Croatia - Another First

Prologue

I see that our "last post" was back in September as we were leaving Prague. That is almost 2 months ago now. Haven't we been slack!  

We are currently living in deepest Devon, rain and all.  Jane has gone up to London for a few days, so I finally have some unscheduled time to get us up to date. Here goes.  Will we make it back to the UK?

Croatia - by Sea. September 2014.

I've been thinking that this trip has had a number of "first" and this leg to Croatia is one of them.  Never been here before, never even though much about it as a place to visit.  Then, because that is a place some friends have sailed in before,  here we are.  I just love that.  Think about doing it. Then just do it.

Anyway, it is now September 5th and Jane and I have just flown in from Italy. We flew (on Vueling Airways - another first)  to Split, in central Croatia, where we were to meet lots of Aussi friends from Brisbane and London for a week in a sailing boat in the Adriatic.  

Sara supervising the loading.  Note the Mediterranean mooring, stern to quayside.

The weather was fine and hot as we met up with everyone in Split and provisioned the boat with supplies for the week.  We were 8 souls on the sturdy KNOT SO FAST, a 44ft long,  Beneteau sailing vessel. 

Chris, Sara, Captain Ralph, Tom, Ian, Ian L and Joy. Jane on camera

 Led by Captain Ralph and mate(fiancée) Sara, leading hands Chris B and Joy V (who happen to be the captain's Mum & Dad), deckhands Ian L and our Tom K (who, together with the Captain, are ex-sea scouts from my old Pamphlett Scout group).  An experienced sailing team.  Jane and I were just along for the ride!

Captain and crew, which way is north anyway?

With everything safely stowed on board we set off for a week of cruising amongst the many hundreds of islands that lie offshore for most of the length of the Croatian coast along the Adriatic.  Most are deserted or just a few fishermen and farmers scraping a living from a most unpromising raw limestone landscape, olives and goats mostly. But a few of the larger islands have villages and towns on their coast that nowadays benefit from the large fleets of charter sailing boats that are based in the many marinas along the mainland coast.

There are thousands of boats here now, but once you are a few miles out from the marinas there are so many islands that it does not feel at all "crowded" once it sea.  It can become a bit of a bunfight as the last few boats try to moor-up in the evening at any particular island quayside, reversing in to do a "Mediterranean mooring", stern to the quay.  This style of mooring works thanks to there being minimal tides in the Medeterranian, so no worries about mooring lines adjustments and tidal currents when alongside.

Octopus.  Best I ever eaten, not chewy but tender. We got 3 legs each! there was

We set off vaguely northwest for the first few days, dropping anchor in a sheltered bay most evenings, before going ashore to some taverna for a local feast, if someone didn't cook a meal on board.  

The sailing was mostly in force 2 to 3s, which hardly took the creases out of the mainsail.  But one day we did get good 20 knot winds and managed to get the boat up to 8 knots with a heel that was not appreciated by the cooks below, especially as we went about!  Much crashing and sliding about, and holding on!  Sadly the wind didn't last long.  

One night was particularly windy and we had to find a mooring buoy to tie up to as we were not sure the anchor would hold.   But even that resolved to a beautiful clear night by midnight and sunny following morning.

A stormy day in the Med!

Each day we would sail until lunchtime, find a bay to stop for lunch in, eat, drink, swim and then set off for to find the evenings anchorage.  It was a tough life, but someone has to do it. 

We went north as far as Tribunj, nearly to Zadar, if you know Croatia, before turning round and heading south again.  The weather was more mixed in the last few days, and oilskins were found for the crew.  I was excused the rigours of deck duties due to age and because I had come on board with a bit of a cold, but it did get better after a few days and I could taste food again quite well by the end of the trip. 

Evening drinks on the quayside.

Non-sailing highlights of the week were when we could sail up to an old town quay and go and look at the local building and old historical sites.  

Much of the coastline of Croatia is particularly barren and rocky, but it did allow the construction, in the middle ages, of a string of walled city ports that were the Medditerranian ends of various trading routes from the inland Middle East and Asia.  Largely under Venetian control and protection until they were overrun by the Ottoman Empire in the mid 1700's, they still contain a large number of original Venetian style palaces and churches.  And often they were sited on relatively narrow flat areas surrounded by hills (of which Dubrovnik is the prime example, see the next post), giving great views from the top. 

The panorama from above Tribunj below gives you some idea of what I mean.

View from above Tribunj

Well, all good things have to come to an end, and so on Saturday the Old Folks on the boat, Chris, Joy, Jane and me, were put ashore again in Split as the younger members went off to pick up a second, younger crew for their next week on the boat, which then officially became a party boat!  Best of luck to them all.

In Trogir, yet another sunny day.  

As for us, we hired a car and drove north to Plitivice in central Croatia.  

But that is the next post. 

See you there soon.