Cruising Croatia: the trip south

It took more than a couple of glasses of wine to plan our return trip of about 1000 nautical miles back to Malta, the more so as the thunderstorms that had plagued us for the past 10 days persisted in hanging about.

Buying veggies from boat boy.

Having forsaken the northern part of Italy and unfortunately our visit to Ravenna to catch up with a dear friend there, we signed up for another month of Croatia. We took the first opportunity to cross the notorious Gulf of Kvarner to one of our favourite stops at the delightful isle of Mali Losinj where we ended up staying two days in order to replace the starter battery.

The weather was immediately better, with the thunderstorms striking the mainland and mostly missing the islands. With August upon us, we found ourselves sailing south in company with hordes of Italian power-boaters some of whom can be the scourge of the seas.

Moonscape at Dugi Otok

We opted for different anchorages on islands we had bypassed on our trip north and also decided to visit the magnificent Dugi Otok national park, which was another highlight on this leg of the journey. We anchored at the top of Luka Telascica, surrounded by the strikingly different landscape which is more like a moonscape at times.

After a couple of days there, we left the island group of Dugi Otok and sailed to a nearby island group around Murter. It is amazing how one can go from a totally barren landscape to such lush greenery in the few nautical miles that separate them. With a Bora (the notorious north easterly wind which often blows at gale force and more) forecast, we decided to ‘hide’ in the large bay outside Murter town and passed a pleasant week there, catching up again with old friends on KOZA and meeting new Ozzie friends Helve and Rick on TANGAROA.

We braved it in strong northerlies all the way down to Rogoznica, on the mainland and then crossed to Vela Luka on the island of Korcula. We checked out of Croatia from the picturesque island of Lastovo and, for once, enjoyed a magnificent sail across to Italy.

Approach to Vieste.

The contrast between Croatia and Italy could not have been greater. To begin with, the weather and water temperature were immediately a few degrees warmer, but instead of lovely turquoise waters, we were now confined to harbours, as there are hardly any anchorages on the Italian east coast. We checked into Italy at Vieste, in the Puglia region which is formerly run by the Normans and full of medieval towns. Here we where introduced to what the French may have lent the name to but the Italians absolutely have perfected: bureaucracy. Apparently, as a non EU registered yacht, we were expected to sign-in-and-out of every port, with one of the four different police forces they have.

Panneria in Monte Sant' Angelo.

Yet even this worked out in our favour. We used the Guardia Costiera, with whom we were meant to check in at every port of call, to ‘book’ us a spot on the next port’s harbour wall, so as to satisfy their requirement that we stop where we said we were heading. In fact this arrangement worked out so well, that we stopped at every harbour on the way south and had a ball running around on the local buses and trains. In this way we visited Monte Sant’ Angelo outside Manfredonia, and the famous cities of Lecce, Trani and Ostuni, also known as the white city, among others.

Amazing welcome at Molfetta.

Ostuni.

We had an amazing stop at Molfetta, little realising that this was a sister city to Fremantle. It became obvious when Molfettese kept coming up to our boat on the harbour wall relating stories of their days in Fremantle. From them we learnt that the traditional blessing of the fleet in Freo is based on the Molfetta tradition of this annual feast day. We found ourselves taken over by friendly locals who provided fresh fish, prawns, vegetables, home made high quality olive oil and many other local produce, and wanted us to stay and celebrate the upcoming traditional feast with them – the friendliness and warmth of the people there is something we will not forget.

Our absolute favourite port going south was undoubtedly Monopoli, a most charming old town with just enough history and ruins to keep us happy between feasting on really good Italian food. The Romans where wrong, there is fish in the Mediterranean, at least the Adriatic part of it.

On the 'Wall' in Monopoli.

Monopoli.

A month on this coast of Italy flew by, with the telltale signs of good living now starting to show up in waistlines. So with reluctance we headed out of Brindisi and straight across to Syracuse to head down to Malta for a month’s stay before we headed back to Ragusa, in Sicily, where we were to leave MISCHIEF for the winter.

Cruising Croatia: the trip north



Celebrating my 58th birthday with Andi, Lea & Georges from TE ARA

 The start to our 2011 cruising season was a very social one, as we left Malta in mid May sailing with Philip and Henriette on Waterdrincker. Our first stop in Sicily was the tiny port of Marzamemi where we caught up with old friends Te Ara. We sailed on to Syracuse and spent a glorious few days there and then went on to Taormina where our paths went different ways as we continued around the south of Italy with Waterdrincker.

We toured the areas around Crotone with Philip and Henriette (Waterdrincker) and then waved goodbye to them as we made our way the next morning towards Prevesa in Greece. We wanted to see the parts of the Ionian that we missed out on last year and also stop to do the first service on our new engine before getting to Croatia in the summer madness.

Greece is always a place of contrasts and after seeing the ‘fjord’ to the east of Prevesa with quant villages and more ruins to admire we went for some blue water again on what we were sure would be our highlight this time round in Greece, namely the lovely islands of Paxos and Corfu. We stayed a whole week in the little town of Gaios in Paxos and took bus rides and rented a scooter to explore the island. Very touristic in a nice way and most enjoyable.

Paxos Island - the northern anchorage



From Paxos we then motor-sailed (we were in the ‘Motorranean’ after all) to Corfu to anchor under the old fort in calm blue seas. From here you can see Albania across the water and listen to Greek music from the taverna on the beach. A car rental and another week later we had experienced crazy tourist drivers and a thunderstorm or two with a swell in the anchorage to match any ocean crossing.



At this point we motor-sailed to Montenegro as the storm force headwinds abated. We gave Albania a miss as we had heard that one was either welcomed with open arms and kisses on both cheeks or robbed and shot on sight if you believe other cruisers’ tales.

The old town Kotor in Montenegro takes the picturesque prize in the region and is proudly operated by the local mafia who can teach the Italian cousins a few things apparently (which is why the Italian navy is patrolling the seas here and the minefields from the WW2 are still clearly marked on the sea charts).



Magnificent Montenegro



Being the daredevils we are we did not take a shortcut through the minefields even though we had been assured no one had been blown up for a long time. We arrived in Kotor to find it a really lovely, great place and, you guessed it, stayed a week enjoying the old town, food and artsy culture.

All good things have to come to an end and as there was no wind we motored on to Croatia. By now we were really pleased with our new engine that had already clocked over 100 hours. Checking in to Croatia, we emptied our wallet in favour of the taxman for the pleasure of being in these waters. To our surprise we found ourselves anchored next to three other antipodean yachts, two of which we would meet again later in the season.

Croatia is great for sailing with many islands and anchorages to stop at, some with lots of history. We sailed via Lopud to the island of Mljet, also a national park, and waited out some strong north easterlies (the dreaded Bora winds) here and ran into more Aussies, including Gail & Alex on Stefanija, and Carola & Jim on Koza.



On the island of Hvar



We made our way slowly north visiting many towns and anchorages in Korcula, Hvar, Drvenik Veli, Murter, Pasman, Ugljan, Molat and Mali Losinj to name a few.

The reputation of turquoise waters in beautiful bays was not exaggerated, and with more leisure time to explore the surrounds than our two week cruise to Croatia some six years back had allowed, we really enjoyed rediscovering this truly magnificent archipelago which is a sailing paradise.

Our ambitious program had us in Pula at the northern end of Croatia, by the end of July for our ultimate goal of the year, Venice. Here we caught up with Gerlinde & Martin on Mojo, Austrian friends we had first met during our winter stay in Finike 2 years ago. We also ran into Koza again and met June and Pat Antares , a Kiwi boat (the Boxing Kangaroo flag has really done its work this season!!).



Roman Colesseum at Pula



Venice was not to happen however. We did attempt a crossing early one morning and were greeted with 2-3 metre breaking waves at the entrance to Pula harbour, and simply turned back. With squalls and thunderstorms forecast for the next week or so, it was with great sadness and disappointment that we decided the weather gods turned against us dishing out thunderstorms galore for two weeks.

There is the flip side to everything however, as we changed plans and decided to prolong our cruising in Croatia by another month, giving us the opportunity to visit some of the other islands that we had missed out on going north, including the stunning Dugi Otok national park.

So here we are sitting sipping a good glass of wine as we plan our next moves to take in as much of this wonderful archipelago as possible.

Wintering in Malta

Hello fellow cruisers/ dear friends, family and all.



Out with the old in with the new



This has been our first long break ashore since leaving Australia over three years ago, as we have been off our beloved Mischief for about 6 months. 



We were very lucky to have a friend with an empty house in Malta which we could move into. So everything came off Mischief, and she got a thorough scrubbing, refreshing the varnish an d airing/ cleaning bedding etc. We did the same to our friend’s house which had been closed up for a length of time.

 



Never knew the engine room was so cosy



The first 3 months we concentrated on changing engine, and we now have a new YANMAR 54 hp in a pristine engine room. You almost need sunnies now with the glare from the new alfoil lined insulation, and Bjorn is justifiably very proud of his handiwork! As boat work will have it we also had to change the propeller shaft and propeller offcourse. Out with the old and in with the new became a major effort.




Our new tank



Another project was a new fuel tank, made from fibreglass, using a special chemical resistant resin, to replace the old steel tank that has had a ‘temporary’ repair since the Red Sea. We should have finished all the major jobs now. Needless to say, to you boaties, you are having a quiet giggle now, as there is no such thing as no more jobs on a boat!

 We took off from Malta in mid December and flew to Perth to spend Christmas with Mark & Bridget and Annika & Jesper. Thanks to Bridget’s family, we house sat a beautiful home and garden in an idyllic setting in the bush (forest for you non Aussies) outside Margaret River, some 250 kms south of Perth, and had a terrific Xmas and New Year with the Swarbrecks (Bridget’s family), even managing to avoid the 40 degree heat wave in Perth.


Only one thing to do when there are sharks in the water

But our reprieve from the heat was short lived! Perth proved to be a hot destination this year, and a very social one too. Apart from all our friends, including those at the Fremantle Sailing Club, we managed to catch up with several cruisers (Sandpiper, Purr, Billabong, Pampero) and other friends (Mara) who were visiting in Perth.



Back in Malta in mid March, after a brief stop over in incredible Dubai, we concentrated on getting Mischief ready for this year’s cruising. The weather in this part of the Med has taken its time to settle down and even now, towards the end of May, it is still a coolish 20 – 21 degrees, and only slowly warming up.


We left Malta on the 15 May and had a leisurely motor sail – in company with Waterdrincker (Philip & Henriette and friends) to Marzamemi in Sicily, catching up with dear friends Georges, Andi and their gorgeous 9 year old Lea on Te Ara.



A feast of  food and fresh produce in Sicily



We are now back in Syracuse, enjoying the fabulous foods and feasting our eyes and bellies on the wonderful range of produce from the local market. We also celebrated our birthdays with these good friends.

Our plan for this year is very flexible, though we still intend to try and go up the Adriatic to Venice and stop over in Ravenna in August. We will be making our way towards Paxos and Corfu via the boot of Italy in the next week or so!

Until our next instalment, we wish you all best of health and a good season wherever you are!

Cheers

Christina & Bjorn