Category: Adventures

As many of you know, the weather in the Med has been very gray, wet and windy. We decided to come back to Dubrovnik early and leave Croatian sailing with a graceful exit. All the better to prepare Mercier for winter. So for you sailors out there, this will be the last blog.  We will still be posting a few pages about places we are travelling to and family events.

Last weekend, we cleaned, stowed and polished. All the laundry has to be done and put into vacuum bags. lifelines need a coat of WD 40, Sails and bimini put away on the last day of the Bora, so all incredibly dry. Each cabin, ceiling, walls and floors washed with vinegar and water to keep the damp at bay.  Yesterday, James went to check that everything was shipshape and say goodbye to Mercier’s caretaker.

We have moved into a small studio near the Ploce Gate in Dubrovnik.  So here are a few more photos of Dubrovnik in the rain including one of our favorite chill out bars. Visited by tourists, who have a coffee or a drink, a swim and read their papers or a book, while looking over to the island of Lokrum.

We walked the Bastion again, needed those stairs one more time and took a few photos of the amazing fortress city. We will play in Dubrovnik one more day and tomorrow fly out for a week in the UK, mainly near London.

Happy Birthday to Will Cuddy and  Jan Riley.  Harry Jenkins, your birthday is coming up too. Hope it is great.

Mljet is one island that we enjoyed so much, we took a second bite of the cherry.  We left Korcula on Sunday the 29th in a stiff head wind, messy seaway and grey sky.

We arrived at Polace and stayed at the very nice Calypso Restaurant – reminding us that some feel that Mljet was the home for the nymph Calypso in the Odyssey.  The drill here is you moor at a restaurant and you get a free mooring but you have to buy yourself a nice dinner.  We relaxed, just reading in the cockpit, when two very nice Americans, Candace and Dave came over from the gulet Krila 7 moored nearby.  They had been hiking up at the two lakes area of Mljet and had visited the Isle of Saint Mary.  Rain was threatening, so we decided to walk to the Roman ruins and go to the island the next morning.

Dave and Candace kindly asked us over for a drink before dinner and we met the rest of the Americans on board. The hospitality was warm and it was great meeting these genial travellers from both coasts of the US.

Morning takes us to the Two Lakes and the Monastery of Saint Mary,  on a bus from Polace and then a ferry across to the island that had been a Benedictine Monastery from 1151 until 1961.

We are able to see the church and walk around the entire island.  In one very tiny chapel is a beautiful, almost Oriental painting of Mary.  On the very small altar below were letters to Mary and God, thanking them for past help or asking for indulgence. It felt very human yet very modern to be writing letters to God.

We took the ferry back to the hiking trail near the small lake to Pomena and so we walked over stone by the lake and had lunch in Pomena.  After a very good lunch, we went into a shop for water for the 4 Kilometre hike back to Polace, Right in front of us was a bus which the waiter had said was non existent and we were back in Polace in a few minutes.

By the time we returned to Calypso for dinner, several other boats on a yachting flotilla had joined the quay.  It was the Austrian sailing division who had just arrived from Trogir and the races started the next day.  There was quite of a bit of Austrian music and Croatian beer, with drinking games played to The Sound of Music.  One Austrian gentleman, Norbert, came over to apologise for the noise  and explained that he once had a great vacation driving from Brisbane to Tamworth to the Hunter Valley and finally Sydney. Needless to say we enjoyed the Sound of Music and a few other Austrian Tunes to the wee small hours of 3 AM and then the bora arrived in earnest.  We bounced on the mooring until the next morning.  (We are telling you all about this because it is illustrative of the types of things that happen on Mercier that are out of the skipper’s control, not to create pity.)

We decide the next day to stay in Polace but to go over to anchor in a very sheltered spot because even on Calypso’s mooring we are bouncing as if we have St.Vitus dance. The result is immediate and we read and nap in our little cove. It is so calm.  We have dinner, then about 11PM, the bora comes in strongly and even in our sheltered little cove we bounce madly. For the second night in a row there is very little sleep and to add injury, it turns cold.

The Northeasterly bora seems to be a wind that gets quiet in the afternoon and blows up big in the dark of night.  We decide to brave the bora and motor sail for 12 miles to Okuklje.  It is bound to be protected from the bora and perhaps even quiet this time of year.

We feel we have made a good choice when we go into the small harbour. There are only a few yachts here. Well, it is October and there is a chill to the air.  We are at Maran’s Restaurant quay.  I feel terrible, for at six pm, we are the only yacht on their quay. Will they have to open their restaurant just for us?  Should we offer just to pay for the mooring?

The food isn’t nearly as important as the safe moorings that Maran is known for.  A quiet night, maybe even an early one, we would be happy with baked beans if we could just have a good night’s sleep.

We contemplated how we would broach the subject as the first of our intrepid Austrian friends sail into the protected harbour.  One has to feel the pain of the restauranteur – going from one boat and one couple for dinner to 15 yacht crews without prior warning.   The restaurant staff goes into full overdrive to cope with the huge influx, beers are poured, orders taken then a stroke of genius.  A young waiter turns on the TV, soccer soothes the savage beasts…sorry soothes the sailors.  Our friend Norbert comes and chats as we finish our tasty dinner.  The Austrians had battled the bora while racing and thought it better to change their plans to be closer to tomorrow’s marina.  They left early this morning, we toasted their valiant efforts with our tea (in bed).  It is chilly here in Croatia.

Happy Birthday to Libby Deegan, also to Ainsley and Fran, happy birthday to you both, since we are going to be packing sails and cleaning ropes we should get in early. Bon chance and Bon Voyage to Cameron, Anne and Florence who are moving to ChristChurch this week too.

Korcula lured us into its lovely marina although we planned on going to Lumbarda.  It was almost impossible to believe ACI Korcula was the same marina.  It is much quieter in late September and there is room to manuever.  Korcula town is also much easier to navigate in mid-September, there are still tour groups and cruise ships but it is definitely less crowded.

We decided to take the bus to Lumbarda in the morning and see if perhaps there was somewhere to have coffee.  Lumbarda is a smaller marina, with great vistas back to the islands off Korcula.  There is a lovely beach past the marina and we walk along til the end, visit the large Bistro Maestral for coffee and return to Korcula.

Walking around this old Venetian city fortress is wonderful, every corner gives you something intriguing to look at.  The views across to a bora denuded hill on the Pelasic peninsular illustrates the power of the north to northeast katabatic wind, which can blow up to 100 knots.

We were wandering down a street southeast of the marina, after shopping for supplies. We decided to walk to the end of a street to see if we could find steps to take us back to the marina.  We came across a Saturday afternoon activity for this time of year.  Here was a family making their own wine.It looked as if they had removed and mulched the stems, crushing them.  They added grapes to the press and then layered in the stems, more grapes and more stems. The grapes were in a press the size of a 44 gallon drum in the garage.

Autumn is bringing variable weather but much cooler, a very comfortable 27 degrees and cool nights for sleeping. We are starting to think about putting Mercier on the hard for the winter but we are hoping for a few more nights on the islands on our way back to Dubrovnik.

Our first night on Lastovo is in Luka Mali Lago, a very nice anchorage in a sheltered bay on the west side of Lastovo.  There are  a few cafes and an hotel in the next bay, which we can walk to or go under the bridge in the Zodiac.  There are a few houses on the shore and there are just three boats here overnight. We hear it can be very crowded in August.

We have a nice swim in the morning and motor for about 1 1/2 hours to Skrivena Luka.  As you approach Skrivena Luka, you can’t see the entrance to the bay at all.  I wonder why James is pointed directly at the island, but as you get closer you can see the narrow deep channel entrance and a completely landlocked harbour right underneath Pt Struga lighthouse.

Skrivena Luka means ‘hidden harbour’.  The Porto Rosso restaurant has a wonderful marina there, pay a small fee and have your dinner in the restaurant and everyone is happy. It is a very sheltered spot being landlocked and would have been another good place to be in the recent bora.

Mercier travels almost half way around the island to the tiny harbour of Zaklopatica.  It is like a small jewel and we are at the restaurant pontoon of Augusta Insula.  The names reminds me of Romans and it is very interesting to note that the Roman emperors came to Lastovo and built holiday homes. Augusta Insula means the ’emperor’s island’, the Roman name for Lastovo.

We order a Croatian Lamb Peka for dinner and walk up to the land locked town of Lastovo. This is a town of 15th and 16th century houses and churches.  All of this in a valley shaped in a natural amphitheatre.

The town’s icon and emblem are the ‘fumari’ or chimneys.  Each craftman built a slightly different chimney for each family home.  The fumari are all unique and range from the delicate to the almost phallic.

There can be a large church and it will be surrounded by several smaller ones dedicated to different saints. We were amazed at the number of churches in a very small area.

We walked back to the boat, partially on an old Roman road, which was more like a bush track. Back on the main road to Zaklopatica, we pass some very endearing graffitti.

On our second day in Vela Luka, wind warnings for the dreaded Bora came over the internet and it was also apparent by the large number of boats that were filing in all day.  Here we were in Korcula’s most protected harbour wearing T-shirts and shorts yet the weary sailors coming into the harbour were in wet weather gear.  We decided we would stay here on the comfortable town quay for the duration.

Murter was a literal port in a storm, as we were going south, we could see thunder heads forming. We went to the very interesting Marina Hramina (pronounced Cremina) which had a lovely clubhouse and a beach. We arrived and walked up the hill to the church and back down to the market for fruit.  As we walked on, the sky was getting darker and darker and we arrived back on Mercier for a full frontal thunderstorm.  We were all very happy we didn’t have the biggest mast in the marina.

In the morning, it was dark and we all filed into the clubhouse to enjoy free wifi.  But when the sun broke through the clouds we decided it was early enough to head to Vodice, very close to Tribunj.

Vodice has a reputation for being noisy and lively but we thought we the season had ended, so it would be calm and quiet.  Well no,  no it wasn’t, but lively is a good description.  We hadn’t counted on the Polish Navy being in town, the three of us poured a drink and sat and watched the show.  Several boats away from us, we heard the refrain of ” When the Saints go Marching in” in Polish, which produces quite an earworm.  This crew  seemingly so embarrassed the other crews that they were all smiles and propriety. Dobra!

After the previous day’s rain, Vodice was sparkling and we wandered down to the working dock and looked at the old boats and day trippers.

Vodice means “water source” and on this fine sunny day, the water was clear and sparkling.  There are some beautiful small parks and plenty of restaurants in the old town and cafes line the harbour.

We thought we would leave Vodice early and do a long sail to Brac but on the way the thunder clouds were forming over Split and Solta, so we sought refuge in the town of Marina at the Marina Agana.  This is a very tiny seaside town with a beach around the bay and a small marina.  Perfect as we watched the rain fall in the distance and the wind shred the cumulus clouds overhead.

While it is great to be here enjoying Croatia, we are very sad to miss Opening Day at the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron, we wish you all fair weather for the day.

We have visited three very lovely bays over the last three days, Mir and Vrulje were our favourites.

We arrived at a lovely peaceful mooring at Vrulje at about 11AM.  We had dolphins languidly going with us on the way to each of the bays and the breeze was blowing lightly.

At Vrulje. we had lunch aboard and took the dingy into the very tiny town.  We checked out the restaurants and walked along the path around the bay.  No internet, no interesting castles, a very short walk.  We wondered if we were going to be very bored.  We went back to the boat; we swam then read and shared a cup of tea.

Our fears were unfounded, about 3PM, the North Westerly wind picked up just as boats were streaming into the tiny bay. People were trying to pick up the moorings with varying success. There were quite a few charter boats and so many of the crew may not have had any practice.  Our peace was shattered by skippers yelling out instructions and bow persons, yelling back “slow down” to skippers.

The moorings were close, so we seem to have boats moving past us much like bulls go past Matadors.  The mooring in front of us was missing a rope and a German boat decided since it was a good position, they wouldn’t let that deter them. On the 5^th attempt, they picked up the mooring, a wind gust hit and the boat hook was wrenched from their hands.

There were 4 people on the bow, their shoulders slumped.  They were all staring at the boat hook which was now stuck onto the mooring, too low to grab.  Four bereft crew and a skipper, all staring at the lost boathook, each of them trying not to be the person who would be swimming for the boat hook.

We had been watching from Mercier, quietly coaching from the sidelines; so James jumped in the dingy, collected the boat hook and took it over to them.  He told them to make another attempt,used the dingy to nudge them in, then he threaded the line through the mooring. ‘Hooray’ went up around the bay. In a very short time,our German friends were in their cock pit watching other crews making the same attempts at other moorings.

They gave James a very nice bottle of extra dry Prosecco for his efforts.  For the rest of the afternoon, if Lesley and I saw a boat in difficulties, we would tell James to go and help.  It was a very nice Prosecco.

The hero was up early, so we motor sailed to Mir on Dugi Otok, a mooring here was twice the expected price at Kuna 350.  But it was a beautiful protected bay so we paid the National Park people and took the dingy over to the island.  We had a very basic lunch and walked up the hill towards the cliff.  We reached the lookout point and saw majestic cliffs, azure seas and beautiful sail boats.

Croatia is not a nanny state.  You get one sign to say be careful and that is it.  We saw a couple nestled in what looked like an abandoned eagles nest on the side of the cliff  They must have missed the sign.

The other two highlights of Mir are the native donkeys, placid and looking for sweets amongst the tourists pockets and bags; also there is a big salt lake- filled with swimmers from the day trip boats. We decided to head back to swim off Mercier in the clear blue bay, we saw the donkey on the way home.

We hope we will have a still anchorage and a nice dinner on Mercier underneath the stars.