We set off from Brindisi in brilliant sunshine as always after saying goodbye to the crews of Skyran and Solstice, even though we were all heading to Croatia you never know when or if you will see each other again.
We had the idea to go fairly far North to Otak Ubli to sign into Croatia but the little amount of wind that there was was coming from exactly that direction. This led to a day of sailing nonetheless, towards...... Albania! I was none too pleased as it was adding quite a few miles onto our trip and it meant we certainly wouldn't be meeting Colin, Louise and the girls in Ubli! Finally at about 6pm the wind died so we put the sails away and headed for Croatia having come within 40 miles of Albania!
Ali enjoying the sail, we had the gennaker up and made a respectable 6 knots the whole day just a shame it was about 60 degrees off course! (Angela 6 knots is roughly 6 miles an hour!)
Alisha lost tooth number 4 on the crossing which meant she had to wait a night for her tooth fairy to come as she needed to change her Euros into Kuna! Apparently the 'Kuna' tooth fairy isn't as generous as the Euro one she must have got confused with the exchange rate.....
Kaylee posing at sunset.
And then......
Sunrise over Montenegro! Seas still calm. it had become glaringly apparent to me that my night vision is pretty awful, Kaylee and I were on deck for the first dark watch and she was picking out boats and lights far better than me some I couldn't see at all until they were closer. It was a relatively quiet night with only a few ships to worry about.
In the morning I thought it was about time to start researching Croatia (prepared as ever!) and get the Croatian Courtesy flag up.
We decided to sign in a Cavtat about 10 miles South of Dubrovnik. Signing in was a bit of an experience in itself. Firstly we realised it was med mooring with anchors, something we had never done before so it was a steep learning curve thankfully it was flat calm we got in no problem. Ali did the signing in bit which looking back I should have done as I am better at running around and being bossed by officials where as he was fizzing by the time he came back two hours later. I had our first experience of being ripped off in Croatia as Ali said I should just top up the water tank whilst he was away, another British boat was doing so and so it looked OK. As soon as I had the hose in our tank a white shirted boy arrived saying we had used the facilities and therefore had to pay 20 Kuna per metre. This worked out at around 33 Euros and so I said well great does that mean we get to stay the night - Oh no just get water, charge our batteries and leave garbage at the rubbish disposal. So I began to argue that at the most I had used was 20 litres and I could have filled the tank with Evian for less but he wasn't budging and he wouldn't wait for Ali to come back either so I had to drag the girls and find an ATM whilst he was standing over my shoulder. When I got back to the boat I dd indeed dump rubbish, wash the decks and gave the girls bucket baths on deck. I said to the other British boat I bet your glad you didn't have the hose in your hand at that moment, they just smiled and left!
Even leaving the pier at Cavtat was a bit of a kerfuffle a big super sailing yacht had moored next to us and some small motor boats. The big super yacht was SV Salperton 4 or 5 and we had read about it in a magazine on the way over. it is owned by the guy who owns Carphone Warehouse and was on its maiden voyage after being built in New Zealand. We thought it was a superb boat. And then we nearly crashed into it as one of the little motor boats had anchored over our anchor. Ali was pushing our stern off a Croatian yacht and we were getting closer and closer to Salperton not knowing what to do so I just thought I'd better just try and raise the anchor entirely. With a lot of straining I managed to heave the other anchor off ours and drop it just before we hit Salperton, whose crew and owner were beginning to look a bit worried. Ali just revved up and left shouting 'She's stronger than she looks' on the way out!
We went around to Uvala Tigha at the other side of the peninsula and decided to anchor there and relax for a day or so after all the excitement.
We had a bit of trouble getting the anchor through the weed and manoeuvring so after we finally stopped Ali swam under the boat to find this wrapped around the propeller...
We basically spent the next week swimming to keep cool and doing a little exploring of Cavtat town, a trip for icecream each afternoon was definitely required.
This was the view from our boat looking North and it got busier and busier as the week went on.
Alisha and Kaylee keeping out of the sun designing tee shirts with the fabric pens Dolores and Lennart gave them.
A view of the quay at Cavtat on one of our ice cream trips.
SY Solstice arrived in Croatia the day after us, here are John and Shirlee paddling over for a beer the 1St night. We had a lot of fun with Solstice that week, drunk a fair amount of wine and John even cooked us a meal of American fried chicken which was yummy! After waking up on deck at first light one morning I did think maybe we should cut down on the Croatian wine sampling a little but at least it was warm enough to sleep outside.
After paying so much for water at the quay in Cavtat we were very water conscious from then on. We all bathed using the buckets on deck and luckily we found water taps at the small boat harbour in our bay which we filled our water canisters from each time we went ashore.
Ali in the tub bath completely starkers, he was a bit braver than me.....
Who always kept at least my bikini on on deck which was more than you could say for the German and dutch boat anchored next to us they were running around all over the boat starkers. There was always a bit of competition to see who got the tub bath first after we stopped swimming which i usually lost as I had to wash my hair.
We got a surprise one day after taking the dinghy over to a beach for swimming practise we got back to Islay Mist to find two Croatians sitting in the cockpit. They said it was OK they were only having a rest and got back into the water and swam off. Very fishy indeed although we could see thay hadn't been inside the boat as there were no wet footprints but they had sat their wet bodies all over our cock pit cushions, how rude! It certainly made us lock the boat up religiously after that.
The reason we stayed in Cavtat for so long was that Daniel was coming out for a few weeks and Cavtat is actually closer to the airport than Dubrovnik and therefore cheaper in taxi fares. Daniels visits are always looked forward to and the girls were getting to fever pitch on the day he was to arrive, unfortunately at night so we had to endure 12 hours of, " When will Daniel be here"
The girls were delighted with Their new swimming pal especially as he does fun things like jumps and dives under the boat and pretends to be a shark.....
There was so much swimming going on in Cavtat that by the end of the week Alisha and Kaylee were both getting into the water without their armbands and Alisha could actually swim around the boat stopping for a rest at the anchor chain.
A walk in the park.
We found a boat with a familiar name when we were in Cavtat one day!
These two big boats had got their anchors in a muddle something we witnessed quite a lot of in Croatia.
This was the scene just before we abruptly left Cavtat, a flat calm but a boat had come in and anchored right behind us. We all jumped in the water for a dip, I got out first and felt a puff of wind, something I hadn't felt for at least seven days so I thought it would be an idea just to get dressed. There were thunder clouds building on the hills but they had done that every day that week and come to nothing so we had stopped paying attention.....
Just after everyone else had got out of the water a great gust wind hit the boat and in minutes our anchor was dragging down onto the boat who had anchored behind us and we had to leave. What a carry on and thank goodness Daniel was there, I raised the anchor, Daniel took the helm whilst Ali pushed us off the other boat and tried to stop things from flying off the deck. No mean feat as we had been anchored for 6 days in total calm conditions so there was stuff all over the place, the hammock was up the sunshades were down and an extra canopy too. To say there was a bit of a panic on was an understatement! Once we got away and we headed into the wind Daniel and I noted that it was like sailing only without sails as the boat was heeling so much. We got the little wind speed reader out and the wind was constantly over 35 knots and up over 40 knots quite a lot too. For more pictures and story to this day see John and Shirlee's blog site
http://svsolstice.blogspot.com/
You will have to look up older posts as John and Shirlee are far better bloggers and theirs is actually up to date! They said that out of about 20 boats anchored in the bay only two (including Solstice) did not drag their anchors. One even ended up on the shore. So at least we were on board and almost ready for action.
Also look on Youtube for the 'Naked Produce Vendor' a short movie John made about that day, very entertaining.
We headed for the anchorage in the river behind Dubrovnik and look who we passed on our way...
Salperton anchored just south of Dubrovnik now you can see why we were really glad we didn't hit her!
Although the wind died away to nothing about an hour after the thunder storm first hit we were still glad to pass under the bridge to the river and get into a nice muddy secure anchorage! It proved to be very good holding as the first night we were treated to lots of boat rattling katabatic gusts coming down from the very high hills around us. The anchorage was just behind the ACI marina where the bus into the city runs right past so a great spot for anchoring. We could use the marinas laundry service and Daniel and I even sneaked in to the shower blocks. We went at night the first time and realised that this was the most conspicuous time to go as you must get a security card if you are berthed in the marina which turns the lights in the cubicles on, thankfully the hot water still worked but I had a really quick shower as I didn't want to get caught.
The next day a trip into Dubrovnik was top priority as it looked stunning as we motored past the day before. The whole old city is a Unesco World Heritage Site and quite rightly so as you will see from the pictures.
One of the fortifications on the old city walls.
The Pile Gate, one of the original gated entrances into the old city.
A typical restaurant in Dubrovnik, space is always at a premium so the tables line the narrow lanes and you have to walk past lots of tables of really yummy smelling food.
Some more sights from around the city
A view down the Strada the main focal point of the old city and it certainly lives up to the guide book description as being one of the most beautiful streets in the world.
In the market square.
The old town harbour unfortunately no room for yachts.
Daniel treated us to tea in a Bosnian restaurant strangely called the Taj Mahal. It was very good I was tempted by the dish called 'the happy Bosnian' mainly for the name but Ali wanted a meat platter for two so we munched our way through that washed down with some very nice Croatian wine.
Kaylee and Alisha tried some Bosnian sausages and had coke for a treat.
We spent another couple of days anchored in the river and here are a few pics from around that area.
Ali saw a few people take their dinghys up to a weir then haul them up over it which he thought seemed like a lot hassle considering the river only went on another 200 metres before dissapearing into the hill.
Above is a picture of Ali and Daniel helping a super yacht untangle it's anchors from other chains. Ali had stood around laughing at first when the boat had tried to raise both it's anchors at the same time which were laid diagonally across the other boats chains but after a while he couldn't help himself and got Daniel to come with him and save the day. 15 minutes later the boat was free, the marina staff were very angry (as they usually get divers and charge the boats a fortune) and Ali came back triumphant. We did think they were a bit stingy as they just said thanks then motored off but the captain got hold of Ali later in the marina and gave him a bottle of bubbly. John and Shirlee assured us it was good quality plonk (we have no idea) when we had it as an apertif to a lovely dinner cooked by Daniel that night.
After a few days us and Solstice decided it was time to head North so we got up early to get to the fuel berth when it opens at 7am as it is a scene of pandemonium later on in the day when the wind gets up. Both boats fuelled up and bought water at a much more reasonable 50 kuna total for a fill (about eight pounds)
Shirlee filling Solstice with water.
Daniel really getting into life on board a little yacht again doing his own laundry in a bucket! It's certainly nothing like a BP tanker.
A fine warm drying day.
One of the Croatian ferries going past, we soon learned to stay well out of their way!
It was a flat calm day and we motored about 15 miles to a calm weather anchorage just at the North of Otak Sipan. It was so hot we all immediately got into the water and went over to a little island in the anchorage.
Alisha and Daniel.
And then for me disaster, i found out just how sharp the rocky shores of Croatia are when i fell on them.
It actually looked a lot worse than it felt I was just glad the Sea Urchin spines I got in my fingers at the same time were there and not my bum as they were really difficult to get out!
Another stunning sunset and a glass or two of wine and the pain seemed to fade away entirely.
Croatia Part 2 coming soonish!
We had the idea to go fairly far North to Otak Ubli to sign into Croatia but the little amount of wind that there was was coming from exactly that direction. This led to a day of sailing nonetheless, towards...... Albania! I was none too pleased as it was adding quite a few miles onto our trip and it meant we certainly wouldn't be meeting Colin, Louise and the girls in Ubli! Finally at about 6pm the wind died so we put the sails away and headed for Croatia having come within 40 miles of Albania!
Ali enjoying the sail, we had the gennaker up and made a respectable 6 knots the whole day just a shame it was about 60 degrees off course! (Angela 6 knots is roughly 6 miles an hour!)
Alisha lost tooth number 4 on the crossing which meant she had to wait a night for her tooth fairy to come as she needed to change her Euros into Kuna! Apparently the 'Kuna' tooth fairy isn't as generous as the Euro one she must have got confused with the exchange rate.....
Kaylee posing at sunset.
And then......
Sunrise over Montenegro! Seas still calm. it had become glaringly apparent to me that my night vision is pretty awful, Kaylee and I were on deck for the first dark watch and she was picking out boats and lights far better than me some I couldn't see at all until they were closer. It was a relatively quiet night with only a few ships to worry about.
In the morning I thought it was about time to start researching Croatia (prepared as ever!) and get the Croatian Courtesy flag up.
We decided to sign in a Cavtat about 10 miles South of Dubrovnik. Signing in was a bit of an experience in itself. Firstly we realised it was med mooring with anchors, something we had never done before so it was a steep learning curve thankfully it was flat calm we got in no problem. Ali did the signing in bit which looking back I should have done as I am better at running around and being bossed by officials where as he was fizzing by the time he came back two hours later. I had our first experience of being ripped off in Croatia as Ali said I should just top up the water tank whilst he was away, another British boat was doing so and so it looked OK. As soon as I had the hose in our tank a white shirted boy arrived saying we had used the facilities and therefore had to pay 20 Kuna per metre. This worked out at around 33 Euros and so I said well great does that mean we get to stay the night - Oh no just get water, charge our batteries and leave garbage at the rubbish disposal. So I began to argue that at the most I had used was 20 litres and I could have filled the tank with Evian for less but he wasn't budging and he wouldn't wait for Ali to come back either so I had to drag the girls and find an ATM whilst he was standing over my shoulder. When I got back to the boat I dd indeed dump rubbish, wash the decks and gave the girls bucket baths on deck. I said to the other British boat I bet your glad you didn't have the hose in your hand at that moment, they just smiled and left!
Even leaving the pier at Cavtat was a bit of a kerfuffle a big super sailing yacht had moored next to us and some small motor boats. The big super yacht was SV Salperton 4 or 5 and we had read about it in a magazine on the way over. it is owned by the guy who owns Carphone Warehouse and was on its maiden voyage after being built in New Zealand. We thought it was a superb boat. And then we nearly crashed into it as one of the little motor boats had anchored over our anchor. Ali was pushing our stern off a Croatian yacht and we were getting closer and closer to Salperton not knowing what to do so I just thought I'd better just try and raise the anchor entirely. With a lot of straining I managed to heave the other anchor off ours and drop it just before we hit Salperton, whose crew and owner were beginning to look a bit worried. Ali just revved up and left shouting 'She's stronger than she looks' on the way out!
We went around to Uvala Tigha at the other side of the peninsula and decided to anchor there and relax for a day or so after all the excitement.
We had a bit of trouble getting the anchor through the weed and manoeuvring so after we finally stopped Ali swam under the boat to find this wrapped around the propeller...
We basically spent the next week swimming to keep cool and doing a little exploring of Cavtat town, a trip for icecream each afternoon was definitely required.
This was the view from our boat looking North and it got busier and busier as the week went on.
Alisha and Kaylee keeping out of the sun designing tee shirts with the fabric pens Dolores and Lennart gave them.
A view of the quay at Cavtat on one of our ice cream trips.
SY Solstice arrived in Croatia the day after us, here are John and Shirlee paddling over for a beer the 1St night. We had a lot of fun with Solstice that week, drunk a fair amount of wine and John even cooked us a meal of American fried chicken which was yummy! After waking up on deck at first light one morning I did think maybe we should cut down on the Croatian wine sampling a little but at least it was warm enough to sleep outside.
After paying so much for water at the quay in Cavtat we were very water conscious from then on. We all bathed using the buckets on deck and luckily we found water taps at the small boat harbour in our bay which we filled our water canisters from each time we went ashore.
Ali in the tub bath completely starkers, he was a bit braver than me.....
Who always kept at least my bikini on on deck which was more than you could say for the German and dutch boat anchored next to us they were running around all over the boat starkers. There was always a bit of competition to see who got the tub bath first after we stopped swimming which i usually lost as I had to wash my hair.
We got a surprise one day after taking the dinghy over to a beach for swimming practise we got back to Islay Mist to find two Croatians sitting in the cockpit. They said it was OK they were only having a rest and got back into the water and swam off. Very fishy indeed although we could see thay hadn't been inside the boat as there were no wet footprints but they had sat their wet bodies all over our cock pit cushions, how rude! It certainly made us lock the boat up religiously after that.
The reason we stayed in Cavtat for so long was that Daniel was coming out for a few weeks and Cavtat is actually closer to the airport than Dubrovnik and therefore cheaper in taxi fares. Daniels visits are always looked forward to and the girls were getting to fever pitch on the day he was to arrive, unfortunately at night so we had to endure 12 hours of, " When will Daniel be here"
The girls were delighted with Their new swimming pal especially as he does fun things like jumps and dives under the boat and pretends to be a shark.....
There was so much swimming going on in Cavtat that by the end of the week Alisha and Kaylee were both getting into the water without their armbands and Alisha could actually swim around the boat stopping for a rest at the anchor chain.
A walk in the park.
We found a boat with a familiar name when we were in Cavtat one day!
These two big boats had got their anchors in a muddle something we witnessed quite a lot of in Croatia.
This was the scene just before we abruptly left Cavtat, a flat calm but a boat had come in and anchored right behind us. We all jumped in the water for a dip, I got out first and felt a puff of wind, something I hadn't felt for at least seven days so I thought it would be an idea just to get dressed. There were thunder clouds building on the hills but they had done that every day that week and come to nothing so we had stopped paying attention.....
Just after everyone else had got out of the water a great gust wind hit the boat and in minutes our anchor was dragging down onto the boat who had anchored behind us and we had to leave. What a carry on and thank goodness Daniel was there, I raised the anchor, Daniel took the helm whilst Ali pushed us off the other boat and tried to stop things from flying off the deck. No mean feat as we had been anchored for 6 days in total calm conditions so there was stuff all over the place, the hammock was up the sunshades were down and an extra canopy too. To say there was a bit of a panic on was an understatement! Once we got away and we headed into the wind Daniel and I noted that it was like sailing only without sails as the boat was heeling so much. We got the little wind speed reader out and the wind was constantly over 35 knots and up over 40 knots quite a lot too. For more pictures and story to this day see John and Shirlee's blog site
http://svsolstice.blogspot.com/
You will have to look up older posts as John and Shirlee are far better bloggers and theirs is actually up to date! They said that out of about 20 boats anchored in the bay only two (including Solstice) did not drag their anchors. One even ended up on the shore. So at least we were on board and almost ready for action.
Also look on Youtube for the 'Naked Produce Vendor' a short movie John made about that day, very entertaining.
We headed for the anchorage in the river behind Dubrovnik and look who we passed on our way...
Salperton anchored just south of Dubrovnik now you can see why we were really glad we didn't hit her!
Although the wind died away to nothing about an hour after the thunder storm first hit we were still glad to pass under the bridge to the river and get into a nice muddy secure anchorage! It proved to be very good holding as the first night we were treated to lots of boat rattling katabatic gusts coming down from the very high hills around us. The anchorage was just behind the ACI marina where the bus into the city runs right past so a great spot for anchoring. We could use the marinas laundry service and Daniel and I even sneaked in to the shower blocks. We went at night the first time and realised that this was the most conspicuous time to go as you must get a security card if you are berthed in the marina which turns the lights in the cubicles on, thankfully the hot water still worked but I had a really quick shower as I didn't want to get caught.
The next day a trip into Dubrovnik was top priority as it looked stunning as we motored past the day before. The whole old city is a Unesco World Heritage Site and quite rightly so as you will see from the pictures.
One of the fortifications on the old city walls.
The Pile Gate, one of the original gated entrances into the old city.
A typical restaurant in Dubrovnik, space is always at a premium so the tables line the narrow lanes and you have to walk past lots of tables of really yummy smelling food.
Some more sights from around the city
A view down the Strada the main focal point of the old city and it certainly lives up to the guide book description as being one of the most beautiful streets in the world.
In the market square.
The old town harbour unfortunately no room for yachts.
Daniel treated us to tea in a Bosnian restaurant strangely called the Taj Mahal. It was very good I was tempted by the dish called 'the happy Bosnian' mainly for the name but Ali wanted a meat platter for two so we munched our way through that washed down with some very nice Croatian wine.
Kaylee and Alisha tried some Bosnian sausages and had coke for a treat.
We spent another couple of days anchored in the river and here are a few pics from around that area.
Ali saw a few people take their dinghys up to a weir then haul them up over it which he thought seemed like a lot hassle considering the river only went on another 200 metres before dissapearing into the hill.
Above is a picture of Ali and Daniel helping a super yacht untangle it's anchors from other chains. Ali had stood around laughing at first when the boat had tried to raise both it's anchors at the same time which were laid diagonally across the other boats chains but after a while he couldn't help himself and got Daniel to come with him and save the day. 15 minutes later the boat was free, the marina staff were very angry (as they usually get divers and charge the boats a fortune) and Ali came back triumphant. We did think they were a bit stingy as they just said thanks then motored off but the captain got hold of Ali later in the marina and gave him a bottle of bubbly. John and Shirlee assured us it was good quality plonk (we have no idea) when we had it as an apertif to a lovely dinner cooked by Daniel that night.
After a few days us and Solstice decided it was time to head North so we got up early to get to the fuel berth when it opens at 7am as it is a scene of pandemonium later on in the day when the wind gets up. Both boats fuelled up and bought water at a much more reasonable 50 kuna total for a fill (about eight pounds)
Shirlee filling Solstice with water.
Daniel really getting into life on board a little yacht again doing his own laundry in a bucket! It's certainly nothing like a BP tanker.
A fine warm drying day.
One of the Croatian ferries going past, we soon learned to stay well out of their way!
It was a flat calm day and we motored about 15 miles to a calm weather anchorage just at the North of Otak Sipan. It was so hot we all immediately got into the water and went over to a little island in the anchorage.
Alisha and Daniel.
And then for me disaster, i found out just how sharp the rocky shores of Croatia are when i fell on them.
It actually looked a lot worse than it felt I was just glad the Sea Urchin spines I got in my fingers at the same time were there and not my bum as they were really difficult to get out!
Another stunning sunset and a glass or two of wine and the pain seemed to fade away entirely.
Croatia Part 2 coming soonish!
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