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 5th 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.