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?