On Thursday evening, we visited the crew of Nick of Time, Gloria, Alan and Bill on board their very plush Moody 45. We hear about life in Adelaide and the competitive evening card games, where sheep stations are on the line. Before dark, we jump back into the zodiac and set a date for dinner Friday night.
On Friday morning, we take the zodiac out for a spin and do a complete tour of the Bay of Vis for a fish eye view of the beaches and houses along the water front. Some houses are stone walls standing roofless and you realise they would be snapped up in a heartbeat if it were on Sydney Harbour. The stone from this part of the world is a matt white, beautiful and enduring. You can see how white the rock is at each islands waterline.
Later in the afternoon, we decide to walk up the hill to Fort George, it’s a 2.5 kilometre walk up the hill to see this Bristish Fortress built in 1813. A quick aside, we see that Vis has a cricket team, left over from circa 1813 when the British introduced cricket and the locals took it up for spirited matches on the oval.
We aren’t sure that we will find anything at Fort George, just bastion walls that we can see from the water. The views would be worth the trip. We pass the turn offs for several nude beaches on the way up. The signage was very interesting.
We almost didn’t go into the Fort itself, it was so quiet and menacing. Merro being the intrepid traveller walks into the fort; so I follow past fallen wood and giant holes encased in safety nets. We turn a corner and there is a red carpet in the ruins. We follow the red carpet, seeing huge wooden doors up ahead we go further into this labyrinth to Vis’s latest Chill Out Bar.
We truly had no idea that this was here. They have music here and the young Taiwainese waitress, 19, told us that Fort George opened in June and they hoped to put in a full kitchen. It may have begun as a pop up bar for Yacht Week crews but was morphing into a inventive Chill out bar. 19 also mentioned that they have music and the views at Sunset were definitely worth a visit.
Friday evening brings Gloria, Alan and Bill back for a quick drink on Mercier and we decide to try a Trip Advisor tip, Konoba Lola’s. Twilight is fast turning into night. You walk up three stone streets via narrow laneways and stairs. You walk into a stone walled courtyard and the tables are separated in garden rooms. Here the ‘walls’ are 3 foot tall hedges of rosemary and lavender, bathed in candlelight. All the furniture seem to be charming little pieces from estate sales. The wine cooler was an old enamel pitcher. Food was imaginative, local produce and fish or beef. A gorgeous fountain in the middle hedge with a red Alice sofa – just magical.
Croatia has been a marvelous place, not the least for meeting sailors from home. We are really enjoying these pleasant interludes during our travel. We are in Brac now and looking forward to Lesley Sommerville’s visit. Friendships, new and old, are a highlight of travelling.