Boat Week, by Rowan

On Saturday, we met Rodco, our skipper. The start of our boat trip excursion started there, in a little marina on the coast of Split, Croatia. We hauled all of our bags to the boat, it took us a good two hours to set sail, but we finally started going. The ship was around 30 or so feet long. It had three bedrooms, a kitchen with a stove, broken fridge, a booth nailed to the floor, and two extremely stinky bathrooms. You could also sit up top by the wheel, or at the very front, which we did a lot because once or twice we all succumbed to the seasickness. We had to learn to, “not go down, is bad for your stomach”, as Rodco liked to say.

Anyway, the first night we sailed for about three or so hours, getting used to the boat and attempting to actually sail, not motor. We finally got to a little bay where maybe 5 or so boats were already anchored. By this time it was around nine o'clock. Rodco had promised us a swim, so we got into our suits and kind of clung to each other while Rodco jumped. This wasn’t the smartest decision on the Butwartz part, but Griffin decided to watch Jaws the night before we left, and we ended up all coming over to watch it. Now, on the actual boat, we were standing there freaking out because the water was pitch black and we were sure a huge shark was going to eat us all if we went in. Eventually, I caved and jumped first. The rest of the family jumped after that, though Griffin would always jump and then immediately climb back onto the boat, screaming, “SHARK!!”.

The next morning, we woke up and met up with Della, Vance, Jen, and Miles. They are old friends who had done the same trip around the world three years before when Miles and Griffin were in third grade and Della and I were in sixth. We all had breakfast, and then swam for half the day, talking and catching up. The eight days went something like that. Waking up and swimming, then either hiking, sailing, play games, or swimming some more. Then finding our way to a quiet bay, eating some dinner, swimming again, and then falling asleep. It was an adventure because every day we could do whatever we wanted. We found this one restaurant with Miles and Della’s family, along with their skipper, Vlaho, where we got a huge lamb on four platters, and ate almost all of it.

On the day of my birthday, August 9, Rodco had gotten this little old Croatian lady to bake me a cake and send it to a restaurant in the town we were staying. We had just finished eating our dinner, and a new waiter brings a giant chocolate cake out, it was super gorgeous, but all I could look at was Rodco’s huge saucer eyes, staring at the waiter. We had just finished our pieces of cake when Rodco grabbed his phone, pulled up a picture, and whisper shouted, “OUR WAITER IS KOKO”. We kind of all stared at him for a second, I mean Rodco was crazy but now we all thought that that he was actually crazy. We all must’ve looked very confused so he explained that Koko’s adventures was a very famous kids’ movie series, and that they were the most watched kids’ movies in Croatia. When “Koko” came to give us the check Rodco asked for his autograph, he said yes, but then he asked for my name. I said Rowan, and he wrote a little note and gave me a signed piece of paper. Rodco was confused and then asked, “um can I have one too?”. My fourteenth birthday turned out to be a pretty memorable experience.