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.
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