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.
Exotica anchored in Cres on a calm night
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.
Marino’s Beneteau 36, Homeless, sailing out of Cres
Cres town, an ideal haven in a bora
Exotica safely tied up in front of the motor boat, in Mali Losinj. The next bora blows
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.
Unusually rough water at Mali Losinj town quay
Calmer the next day
Superyachts take shelter too
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.
Battery driven air tank
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.
The intrepid diver
Vila Bled
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
View of Bled Island from our room
The ballroom at Vila Bled set up for a wedding
Murals of Yugoslav resistance fighters during WW11
Enough to frighten any bride
Tito’s study with original furniture
Truly fine dining at Vila Bled
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.
Alter of St Martin’s Church
Ornate Last Supper
Even though we got last minute tickets at the door we managed to sit in the front pew. Proud teacher in the background
The cellist on the left is exceptionally talented
Bled Castle and St Martin’s Church with a magestic backdrop
Vila Bled’s lido
Perfect day to row to the tiny tear-shaped Bled Island with the Assumption of Mary Pilgrimage 17th century Baroque Church. Legend says the temple of antient Slavic goddess, Ziva, once stood here 9th to 11th century
Vila Bled from Bled Island, there are hardly any motor craft on the lake, rowing rules
Friday night in Munich old town, a wedding reception in square with flame thrower
On to Munich to join our friends Maria and Jϋrgen to see The Magic Flute and Tannhaϋser.
Hawking tickets outside Munich Opera
Bayerische Staatsoper
Curtain call for the most lavish production of Magic Flute
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.
Saturday in Munich, Viktualien Markt is the place to be, the best fish restaurant in town. Note the Croatian hair cut!
Steinway Haus, Munich
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.
Rubenstein Saal, set up for the recital
Elegant Steinway showroom
With Maria and Juergen
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.
A red carpet affair, but we didn’t see any stars we knew
Tannhauser for the people unlucky enough to have tickets inside
Back on Exotica on July 11th. 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.
Rounding the northern point of Otok Cres, we’ve seen it from the land, at last good enough weather to sail
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.
Pretty town of Punat on Otok Krk
Sitting out another bora, what better way than watch the Gentlemen’s Final
Huge Marina Punat
Funny so many European boats have English names, we like this one!
Narrow, shallow entrance to Punat, 0.0mts under the keel as we leave
Confused sea in 20-25 knots, thankfully behind us, a great 38nm ride
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.
Even in Ilovik the bora causes waves
We do occasionally go ashore
Ilovik again, our safe haven
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.
Kaciol Restaurant in Biograd, fabulous food but no Aperol or Campari, Istra Bitter had to suffice
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.
Oh dear, back to Ilovik again. VHF thunderstorm warning so this is our safe haven
Still no storm but a threatening sunset
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.
Julie and Terry Clarke's Sailing Blog 