October, Croatia and back to Italy

 

As its getting late in the season we decided to head back to Italy for the Winter. A nice farewell meal on board Infinity with Captain Ken and Annette and crew and we weighed anchor at daybreak to sail to Italy. We arrived at Vieste in Italy late in the day after an easy days sail, checked in and went to town to take a look around. Shirley and Valo are coming to spend a week with us as we head South along the coast in preparation for hauling Sephina out for the Winter in Bari. Meanwhile we have someone interested in buying Sephina so we are considering whether to sell her and upgrade to a Lagoon 400 (extra 2 ft length)

, which will mean continuing on next year from Les Sables D’Olonne in France again, instead of Greece and Turkey. After some to’ing and fro’ing the decision was made and Sephina now belongs to Wendi from the USA. We helped arrange delivery to the Canaries where Wendi is planning on sailing her across the Atlantic. You can read about her travels here.. http://wendi.com/sail/

She has renamed Sephina to ‘As You Wish’ so keep an eye out for her in the Caribbean. Hopefully Jen and I will be meeting her in person when we eventually arrive there. We didn’t meet Wendi and the whole sale was basically handled online. Lots of work but all’s well that ends well. We had a good week with Shirley and Valo, although not much sailing, but what there was was enjoyable. Then a week of buying a car, cleaning and preparing Sephina for her delivery trip, as well as packing our clothes and personal items to head back to France. With some great hope from Gianluca in Bari we managed to buy a renault espace and sort out all the paperwork to be able to drive it back to France. We had a nice road trip, yodelling most of the way through Switzerland and a couple of great days in Strasbourg before arriving back in the North.

A month in the North, with a short trip down to Venice with Jens mum (her first time on a plane) and we were flying back to Australia for the summer…

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Croatia in September

 

After Kristian, Helena, Siri and Smilla left us we sailed toward Split, stopping at the Mljet National park again for a few days before heading back to Korcula. Sailing to Korcula was a strange day. Nice sailing with 15 to 20 knots on the nose as we tacked North. We were keeping an eye on the strange cloud formation behind us over Dubrovnik, very dark and lifting high. I was also keeping an eye on a yacht a few miles behind us for signs of changes in conditions. A mile or so off Korcula I looked and noticed the yacht had vanished…not a good sign ! I guess it didn’t actually disappear but was probably hidden due to sea spray. We quickly dropped the sails and prepared for the worst so as not to get caught out with full sail up. The wind dropped and did 180 degree swing before coming in from the South hard and fast..first at about 20 knots and rising to 40 within a minute as we scrambled for a safe harbor. Along with that a bloody tornado (OK waterspout, but it seemed like it was straight out of wizard of Oz) was bearing directly down on us. Fortunately the bay we had visited previously with Kristian and family was really close and as we entered the wind was over 50 knots and seas rising fast, all this within 10 minutes. Jen and I did a super fast anchor set and hoped conditions wouldn’t deteriorate further as we were still exposed to the SW. Thunder, lightening, wind and rain..crazy!

The wasps in Mljet had been joining us for dinner each day. They love to crawl on our lunch and taste everything, especially the sliced meat. All was OK till one decided to sting me when I was opening a cupboard, and one stung Jen twice on her leg in bed. In my rush to get some ice on Jens stings I managed to break the fridge so repairs at Korcula were on the cards. Expensive sting !

After Korcula we headed toward Split and arranged to meet up with Martin and Shiree at Bobovice. Great anchorage in a nice small town. We were surprised to see we weren’t the only Aussies there. It’s pretty rare to come across other Australians in this part of the world but we were alongside three others! Martin and Shiree on Wild n Wooly, Dee and Dave on Solero and Mike and Floss on ooroo, with no other yachts in sight. Next thing we know ANOTHER TWO Aussies tie up alongside us as well. Of course some beers, cheap wine and numerous renditions of Waltzing matilda were on the cards for the night, along with Shiree’s unforgettable spoon playing!

 

True Blue in Bobovice

 

A couple of nights at Bobovice to recover, then off to Split for supplies and sight seeing. Split is a great town with a lot of character, especially when you get into the old town part. Also a good place to get repairs and supplies so we took the opportunity to replace the zip on Sephina’s lazy bag.

A few days later we were back out to anchor and met up with friends of Mike and Floss, Captain Kev and Annette, another Aussie couple, on Infinity, their new Lagoon 52. A beautiful boat and beautiful hospitality as they invited us for a couple of meals with them onboard.

One of the nicest places to pick up a mooring buoy near Split. The buoys are owned by the restaurant on the island but the restaurant is so slack they had no idea we were even there and were hardly interested when we went to have dinner there either.

Another one of those islands with an unpronounceable name

Toward the end of September we had more guests on board with us. Jules, Sue, Jeremy and Nicky from Australia and UK joined us for a week. We had a great time together exploring some of the area North of Split, including the Krka National park. That involved motoring about 5 miles upriver to anchor for a couple of nights. From there you can either catch a ferry up to the falls, hire a bike, or walk (as Jen and I and Balrog did) to these amazing waterfalls. Jen took some fabulous pics as we explored.

Captain Jenijane piloting up the river.

Jules, Jeremy and Nicky teaching us a thing or two about cards. Looks like Jules won the pot in the end…!

A great time was had with Jules, Sue, Nicky and Jeremy. We explored a few new towns, played a few new games, sang some songs and even caught a fish or two in between some nice sailing.

Croatia in July

We have had Kristian, Helena, Siri and Smilla aboard with us for the last week of July. We explored the islands off Croatia over the week and had some great sailing, snorkeling, swimming, eating and conversation. It was great to have them on board and Balrog especially enjoyed the attention from the girls !

First night we stayed just out of Dubrovnik in a very nice bay on the south of Lopud. Some swimming and relaxing and ice cream for the girls topped off the day.

Next day we headed to the island of Jakljan for a lunchtime swim in a picturesque bay before sailing back out to the island of Mljet to pick up a mooring buoy from a local restaurant for the night. The restaurant owner came straight out and explained that he had a great menu and he had just caught fresh fish and lobster that day for us. He pointed at his boat and said “see, I haven’t even cleaned the boat yet!”. Kristian and I were sceptical that he had been fishing at all as we eyed his gold jewellery and Rolex watch, but we agreed to come for dinner anyway..

 

We had a great meal and Kristian, Helena and Jen shared a huge bowl of Pasta and Shrimp. Next day after some shopping for groceries, croissants and bread, we headed North again to the National park on the NE of Mljet. A very protected anchorage and we went right to the end and threw out the stern anchor to stop swinging too close to the shore. On the little island in the middle of the Big lake is situated the cultural and historic pearl of all the island - the convent with the Church of the Virgin Mary, the Lady of the lake dating from the XII century. Next morning we went into the town to catch the bus and ferry to the nearby monastery. A fun morning although pretty hot walking around the monastery so Jen and I had a skinny dip to cool down and hoped no Monks or other tourists would come along!

 

 

 

 

 

In the afternoon we headed further North to the island of Korcula. I nice lazy sail most of the way but unfortunately the wind died and we motored the last hour. At least we were sailing at 3.5 knots, the square rigger we sailed past was making less than a knot, but it was a beautiful day for a sail all the same. We dropped anchor in the bay in Javic and had a great meal of leek pie and chocolate brownies cooked by the girls.

 

The following day we went to the other side of Korcula to a nice bay at Przina and spent the day swimming, snorkelling, skurfing and the girls had a ride on the donuts behind a ski boat. Lots of fun in the sun and a beautiful little anchorage as well.

 

Next day was back to Mljet again and we had a good sail, although the girls felt a little bit seasick, but soon recovered after we tied up to a log on shore at the entrance to the bay and snorkelled in the warm turquoise water. Later we headed into town for Pizza and an overnight anchorage in the bay.

 

The following day we headed back down to Lopud and had a great sail all the way. A little rough at first but eventually we sailed in constant 20-25 knots on the beam in smooth water most of the way down to Lopud. Sephina was averaging over 8 knots most of the way and relishing the conditions (me too!) We anchored off Lopud and Kristian and Helena took the girls ashore for icecream.

Jen and I (and Balrog) had a great time  having Kristian and Helena and the girls on board with us and hopefully they enjoyed themselves as much as we did! We look forward to seeing them again somewhere in our travels…