Zrinka, nicknamed Zri, is a seasoned skipper with a passion for adventure and a lifetime of experience navigating the seas. From racing regattas to solo circumnavigations, her adventurous spirit knows no bounds. Read on and meet Zrinka Hrvoj! I rowed in high school, that was kind of my first contact with the water. Then, during my studies in Zagreb, which has no sea, I had no contact with boats. However, during my first year of studies, I got the opportunity to go sailing.
I got on the boat and immediately fell in love. I started with boat transfers, and during that period I was gone for a month and a half, during which I realized that I really liked and wanted to be surrounded by boats. I knew that sailing would be my future!
About 30 years. When I started, nautical tourism was not that developed in Croatia. For example, in some places, we had to move other boats to moor ours. I went through all the stages of the development of Croatian nautical tourism, watched the opening of the first charter companies, and developed my own experiences along with it all. The guests also changed — the Germans and Italians sailed most often first, then the Czechs and the British, and then more distant nationalities, such as North and South Americans and Australians.
I mostly sail with families, and I love that inevitable feeling when they welcome you into their family. You become part of them because you live with them for a week or two, wake up together and eat together. As a mother, I love seeing different types of families and how they raise their children. I keep in touch with the guests, sometimes I take a picture of a place we visited together, so we can remember how it was for us.
Some even bought houses in Croatia, which I helped them with. I am happy that they see their life in Croatia and that they fell in love with it through my love for the country. That really inspires me! My clients were Latinos who liked to run. I came on board and saw little sneakers, I thought all women were on board, but they were just shorter than us. I once sailed with people who brought their three Newfoundlanders.
