Friday 28th September 2012

I don't usually do two posts in one week, but I'm in disgrace with my skipper because I forgot to mention the firefighting aircraft. And he's right, they do deserve to be mentioned.
When we got back to Croatia after our trip home, there were fires everywhere; loads of blackened land alongside the motorway and a big swathe of burnt hillside high above Trogir. Over the next week or so, we frequently saw plumes of smoke where the fires had either re-ignited or new ones had caught - a sad sight indeed, especially knowing that for some people the flames were scarily close to their homes.
The firefighting aeroplanes are brilliant. They're quite small, bright yellow and skilfully handled and boy do they make a difference when a blaze is out of control as we've seen on several occasions.
We were anchored on the Krka River, I think it was the afternoon of the day our last guests arrived, enjoying the solitude and the sunshine, when we saw another stain of dark smoke smudging the blue sky over the ridge of land between us and the open sea. Although it was too far away for us to see the fire itself, we could tell from the colour and intensity of the smoke that it was quite a blaze and clearly increasing in size.
We heard a roar, and a firefighting plane appeared close by, heading upriver parallel to our little creek. I was sunbathing on the bow without much in the way of clothes on, when suddenly the plane banked over the trees and came right overhead - and when I say overhead, I mean overhead, by just a few feet! I grabbed my towel around me, leaned up and waved at the pilot who managed, very calmly, to wave back before descending to sea level just in front of Zaffina and scooping up a load of water to dump on the fire. It was quite a moment! Two more planes banked around and carried out the same procedure but not quite as close as the first one, and then all three headed off towards the smoke and were clearly successfully in dousing the flames, judging by the decreased volume of smoke.
We're full of admiration for the pilots; they really know how to handle their aircraft, as picking up a load of water like that takes an enormous amount of skill and a very steady hand. The difference they make to controlling a fire is tremendous, and watching them is fascinating.
And then of course, you've heard about the following week in my last blog...confused yet? Me too! But to bring things up to date, we spent a couple of nights in Tribunj which was very picturesque, very unspoilt and very very quiet. The wind really came up on the first night and gave us a good hammering, and the following day it was still quite blowy. Frank had gone for a kip and I was in the cockpit reading when I realised that a nearby yacht, which was trying to leave port, was having trouble getting off it's mooring. I ran over to give a hand, and with one of the crew, pushed at the hull of the yacht as the skipper tried to manoeuvre it away from the pier. The wind kept blowing it back and the rest of the crew were pretty darn hopeless about getting the fenders in place; I wasn't surprise to see that it had a fair few scratches down the hull! Eventually we started to make a bit of a difference, but just before she finally got out of the berth, the yacht came back for one last slam against the pier, forcing a sheet of water up between the hull and the wall and giving me a rather unwelcome cold shower! So much for being a Good Samaritan!
Later in the day Frank and I had a lovely walk around the town and up to the little church which stands on the top of a small hill alongside, passing fourteen stations of the cross on the steep climb and culminating in a fabulous view across towards the Kornati Islands. After the exertion of the climb, we went for a longish walk along the sea front, imagining what a delightful place it must be in the height of the summer.
After our second night in port, this one much calmer than the first, we put out to sea again and made a brief, uneventful and very pleasant journey back to Potkucina, a favourite anchorage which we've used on many occasions. This time we went into a different bay within the same area and as usual, almost as soon as we were tied up, a boatman appeared to charge us for the buoy. We've seen him on numerous occasions, so this time we invited him on board for a coffee, to his surprise and I think delight!
The day was a real bonus and far better than the forecast had predicted, and once on our own again, we sunbathed and swam the afternoon away before dining in the cockpit and watching another sensational sunset. We even swam after dinner, in a deep, dark, moonlit sea...tres romantique!
The night, which started off peaceful, got progressively noisier as the wind came up and although it was never uncomfortable, it was quite noisy so we didn't hang around for too long after breakfast the following morning. Frank charted a course back to Sibenik, and although it was a bit of a bumpy trip, Zaffina - as always - took it in her stride and gave us an easy ride. Sibenik is part way up the Krka River, and of course, once we were in the shelter of the river, conditions were lovely again, to the extent that we decided to stop off before going into port, dropped the hook in a completely sheltered inlet and had the bonus of another sunny afternoon on the water. There was a slight contre temps when I swam ashore with a rope to tie to a handy tree; when I tried to return to Zaffina with it, the rope was slightly too short and I was left floudering around, trying unsuccessfully to pull it as far as the stern so we could make fast. Eventually I had to admit defeat and swim back to the tree in order to tie my knot there, which meant another swim to retrieve the rope later. In the late afternoon, clouds came over so we upped anchor and went into Marina Mandalina and onto what is now considered Zaffina's berth.
Both yesterday and today have been spent in port; yesterday Frank had meetings with the two companies vying to provide a winter service for us and then we took the Jag and did a restock at the mall supermarket and today has been a cleaning the boat day. We had hoped to perhaps get back out into the river but although it's been warm, the sun never really came through, so we stayed in port and now Zaffina is gleaming again thanks to a certain amount of elbow grease.
Adrian arrives first thing tomorrow morning, and so begins our last week of the season.

Monday 24th September

After humming and ha-ing for a bit over which marina to be in when our guests arrived, we finally decided that the best place was Skradin and with that in mind, we pottered up the now familiar Krka River to the little port and tied up on the quay. Previously we've been in the marina which is fairly close, but the quay is just the best place to be, as there are plenty of comings and goings and loads to watch. Our guests arrived fairly late in the evening, but not too late to open a bottle of champagne to celebrate their arrival before we got everyone settled in, with the warning that they would have to be up at a reasonable hour the next morning!
And they were...which meant that we were able to get the first boat up to the national park where the famous waterfalls are situated. Although Frank and I had been there twice before, the impact of these beautiful falls was as strong as ever, and along with Con and Gill and Bob and Janet, we walked the nature trail and then bathed in the fairly cool waters before returning to Skradin in the early afternoon. Once back, it was a quick turnaround and then we were on our way, easing back down the river and out to sea - a fabulously calm sea, the colour intensified by the cloudless blue skies overhead. Our destination for night 2 was Dugi Otok (which translates as Long Island) and a secluded anchorage we visited much earlier in the season when we had Charles and Liz and Tim and Annabel with us. This time there were more boats around and we were just minutes too late to pick up the last available buoy but that didn't really matter, as we found a quiet corner and dropped the anchor in solitude. A short while later, a little motor boat appeared on the horizon and zipped its way towards us. Once it was close, we could make out that it was a grocer's boat, filled with fruit and veg, all on offer for weary travellers who hadn't bothered to stock up sufficiently before they left port. Sadly for them, we were well provisioned, but Con promised that if they returned in the morning, he would buy a watermelon and some bread. They did; he did. The evening was lazy and relaxed, sitting in the cockpit eating lasagne and drinking rather good Croatian red wine (Zlatan Plavac, since you asked), and went by all too quickly.
Frank and I had promised ourselves a return visit to the Kornati Islands when we visited earlier in the year and with the sea still utterly calm and the weather pretty gorgeous, we motored down from Dugi Otok to the northern end of the Kornati National Park and then meandered between the islands, enjoying the sunshine and getting a good look at this fascinating place. Its impossible to describe these amazing islands in any way that does them justice as they are in many cases somewhat featureless and barren (see what I mean) but they have a haunting beauty all their own. Several enormous crosses lying flush high on a hillside were a memorial to the sixteen (we were told) people who died in a fire on one of the islands a couple of years ago. Nobody was quite sure how things got so out of hand, but there were fears that some old explosive device or a deposit of flammable liquid had been in the path of the fire and blown up when the firefighters were too close to escape the inferno. The youngest was a teenager.
Our trip through the Kornati took several hours and once we reached the southern end of the park, Frank pushed the throttles forward and turned Zaffina towards the island of Vis. We arrived in the town of Komiza just in time to get the very last place in port and tied up between a small motorboat and a fishing boat, which was sadly attracting rather more than its fair share of flies! The swatters went into overdrive and we managed to deplete the fly population quite significantly, but never quite enough to stop them bothering us! One of the reasons for heading to Komiza was to try a restaurant that F and I had earmarked on a previous visit, so we went haring up there almost as soon as we were tied up, in order to book a table. And were completely out of luck! The restaurant was booked out for a function and we had to settle for a pleasant but not especially memorable meal at another place nearby. Fortunately its situation, right on the waterfront, added to the evening, as did the company of course!
After a couple of lovely days, the forecast was threatening that things were about to change and so we took advantage of a lull before the storm to anchor off for another night, returning to an inlet near Vis Town for a peaceful night on the water. In the morning, with clouds gathering, we crossed to Palmizana, the marina just a short water taxi ride from Hvar, and managed to blag our favourite place, tied up to a tiny quay. Surprisingly, the clouds dispersed, so we took the taxi to Hvar and had a fun afternoon wandering around the town and trying out a few cocktails en route before returning to Palmizana as the clouds regrouped. And then it was two days of rain, storms, wind and high seas, which saw us venturing out only to get wet or to head over to Zori, another favourite restaurant about 15 minutes walk from the marina, where we enjoyed a couple of excellent meals and yet more of that very good wine. Well, you have to do something to cheer yourselves up when the weather turns foul!
With just two days left once the rain had passed, we knew that we had to abandon our original plan of taking our guests to Brac and instead, when we nosed out of port, we turned back to the north and the island of Solta. We had expected the sea to be pretty lumpy after the conditions we'd been experiencing for the previous couple of days, but it was nothing of the sort, and we ended up thoroughly enjoying the two hour trip to Maslinica. On previous occasions when we'd been there, the port had been crammed to the gunnels with motorboats and yachts; this time, we shared the place with jut a handful of other craft. We were directed to moor alongside two medium sized motorboats and were surprised, once we were tied up, to hear our neighbours ask the marineros if they could move! Apparently, we had stolen their sunlight!! We thought the whole idea was rather ridiculous, but our (English) neighbours were deadly serious and rather put out when another boat came in and promptly went into the berth they'd hoped to move to. Relations were somewhat strained between our boat and theirs from then on, with rather a lot of rude comments about small boats being put in the shade and how awful it is to be overshadowed...
Our last day all together was spent in lovely conditions in a little anchorage on the island of Drvenik. Last time we were there, we'd had a real problem with getting the anchor to hold and had to try about a dozen times before we were finally made fast; this time, fortunately, everything went like clockwork and we were secure within minutes! A yacht came in and anchored quite close, and I mentioned to Frank that it looked familiar. After a while, we swam over and chatted with the owners, discovering that we had last seen them three years ago in Portugal, when the husband had come on board Zaffina for a drink and a chat in the little port of Villa Real de Santo Antonio!
Having a chef on board has it's advantages, as we found out when Bob took over the barbecue for lunch and then prepared his famous "peaches au Bob" for desert! It was a wonder that we still floated when we went back in the water later, but surprisingly we did...just! After the last swim, it was time to up anchor and head into Trogir and another great place on the quay. The town was still fairly lively, despite it now being so late in the season, and we went ashore for a light supper before an early night. And then Janet gave us one final, perfect moment, when she stepped back on board Zaffina, knocked the water hose that was connecting us to the shore and gave herself an impromptu shower on the bathing platform! Strangers were stopping to stare at the sight of five of us convulsed with laughter and the sixth doing a good impression of a drowned rat! It was an appropriate, if unexpected, culmination to a week filled with laughter, fun and friendship.
The silence seemed very loud the following day, when Bob, Janet, Con and Gill departed and we were alone again. A quick trip to the supermarket to stock up on food and the green market for flowers was followed by a trip to the refuelling berth to stock up on fuel and then we were on our way again...all of one mile to a peaceful anchorage where we could quietly recover from the excesses of the previous week! We stayed there for one utterly still and very beautiful night before heading down to Split and checking into the marina.
And then I was really alone. Frank flew back to Jersey and I had two days and one enormous thunderstorm on my own. A mighty crack of thunder woke me at 2.30am and the noise and the flashes of lightning then kept me awake until 5...not the best of nights. However, I managed to console myself with a trip to Split's biggest shopping mall the following day - but that's not saying a great deal! By the time Frank came back, two days later, Zaffina was sparkling again and we were ready to put back to sea, this time heading south and back to the island of Brac. The wind was behind us, giving us a great trip as we crossed the channel from the mainland, and when we reached our chosen anchorage, all was calm and incredibly beautiful...but rather cool! We both wore sweaters for the first time since early Spring (apart from on visits home) and when we went out to dinner, it really felt quite cold sitting outside. A plate of steaming veggie soup followed by an enormous pile of piping hot lamb cutlets both cheered and warmed us!
In the morning we debated whether to head up towards Sibenik and a small marina we'd seen but never visited at Tribunj or to delay the trip. In the end, we did a bit of both, making a short hop from Brac over to Stari Grad on the island of Hvar, where we had another night in complete isolation in an utterly beautiful and unspoilt position, and then yesterday (our 6th wedding anniversary) we completed the trip to Tribunj, again with the wind behind us and the sun beaming from a cloudless sky.
And now, safely tied up in port, the wind is blowing a hooley, waves are smacking the hull and all the ropes are creaking, but we are snug and happy and still enjoying this wonderful country.

Thursday 6th September 2012

It’s raining and there’s a storm on the horizon, but I have no complaints. Since we’ve been back in Croatia after our visit home and then to Ireland for the wedding of the year (or maybe the century), we’ve been blessed with fantastic conditions, despite a forecast promising doom and gloom.

On our return, half of the region around Split was ablaze! We could smell smoke as we stepped down from the aeroplane and out taxi driver told us that there had been thirty fires that day, most of them started deliberately, and the motorway was closed as the land alongside was still burning. We stayed in Sibenik for a couple of nights, which gave us time to get to the hypermarket and restock before heading out to Potkucina, a now favourite anchorage, to meet fellow sailors from Jersey.

David and Angela were on Minkie, along with their 7 and a half year old, Freddie (he says the half is very important), and had just done a similar trip up to Istria as we did a few months ago. We compared notes and anchorages over a lazy lunch in the sun and then waved them off towards Sibenik where they were due to finish their holiday.

Although we expected things to be quieter on our return, Potkucina was still full, with around 60 buoys all occupied by boats of varying sizes. The water was as we remembered, deliciously warm, and we idled a couple of days away in situ, venturing only as far as the little town of Kaprja on the nearby island of the same name. To our disappointment, the early morning bread run had been discontinued in our absence, so the fresh loaf we so looked forward to was mourned as we tucked into a mundane bowl of cornflakes for breakfast! However, that was the biggest disappointment of our stay, and the sea conditions which had been so lovely remained perfect for our trip down to Trogir to pick up guests.  Approaching the town in dire need of a swim, we found an anchorage just a stone’s throw away and dropped the hook for a short while, just long enough to jump into the sea and cool off before heading into port and tying up for the evening.

Rosie and Em arrived a short while later and, like us, immediately fell in love with this delightful little town. Whilst they went off to explore – and buy sunglasses – I prepared dinner, which we ate in the cockpit whilst watching the world go by.  Trogir was still humming and after dinner we went ashore for a drink, stopping en route to watch the street entertainers and artists all plying their trade along the waterfront.

With the weather forecast suggesting strongish winds and the likelihood of stormy showers, we set sail in the morning, arriving in Palmizana a couple of hours later. The sun was still shining, much to our surprise, enabling us to spend most of the afternoon lying out on deck and just enjoying this unexpected meteorological treat! Instead of dodging the showers, we ended up dining under the stars in Hvar, as (sadly) our favourite restaurant in the region, Zori, was hosting a wedding and unable to offer us a table. Fortunately Gariful provided us with a fabulous dinner in a beautiful setting, so the change of venue was completely painless! That night the moon was spectacular, the second (and therefore “blue moon”) of the month, rising over the ancient town of Hvar and casting an incredibly strong and yet soft light over the terracotta-tiled rooftops.

As the girls were only with us for four nights and the forecast was still iffy, we moved on the following morning, making for another favourite port, Maslinica. Again conditions were better, far better, than expected, the sea was comfortable, the wind behind us completely negated by the wind we were creating, and although we failed to get into an anchorage close to our final destination, where we had hoped to tie up for an hour or two before going into port, it really didn’t matter. Once we were in port and safely attached to land, the dark clouds that had been promised finally materialised and we watched from the comfort of our cabin as other boats came into shelter with the rain teeming down and the crew getting drenched as they moored up.

(Incidentally, on our way to Palmizana, we counted eighty yachts all heading towards the mainland; on our way from Palmizana the following day, at the same time and in similar conditions, we counted four! That’s the difference between 31 August and 1 September in Croatia!)

Dinner at the nearby hotel was excellent, as ever, although for the first time we had to eat indoors. By now the rain had given its all, and so when we finished our meal we wandered along to a nearby café for a nightcap. The last time we were in Maslinica, a male choir had performed on the quayside. This time the members of the same choir were having dinner and obviously enjoying themselves as they spontaneously burst into song between courses! As we were making our way back to Zaffina, they were leaving the restaurant and when we mentioned that we had heard them perform once before, they gave us another impromptu personal performance on the quay! It was a lovely way to finish what had been a great day.

Our final day with Rosie and Em saw us – eventually – at anchor in Drvenik. For some reason, the anchor refused time and again to hold on the seabed. We chose our position, dropped the hook and dropped back expecting it to catch, but it just dragged along the sea floor, allowing us to drift dangerously close to the shore before we pulled it up and tried again. We repeated the process around 10 times before eventually moving into deeper water around the corner, where to our relief, we successfully anchored up for the afternoon. It was worth the effort! Drvenik is a beautiful spot and provided an idyllic backdrop for a day of lazing, swimming, eating and drinking. As the afternoon drew to a close, it was back to Trogir and the anchorage we had discovered a few days earlier. Here the anchor held first time, and once secure, Zaffina sat motionless on a perfectly calm sea. We nipped into town on the dinghy before returning to the boat for dinner and a glorious night at anchor.

The girls were on an early flight, so it was up at 7 the following morning and on our way before 8. We tied up onto the refuelling pontoon and said our goodbyes after their short but fabulous stay with us, waving them off in a taxi before we got down to the serious business of filling the tanks.

With five days before our next visitors were due, we had a vague plan to head back to Hvar, possibly going to Stari Grad and then Palmizana, but en route I suggested that instead we explore the north coast of Brac, an area we had previously by-passed on our way to Hvar. It turned out to be a great decision. After hugging the coastline for a while, we turned up an inlet dominated by a huge quarry, and then nosed into the little town of Pucisca (pronounced Puchishta) where we were about to tie up starboard-to on the wall when I realised that just below the waterline, a rather nasty ledge jutted out! We swiftly moved away and reviewed our position, deciding to try for a spot further in and on the opposite side of the harbour, which proved to be much more suitable – especially when we discovered that our original spot was obviously reserved for ferries and tour boats!

Pucisca was tiny, totally unspoilt and with little commercialism other than a couple of stalls selling artefacts made from the local stone. As we ate dinner in the cockpit, flashes of sheet lightning illuminated the heavens and eventually the rain fell, teeming down as we went to bed. By morning, the storm had completely passed through, and we decided to remain in port for another night in order to get to grips with a host of tasks that needed to be completed on the boat. I changed all the beds and cleaned throughout, working the washing maching on overdrive and hanging a continuous display of sheets, T shirts and bathers along the decks to dry in the sun.

In the afternoon, we wandered along to a tiny, pebbly beach where we swam and sunbathed and tried to pretend that we weren’t English once we’d deduced that most of the other tourists around were – and none of them a day under 75!  We ate at a good restaurant where, surprisingly, we were the only guests and then returned to Zaffina for a nightcap, waving goodnight to the restaurant staff when they passed us five minutes later!

The following morning (yesterday) was grey, which gave me a chance to do my unfavourite chores – hoovering and washing the floors! With a sparkling boat, we debated whether to spend one final night in port, but eventually decided to make a quick hop to a nearby anchorage, which the pilot book claimed was one of the best in Croatia. We are often in disagreement with the views offered by the pilot book but on this occasion they got it bang on! Uvala Luka was stunning, absolutely stunning.  In this trefoil shaped inlet, we chose the middle and deepest creek, where we were pleased to see a number of buoys and one rather nice restaurant. As soon as we approached a buoy, a dinghy shot out from the shore with a marinero to assist us (and take our money), and within moments we were tied up and admiring the stupendous outlook from the anchorage. The sea was oily calm and looking back up the creek, the view was dominated by towering mountains on the mainland, coloured by small towns along the water’s edge, all definition enhanced by the light of a descending sun.

Although we originally intended to dine on board, the restaurant looked too inviting and so we succumbed to temptation and enjoyed a simple but utterly delicious meal of barbequed lamb and French fries!

And that’s why I’m not bothered by the weather today…it has been an exhilarating week, the sea is still calm and now we’re on our way back to Mandalina in readiness for Bob and Janet and Con and Gill who are due to arrive on Saturday.

(ps we outran the storm; the sun has come out again! And so much for there being no boats around now that we're into September...we've never seen so many yachts in such close proximity as we did today!)