Adriatic Sea - Bozo Ceovic
My name is Bozo Ceovic. My most powerful memory of water is: I’m born in Croatia near the Adriatic Sea. I see water from the mountains about 5km from my village and I see passing ships there.
We are attached to water because we work that most of boys go on the sea after they grow up. So I knew that one day I would be sailing so it’s important not only because it is my job, but it’s very much important for all life and everything that happens on the planet is connected to the water. For us in Croatia, especially because we are a tourist country, the Adriatic Sea is a very nice place to visit. If there’s no water, obviously it wouldn’t be that nice.
As a young boy I was working part time in one hotel in Dubrovnik. At that time I liked to do wind surfing, that was the thing to do. Usually I went almost every day to do my wind surfing sessions. One time I told my friends that I was going to be going even when they said it was going to be a bit a wind more than we like. I went alone with my wind surfing board, I went about maybe 5-6 miles off shore. And then the wind picked up. Little did I know that my mast was not properly fixed to the board. But I took my swimsuit and tied it to my mast, to get more sunburn I guess.
When I lost my mast in the water and it sank, I found myself naked on my wind surfing board. I was not able to come back but my friends came to pick me up with a boat. When they saw what happened they didn’t want to give me a towel but they took me on the tow and brought me back to the hotel beach where I started from. I had to carry my wind surfing board in front of me and I walked into the hotel and they had a good giggle. I will always remember that obviously.
Water is important for my life because my job is connected to it, I sailed pretty much all my life too so connection is pretty much there. And second, and everything most of the planet is covered in water so it’s as important as everything else, every day life, not to mention that everything is connected to water. With us and pollution today, it is even more important to take care of it and think about water.
First of all, water is worth protecting for many different reasons: for future generations, for life on earth. If you are looking at the big picture, it’s important that the next generation can go and swim and fish where we used to do it two, three hundred years ago. Our actions brought us to the point that we cannot do that in some places anymore. It’s important to think about that and take care of what we can save. I was born around water, been around water all my life, I think I’m very much connected to the water and that’s what I will continue to do.
In my retirement, I will be connected to be the water even if I live in Canada or go back part time to Croatia. So yeah, it’s very important.