Cruise Continued

We had a great day at Hvar, Croatia; a beautiful place. We went sea Kayaking. We woke to perfectly calm seas. I knew the Duchess would appreciate this for our kayak venture. By the time the tender was ready to take us ashore the wind had picked up considerably.

We met our guide at the wharf. He seemed a bit nervous and commented that he had never seen the wind pick up so quickly. But we should not worry… we would be paddling against the wind to start and the trip back would be easy. Our destination was a beech about a mile up the coast.

We had nine other hearty souls on our trip. Two of which were the dumb blonds who could not figure out the currency exchange the previous day. Not sure I mentioned that; but they were something else. The Duchess and I were the first in the water and on our way. The guide said we might get a bit wet… Actually the guide said there was a 100% chance of getting wet. The duchess did not wear her bathing suit; as much as I told her in might be a good idea. This is the woman whose idea of water sports is a bubble bath!

We paddled out of the harbor and made the turn to head up the coast. We found that the wind had picked up a bit more and the waves were 4- 6 feet hitting us head on. Shit…. This was going to cost me. But the duchess was game and on we forged. The duchess has quite good upper body strength from all the rocks she plants in the garden. We actually were the fastest group and beat the rest of the boats by a good 15 minutes. The two blonds turned back and we did not see them again.

Our destination was a nice pebbled beach, there are no sandy beaches in Croatia. There was a small café and we were able to get a cappuccino and use the WC. We hung out in the sun and talked with our fellow paddlers. Not much to report there; as neither politics, religion, nor sex was a topic. I am not sure how I survived.

The trip back was as advertised…. Down wind and quit fun. The wind had died down a bit which was fortunate, as I was not looking forward to surfing down 6-foot waves with my duchess looking for a bubble bath at the bottom of each one. It took 45 minutes to get to the beach, and 20 minutes to return.

I did happen to let my mind wander a bit. There are many democratic countries that satisfy the first criteria for a successful society. Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, Netherlands, and Norway just to mention a few. They are socialist countries, but being democratic is just as important to a successful socialist country as it is to a capitalist one. I actually think that democracy is more important for socialism to work than capitalism.