F##k W*t B?y!!!

F##k W*t B?y

Leaving our mooring in Zdrilici Channel, we headed NE to check out the marina to see if we could get any dingy fuel. We poked our nose in and couldn’t find a fuel dock so we kept going on our circumnavigation of the Pakleni Islands.

As we passed, we checked out each bay until we came to Luka Soline, one of the bays recommended by Ooroo. Here we picked up a mooring, and jumped in for a swim and a paddle board.

The wind was picking up and we snorkelled down and checked the mooring to make sure it would hold us. The bay was filling up and we noticed a charter Lagoon 440 cat with a boxing kangaroo pull up a mooring two down from us.

Then we noticed the 60ft power boat between us and the boxing kangaroo start to drift in the wind, attached to what was now a pretty useless mooring ball. We started yelling at them – but it was too late. They drifted straight across the Lagoon’s mooring ball and bridle and broadside into the front of both hulls with a nice hole punched in the side courtesy of the prodder.

By now, the Swiss crew had awoken from their afternoon nap, as had the Aussies on board the Lagoon.

Sh&t happens I suppose but what happened next was the first hint that we were indeed parked up in F##k W*t Bay. Instead of using his bow thruster to extradite himself from the mess, he tried to just drive forward straight over the Lagoon’s mooring lines, which would have seen both boats on the shore in no time as that’s where the wind was pushing them.

The guys on the Lagoon kept shouting until he worked out this was not the best idea he had that day. Then he tried to reverse out, which was better except he pivoted on the bow of the Lagoon and nearly managed to back onto the rocky shore. The guys on the Lagoon kept shouting for him to use his bow thruster but this message was getting lost in translation.

Somehow the power boat managed to detach itself and head off – to a very large insurance bill no doubt.

That night, we had a great lightening show as the wind continued to pick up. Things settled down for a while, until about 9pm when we heard another boat come in. It was pitch black and you could just see someone up the front with a very, very small torch trying to find the mooring balls. They motored around all over the place before going straight past the mooring ball and perilously close to shore. Luckily Croatia is very deep right up to the shoreline so they were lucky.

We called out to them and got out our spot light and guided them onto the mooring next to us. They were a bit close but at least they were safe. Next morning the wind had dropped to nothing and we would have kissed hulls, back to back, if we hadn’t have got some fenders out. They were young Irish guys and girls, working in London, and were nice people, just inexperienced charterers with a little bit of a deficit of common sense coming in in the dark like that.

We then dingyed over to the Aussie boat and gave them the name of the boat that hit them. They were four couples from Perth doing a two-week charter and having a ball.

After breakfast, we went for a walk on shore and checked out the restaurants (nothing much to write home about) and the other side of the island. Then the rain came down and we scurried back to the boat).

As we dingyed back to La Mischief, we noticed a Lagoon 400 trying to pick up a mooring in 35kt winds, devoid of technique or ability, which led them to part company with their boat hook. Brad and I dropped off the girls and sped over to retrieve their boat hook and help them out.

They had no idea what the next step was after they managed to hook the mooring ball – here you needed to use your own mooring line to attach to the ball and they though they could use their bridle, without worked out how they were ever going to attach it.

I ended up going on board whilst brad drove the dingy and between the two of us we managed to get them attached without Brad being run over in the dingy. They were Germans who couldn’t speak much English, but were very appreciative and gave us a couple of beers for our troubles.

About an hour later they took off – hardly worth the trouble.

Next thing to help out with the naming ceremony was a boat load of blokes together with one blow up doll, making an appearance. Looked like they were in for a big night – them and their lady friend.

But it wasn’t them that got told off. Evidently the music on La Mischief was too loud at 8pm whilst parked down wind from a French cat.

And so ends the tale of F##k W*t B&y.

For pictures of Hvar and the Pakleni Islands see https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10200309799180524.1073741870.1620379103&type=1&l=7b70f4bc83