Adriatic Sea reveals personal growth in traveler

I hoisted a burden of personal disappointment off my shoulders when I said yes to swimming in the sea while island-hopping along the coast of Croatia earlier this month.

I stepped off the back of our 53-foot yacht and into the Adriatic Sea to float and frolic. Secretly, I longed to cast off a shame I had felt for years. Shame caused by my cowardice and near total avoidance of dipping even my toe into the sparkling water during a trip seven years earlier.

During this trip though, my previous and forceful no turned into a willing nod.

Don’t misunderstand: I can swim. I even snorkeled in St. Croix 20 years ago. But, since then, I regressed into the comfort of staying dry, even adopting the mantra, “You go have fun. I’ll enjoy myself seeing you enjoy yourself.”

But on this trip to Croatia, I recognized the gift life had handed me: a chance to fearlessly absorb this unique experience for the second time.

Yacht mates, all African American women I had just met for the first time, invited me to get in the water where they had splashed and laughed since day one of the weeklong cruise.

Jugo winds created choppy waves in the Bay of Vis on our third day of travel, which gave me a valid excuse to be chicken. But, no, I did not recoil. With the support of a steady hand from Sarah Baldwin, a fellow traveler, I glided into a flotation donut and pushed off from the yacht with land 50 yards away.

Warm, 77-degree waves lapped over me.

I maintained my calm as I eyed my surroundings: nude sunbathers draped like lizards on nearby rocks, and my bronze-and-smiling ship sisters.

“I’m ready to come back! I’m ready to come back!” I finally called from ten feet away.

These few brief moments of letting go had washed away my old sense of defeat.

“I’m glad you changed your perspective and decided to get out of your comfort zone and find out the magic of something new,” said Tina Nahmijas, a Croatian-born cruise director for Unforgettable Travel Company, our tour host.

“I hope, in the end, it was a positive experience and that nothing bad happened,” she said, “[and] that you will remember this for your entire life.”

Nothing bad happened. I was one of four people (including two strong swimmers) who the Bellissima yacht’s gentlemanly sailors had fished out of the disturbed sea.

Safe and dry at the mid-morning tasting that followed my water adventure, I savored sheep cheese from the Kvarner region and prosciutto from Drniš all while savoring the novel sweetness of triumphing over my unfinished business with the sea.

Nita Wiggins is the Paris-based author of Civil Rights Baby: My Story of Race, Sports, and Breaking Barriers in American Journalism. She teaches journalism at CELSA Sorbonne University.

This story was originally published August 23, 2022 at 8:00 AM with the headline "Adriatic Sea reveals personal growth in traveler."