Tuesday 26th June

The temperature suddenly shot up when we reached Istria, to the extent that doing anything was an effort, so the air con came into play and the screens went up on the side windows to try to bring the heat down in the saloon. After a night in port, during which time we got a new battery for the generator, we were glad to get back out to sea where there was at least a bit of a breeze. We meandered along the coast to a lovely anchorage and then spent half of the afternoon in the water, as five minutes in the sun meant you needed to get back into the sea to cool off! We debated staying at anchor for the night but in the end went into Pula as we wanted to fill the tanks and then check out of Croatia by the following morning. The approach to Pula is past a broken down breakwater, half of which is now under water, and then up a long channel, and once you get to the port, the first thing that you see is an incredible Roman amphitheatre dominating the shoreline. The next thing you notice is a truly disgusting block of flats right on top of the marina! The only consolation is that the flats will be gone in another decade or two, whilst hopefully the amphitheatre, which was built and in use around the time of Christ, will still be there in another two centuries time. It was dusk by the time we had fuelled up, moored up and made our way into the town to see this Roman construction and it really was amazing. You can go down into the tunnels beneath the theatre and get an idea of what it must have been like for those waiting to "perform". Terrifying. When we came back up, the sun had gone down and hundreds of swallows were flying through the arched colonnades, it was an awesome sight. In the morning, we moved to the Q berth as instructed, in order to complete the check out facilities, where we moored beneath the prow of an enormous sailing cruise ship! The sea, when we came out of port, was just perfect - barely a ripple to disturb the surface, and the trip we had across the Adriatic was one of the best ever, to the extent that, eight miles out from land, we stopped Zaffina and jumped in! An amazing experience! Eventually land came into sight on the horizon - Italy (which was just as well, as that's where we were aiming for!) We sailed Zaffina into the lagoon and up to a marina opposite the island of Burano, where the Marinero was blowing kisses to me even before we had her tied up! It was still so hot that once everything was sorted, we put the bathing ladder down and swam in the lagoon. We knew we had to complete the arrival formalities, so got a taxi into St Mark's in order to visit the customs office. When eventually we found it, the staff were remarkably disinterested in us, to the extent that we wondered if we were in the right place. We were. Eventually someone looked at our passports, glanced at Zaffina's papers and sent us on our way without stamping or noting anything...all in all, a complete waste of time! Still, we were in Venice, and that was all that really mattered. We stopped for a drink at Florian's (which cost the same as dinner for 2 with a bottle of wine the previous evening in Croatia) before returning to the marina and a very good meal in a restaurant overlooking the lagoon. And then the next day, we achieved our ultimate boating dream...sailing Zaffina into the centre of Venice, past St Mark's Square, the Doges Palace, the Campanile, Santa Maria della Salute and San Georgio and over to the one, solitary berth outside the hotel Cipriani. What an experience! I was a bit apprehensive about tying up to those mooring posts so typical of Venice, but Frank brought her alongside so neatly that getting the ropes in place wasn't a problem. One of the pool staff was on hand to take the stern ropes and within minutes we were made fast, and hugging each other with delight as we surveyed our breathtaking surroundings. We had to take a room in the Cipriani (no great hardship really) but on Frank's instigation, we were presented with a silver service dinner in the cockpit of Zaffina, two staff from the restaurant on hand to attend to our every need. It was quite fun watching them negotiate getting onto and off our Azimut, as the tiny pontoon was in an awkward situation for boarding, but they both managed with aplomb and we had a sensational evening. Our two days in pole position passed all too quickly, doing the usual tourist things which mainly involved just strolling around the streets of the city. There can be few places so vibrant and colourful as Venice, and it is lovely to consider the history of the place and to realise that although the merchandise and fashions may have changed over the years, the ambiance and activity has remained the same here throughout several centuries. The Grand Canal was as busy as a motorway but far more entertaining to watch and St Mark's Square proved as awesome as ever, particularly when viewed from the lofty heights of the Campanile. On our final night in Italy, we dined at the Cip's Club, a decking terrace overlooking the Guidecca Canal and directly opposite St Mark's Square - wonderful - and then strolled along the edge of lagoon after our sumptuous dinner. Before leaving Venice we had one more task to perform: get some photographs of Zaffina in this auspicious location. Easier said than done! I cast off our ropes and whilst Frank held her in place, jumped off the boat and ran round to the front of the hotel, where I hopped on their taxi and went out into the lagoon. Zaffina was waiting in front of San Georgio and as we approached, Frank brought her over in front and then alongside us, so I could snap merrily away and also take some video footage. The boatman was a little disconcerted when I told him that I wanted to jump from his boat back to ours, but once we were out of the main stream of the lagoon he brought her close enough for me to make the transition (a rather inelegant belly flop manoeuvre over the side, I'm afraid) and then we were on our way, retracing our footsteps back towards the Adriatic in the knowledge that we had just had a boating experience we would never forget. Umag was a disappointment. Being back in Croatia was no hardship but the rudeness of the policeman on duty when Frank went to check in was beyond anything we had experienced in this lovely country and after being given the third degree, there seemed no point in sticking around and instead we put back to sea straight away and found another anchorage for the afternoon. The night was spent in Novigrad, a pretty, colourful little town with an excellent new marina - and exceptionally friendly staff! One of the ports we really wanted to visit was Rovinj, a town not dissimilar to Korcula which was one of our favourites last summer. When we approached in the early evening, the wind was starting to rise and there was a queue of water traffic heading for the marina. The Marinero indicated that we could go on the outside quay, but seeing the amount of movement there, we declined, asking instead if there was anything inside. There wasn't, so we went over to try the town quay, but that too was full so we turned back to the marina, only to be told that there was now nothing available for us, inside or out. As there were still a bunch of spaces, that seemed unlikely, but unable to argue, we instead went to pick up a buoy. The fates were against us; the buoy had such a narrow ring on the top that the knot connecting our rope to our buoy catcher got entirely jammed, and it wasn't until the buoy catcher snapped that the tension was released and we were able to get our rope back - but not tied onto the buoy. At that point we gave up, went a couple of miles south and found a perfect anchorage where there was next to no wind and where, in the end, we had a lovely, peaceful night on the hook! Rovinj was too good to bypass altogether, so in the morning we returned to the scene of our altercations and this time managed to get a rope round the buoy before taking the dinghy into town. It was worth the hassle! Rovinj is such a pretty place and we were glad that we had made the effort to get back there for the morning. The afternoon saw us heading down the Istrian coast and across to Cres, one of the larger islands but with very little habitation on it as it's pretty barren. We anchored in a gorgeous cove and swam to the pebbly beach but, having decided in the early evening that we would stay for the night, we had so many problems in trying to get a line to shore that we finally gave up and went into the marina, refuelling en route. I think it was really all a ploy so Frank could get to watch the England game, but it really wasn't worth the effort, especially as we were the only English supporters among a restaurant full of Italian fans! If only someone else had taken those penalties! And then yesterday morning we left Cres and had about half an hour on a glass calm sea before we turned around the northern point of the island and hit a blast coming up the west coast of Krk from the Velabit Channel - the windiest part of Croatia (and possibly Europe!) Fortunately we only had about half an hour of blow before the sea miraculously turned back to glass before we reached Rab and found another glorious, glorious anchorage for the afternoon. Another blow was due through last night so we moved into Rab Town where we managed to secure a berth on the quayside, between the fishing boats and water taxis. Last night turned out to be tournament night - Rab vs San Marino in a crossbow firing competition! It was quite a spectacle, with all the competitors plus half of the town processing in medieval costume before the games, which themselves made fascinating viewing with the crossbows proving incredibly accurate. We eventually wandered off for dinner at a delightful restaurant in a courtyard adjacent to our mooring, to round off a pretty perfect boating day. Oh, and it rained in the middle of the night, but it was sunny again when we woke up!