was at the back on the left hand side of the catamaran – this meant we had room on either side of our bed to each wiggle in and out. In the rooms at the front, it looked like we might have had to climb over each other. The beds are plenty big enough though, this was something I was worried about even with someone I’ve known for 23 years. But I needn’t have stressed about it, I think I even had more room than in my bed at home! Bed linen and towels are included too so you don’t need to worry about bringing these although I would recommend a beach towel – one of the thin Turkish style towels would be perfect for days on the boat.

Storage was minimal but, unless you’ve brought a huge suitcase with you, your luggage can be stored at the side of the bed or on a shelf and there was even a bit of space to hang a few clothes up.

The ensuite bathroom was really good too with hot water pumping through the showers, a shelf for any toiletries and a toilet which was great when we weren’t docked up in a marina. There are some rules to follow though. 

Firstly, you can’t flush toilet paper on the boat and there is a bin for sanitary purposes. You also have to be mindful of hot water usage, we were fine even when anchored in a harbour but if you’re not docking in a marina it’s good to keep in mind there’s limited water on board when having a shower.

The same goes for electric, you can’t use the plugs in the bedroom when you’re anchored in a bay or at sea but there are USB outlets (take a converter if you have USB-C cables). There is a generator back up for electricity if needed and once you’re docked in a marina you can easily use the plug sockets for charging and hair straighteners etc.

When you are docked in a marina though – like we were when we were in Milna and Trogir – there are proper showers and toilets to use if you want. They were all really clean and very well used by people docked in the marina.

The People on Board

As well as two skippers who take care of everything for you including navigating and driving the boat, getting breakfast, lunches and snacks ready, fuelling the boat, and keeping everything tidy, you also have new pals to share the adventure with.

You can book on a More Sailing trip as a solo traveller, with a friend, or with a group of friends. Solo travelling does mean you’ll share a room with someone you won’t know and it’s fairly close quarters on the yacht so this is something to keep in mind if you like your own space. You can pay for a room by yourself, or like me, take one of your best friends along for the ride.

Even if you take a friend though, the chances are, unless you book the whole boat, you’ll be holidaying with people you don’t know. This can be pretty exciting, but I’m not going to lie I was a bit apprehensive about this. What if we got stuck with some people that made the trip a nightmare? Luckily we had some good’uns in our group who made the trip pretty memorable.

However, if I was going on a trip like this again, I’d love to go with a group of people I know already but it really depends what kind of traveller you are, what your budget is, and how you like to travel.

Your Route

Our trip was shorter than the usual 7 day trips offered by More Sailing. However, I gathered that other than your starting and end point, the route you take during your trip is pretty flexible. This is so that plans can be movable due to weather or depending on the groups interests. This didn’t bother me too much, in fact it was nice for someone else to plan the itinerary and just to take the trip day-by day. 

If you do like to plan, and you have certain things you want to see, a More Sailing Trip might not be for you; however, you might also see some places you’ve never thought of visiting. For me, the main experience was being on a boat and enjoying Croatia’s coastline, all the places we saw in addition to this were a bonus.

Our 3 Day Itinerary for our More Sailing Trip Around The Croatian Islands

Day 1 – Trogir

We set off really early from London Gatwick Airport and landed in Split by 9.30, by 10.30 we were in the gorgeous little Croatian town of Trogir enjoying an iced latte and avocado on toast at Tinel Specialty Coffee Shop.

Trogir is a great place to spend the day before hopping on board the More Sailing boat. As a UNESCO World Heritage site you can easily spend a few hours wandering around the old town’s cobbled streets, getting lost (or going around in circles), and enjoying the occasional stop for wine or coffee. 

We’d already dropped our bags off at the boat and, I think, caught our skippers Julius and Julia a little by surprise being down at the marina so early. But, Julius showed us where to stow our luggage and off we went to enjoy a relaxed time exploring Trogir.

By 3pm we’d received a text from Julius letting us know our departure time and by 5pm we’d met our group and Julius and Julia introduced themselves properly. Then we were out on the Adriatic Sea, waving goodbye to Trogir with a welcome glass of bubbly in hand, and heading towards our first stop of the trip.

Now, something to keep in mind is how you might travel on a boat. Silly me knew I got sea sick, and silly me also didn’t think to bring any seasick tablets with me. Big mistake, huge. 

Fortunately, Julius had some emergency sea sick tablets stashed away and then almost immediately got me at the wheel of the boat. Just like if you’re in control of a car, it turns out if you’re driving a boat, you don’t feel as travel sick. It did take me a little while to figure out how to get us going in a straight line but I got there in the end and fortunately felt a lot better by the time we’d dock up.

Our first evening was very chilled. We docked up in a gorgeous little bay on the Island of Solta, enjoyed a smorgasbord of delicious food, and spent a couple of hours getting to know our fellow travellers we’d be spending the next few days with. Then as we’d all had early starts, it was time to get into bed and settle in for our first night on board.

Day 2 – Solta to Brac

Day 2 began with music being played at 8am, our sign that breakfast was ready. 8 sleepy heads wandered into the yacht’s main area to a gorgeous selection of food. I honestly didn’t know where Julia was keeping all the food she was dishing up to us but she showed us all the secret cupboards where everything was stored. It’s amazing how every inch of space is optimised for storage on the boat.

While we were eating, Julius explained where we’d sailed the previous evening, and what the plan was for our second day, but first full day, at sea. We had the option of sailing around the open waters, learning more about how to sail the boat if we fancied it, or just heading straight towards a sheltered harbour. I quite liked that as a group, we had a say in what our schedule was like for the day. 

As the weather was rolling in that day, we decided to head towards a sheltered harbour to enjoy lunch before heading to Milna on Brac for the evening. So after breakfast, our skippers prepared the boat to leave our harbour and set sail for the day.

Unfortunately for me, this was probably the lowest point on the trip. You know that seasickness I’d had the day before? Well it hit me like a ton of bricks on our second morning. The wind was making the water extremely choppy and any chance I had of keeping my eyes on the horizon was long gone with the way the boat was moving.

While me and Dani were gripping on to the inside of the boat, facing forward, Julius dug into his emergency medicine stash again for the seasickness tablets. “You might feel a bit tired after taking these,” Julius warned. Then Julia came over with some fruit and chocolate, “I know it might be the last thing you want to do but having something to eat will make you feel better”. You usually don’t have to ask me twice to eat chocolate but it took me a couple of minutes to even face one of my favourite treats. 

After a couple of pieces of Milka, and some grapes, the combo of food and medicine helped me feel a lot better. But still needing to just look forward, Dani and I sat ourselves on the sofa in the main area of the boat. “Are you feeling tired yet?” Julius kept asking us. No, we weren’t feeling tired at all but then who knows how many minutes later, I was waking up from a nap and a very sore wrist from where I’d rested my head. So yeah, turns out the seasick tablets did knock us out and one of our fellow travellers had caught the funniest photo of me and my friend snoozing away after denying we weren’t feeling at all sleepy.

Luckily after this, the weather calmed down, and we got to enjoy lunch in a gorgeous little bay on the island of Brac. It was still raining but a couple of our group took the brave leap into the cool waters around Croatia. I was happy to sit and watch but if it had been sunny and 10 degrees warmer, I would’ve been straight in there. Even though the weather was grey, the water looked so blue and I can only imagine how beautiful it would look on a sunny summer’s day. 

Lunch on our second day was grilled chicken, courgette salad, and warm halloumi and what a location to enjoy such a fresh delicious meal. After this it was a leisurely sail into our stop for our second night on board. The seasickness tablets had truly kicked in now, and as the weather was a lot calmer, I was able to enjoy the passing scenery a bit more while chatting away with the rest of our group.

Our evening stop was the gorgeous little town of Milna on Brac. It was honestly dreamy. Seeing the pale stone buildings come into focus as we sailed further into the marina was beautiful and I wish we had more than an evening to explore. When we’d stopped, Fika was served (banana cake with little bits of chocolate), and we figured out where to go for our evening meal.

Now you don’t have to dine with your group, but we all decided to eat together on our first evening and after a wander around the harbour, we settled on a pizza place which worked well for everyone. Drinking wine, with a Margherita pizza as the sun set over the water was just such a gorgeous moment and the best way to end our first full day on the boat.

Day 3 – Milna to Trogir

Our 3rd day started out just as our second day had, with an 8am breakfast. Fortunately the weather improved and we were able to sit outside as Julius gave us our route for the day. 

As the wind had dropped, a few of us took the opportunity to learn how to maneuver the boat using the propellers. I caught my friend having a go as we were waiting in line to refuel the boat. “Look, I drew a heart!” Sure enough, I looked at the digital map on the screen which showed the depth of the sea, and there in a red line was a little heart she’d drawn while turning the boat. 

After we’d topped up the boat’s fuel, it was our boat mate Sara’s turn to drive the boat. Once she’d got the speed under control, Julius threw one of the fenders overboard. “Man overboard!” It turns out we weren’t quite ready as a group to rescue a real life person, this poor fender was driven past, and over, several times before we managed to haul it out of the water. But we got there in the end, and it was a real group effort.

I fancied a go next, and this was where Julius just kept saying “It’s just like driving a tank”. This unfortunately wasn’t much help but when I thought I had the hang of controlling the two giant silver levers in front of me, Ella, one of the group, popped up into my line of sight “Oops” she said shrugging her shoulders. She’d only gone and thrown the fender back into the water for me to rescue. And that’s where it’s all went, to put it politely, tits up. I could not for the life of me figure out how to drive or turn this boat in reverse, to rescue this poor fender. Again “It’s just like driving a tank”, was said as if it was helping me at all when in fact I felt as uncoordinated as Bambi on ice. One minute I thought I had it, the next I was turning in the complete opposite direction to where I wanted to go.

“Please help me” I said, very pathetically in the bid to get some advice from our skipper. Julius then parked himself on the seat next me and with incredible knowledge, literally talked me through step by step on how to guide the boat next to the fender so we could rescue it. It was seriously impressive and made me even more confident we were in good hands on this boat.

Fender rescued from the water and I immediately handed the reins over to the professionals so we could get to our next destination for lunch. This was yet another gorgeous bay and while we had been learning how to drive the boat and rescue thankfully not real people, Julia had been cooking fresh pad thai with garlic prawns for lunch. What a treat this was. Yet another incredible meal on board and I’m still baffled just how Julia whipped up such good food on board.

Once we’d all finished, and as the water was fairly calm, we were able to get out onto the boat’s dinghy and see our home of 3 nights from the water. This was a bit unsteady to climb on to but worth it to just have a nice little cruise around the bay. Some of the group also took the opportunity to go for another sea swim and even jump off the top deck of the boat giving a little glimpse of what boat life would be like in the summer sun.

All well fed, and tired from swimming, we got on the move again and this time we were heading back to Trogir for our final night. Once we’d docked, Fika was served (a delicious apple crumble) and we watched as other More Sailing boats floated into harbour, with crew chatting and enjoying what looks like an incredibly social aspect of boat life.

Again we dined as a group for our final evening, enjoying dinner in a local restaurant in Trogir’s Old Town. There are a huge selection of restaurants in Trogir but we found the further you go away from Trogir’s waterfront, the less expensive meals become. Franka was recommended to us but we ended up in Nevera, a real homely place serving up good solid meals.

Our last night was probably the group’s most social, less tired from our travels and with the weather turning a bit warmer, we spent some time chatting on the boat deck, trading stories, and belly laughing about adventures to come. I can see how you can make good friends on the boat, especially when you’re with likeminded people.

Day 4 – Trogir to Home

Sadly, our trip had come to an end. The crews and More Sailing staff were getting the boats ready for the next trips and we had our bags packed ready to leave the boat. After a group photo, we said goodbye to Julius and Julia, and all went our separate ways. A 3 day trip, which felt much longer, had come to an end and Dani and I had created a whole new bunch of memories which I’m sure we’ll talk about for years to come.

Would I Do a More Sailing Trip again?

For sure, this way of travelling was completely different from anything I’d done before. However, for me personally, travelling solo and sharing with someone I didn’t know wouldn’t be for me. I loved being able to travel with my friend and create those memories together, and I’m sure I’d love it even more if I was with a group of people I did know.

However, if you want to experience a boat trip around Croatia, Greece, Sweden, Italy or the Caribbean and want to make a bunch of new friends, this is such a great way to do it for a reasonable cost. It’s not just a holiday, it’s an experience where you can get involved in boat life and sailing as much or as little as you want.

Is a More Sailing trip something you would do? Croatia is an amazing place to experience a sailing trip like this but would you go to one of the other destinations? Italy or the Caribbean maybe?