July began with another north easterly storm known as a bora.  Exotica was comfortably berthed in the secure marina at Veruda but once it had blown through the two of us set off again into the islands of the northern Adriatic Sea.

Our first stop was the island of Cres (pronounced Tres) where we anchored in the harbour of the town.  It has excellent holding as we were to discover on return a few weeks later.  Here we were joined by our friend Marino in his Beneteau 36.

The next day another bora was predicted so we made an early start and had a great sail with the wind behind us all the way to the well protected bay of Mali Losinj.  We had been here before and it is always nice to enter a familiar marina when the wind is blowing a bit.  We arrived quite early and then had the pleasure of watching the charter boats parking when the wind had really blown up.

In the morning Terry had a Croatian haircut, the backstreet barber that he found was rather overenthusiastic and left him completely shorn.  It will take at least a month to improve.

We left at midday and had another excellent sail to one of our favourite bays on the island of Unije where the clouds parted, the wind dropped, the sun came out and perfection reigned. Here Terry tried out the hookah dive system, basically an air pump and a long hose with a scuba mouthpiece.  One can’t dive more than two metres with this set up but it would be enough to inspect and fix problems under the boat with the propeller or bowthruster.  Once tested it was put away and hopefully never used again.

Then it was back to Veruda, which has become a bit of a home port, where we hired a car and set off on another opera trip.  This time to Munich with a stop for the night in Bled, a very picturesque lakeside resort in the north of Slovenia.  Much favoured by the aristocracy of the Austro-Hungarian empire as a summer resort it was also the retreat of President Tito, the long term dictator of Yugoslavia.  His palace has been turned into a hotel and this is where we stayed.  I

It is a monument to post war communist luxurious living and has some of the most astonishing wall paintings in the ballroom.  However, the view from our room or the restaurant were spectacular.

By chance the Bled Music festival was taking place and we had the great good fortune to stumble on a wonderful cello ensemble in the local church, all young people and so talented.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On to Munich to join our friends Maria and Jϋrgen to see The Magic Flute and Tannhaϋser.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Magic Flute production was 40 years old and thus very beautiful with no expense spared in terms of costume and scenery.  One of the characters in the piece is Monostatos, who is supposed to be black, this tends to be a problem these days but not in Germany where not only was he blacked up but all his henchmen as well.  Some American ladies sitting next to Julie were outraged.

Sunday, our friends invited us to a piano recital of winners of a classical and jazz competition at the Steinway Haus in Munich, a rare experience.

The production of Tannhaϋser was new this year and like so many in Germany these days was very weird but the music and singing superb.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back on Exotica on July 11^th. we set off again mainly motoring in a northerly direction as we wanted to get to the island of Krk, the largest of the Croatian Islands.  We stopped off in Cres at a favourite anchorage where there were a number of boats at anchor already.  We found a comfortable spot and were securely dug in.  Just as it was getting dark there came a huge thunderstorm with flashes of lightening, a mighty wind and rain driving so hard it was impossible to see.  We didn’t even have time to put waterproofs on it came so quickly.  We had the engine on and motoring slowly into the wind to take the strain off the anchor when suddenly a yacht appeared dragging its anchor and bearing down on our port side.  We managed to fend it off and it appeared that it was a lone sailor down in his cabin and unaware of what was taking place.

Fortunately these storms only last about twenty minutes, although it feels longer and once it had abated we re-laid our anchor further away from rogue yachts.

We have always wanted to round the northern point of Cres so this lull in the weather enabled us to do so, then south to Marina Punat 2nm from Krk town.

Yet another bora was due so we stayed for three days to let it blow through. It was forecast to remain strong in this part of the Adriatic, we had a 20-25 knot run south to the safe haven of mooring buoys in Ilovik.

As we re still unsure where to over-winter Exotica we sailed south of Zadar to Biograd na Moru, a mainland town heaving with tourists. A nice marina, but I suspect we were put off by the masses.

It’s so much fun to have the time to visit places we have liked the look of on previous cruises, so to Otok Iz, a delightful bay with azzure water and a fee collector who was charming, a rare occurrence!

We really wanted a night at anchor and headed for U Artaturi on Losinj until we heard another thunderstorm warning, so back to Ilovik’s safe mooring buoys.

At 1am it rained and there was some lightning, a disappointing storm!

We have spent many nights at anchor in the bay next to Marina Veruda but were floored last night to find they now charge! There must have been 100 boats anchored, the Italian and German holiday time, so they would have made a tidy sum.

 

Now back in our home port,Veruda, we leave Exotica for a couple of weeks and drive to Tuscany for a chamber music festival.

 

Exotica spent exactly a month in Venice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

However, from 23^rd. to 31^st of May we were in Stockholm staying in the Grand Hotel with the European Opera HAT Tour where we enjoyed another Ring Cycle this time with the Swedish National Opera Company and the great Nina Stemme as Brünnhilde. It will be remembered for the vocal strength of the cast rather than the production.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just click on the arrow to see the boats barging round our corner.  (It takes a little time to load.)

 

Rachael and David McLean joined us on Exotica on our return to Venice

 

 

 

 

 

 

We devoured the Artes Bienalle…..from the sublime to the ridiculous…..

 

and attended Musica a Palazzo performance of La Traviata. Each Act performed in a different room of the rather “tired” Palazzo Barbarigo Minotto. It was, however, a very gracious evening, sipping Proscecco overlooking the Grand Canal and full moon at interval.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coincidentally other Sydney friends were also in Venice and we met them for dinners alongside the Grand Canal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We needed some new business cards and found an original printing business in a tiny lane in Cannaregio. The charming owner was the son of the son who founded the tiny shop and nothing has changed. Same printing machines, same type set. He boasted of orders from all over the world, nothing digital and no website. Well, we thought, they must be great. And so they were but so was the price. As we had printing on two sides of the cards it was double the price agreed. They are unique but a lesson in “lost in translation”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The weather was very kind to us for most of the time we were in Venice but on Wednesday June 14^th. there was a huge storm with a massive wind and heavy rain.  This delayed the arrival of our next guests John Studdert and Dennis Mather who finally found us in the dark after being diverted to Verona.

 

On Friday June 16^th. we were lucky enough to get four tickets to the opening night of Sir John Elliot Gardiner’s Monteverdi 450-year festival with a production of L’Orpheo, generally considered to be the first real opera, at La Fenice. It was a sensational night. We were doubly lucky because there was a general strike all over Italy on this day and so there was supposed to be no public transport – which may have accounted for a few empty seats – however we managed to find the only ferry working which just happened to stop at our jetty.  This saved us a long walk and a soaking, in our best clothes, as there was a very heavy shower shortly after we returned.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next day – June 17^th. we had a brilliant sail back across the Adriatic Sea to the little Croatian town of Rovinj, where after clearing customs we picked up a mooring buoy and had our first swim of the season.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A second really good sail south to Pomer for a night in a marina, followed by two nights at anchor on the islands of Unije and Losinj respectively.

Finally, we returned to Pula for Dennis and John to ferry back to Venice and thence to London, while we await our next guest and depart once more for the islands of western Croatia.

Jules Maxwell joined us in Pula

 

 

We motored most of the way to Otok Cres, where we got the 5pm swing bridge at Orso, between Cres and Otok Losinj. We’d used the bow thruster while waiting for the bridge but by the time we anchored in Uvala Soline it would only make a whirring sound

 

 

The passage to Otok Rab, new territory for us, was a sublime sail.

There is an excellent anchorage to the west of the harbour, with good holding and sky blue water. Perfect for swimming, now the water temperature is 25C Julie is happy to jump in!

 

 

 

 

Plans to go the Krk were changed as a storm was brewing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another terrific sail back to Uvala Vognisca on Unije

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our week was curtailed as another storm was forecast and the helm wanted to get into a safe harbour before it hit, having no bowthruster. So we returned to our home port, Marina Veruda. Farewelled Jules, had the guys fix the boat and now sitting out yet another storm.

Postscript: Health report

Terry survived the cold he brought home from Stockholm. Julie’s teeth are holding up and finger nail slowly growing out. It’s not a pretty sight!