Kastela, Split

So that’s it!  All done.  All over.  And we’re here in Marina Kastela, on the outskirts of Split.  The boat’s been brilliant, the crew have been….er…. oh, OK then…brilliant, and the skipper…well, what can I say!

But let’s catch up a bit first.

We left Luka on Wednesday and had a pleasant three-hour trip to Milna on the west coast of Brac. On the way we passed a famous quarry.  Quarry?  ‘Can’t be many famous quarries in the world!  This one provided the stone to build the White House in Washington DC.  I don’t know when it was built, but the thought of shipping tonnes of stone, probably by sailing ship, all the way to the US is pretty weird. Who’s idea was that?  ‘Probably the worlds first interior designer!  (apart from the guy that designed Stone Henge, obviously.  That stone came from Wales!)

Milna is a little town up a long inlet and it’s beautiful, but unfortunately…er…just a bit smelly.  In fact, it’s quite a lot smelly!  We had to shut the windows at night and run the air conditioning.  That is, until the guy on the next boat complained about the noise.  So it was windows open, smell in, and sleep out – of the question!

In the morning we left fairly early (we needed some sea air) and headed for Kastela, arriving at lunchtime.  We had to wait awhile before we could come in and eventually they put us on someone else’s berth (a friend of mine’s, Ian Penman, who has another Trader  64).  Actually, Ian’s the main reason we are here, but his boat’s in the yard at the moment for a minor repair so we’ve nicked his berth!  I booked a berth back in April and have emailed them twice to make sure it was confirmed.  We still seemed to take them by surprise though.  What is strange about this is that the marina looks pretty deserted to me!

Kastela is not the prettiest marina but it’s new, it’s big and it has great facilities.  It’s a good place to leave the boat for a couple of months.  Then, in October, we’ll make the journey back to Tivat, Montenegro (we like it there!), for the winter.

So, bye-bye everyone.  I’ve enjoyed writing this and really didn’t think I’d keep it up.  But I did, and I’m pleased I did.  Incidentally, the blog has had over 5000 hits now, so there’s either some bloke somewhere totally obsessed with it or a few other people have been keeping up with our exploits.

My sincere thanks to you all!  But special thanks must go to Mr. Vaughan, who’s fixed just about anything and everything that needed fixing.  Anchor motors, gearboxes, catches, poo-pumps, sat navs, stuck doors, broken seat backs, outboards, jammed cleats, and loads more!  And he makes the best gin & tonics this side of Cyprus!  Thanks Mart.

Martin

Sucuraj to Uvala Luka

Before I come on to our journey from Sucuraj to Luka, there is one thing that I need to mention – I’m sorry, I forgot in the previous blog.  It’s this.  I’ve begun to notice a very worrying trend in my fellow travelers. Very worrying!

Take a look at the next two photos.  They are extraordinary.  The first is from Sucuraj and shows Russell clearly in touch with his feminine side.  Did you know about this Lisa?  The other, and much more worrying, is from the second, smaller restaurant at Luka.  We went there at lunchtime and the guy brought out loads of home-made brandy – really good – but mainly because it was free!  See if you can see anything unusual about the second photo.  Yep, you spotted it!  Mr. Vaughan ordered a lemonade!  I’m starting to really worry about him…..

He looks happy though!

Mr. V walked out of the shot as I took this (in shame!)

Anyway, we left Sucuraj, waved off by ‘Our Lady of the Sacred Hat’ and headed north to take a look at Makarska before moving on to Luka on the north side of Brac. (yes, it’s an island!)

Jayne and I had visited Makarska on our coastal drive in May and it looked really nice.  And it is nice, except that it’s also a holiday resort and when we called, it was busy – and noisy – and packed with people.  What a shame!  We wouldn’t want to moor here in the summer.

So off we went to Brac.

Uvala Luka is a large inlet and a great anchorage.  The only building (apart from a smaller one round the corner) is a restaurant which is famous for it’s lamb and it came highly recommended!  Now, obviously, this meant nothing to me but you know what Russell’s like.  He went on and on about it so we had no choice but to go there.

The restaurant had it’s own small jetty but, as there were quite a few boats anchored out, we didn’t thing we had a chance of getting onto it.  But…amazingly, there was a space, with the usual helpful bloke waving and beckoning to us.  He kindly helped us to tie up and it was then we realized that this bit of luck wasn’t amazing at all.  Namely, when he asked us for £100 for the night.  And this was without electricity.  So now we know why so many boats were anchored.   Anyway, I told him we were leaving and the price came down to £60.  ‘Still a rip-off though!

The famous 'lamb' restaurant

Unfortunately, I’m not allowed to talk about restaurants or food anymore so there’s no way I’m going to tell you about our visit to the restaurant that evening.  Sorry.

The next morning we moved the boat across the bay and anchored.  It was fantastic, a beautiful spot – until the afternoon wind started gusting at 16 knots. I can never relax when this happens and always worry that we’ll drag our anchor.  The other two don’t worry at all.  Why is that?

Martin's lemonade bar.

Towards the sea and the mainland.

So now we’re off to Milna (west side of Brac) for the night before making the short hop across to Kastela, on the outskirts of Split, where Kuna will be moored for the rest of August and September.  So the next blog will mark the end of our journey, the end of the blog and the end of a terrific adventure (I’m crying now).

Russell, in his 'office' practicing for our gig on Saturday.  Look at the number of gadgets he's brought!

Russ took this for Brom.  Don't know why....

Sucuraj

Otok Brac is an island with Split, on the mainland, just to the north of it

We left Korcula around 11.00 am yesterday and headed due west for seven or eight miles.  We had to do this before turning round the Peljesac Penninsula and heading due east, towards the mainland.  This is interesting, isn’t it?  ‘Thought so.

Actually, nothing much has happened since I wrote my last blog.  The sea was calm and on the way and we decided to go into the tiny village of Sucuraj to look around.  We were absolutely sure the boat was too big to get in until an arm-waving lady in a hat kept beckoning and whistling at us from the quay.  She had a very loud whistle!

We crept in towards the quay and watched the depth gauge going down and down until it reached zero.  I have an offset on it, which meant we still had about two feet under the propellers.  But I don’t like zero – it just feels wrong.  She was very nice and friendly though, and smiled a lot – especially when she took £90 off me for the night.  That’s expensive parking!

However, we managed to moor up on the quay and immediately fell in love with the place.  There is a ferry which comes in and out, but that just adds a bit of colour - but it really is very pretty.  It’s so nice, in fact, that we’ve decided to stay for a second night so here we still are!

And that’s it!  Short, wasn’t it?

Our 'Lady in a Hat'

'Old Lady in a Back Street'

PS.  We’re about 35 miles from Split now and tomorrow we’ll wander along the north coast of Brac to find an anchorage before making the short hop across to Split.

PPS.  See, no mention of restaurants in this one!  I can do it.

Slano to Korcula

After leaving Dubrovnik we headed north to find the secluded bay that Jayne and I visited in May this year, when we drove down the coast.  It had a lovely restaurant, was in the middle of nowhere and looked a great place to spend a night at anchor.  I’d told the restaurant owner that I’d be back in July and I couldn’t break a promise, could I?

Taken in May this year........ so quiet

.....and not a soul here....

I was convinced it was a bay on the chart called Slano but as we entered we were faced with a big hotel in front of us, another one on our left and loads of houses in the middle.  This definitely wasn’t it.

So we headed north to another bay but, nope, that wasn’t it either!

I was sure it began with a ‘G’ and, after studying the chart, I was convinced we’d come past it and it was six miles south of us.  How we’d done that I just don’t know.  So we set off south again.

As we approached this new bay I started to become nervous.  It didn’t look right somehow.  But that’s because it wasn’t right – and by this time, Martin and Russ were beginning to get just a teensy bit pi**** off.  I was getting stick!  And we’d wasted two hours trolling up and down the coast.

We all finally agreed that it had completely disappeared and I’d imagined it all.  So we set off north again, having decided to stay at Slano, the first bay we visited, and anchor overnight.

As we approached a restaurant with a small jetty, a man came out and started waving his arms about.  Apparently, he wanted us to moor up on his jetty.  So we did.  And all hell broke loose.  It was windy, it was shallow (only 6 inches under the props!), the front lines were too short, he was bellowing at us, there was a guy in the water trying to swim a line out to us and a girl on a jet ski trying to help.

Russell took a picture of her – in fact he took a lot of pictures of her.  But I don’t know why. 

We were finally secure (but not very) when lots more boats came in.  Getting tangled, trying to pick up mooring buoys, and they shout a lot here, too. It was mayhem.

BUT, BUT, BUT….. just round the corner, behind a crowded beach, was a restaurant that looked suspiciously like the one we visited in May.  And it was!

It looks a bit different now!

All I can say is this.  Things look very different from the water. When you’re on land you can’t see round corners and we didn’t know that these hotels and stuff were round them.  So, another illusion shattered!  Having said that, the restaurant owner did remember us (though mainly Jayne).  Which was nice.

The wind dropped, we had a nice meal and went off for a good nights sleep. (no, not together – just leave it out, will yer!)

Until, at 5am, I noticed the wind had risen and things didn’t ‘feel’ right.  So I got up (Why doesn’t anyone else wake up?) and found that the small yacht that was tethered to a mooring buoy in front of us…er…wasn’t.  He was lying across our bow, held off only by our front mooring lines.  Before long the neighbours were up and the guy from the next boat (and a mate of the ‘stuckee’) came on board and demanded, in Croatian, (I don’t understand a word but I got the drift) that I release our front lines so the boat could be freed.  I refused, and at one point grabbed his arm to stop him doing it.  If we’d done that, his mate’s boat would have hit ours and we would have been blown back into the jetty.  So, with a lot of pointing and arm waving I persuaded him to get a line back onto the mooring buoy and pull himself off.  It worked.

You’re probably wondering where Martin & Russ were when all this was happening.  Well, I’m not going to be rude about them and say something about them being asleep. I wouldn’t do that.  But they did appear as the episode finished and helped tighten the lines and stuff.  Thanks lads!

The next morning we scarpered!

It was windy as we set off for Korcula, which is a beautiful old town on an island and which we hoped would be protected from the wind. They put us on the outside wall with about eight or so other larger boats. There was a bit of wash from passing boats, but otherwise, it was great.

The wind dropped, we had another nice meal in town and then went to bed for a good nights sleep.  (Yes, of course separately!  Leave it!)

You guessed didn’t you?  Yep, at 5am in the morning – the mother of all thunderstorms – and torrential rain!  And power cuts.  So I’m up again, shutting hatches, covering consoles and moving stuff out of the rain.

No, I didn’t notice anybody else about - although Martin, who appeared at 11.00am this morning, did say he woke up once.  Which was nice.

PS. While I’m writing this, I have noticed that all the other boats have gone, which leaves just us on our own.  Do they know something we don’t?

Cavtat to Slano

Monday it rained almost non-stop.  That meant that there were not many highlights to report.  There was medium-light though, when the top management of the marina came to our berth with umbrellas.  But it wasn’t to see us.

They’d come to meet Beluga I, owned by Sir Mark Weinberg, a big investor in the marina and his wife Anouska Hempel.  For those of you who are very young, she was an ex Bond Girl and actress (not necessarily the same thing!

Check out this website :

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/85c272b6-adf9-11e0-a2ab-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1T72QtJVC   (Copy & paste it!)

Beluga I  (Now that's a nice boat!)

They actually spoke to us!  Honest! (Swoon, swoon - not!)

Later we went to see the new marina swimming pool which was probably the most original I’ve seen. 

Oh, and the museum of old Yugoslavian submarines and stuff. And that’s it for Monday!

It was a mini-sub.  Did I mention that Martin's only three feet tall?

On Tuesday we took the boat round to the other part of the ‘fjord’, to Kotor, and then came back to Tivat to refuel before setting off to Croatia.  The large pump was out of action and we had to use the ‘normal’ pump.  ‘Doesn’t sound too bad, does it?  Except that it took nearly two hours to fill up! However, diesel is tax and duty free in Montenegro so I saved €2,500.  Woo-hoo!

Perast

Dunno what this is called

Now two hours late, we set off on the four-hour journey to Cavtat which is the first Port of Entry in Croatia.  We were recommended to use an agent to speed things up and, for this 20-minute service, he took £130 off me!  And the Croatian Government managed to take another £500 in taxes somehow.  So that’s £630 just to enter their bloody country and spend money on stuff!  They’re ‘avin’ a larf I reckon!

Me and Mart anchored up in the next bay just as it was going dark, while Russell prepared our lovely evening meal.  ‘Thing is, he made me take a photo of it for some strange reason.  I’ve absolutely no idea why! (He’s not trying to compare it to my chilli, is he?  Nah!)

Anyway, here it is…………….

Looks like salad to me.  Isn't that what food eats?

So it’s now Wednesday and we’re on our way to a little bay Jayne and I discovered when we drove down the Croatian coast in May.  It had just one lovely restaurant and was very secluded and quiet when we came here.  I hope it still is….

‘Just come past Dubrovnik and spotted the hotel we stayed in and the bar we drank in. Strange to see it from the sea!

Dubrovnik

Our bar!

Our hotel!

Corfu to Montenegro

Leaving Gouvia, Corfu (Don't forget to click on the photos!)

Don't know what this was all about, but thought you might like it.  Camouflage?

We set off for Tivat, Montenegro, in calm weather and with a great forecast for the trip.  Flat seas all the way!  Yippee!  We love that.

It was wrong!  Within a few hours the wind got up and we had 12 to 18 knots all the way.  On the beam!  We don’t like that.

But…we had another, truly great chilli in the evening – cooked by me, of course, but it seems I had forgotten to buy any kidney beans.  I did, however, find a strange tin of stuff, at the back of the cupboard, that I thought I might be able to put in, to add a bit of flavour.  ‘Not sure what it was but I think there may be a letter missing on the tin.  See if you guess what it was!

Another truly astonishingly brilliant chilli (cooked by me)

We decided to take turns on watch – three hours on, six hours off – so Russell took the first watch at 10.00pm and me & Martin went off to our cabins. I was up again an hour later ‘cos, as usual, I couldn’t bloody sleep.  So Russell went off for some kip!

We never heard from Martin again until 3.00 am when there was a sort of loud ‘graunch’ and boat started shaking and shuddering.  I checked the instruments and all looked fine except that the fuel consumption on the starboard engine had almost doubled.  I jumped up and down a bit until Martin suddenly appeared and declared ‘I think we’ve got some rope or something wrapped round the propeller’.  He also said that the noise and vibration had woken him up but I didn’t believe that.  Nothing wakes him up!

So we stopped the boat and put the engines in reverse, to see if we could shake it off – but we couldn’t.  This actually woke Russell up as well.  Amazing!

We shut down the starboard engine (Kylie) and ran on with just the port engine - Dannii.  She didn’t complain.

It was pitch black, the sea was rough, but we limped on and although by now I was really tired, I still couldn’t sleep, so Russ and I stayed up on watch.  Not surprisingly, Martin went back to bed.

I tried to sleep again at 5.00am, couldn’t, so got up again at 6.00am to relieve Russ.  And guess what I found?

Sleeping Bloody Beauty! 

You 'ave to smile though!

So I sent Russell back to bed (without a story, ‘cos he’d been naughty!) and stayed on watch myself.  Awake!

When it was light we stopped the boat and Mr V went over the side to look at the propeller.  Guess what?  Rope.  Lots of it!  It was all round the propeller and shaft and it was massive stuff, about three inches in diameter. By now it was really rough with 3 to 4 metre waves – and still on the beam- so we crept on ever nearer to Tivat.

Tivat’s a brand new marina on a huge inland sea (check it out on Google Maps – go on – do it now) and it really is a brilliant place.  Apparently, the Montenegrens are trying to make it the ‘new Monaco’ with tax breaks, duty-free fuel, etc., and they’re doing a good job!  The country is stunning, the people friendly and the girls – well - what can I say?

A young girl came to the boat, on a golf cart, and took us off to the Harbour Authority, the Port Police and the Customs office.  She’d pre-arranged our arrival with them, filled in all the forms for us and the whole thing took about 20 minutes.  (Come on you Greeks, learn the lesson!).  They called us ‘Guests’ as well.  Which was nice.

We went back to the boat to see if we could get the rope off the propeller but there was no chance so I went to the Marina Office to see if I could find a diver.  “Yes” they said, “no problem, he’ll be with you in 15 minutes”.  On a Sunday.  Just like that!  (Come on you Greeks, learn the lesson!)  Half an hour later it was all off.

Gotcha!!

We absolutely love this place and the thing that makes it are the staff.  Smartly dressed, helpful, polite, organised, efficient – and really pretty!

I must mention the meal we had last night before I go.  My ‘prawn cocktail’ came with three dishes of sauce, each with a different flavour.  One had whiskey in it, one had brandy in it and the other…. bloody Baileys!  It didn’t really work….