The day after Philippa and James left we remained in Trogir Marina and worked on the decks.  To maintain the fine brown colour of the teak we use a two-part solution.  First a UV protective coat and, once dry, a clear Nano sealant.  It takes both of us working all day, somewhat exhausting in the heat but once done the decks look as they did when we bought Exotica.

 

As we motored towards the entrance of Trogir bay we noticed very dense back clouds to the west moving quite fast towards us, so our planned sail south to the island of Hvar was changed to the ever secure anchorage of Vinisce. Here we weathered yet another storm comfortably at anchor. A good decision as we heard the storm intensified and by the time it got to Korcula, near Hvar, there were winds of 70 knots with blinding rain blowing 54 foot yachts sideways.

 

A gentle sail the following day to Hvar, probably the most famous of the Croatian islands for expensive living and wild parties of the rich and famous.  We found a delightful spot with three adjoining bays near Starigrad and picked up a mooring in the middle arm.  During the afternoon a vast charter fleet sailed into the right arm.  We took the dinghy round to have a look and counted sixty-five yachts and catamarans all rafted together, calling themselves Yacht Week.  A brief search on the internet revealed that this was an organised sail in company where the average age was twenty-seven. We expected a huge noisy party but apart from a little bass noise we were not unduly disturbed, or could a short, sharp shower at 11pm have dampened their ardour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three years ago we visited the north of Korcula, this time we wanted to see the western coast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We moved on every day to another island and met up with our friends Juliet and Nick Mason-Jones on their yacht Johanem.  We met them first at Porta di Roma in 2014 and have kept in touch, meeting from time to time particularly this year as our plans are roughly similar, we both intend to winter in Greece.  Here we got together at Pomena on the island of Miljet.  We moored stern to at one if the six restaurants on the quay. The mooring is free provided you eat at the restaurant which we did where they cooked great steaks and fish over the wood fired stove.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From there we went to the little town of Slano on the Croatian mainland, just north of Dubrovnik, and booked into the marina for the night.  Apparently, the town was completely destroyed by a Serbian bombardment in the Yugoslav war of 1991 – 1992 but has now been rebuilt.  There are, however, still a few reminders of this tragic event.

It was in Slano that we had to make a complete change of all our plans for the rest of the season.  Our intention all year had been to go to Greece via Montenegro and Albania. Unfortunately, the crew we had invited to help us do the trip had to cancel for family health reasons.  We were not comfortable going to Albania where the infrastructure for yachts is non-existent without at least one more experienced sailor so we abandoned that plan and instead decided to cross over to Italy and cruise down the east coast before crossing back to Greece.

 

En route we stopped in Sipan, a secluded bay with elegant reminders of days gone by. we have fond memories of our night there three years ago.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then to Lastovo, the most south westerly island of Croatia and where we could check out with police and customs.

Here we had an interesting experience.  We had tied up the now disused seaplane pontoon next to the police shed and were permitted to stay the night. It was a calm night and we expected no problem.  However, at midnight a huge ferry arrived and its wake caused a surge on the boat sufficient to break off one of the cleats to which we were attached with an almighty bang.  Julie was not asleep and rushed up to see us slowly swinging round on the bowline towards the rocks.  Dashing about in our night attire we managed to get the engine on and get ourselves back into position and a cat’s cradle of lines to every available cleat on the jetty.  On closer inspection they were all made of a very soft alloy and simply not up to holding any substantial vessel.

The next morning, we called the police at 3.30 am, we were checked out of Croatia by 4.15 am and on our way to Italy.  It was very dark and motoring out of this tiny harbour with two sharp right angle turns, avoiding the considerable shallows, caused some anxiety especially as the aforementioned huge ferry was right behind us but once clear of the island we were headed due south.

 

 

 

 

 

It was trip of 96 nautical miles to Bari where we arrived after thirteen hours of motor sailing across the Adriatic seeing very little other shipping and no wildlife at all.  All the dolphins seem to have disappeared from the Mediterranean.

We had three days in Bari and were joined again by Johanem, who were surprised to find us in Italy rather than Albania. Bari has a substantial old town right on the port. It was of particular interest as a friend’s mother was there in the NZ Nursing Corps from 1943-45. She recalled the ferocious German bombing which devastated Bari and blew up a US ship secretly containing mustard gas, a retaliatory measure in case the Germans resorted to gas warfare. Many seamen were killed and injured but the authorities refused to tell the medical staff the contents of the ship, severely hindering the treatment given. This information was not made public until 1972.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We motored 64nm in nine hours to the next large port of Brindisi. A less comfortable trip as there were storms around which we could plainly see and managed to avoid, although along the edge of them were some strong winds.  We tied up in the Brindisi Marina during a lull. This was the port we departed Italy in June 2015 to Montenegro and Croatia.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Strong NW winds kept us in Brindisi for four days. Johanem caught up with us again for the last night.

 

 

 

In NW 18-20 and very choppy seas we left Brindisi yesterday for a 30nm run to Santa Foce di Meledugno, a rather uninspiring fishing town with several sandy beaches full of Italians on their holidays.

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow, August 31^st we leave Italy at dawn for our final passage to Greece.

 

It seems that the only time we get to update this blog is when we are sheltering from a storm.  This is the case at present as we are tucked into a well sheltered bay, Vinisce, near Trogir, with 50 metres of anchor chain down and keeping a close eye on the boats and land surrounding us.

 

Our trip to Munich was a great success. It was, of course, for the Ring and we were privileged to hear, arguably, the four best singers in the world of the present generation in their respective roles. The first Act of Die Walküre with Jonas Kaufman and Anja Kampe was the best we have ever heard, as was the whole of Götterdämerung with the magnificent Nina Stemme as Brünnhilde and Stefan Vinke as Siegfried.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On one of the non-Wagner nights we went to Les Vêpres sicilienne by Verdi, an infrequently performed opera but a most enjoyable evening.

There were many Australians attending this Ring and, coincidentally, a tour group were staying in our hotel which was only a short walk from the Opera House. So, we had many friends to chat with during the intervals as well as our Munich friend Jürgen Lüders who was in town as well.

 

On a day off from opera, we took a tour to Regensburg, a well-preserved medieval city on the Danube, untouched by bombing unlike Munich.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another tour of Munich was Hitler and the Third Reich, where we walked around the city with a guide who gave us an extended history lesson on the formation and the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party in Munich.  It is interesting to us that Munich appears scarcely to acknowledge its role in the war and the holocaust whereas Berlin appears to have embraced it with many monuments and commemorations. Our guide was quite critical of the Bavarians, not surprisingly, she came from western Germany.

 

It takes a couple of days to really appreciate the Residenz of the Bavarian dukes, electors and kings from 1508 to 1918. There was a castle on this site in 1385. It houses rooms and art collections from the Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo to Neoclassicism and bears witness to the taste and political ambition of the Wittelsbach dynasty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We returned to Kastela on Saturday July 28^th. and set off the next day not without as certain amount of trouble.  Terry, unfortunately forgot to cast off the starboard mooring rope which we tore away from the shore on our way out, and finally, having come to an abrupt halt in the middle of the marina, let it go to the bottom.  Luckily there is plenty of room in Marina Kastela, no damage was done, except to his amour proper, but it did cost us 80 Euro for the diver to retrieve it.

Since then we have had, until today, almost continuously settled weather, which means continuous sunshine, light airs in the morning, a stiff westerly in the afternoon and quiet nights.

We have stayed in the area around Split and the offshore islands as we have had two lots of visitors, our friends from Munich, Maria and Jürgen, were with us for six days.  They had only ever stepped on a yacht once before, a twilight race with us on Sydney Harbour, and we were concerned that they would find it a bit daunting.  However, the weather was very kind, and we experienced many of the pleasures of this lifestyle including mooring in crystal water on islands and local restaurants where the menu is meat, fish or calamari and the wine is red or white.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last weekend Terry’s niece, Philippa and her husband James, flew out for three days. Again, the weather was spectacular and we had some excellent sailing as well as some charming anchorages.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were the usual owners blips since our last blog. The bimini, which shades the cockpit, stitching was coming adrift so we paid up front for a sailmaker to re-stitch it while we were in Munich. On our return our perfectly fitted bimini had a corner flapping and the zip broken. Josip swore it was intact when he re-fitted but Julie would not be so easily fobbed off, so he sent his minion along who would have also denied responsibility had our teak deck “nano” guru not been visiting us. He insisted, in Croatian, that it be fixed and returned by 10am tomorrow….and it was. Thank you Albert.

It’s handy to have a chain counter next to the helm when dropping the anchor but this, too, failed. Two electricians took two hours and 800 kunas to do a twenty minute repair. Thankfully, Terry watched the process carefully and will do it himself next time.

 

This is the end of our time in this part of the Adriatic.  When this storm abates we will be heading south, checking out of Croatia and picking up our next crew in Montenegro on our way to Albania and finally Greece.

The storm of June 22^nd. blew itself out and Exotica weathered it comfortably in the Marina at Veli Rat at the top of the island Dugi Otok.

 

 

 

 

The next day we set off for a short trip round the top of the island to find the delightful bay of Sakuran where there were plenty of moorings.  The water was turquoise and warm enough to swim.  We took the dinghy ashore to dine at restaurant which the Adriatic Pilot said had the best mussels in Croatia.  However, when we got there we found a ramshackle café, the mussels  were off and all that was available was pizza. Surprisingly, the pizza was rather good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the next few days we sailed or motored from one magical bay to the next, generally not going very far as these islands, of the Zadar archipelago, and their bays are quite close together.  A few of these moorings were so pleasant that we stayed a couple of days.

 

We are continually bemused by the tendency of German and Austrian yachting people to shed all their clothes as soon as they get on a boat.  Sadly this does not apply to the young and attractive ones but rather to the elderly, who like us, would be much better to hide their ageing bodies with a veneer of clothing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the tiny island of Rava we took up a mooring belonging to the nearby restaurant, which is free provided you eat at the restaurant.  Here we had a lamb Peka, one of the few traditional Croatian dishes. Basically, it is a stew of cheapest cuts of lamb and potatoes cooked in an iron pot over a wood fire. They charge an inordinate amount of money for this so it will be our last Peka this year, but at least the mooring was free.

 

 

 

 

 

 

From there we had another great sail to the south end of Pasman Island.  This year has been notable for more good sails than any previously.  We found a splendid inlet at Uvala Landin, where we have been before.  This time no-one came round to charge us so we spent an extra day in this delightful spot. The stiff nor’wester brought the temperature down and the sea temperature even more. Julie was not at all impressed when she found she’d swum in 17.9C

 

 

 

Two days later we were in a marina at Sukosan just south of Zadar on the Croatian mainland in order to collect our friend Angela Bush, whereupon we set off again into the islands and bays either spending the nights on a mooring or on the anchor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Terry managed to contract a nasty cold.  How could he do this when we have little contact with humanity and live mostly in the open air.  However, he failed to pass it on to anyone else.

 

We couldn’t resist a couple of nights in Uvala Stupica Vela, on Otok Zirje, a favourite from last year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He has also managed, by dint of some computer wizardry, to find both Wimbledon and the World Cup and transfer them to the television.

 

 

 

We had planned to change crew in Split, with Angela leaving, Julie’s cousin’s grand-daughter Abbey and then Debbie Humble joining us for week.  However, on Friday afternoon we were unceremoniously chucked out of the Marina in Split to make way for 200 charter yachts which stream in during the day.  It was an impressive mass of boats we had to wriggle our way through as they all waited around the fuel dock and then enter the marina in quite a strong breeze.

 

On Angela’s last night she kindly offered to treat us to dinner so we asked the marina receptionist her favourite. Matoni, she said. A taxi ride to the other side of town but well worth it. Croatia can produce sophisticated food at reasonable prices.

 

 

Angela and Julie had a few hours being a tourist in Split, so many shoe shops but we resisted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were happy to return to Marina Kastela where were last over two years ago.  It is a good deal smarter now with new buildings and even an indoor swimming pool.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We hadn’t had enough of the islands off Zadar, so headed north again. Our first stop, Rogoznica.

 

 

 

Oh, we seem to be back to our favourite bay on Zirje.  We had drinks and dinner with American friends Robin and Bob, whom we met first in Venice, and are making their way south to Greece and Turkey.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have never taken Exotica into Trogir before. We dropped Debbie to her flight back to Sydney. Watched the Gentlemen ‘s final of Wimbledon and then Croatia, sadly being defeated by France, in the World Cup final at Marina Trogir.

 

 

 

We have two nights before we take a plane to Munich for a nine day holiday from Exotica and four days of Wagner. So back to the safe anchorage of Vinisce where our friend Marino joined us for dinner then an unexpected storm with 30 knot winds hit us at 11.30pm. We were up until 2am watching for boats dragging their anchors.

The wind is abating, the rain heading for Bosnia and we to Kastela tomorrow to continue our endless summer adventures.

Storm-bound in a tiny harbour on one of the outer islands of the Croatian archipelago is a good opportunity to update the blog.  With thanks to all those who responded to the last one, it was very good to hear from you.

 

Our month in the Marina Santelena in Venice flew by.  The weather throughout was superb and we were able to explore the city from the quiet and comfortable backwater of the marina at the very edge of the city.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also managed some interesting cultural events.  At La Fenice we were delighted by a splendid production of Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore.  Just the best fun, full of good singing and witty direction.  It was so good that we booked in for La Traviata the next evening.  This was a mistake.  Hard to mess up a sure fire hit like Traviata, but they did.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Later we attended an excellent concert, Siegfried Idyll, Schubert’s second Symphony and Enigma Variations, under the inspired baton of Antonello Manacorda. It really was terrific.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On 4^th. June, we left Exotica in her berth and took a train to Milan for three days.  We stayed in a strange apartment squeezed into a thin building in the Mercanti right near the Duomo.  It had the world’s smallest, oldest and most rickety lift.A squeeze for two passengers, without luggage.

 

 

 

 

Some extensive sightseeing ensued including the Castle Sforzesco and Michelangelo’s Pieta, Leonardo’s Last Supper and, of course, the Duomo, built entirely of local marble from 1390 took 600 years. The ornate Gothic marble spires were added in the 1800s, they are not structural so it’s possible to walk around the entire roof.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We paid rather a lot for a couple of tours, well worth being shown a city by a native dweller. Milan is about to have a referendum to vote for the return of the canals which are buried under the roads and piazzas. Milan was navigable by canal from the twelfth century. The process of covering them began in the 1930s, the last working boat plied the waters in 1977. The locals say Milan has more than their fair share of precipitation because of the water under the city!

The cloistered nuns choir behind the nave of Chiesa di San Maurizo al Monastero Maggiore, once the most important Benedictine convent. Used every Sunday from October to June to celebrate in the Byzantine Rite, in Greek, according to the Italo-Albanian tradition. Consecrated in 1518

 

 

A highlight was an evening at La Scala to see Fierrabras, the only opera by Franz Schubert that is ever performed and even then, very rarely.  It happened to be opening night and La Scala certainly put on a very lavish performance with fine singing, elaborate sets and sumptuous costumes for this remarkably tuneful opera.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We returned for our final week in Venice.  Living in Venice is living in an art gallery. Stocking up with wine and having some last-minute repairs done on the boat.  We have found some excellent engineers and so the various leaks and the water maker have now been fixed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, among all the pleasures there have been some minor disasters.  Terry, on line, managed to book the return train tickets to Milan in the wrong direction.  There was no cancellation, so we passed, in both directions, Italian trains with empty first-class seats with our names on them.

Julie’s ticket for the vaparetto water ferry failed to register with the tap on.  Unfortunately, one of the very few conductors was checking the tickets and hers didn’t register on his machine.  Remonstrance with the authorities was to no avail and she ended up paying the 69 Euro fine or risk a criminal record in Italy. She considers it as her contribution to keeping Venice afloat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Saturday June 16^th. at 5 am we left Marina Santelena for the last time and in a beautiful sunrise motored down the channel and away from Venice, passing four huge cruise ships on their way in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have now had three years in which we have spent at least a month in Venice but as the plan now is to head south to Greece we are saying farewell to some much-loved places in the northern Adriatic.

It was champagne sailing right across the Adriatic with the wind, N to NE 12-18, on the beam and Exotica flying along at a steady 8.5 knots.  We have never had an entire passage without using the motor.

 

 

 

Thus, we were docked in Rovinj, on the coast of Istria shortly after lunch, but of course the Harbourmaster was closed between 1 – 5 pm. so we had to wait around for him to return.  We then had to pay the sojourn tax which has just been raised by 400% since last year.  Croatia has never been cheap but boating around here is now even more expensive and likely to deter many from coming.  Sadly, this only applies to boat owners and will not affect the hundreds of charterers.

During the last week we put into the charming town of Pula, the largest town in Istria, to organise telephone and other communications, a night on our friend, Marino’s, mooring in Banjole with an excellent meal in the tiny restaurant above the shipyard, Konoba Pap, then had another invigorating sail leaving Istria for the last time and anchored in a favourite bay, Artuturi on Mali Losinj.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Continuing our southern passage, we sheltered in a comfortable small marina called Veli Rat on Dugi Otok to sit out the storm which had been forecast for June 22^nd. There was plenty of rain and wind, but we closed all the hatches read books and watched the television.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the next week we will explore this area of Central Croatia, the endless islands are quite spectacular.

A dull and wet day in Venice on Exotica and so a good time to embark on the blog for 2018.  If you read this do please make a comment at the end as we like to know that we are not broadcasting to empty ether.

Our 2018 season began on April 17^th, flying Air NZ to Vancouver via New Zealand. The trip made somewhat longer when we sat for two hours on the tarmac in Auckland waiting for the hold to warm up for the transportation of fifty thousand New Zealand bees to Canada. Crew and passengers became increasingly restless at the delay and we arrived in Vancouver very late and a number of people missed their connections.  We will never know if the bees made it to their destination alive.

Our son, Edward, and fiancé, Charmaine, had just moved into their duplex in the tiny ski resort Sun Peaks. Complete with babbling brook at the bottom of the garden which was thick with snow slowly melting in the cold but sunny days of our wonderful eight day stay, some of the time spent, in overalls, painting their basement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A week in UK, staying in Princes Risborough with Terry’s sister. Lunches with friends and an entertaining evening at the Duke of York Theatre for The Moderate Soprano, a delightful play telling the story of Glyndebourne’s beginning.

 

You never know what the traffic will be like on the M25, so we allowed four and a half hours before our flight from Heathrow to Frankfurt, normally a forty-minute drive from Princes Risborough. All was going splendidly until the M40 meets the M25. An accident happened only minutes ahead of us and there we sat in our hire car, stationary, for two hours discussing the logistics of getting another flight and thence to Karlsruhe, without our tour group. By the skin of our teeth we did make the flight, extremely frazzled.

The first of our three Ring Cycles this summer was with Travel for the Arts in the quiet town of Karlsruhe, near Baden Baden. It is dubbed the Diversity Ring. Four different directors for the four operas. We are told they had a meeting in Iceland to discuss the production, but this was patently a waste of time. These young men had little respect for Wagner, the audience or the cast. Their aim was to get a reaction, no matter what. In that they succeeded, at the end of the first act of Gotterdammerung one of our group was heard to boom “RUBBISH”, with good cause.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Musically the standard was exceptional and we were delighted to have dinner with Katharine Tier, the Australian mezzo soprano, who sang Fricka, Erda, Waltraute, First Norn and a Rhinemaiden in Gotterdammerung. The star of the show we thought.

 

 

We flew to Pula on May 14^th finding Exotica had been very well cared for over the winter. A couple of days to commission the boat and then we did the 70 nautical mile passage to Venice on the 18^th in very good time, albeit motoring across a very calm Adriatic. Spotted one dolphin and two turtles.

 

And so now a month in Marina Sant Elena. Very good engineers at this marina who diagnosed and fixed a fresh water leak in the bilge. Some sun, some rain but we are in Venice…

 

 

 

 

On September 1^st.  the weather knew that Autumn had arrived and for the last three weeks of our cruise on Exotica we had plenty of wind and rain and the temperature cooled significantly.

 

After our final guests left us in Biograd Marina we stayed put in our berth for three days with all lines doubled as the wind and rain lashed the whole area.  We were snug and comfortable and happy to stay below and read a book rather than battle with the elements outside.

 

Our plan had been to spend another few days making our way slowly back to Veruda where we are leaving the boat over winter, it started well with our first night tied to a restaurant mooring buoy in the town of Iz Mali.

 

 

Whilst on her row around the bay Julie noticed a “boxing kangaroo” flying from the backstay of a Dufour 405, Songbird has also been cruising the Med for the last five summers. Keen racers from Freemantle, their boat has specifications to win! We are always pleased to meet up with, and rarely find, other English speakers, Sharanne and Stuart were certainly entertaining dinner companions.

A brisk sou’easterly blew up overnight causing lumpy conditions on the calm waters of the previous evening, we sailed north to the sheltered bay of Zapuntel on the northern side of Molat Island, more aquamarine water and very sheltered from the increasing SE winds.

 

We planned to sit out the next blow here, however, on the morning of Friday 15^th. September, we woke to the sound of the bilge pump working.  This means that water was getting into the boat, something we do not want.  Examination under the floorboards revealed a leak of fresh water from the hot water system.  Not a major problem but we couldn’t contemplate staying in a nearly deserted bay without it being fixed.

We decided to curtail our cruise and return to Veruda straight away, about 60 nautical miles.  There was a brisk sou’ easterly right behind us so to reach our destination we motored, reluctantly. Our guru, Marino, said there were huge winds and seas in the south of Istria, so change of plan, we headed for a marina, and boatyard, in Mali Losinj.

 

From nowhere nasty, black storm clouds appeared to the north east and with them a strong bora hit us. We escaped the storm but the winds increased to 28 knots making berthing in Losinj untenable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another quick change of plan, we headed again for Veruda.The latter part of the trip was a wild ride in 15-25 knots across the open sea of the northern Adriatic with fully reefed sails, wind and swell on the beam and spray over the decks.  It was very exhilarating but we were glad when the wind eased a little as we entered the marina so we could dock without too much trouble.

 

 

 

 

We then had a week to prepare Exotica for the winter, it was cold and wet for four days, our only respite was a very jolly evening with the crew of Johanem., a boat we had met 3 years ago in Porta de Roma. After an excellent meal at Boccaporta we seven adjourned to Exotica where they pretty well emptied our cellar and we raucously sang 60’s songs while Terry acted as DJ!

 

 

 

 

 

Thankfully, the last three days were sunny so we could use our beloved washing machine, pack a dry headsail and put Exotica to bed and were quite happy to bring the 2017 Cruise to an end.

 

 

 

 

Stats for 2017:

Days on board 115, in Venice 30, sailing days 53, distance travelled 1249nm, engine hours 158, guests 8

 

 

Exotica was lifted onto the hard standing on Saturday September 23^rd. and we flew to England that evening for 10 days visiting family and friends.

During the last two weeks of August we had stunning weather, we made the most of our middle Adriatic cruising the islands off the Zadar coast, they are endless. There’s not much anchoring here, the locals have found a source of revenue by filling beautiful bays with mooring buoys for which you pay various amounts and there’s usually a konoba or two at the head of the bay with a simple painted board “Fish, Meat, Calamari. Grilled”. They have a huge wood fire out the back and all meals are cooked there. Wine is red, white and if you’re really lucky, rose, sold by the half or full litre.

 

 

 

We sailed south to Primosten, where we’d had nights in past years, then discovered mainland bays heading north.

 

 

 

As we entered the bay of Mirine we saw huge, ugly jellyfish, the first this summer. The locals assure us they are benign but there is no way we would enter the water with them. Inside the bay Sunday day trippers were lining the shore and happily swimming, thankfully the jellyfish were leaving as we arrived. There is an impressively well-preserved fortress wall from this bay over a hill to the next. It was built in the 15^th C to keep out the Turks and in later years acted as a barrier for plague victims. A very sound anchorage with no facilities, heaven.

Sibenik again, this time by yacht and tied up to the town quay next to super yachts. We rarely park in such public places but there is something special about being right in the centre of this spectacular city at the foot of the World Heritage St James Cathedral, reputedly the crowning architectural glory of the Dalmatian coast. Juraj Dalmatinac, a Zadar native, was appointed to increase the size after 10 years of Venetians architects from 1431. The Gothic-Renaissance style is built entirely of stone from the islands of Brac, Korcula, Rab and Krk. The world’s largest church built entirely of stone without brick or wooden supports. Finally finished in 1536.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The island of Zut has two sheltered bays with restaurants providing free mooring buoys as long as you eat in their establishment. We had a night in each. Uvala Hiljaca had aquamarine water and an excellent restaurant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Come September there was a ten degree drop in temperature just in time for our first guests since June! Terry’s sister, Margie, and Lizzy and Tony Dyson.

 

 

 

 

 

The weather report for the week had been dire but each day saw the sun appear, we could mostly sail and spent each night either at anchor or on a mooring buoy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We re-visited many of our favourite bays and islands, cooked on board or sampled more “Fish, Meat, Calamari. Grilled”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was not until the last day our 700 litres of water ran out. The first time we have missed the “out of action” watermaker. Guess it’s what everyone does when they’re camping, bathe in the sea and no hair wash for a week!!

 

 

Having waved our guests off at Marina Kornati, Biograd, a strong sou-easterly dried the four loads of washing, safely hung in the cockpit rather than the foredeck, before the next bout of westerly storms bombarded us for 36 hours. It’s cooler here than Sydney now….time we came home!

 

From our ‘holiday’ in Tuscany we returned to Exotica and after a day of household chores we left Marina Veruda to explore the islands of the central Adriatic.

We learnt a lesson on Wednesday August 9^th.  after 44 nautical miles of mixed sailing and motoring we arrived at our destination at 3 pm only to find every one of 66 mooring buoys occupied. Late July and early August are high season around here and Italians, Germans and Austrians flood in with their boats and charters.  So, the anchorages, marinas and buoyed areas, which at other times are freely available, tend to be filled up by early afternoon. Thus, the rule is, if you want to get in, you leave early and arrive early.

On this particular day in Ilovik, our usual safe harbour when storms are predicted, we anchored with some difficulty at the end of the channel, however, when the southerly storm hit the anchor held and the lee of the land gave us shelter from wind and sea, not the most comfortable night, but it was free.

We returned to one of our favourite bays, Uvala Sonte on the island of Cres to rendezvous with our Croatian friend Marino and his crew.  After a gentle 16nm run in sou westerlies, it was delightfully calm and warm but we made the mistake of anchoring close to Marino in shallower water than we normally would.  Even though there were ominous dark clouds gathering in the west Marino and his crew set off in his diminutive dinghy across the waterway to the nearest town to explore while we stayed on board.  Shortly afterwards the great black cloud produced an enormous storm. It came roaring over the hills of Losinj from the west with lightning, thunder, driving rain and winds gusting to 45 knots.  Boats were buffeted by the wind and the seas, we had our engine on to take the strain off the anchor. At times, the depth under the keel was reading 0.2.  Then instantly the strong wind whipped around from the NE, at least moving us into slightly deeper water. Normally, that would be the end of the storm but within half an hour there was another blast from the west, knocking smaller boats on their sides. Fortunately, both anchors held securely but it was an anxious time.

Marino and his crew returned in their dinghy three quarters full of water and lucky to be alive.  We then both reset our anchors in deeper water and had an excellent dinner party on board Exotica.

 

 

Friday August 11^th. saw us set off again for the thirty-mile trip to the island of Rab where we had agreed to meet Juliet and Nick Mason-Jones on their yacht Johanem.  We first encountered them in the marina at Ostia outside Rome three years ago and have kept in touch and followed their progress around the Mediterranean.  It is surprisingly difficult to arrange to meet another boat as you tend to have different plans and the weather may also interfere.

However, we spent two delightful days sailing in company until they set off north towards Pula and we continued our travels south.

 

For the next few days we explored the islands, anchoring or picking up mooring buoys, the only “fly in the ointment” has been the plague of wasps this year, no flies or mosquitoes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a couple of nights in the Marina Dalmacija at Sukosan, one of the largest in Croatia, an excellent place to collect guests from Zadar airport.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A terrific run under headsail took us around the south of Otok Pasman. The bay we’d hoped to spend the night was full. Hadn’t we learnt our lesson, don’t arrive at 3pm. Luckily, 6nm further up the west coast was an even nicer bay, with plenty of empty mooring buoys.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We liked it so much we stayed for 2 nights. There were 2 restaurants at the top of the bay and we were assured by a very nice, however naked, German lady on the next boat that Soline 1 was the pick of the two. They had come into that bay especially.

 

Terry ordered chops and Julie fish, which we watched being cleaned and ready for the BBQ. Sadly, Grandma (presumably the cook) had forgotten to put the fish on, after a litre of the white wine, waiting, a dog fight where a bulldog at the next table attacked a Cavalier King Charles puppy, the fish arrived. It was, in fact, delicious but had a deleterious effect later that evening.

 

 

 

 

Yet another Bora was forecast at the weekend.  The strong north-easterly wind which comes roaring down the length of the Adriatic from the Alps.  It is a good time to be well tied up in a Marina and so we made for the marina at Tribunj on the mainland just north west of the large town of Sibenik.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We’ve mentioned before that, despite the area being full of yachts of all descriptions and countries there are hardly any English speakers around.  So, we were delighted to see on the quayside a Beneteau Oceanis 55 with an Australian flag and a home port of Sydney.  Deb and Col McKeith, live only a few miles from us in Sydney and have been travelling almost the same route as ourselves over the past few years, so we have much in common.

We all took a taxi, during a windy day, to Sibenik for some sightseeing of the castle and cathedral and then managed to get a last-minute cancellation at the restaurant, Pellegrini, which is reputed to be the best in Croatia.  It was a degustation menu, five dishes from a choice of twenty-five and excellent.  Compared to the average konoba where the choice is meat or fish it was spectacular. By and large, Croatian cuisine is a little disappointing but this was in a class of its own.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The cold winds abated, the sun returned, our new friends headed north and we set off to the islands off the coast of Sibenik.  We are currently sitting in a bay at the south end of the island of Zirje.  It is half past eight in the morning and already the sun is hot and it is time for a swim in the crystal clear water before breakfast. No wasps here but no internet connection, which is unusual even in the islands.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our next appointment is with Terry’s sister Margaret and Lizzy and Tony Dyson who we will meet near Zadar.  We hope the good weather continues for them.

It is hard to believe that there is only another month to go for this season’s cruise.

 

Sitting in a beautiful bay on the Island of Pasman in hot sunshine, quiet as most of the boats here last night have left, seems an excellent time to update the clarkesailing blog.

From Biograd on Tuesday 18^th. July we made our way north to Istria again via a couple of islands where we anchored or took up moorings.  After a long days motoring we were back to Marina Veruda which is becoming somewhat of a second home and where we have now decided to leave the boat for the winter, out of the water, as we did last year.  We were off for a two week holiday from the boat in Tuscany and Umbria.

The trip did not start auspiciously. Our car, a rather large Skoda, arrived promptly at the marina and we set off to drive to Bologna in northern Italy in high spirits.  This satisfaction was somewhat dashed by the queue of cars at the Slovenia border.  It took us two and a half hours in the heat of the day to crawl 5 kilometres to the checkpoint where the passport examination was cursory and took about thirty seconds.  Our satnav took us through tiny roads in Slovenia in order to avoid paying fifteen Euros for the road toll.  Once on to the fast autostrada in Trieste we were beset with heavy rain and thunderstorms.

Arriving in Bologna we found our hotel was in the old town and down the narrowest streets which completely confused the satnav and us.  In desperation we parked the car and Julie walked to the hotel.  Even getting the car into the tiny garage was a mission.  So a journey that should have taken four hours took more than nine and we were well over it. Thankfully, the hotel was charming.

 

After a brief walk around Bologna we embarked on the two and a half hour drive to Siena.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have had trouble in the past trying to find a park in Siena and Julie thought it would be possible to drop our bags at our “hotel” before leaving the car in its parking spot one and a half kilometres away but of course it was within the city walls so our satnav took us on impossibly tiny roads and the only way to find it was to ditch the car and walk.  Once we had done this we found ourselves in a quaint B & B, Casatorre dei Leoni Dimora Storica, in a converted palazzo run by two sisters-in-law, obviously doing it for fun rather than profit.

 

We met our friend Deborah Humble in the main square where the Palio takes place and had an excellent meal in a basement restaurant off the tourist trail.

 

 

 

 

 

After a morning provisioning in Siena we three left for Villa della Geggiano about five miles north east where we were staying for two nights.  This is a huge house, the summer residence of the Roman Bianchi Bandinelli family since 1547, however, the current Count made it his home in 1991. The family found it impossible to keep the villa unless they could make it a “going concern”. His father, a Communist, had given most of the families land and villas to their workmen after World War 11, so now they have to rent the land back from them for their farming!.

 

 

It is in remarkably good condition having survived a number of renovations and even an earthquake in 1811.  The 18^th. century frescoes, painted for the wedding of his ancestor in 1724, still survive as the house is so thickly built that in summer it is cool and in winter not too cold, as the Count informed us, it is however, noticeable that the Countess now lives in Rome. For anyone who is in or visiting London they have a restaurant of the same name in Chiswick which we have booked in September.

 

After negotiating the usual tiny, dusty tracks of Tuscany we were led by the owner to our accommodation, a newly built stone cottage on the side of a hill within the grounds which has all the modern appurtenances and is extremely comfortable.  Here we were joined by Bruce Caldwell who found it far more easily than we did in his taxi from Bologna.

A thunderstorm in the afternoon threatened the Linari Concert but by evening the skies cleared and the chamber concert given by the Nash Ensemble, based at Wigmore Hall, could be held on the garden stage at the villa.  The audience of about 100 sat on the lawn with their backs to the house.  It could hardly have been a more perfect venue to listen to Mozart, Schubert and Dvorak under a full moon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Geggiano we drove into northern Umbria where we stayed for nine days in Citta della Pieve, one of the multitude of walled hilltop towns so common in Tuscany and Umbria.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From here, together with Debbie and Bruce, we attended the Incontri di Siena chamber music festival, driving to five different locations in houses, castles and churches to hear a variety of ensembles from two pianos, string quartets, a solo mezzosoprano and the highlight, the Mendelssohn Octet played in a castle courtyard. That week all of southern Europe experienced severe temperatures, we sympathized with the performers in 40 degree heat.

 

 

 

The only downside was that our accommodation was nearly an hour away from most of the venues which meant too much driving on narrow, winding roads at night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On a rest day we drove to Panicale, another charming walled hilltop town overlooking Lake Trasimeno. This town has been smartened up and hosts some lovely little apartments with spectacular views.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sadly, also while trying to find the exact spot of Hannibal’s victory over the Romans at Lake Trasimene in 217 BC, the car backed into a tree badly scratching the plastic bumper and denting a light.  Interestingly we had just read in the Daily Telegraph about hire car firms ripping off people who had accidents so we were prepared for an argument with the hire company, however, they were very reasonable and what they charged us for the damage seemed fair enough.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our return drive, with a night’s stop in the charming hilltop town of Asolo in northern Italy was quite smooth and we only had a five minute wait at the border.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While we had been away the excellent team at Veruda had treated the decks for us with the special nano preparation we use so that Exotica now looks in perfect condition for another voyage into the islands of the Adriatic.

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.