Salzburg, Austria   July 21st.

We are taking a holiday from Exotica, hired a car and headed to Germany and Austria for a dose of culture.  More about that in future posts.

The Croatian Islands between Dubrovnik and Split continue to provide the greatest pleasure.  We swapped crew at Korcula town and were joined by a regular Senta crew, Mark Prior and his wife Gayle Tollifson.  After a massive supermarket shop we returned to Uvala Luka bay on the tip of the Croatian mainland peninsular at Loviste, we picked up a mooring and had a wonderful meal at the restaurant ashore.

The evening was somewhat spoiled when the wind came roaring in at 2am and Terry, being a little uncertain about the security of the mooring we were on, spent the rest of the night in the cockpit on anchor watch.

The next morning we had a good breeze as we set off for the island of Hvar, however as is often the case, it came from dead astern and as the morning went on it decreased to a light puff, so the engine back on again.

 

In the early afternoon we entered the bay of Vinogradisce on the south of Pakleni Islands, it was very busy with many craft, swimming areas and restaurants but we found a good spot to anchor and enjoyed a peaceful afternoon and night, swimming frequently in the warm water.

 

We stayed in this bay for an extra day, moving Exotica to a position on the shore and taking 2 lines to trees on the beach.  This was the first time we had done this and was a useful learning experience, (which is code for –  we didn’t do it very well the first time.)

 

 

A water taxi to the picturesque town of Hvar, very popular with tourists, and climbed yet another hill to another mountain fort with a fine view.

 

 

 

 

Two nights on the island of Brac.  One in Milna, a small port almost totally dedicated to yachts and the rather smelly fish cannery.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then to the small bay at Bobovisce where the mooring buoys are packed into the fingers of the bay, very well organised and the surroundings idyllic.

 

 

 

Finally, on this part of our travels to the mainland near Split where, at Marina Kastela, Gayle and Mark left us.  The marina is huge with supermarket, restaurants an efficient boatyard and only 20 minutes from Split airport. Six charter companies keep their boats here, but the facilities for overwintering on the hard seem excellent.  In consequence, we have decided to leave Exotica here this winter.

On Friday July 19th we left Exotica in the marina and set off north to Germany for our holidays!

Thursday July 9th 2015 Korcula

The islands off the Croatian Coast between Dubrovnik and Split, where Exotica is now cruising, are a yachting paradise.  Warm settled weather, multiple attractive islands with plenty of small bays and anchorages and fascinating villages and walled towns.  Of course this makes it very attractive and thus busy, particularly with charter yachts and massive cruisers.  Nonetheless we have managed to find quiet moorings and anchorages at least in early July.

From the island of Sipan we made the very short trip to the neighbouring island of Mljet where we put into the tightly enclosed bay of Prozura.  Here we picked up another mooring buoy belonging to the Restaurant Marijana.  The mooring is free but one is honour bound to eat at the restaurant.  Here we had a delicious meal of roast wild boar and baby goat both from the island we were told.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yet another very short trip took us to the tip of Mljet and to Pomena where we moored against the quay owned by Konoba Nine, a restaurant recommended to us.  This proved to be an excellent choice as the owner of the restaurant, who is also the cook, presented to us a huge grouper he had speared in the morning and which along with lobster (more like a Moreton Bay Bug) and prawns he made into a huge stew – his signature dish.  It came in an enormous casserole dish and was spectacular.

 

 

Pomena is situated in a National Park and a short walk took us to two inland salt lakes with an island on which there is a church and a monastery and the requisite Roman ruin.

All these places were quiet and remote, however our next destination was the island and town of Korcula.  Here we booked into the marina, rather expensive but very secure. When we arrived in the early afternoon it was quite quiet but by nightfall it was packed solid with boats of all shapes and sizes and people being turned away.  Korcula town, famed as being the birth place of Marco Polo (the Italians also claim this) is a neat walled city full to bursting with tourists, restaurants and souvenir shops. On our second night, a Sunsail boat berthed alongside, on board, the Pollards and Connellys, RSYS members!

Janelle and Kate left us to return by ferry to Dubrovnik and we took off for a quiet night at anchor in a delightful bay – Uvala Luka – on the western most tip of the mainland peninsular.  The water is now so warm that one can just fall into the sea two or three times a day.

Thursday July 2nd.

While waiting in the marina in Brindisi we were joined by Anna and Tim Cropley who only had one night on board before we set off across the Adriatic from Italy to Montenegro. This was a trip of 112 nautical miles and we set off at 6.30 pm on a dull and windy evening, although the forecast was quite good.  There was a fanfare of horns from adjacent yachts as we motored out of the marina, I think they thought we were a bit foolhardy embarking at that time and they would soon see us returning.  In fact, after three hours of beating to windward a little off course the wind dropped off and we motored very comfortably through the night.  (At least three of us were comfortable, Anna felt the motion rather severely.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We arrived just after mid-day at Porto Montenegro, which is to the north of this country.  There is a very new marina still being built and is being tailored for the very affluent.  This appears to be working as the pontoons were full of Superyachts and also a handful of Megayachts. Exotica was a bit dwarfed by the magnificence.  Think Monte Carlo with a dash of Cannes to get the picture.  Nonetheless the staff were incredibly helpful, particularly in assisting us with the entry formalities to a non-EU country which required Terry to visit the Police, the Customs, the Harbourmaster and then the Police again with innumerable stamped documents before any of the rest of the crew could step ashore.

 

Despite the magnificence the daily cost was quite reasonable and 50% off happy hour at the boutique five star Regent Hotel, dominating the marina, meant two rounds of cocktails every night of our stay.

 

 

 

After two days to get over the night passage we motored a few miles within the Bay to the ancient seaport and city of Kotor.  Yet more city walls, ancient churches and history of earthquake, famine and massacre.  There was also a 1400 step city wall climb to the summit of the castle.  An American tour group started with 65 but only three reached the top. All the Exotica crew managed to achieve the summit.

We left Montenegro on June 20th. and on a grey but completely calm day motored into Croatia stopping at the first available port, Cavtat, to clear customs and immigration.  Again more trips between police and harbourmaster, where despite there being computers on the desks, all our details were laboriously entered in long hand in a huge ledger.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We decided to spend the night in the bay at Cevtat.  This was a mistake as, despite there being apparently plenty of room to anchor, we had great difficulty in getting the anchor to hold.  Finally we got dug in just as the wind started to come up and night to fall.  It was a rather fraught evening and Terry spent the night on deck watching the gusts increase across the bay and us get closer and closer to other boats and mooring buoys.  Finally, shortly after dawn it was clear that we were dragging and in fact had snagged the mooring line of a small fishing boat.  So we got everyone up, managed to extricate ourselves and motored out on a very windy morning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After an uncomfortable night we headed straight for the marina at Dubrovnik where by 9am we were safely tied up to a pontoon, hang the expense!.  Anna and Tim left us there to continue on to Korcula for a few days.  They were splendid crew and models in their willingness to participate in all the activities of Exotica, particularly the washdown and clean after every trip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a day of washing and cleaning new crew arrived on July 1st. – Janelle Berents and Kate John, after a quick shop we set off for the islands of Croatia.

Our first stop is Luka Sipan, a delightful small village at the bottom of a long inlet. We picked up a mooring buoy a few metres from a restaurant where we had one of the best fish meals so far.  Followed by a very comfortable night.