Freo – Way to Go

~ stull61 ~ Leave a comment

6am in the morning, the alarm went and Steve, Mark and Leanne were all action. The rest not quite so keen to get up in the dark, get dressed (in purple) and wander up the hill to where Rade had set up his TV and was cooking breakfast.

We made it to Rade’s in time to see the bounce down at 6.30am – the Australian Rules Football Grand Final – Freo vs the Hawks.

Unfortunately things didn’t quite stay on track from this point on as Freo succumbed to grand final nerves and inexperience and lost out to a very determined Hawks. Still it was a great morning, Rade served a great breakfast and we all had a great time. Next year!

With our grand final breakfast over, it was time to say goodbye to Marinka, Rade and Adam and head back once again to Dubrovnik, some 55nm away. The things we do for football.

Pre Grand Final Party in Rade's Town
Pre Grand Final Party in Rade’s Town

DSC_0217

DSC_0219

DSC_0220

DSC_0223

Croatian Hospitality A+

~ stull61 ~ Leave a comment

RadeWe arrived in Zavalatica to be greeted by Rade, a cousin of a good friend of ours, who helped tie us up to the wall, which we had all to ourselves. After some quick introductions and a beer or two, Rade whipped us home to meet his lovely wife, Marinka, and his Father in law, Marinko.

We were then treated to his wine (quite good) and his grappa (strong – not so nice!!!!), along with some of his olives (which were yummy evidently). Then it was off to see a big of Korcula by car. We headed over to Vela Luka, a largish harbour town, which looked well worth a visit. Along the way we drove through Rade’s vineyard and along a pleasant inland highway. After buying some fuel and stopping off for some cocktails at a nice bar we headed back to a wonderful feast that Marinka and Rade had prepared for us. What wonderful hospitality.

Over a few more glasses of Rade’s wine, we hatched up a plan to sail down to Dubrovnik to pick up Mark and Leanne, and then back to Rade’s to watch the AFL Grand Final at 6.30am in the morning. Then we would sail back to Dubrovnik to drop everyone off at the airport. Simple really. Rade fitted neatly into this plan as he could delay starting work and come along with us for the week.

So next morning at 6.30am, Marinka dropped Rade off along with enough wine to nearly sink the good ship La Mischief, and off we went. Rade was having a great time sitting up at the helm station taking in the wind and the sea as we bashed our way into 25kts.

It settled down as we entered the straight between Mjet and Peljesec and by the time we got to Dubrovnik, the seas were really calm and we anchored right in front of the main town – prime spot.

Safely anchored, we took the dingy into the old port and found Mark and Leanne waiting for us. With them safely aboard we had a full boat of 7 – but La Mischief has heaps of space so it worked really well.

Rade had a cousin who worked at the Excelsior , a rather posh hotel on the cliff face, so after grabbing pizzas in the old town we walked up there to sample his cocktails (which were rather excellent), whilst sitting on a balcony overlooking La Mischief in front of Dubrovnik all lit up at night. The hotel had a wall with pictures of all the rich and famous that had stayed there – no usual – Richard Burton and Liz Taylor etc. – funnily enough nobody asked us for our photos.

Next day, we spent a lovely morning, showing Brad, Bec and Cas around the old city, whilst Rade (who’d seen it all before) had a great time lazing about on La Mischief. We did the wall walk and Brad got a little infatuated with the waitress at the bar on top of the wall. Definitely a tick.

We finished the morning at a great restaurant overlooking the bay. Rade came and picked us up in the dingy after we got back and we spent the afternoon swimming and paddle-boarding.

Next day it was time to meander slowly back, visiting some of the highlights between Dubrovnik and Korkula. First stop was Otuk Lupid island, where we found a beautiful white sandy beach at Uvala Sunj. It was perfect, great beach, with a couple of bars behind, all a comfortable swimming distance from where we dropped the anchor. A perfect lunchtime stopover.

From here it was a short sail to Sipanska Sipan on Otuk Sipan, where we were planning to continue our Tour De Fork. We anchored off the restaurant where we were planning to eat and went off exploring the town. We were particularly interested in all these renovated buildings, quite big buildings. completely wrapped in plastic.

Then it was off to continue our Tour De Fork. Hopefully someone will help us out with the restaurant name as neither Google nor I can come up with its name. Anyway, whatever it was called it was damn good. We each ordered a main course, either fish or veal and then they proceeded to bring us out a hundred and one entrees, all brilliant. Couldn’t argue with any of them. When we finally got to the mains, we did have an argument about which was better – I think the veal won. Then it was onto desert and coffees. Somehow we didn’t sink the dingy on the way back to La Mischief.

Next morning it was up early and off to Mljet. Rade got a good laugh around our pronunciation of Mljet, but came round to our way of thinking in the end. Bit of an in joke with Howie.

The wind had started to pick up from the south so we had a lively sail up to the top of Mljet where it was lovely and protected. The top end of Mljet is a national park and is a wonderful wilderness. We found a beautiful anchorage in a bay near Pomena at the northern end of the island. It offered the perfect shelter with beautiful clear water around its edges. We anchored in the middle and backed into the shallow water tying up to a tree on the shore at the back.

It didn’t take long before Brad was jumping off the roof into the water, enticing Bec, Mark and Leanne to follow suit. Leanne was careful make sure she cleared the lifelines on the side of La Mischief, which made for an interesting face plant on her first attempt. The bay was dead calm so out came the paddle board and canoe and everyone had a great time whiling away the afternoon.

Next morning, after a swim, we were off back to Rade’s so we repay Rade and Marinka for their hospitality with an Australian BBQ on the back on La Mischief on the wall in Zavalatica. We arrived just after lunch, delivering Rade safely home. The girls took off with Marinka to do the food shopping, whilst the boys remarked the anchor chain and then had a bonding session over a beer or two, waiting for the girls to return.

We had a great night on La Mischief, with Marinko, Marinka’s dad coming along together with some other friends of Marinka and Rade.

Then it was off to bed to get some sleep before getting up early to watch the AFL Grand Final at Rade’s the next morning at 6.30am. (Yes….that is how far I’m behind in my Blogging – need to put in a big effort to catch up).

For pictures of Dubrovnik (Take 2) see https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10200362833666353&type=1&l=904eb9555e

For pictures of our trip back to Korcula see https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10200377239026478.1073741880.1620379103&type=1&l=1a1c5c6cd0

Marco Polo waz Here

~ stull61 ~ Leave a comment

DSC_0059After a wonderful sunny day at the Blue Lagoon, we awoke to overcast and windy conditions for our sail across to Korcula, 55nm away. We cut across the western ends of Brac and then Hvar and sailed toward the strait that separated Korcula from the mainland.

Korcula is the most populated of the Dalmatian Islands and one of the largest. It’s also home to some pretty good white wine. We headed for Korcula town, which the lonely planet guide describes as a stunner.Its another walled city, a mini Dubrovnik overlooking the channel that runs between Korcula and the mainland, complete with narrow marble streets and a row of restaurants and bars high up on the wall overlooking the sea.

Our plan was to anchor in Uvala Luka, half a mile from Korcula Town but it looked a bit yukky, especially when a big power boat pulled up an old fishing net on its anchor, so we headed around the corner and anchored at a very pleasant spot just in front of the old monastery at Otok Badija, another Ooroo recommendation.

Safely anchored, we thought about dinner and discovered one of the restaurants mentioned in a Sailing in Croatia tourist book we had picked up was a 15 minute dingy ride around the corner at a small village called Lumbarda. We made a reservation and set off to find Zure, no 64 on the Tour de Fork 2013 hit parade. After a bit of a walk, we found it tucked away up a small road well away from the touristy spots on the waterfront.

The food was exception, all home grown. We discovered salted fish – didn’t sound particularly nice, but the waiter insisted and he put us on a winner. The octopus dish was great as was the fish, caught fresh that day. And the turkish coffee at the end of the night was awesome – and I don’t drink black coffee.

Next day, we headed off to explore Korcula town. We had a great day wandering the streets, looking in shops, and visiting the Marco Polo museum, where we brushed up on one of history’s great explorers, who was supposedly born in Korcula according to the myriad of Marco Polo shops that were scattered around. Interestingly Marco brought back spaghetti to Italy from China amongst other things. At the end of the day we headed for the Massimo Bar to open so we could climb the ladder to the top of the turret where it was located and enjoy a couple of cocktails, which were delivered from below via a pulley system. Cool.

Next day, we thought we should go for a walk around the Island where the monastery stood. It took an hour or so to do the walking track that went around the coast. Then we had a footy game to listen to on the internet, as Freo flogged the Swans (yes…I know I’m miles behind in the blog – too busy having fun to write about it!)

My good friend Zeljko’s cousin, Rade lives on Korcula in a small village called Zavalatica and we had arranged to call in and see him on the Sunday. We pulled up anchor and headed around the island to Zavalatica, which is on the south side of Korcula. But the wind gods conspired against us and with 40kts on the nose we decided to turn back and wait a few hours. It was a good strategy as this gave the wind time to drop off a bit and once we made it around to the south side we had a very pleasant sail to Rade’s village.

We got there about 5pm to find Rade on the town wall ready to help us tie up.

For pictures of Korcula see https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10200362836306419&type=1&l=3c81e296a5

Buy Blato 1902 Pošip 2012

Is It Blue or is it Green – Who Cares?

~ stull61 ~ Leave a comment

1294284_10200327935953932_1922412518_oWith the weather fining up, it was time to find a nice swimming spot.

We’d seen a poster of a very nice looking lagoon (sea scape, not catamaran) and after a bit of an ask around we found out Blue Lagoon was situated on the SE corner of Veli Drvenik.

So off we went and 2 hours later we were anchored over clear sand in 2m of water. The water was more green than blue, probably turquoise is the best description, and it was crystal clear. The lagoon was framed by a couple of small islands and the main island itself and this made for a reasonably big anchorage. We had about 20 boats in there at times but we still didn’t feel crowded.

Out came the stand up and the kayak and we had a great day swimming and paddling.

That night it blew up a bit and we had a surprisingly rolly night before waking up early as it was a long sail to Korcula.

For photos of the blue Lagoon please see https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10200327933713876.1073741873.1620379103&type=1&l=c711665833

Split

~ stull61 ~ Leave a comment

P1010621

After much debate about where to go next, we finally decided on Split, as we had a few days of overcast skies and rain that wasn’t any good for swimming. So off we went from Bol, around the top end of Brac and through the narrow channel that separates Brac from Solta and then onto Split. We saw a steady stream of charter boats coming out from Split after the weekend changeover – another reason for visiting Split mid-week as marina berths are 15% cheaper with all the charter boats away.

We thought about pulling up to the city wall, which you can evidently use for free but it was quite crowded and with the weather changing we decided to check into the ACI Marina. Here, we managed a somewhat poor impersonation of someone who actually knew what they were doing vis-a-vis Mediterranean mooring. The problem arose when the marina guy insisted that we hook on our front line first, whereas our game plan was to hook on our back and pivot on that. Anyway despite that we did manage to get settled into our berth and quickly decided that bikes were the way to get around. Brad and Bec hired two and we dug out our fold up bikes from the front hatch.

Then we went exploring. It took us a while to find the old city but we eventually got there and had a good wander. The old city is based around some wonderful Roman ruins, centred around a fortified Roman palace from about 300AD, built by a bloke called Diocletian, most of which is still standing today. After exploring the old city, we adjourned to one of the harbourside restaurants for a nice meal.

Next day was a bike riding day. We decided to explore the wonderful national park, which is a hill called Marjan on the end of the peninsula where the city of Split is located. It is covered in a dense Mediterranean pine forest and is completely surrounded by the city and the sea, making it rather unique. The good citizens of Split have used it as a park since the 3rd century, and has become a favorite weekend excursion destination and a recreational center for the city – a bigger version of Kings Park. It has some lovely little beaches, all surrounded by the scenic forest.

Brad and Bec had reasonable bikes so they took off up to the top of the 180m high hill where there was botanical gardens and the city’s zoo. The fold up bikes were more suited to the flat ride around the coast so I headed along the exquisite ring road that passed under a canopy of trees, calling in at quaint little beaches and coves along the way. Cas decided to give the park a miss and rode back from the entrance to check out the nice beach with a water polo stadium that we spotted on the way there.

We got back to the boat just in time to witness a thunderstorm that bucketed down rain in all directions.

That night we decided to do a bit of a pub crawl, starting with a Champagne Bar that we had spotted earlier in our stay. We caught the ferry from the marina across to the old town to find the Champagne Bar closed because it was no longer high season. Never mind, we found champagne close by and then found a restaurant bar doing wonderful food combined with wine tasting. Perfect.

Next morning, with the weather clearing and a sunny day predicted we left Split heading for the Blue Lagoon, which we had originally spied on a tourist poster.

For pictures of Split see https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10200322075007412.1073741872.1620379103&type=1&l=e545fc8674

Home Delivery – Pizza and Cocktails

~ stull61 ~ Leave a comment

We pulled up anchor from F#$k W@t B^y and headed around the top of Hvar Island towards Brac. It was another 25nm sail to Bol on the south coast of Brac, which is separated by a narrow channel from Hvar.

As we sailed down the channel between the two islands, we marvelled at the farms that went steeply up narrow near vertical valleys. Brac is the most mountainous of the islands, with its beautiful white stone used all over Croatia, Europe and even the white house in Washington, DC.

About half way up the island we pulled the sails down and anchored off the world famous beach at Dugi Rat. Unfortunately the wind came up about the same time so we didn’t stop – we pulled up anchor pretty well straight away and headed to Bol, just around the corner.

Bol is renowned for being pretty blowy, so we opted to moor stern to on the town wall. We did a pretty good job of parking next to a big power boat, on only our second med mooring attempt, the first being Gibraltar.

Our berth was right on the restaurant strip at what we discovered was a very pretty little town. 10m away was a very nice little pizza joint and that’s where we headed first. After lunch we discovered the picturesque tree-lined walkway that took us down to Dugi Rat, some 2kms away, the start of which was lined with stalls selling the famous Brac stoneware.

Next day, the weather forecast was perfect for a day at the beach, so off we went in our best bikinis to check out the famous beach. The Dugi Rat beach is a triangle of beach that juts out into the sea, looking across to Hvar island at the other side of the strait. As you walk along the cliffs to get there, you look down to a simply stunning scene, with clear translucent water surrounding an umbrella covered, pebbled point.

We lashed out and purchased four lounge chairs, metres from the sea for the day at 50 kunas each and swam and lounged around until after lunch. The beach bar sold Coronas so we had a beer each under a beautiful sunny sky. I’m glad we didn’t come in the height of summer as I’m sure this beach would have been packed to the rafters. As it was, people have different ideas of personal space in this part of the world and we had people park themselves on the beach just right in front of us.

That night we visited Bol’s trendiest cocktail bar (about 50m down the broad-walk from La Mischief) and enjoyed some sought of town festival, with stalls selling local cooking and townsfolk dressing up in some traditional garb. As we listened to live folk music, we sipped on our cocktails and ate the local food. I’ve been hooked on Mojitos ever since Kevin and Di fed them to me in Gibraltar and in Bol, I was introduced to Royal Mojitos – something we were most impressed with – it was like a Mojito but with champagne and aged rum. Yummy!

We were enjoying Bol so much that we stayed an extra day and walked up to the monastery, which is in the opposite direction to Dugi Rat. The wind had come back up so our thinking was that we would have a swim here rather than at Dugi Rat.

That afternoon we ran into some fellow Aussies in James and Gaila, together with their friend Claire, on their yacht Mercier moored around the corner from us, and invited them over for drinks and pizza. We convinced the pizza restaurant to deliver the pizzas to La Mischief and Marinko obliged, together with cutlery and white napkins.

Declaring the home delivery of pizzas a success, we then asked if Marinko did cocktails. His restaurant didn’t but he simply went a couple of doors up and got them from there. Marinko, with a lovely smile, expertly delivered 7 cocktails on a tray over the gang-plank, made our night.

An excellent way to end of stay in what was a very picturesque little place.

For pictures of Bol and Dugi Rat see https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10200309810860816.1073741871.1620379103&type=1&l=a8956275e5

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

~ stull61 ~ 2 Comments

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

La Mischief Meets Miss Behaving

~ stull61 ~ Leave a comment

The morning after the night before, there were bottles everywhere that needed to be collected and bagged and put in a front hatch for the time being.

With the evidence removed, it was time to say goodbye to Vis and head off to Hvar, as the weather was turning cloudy and yukky and therefore we thought it would be a good time to do town stuff rather than beach stuff.

Hvar was pretty well north, the direction of the wind, as it was a pretty choppy sail across. We eventually made it and anchored next to a Lagoon 620 at the entrance to the harbour. We then proceeded to chase a few charter boats way as they tried to anchor on top of us. The usual story – drop anchor on top of ours and then try and motor sideways across the wind only to find boat swings round onto ours.

Still it wan’t as bad as what happened to the Lagoon 620. They had a power boat come straight up to them and then ram them in the side. What – you can’t see a 62 foot catamaran? Bizarre.

The harbour master had also had enough and told us all that it was unsafe to anchor there because of the 25kt wind. Petty really because the holding was great and it was a pretty good place to hang out give or take all the idiots around.

So off we went across the channel to the Zonica channel where we found a free mooring buoy belonging to one of the restaurants on Marinkovac Island. The current was rushing though this channel so it was good to have a mooring, one that was right behind another Australian boat called Miss Behaving. Interesting to have La Mischief and Miss Behaving moored next to each other. Given it was a restaurant mooring we felt obliged to eat at the restaurant, which we did in the company of Miss Behaving who left their kids on board, whilst they had some adult time.

Next morning, we took to the dingy and headed off across the channel to Hvar. Hvar is very picturesque, with its narrow cobbled streets, where cars are banned. We explored the shops and then headed upwards to the old castle that overlooks the town. It was good to get a bit of walking into the legs.

We stayed on the mooring for a couple of nights before heading off to explore the Pakleni Islands.

For photos of Hvar see https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10200309799180524.1073741870.1620379103&type=1&l=7b70f4bc83

Austrian Mayhem

~ stull61 ~ 2 Comments

Ooroo left Komiza early for Corfu whilst we hung around to listen to the mighty dockers knock off Geelong, on their way to the big GF.

Then it off to explore the rest of Vis. We headed along the south coast, our first stop being the famous beach at Stiniva. Whilst it did look quite interesting, the cove was narrow and deep and not really good for anchoring. We continued east and stopped off at another inviting cove. We dropped anchor and had a pleasant swim and paddle board. We swam into the shore and walked along the rocks to the beach where we ran into Marco and Ana, a couple of honeymooners who we had a drink or three with in Vis town. We said a quick hello and left them alone and headed off to Budikovac Island, our stop for the night. We picked up a mooring in shallow water and had a great afternoon swimming in what was our hottest day in Croatia.

We wandered up to the house on shore, which is periodically used as a restaurant. The owner was a real character; we thought he was chasing us away at first, but in the end he turned out to be quite harmless, drinking on the verandah with his two mates, whilst baiting some passing yachties. We ate local olives and drank their wine. We were running short of wine on the boat so we also bought a couple of litres to take back – packaged in high class plastic water bottles!!!

Back on board La Mischief, we spent the afternoon paddle boarding and swimming. a charter boat of Austrians moored up next to us and a Lagoon 440 called Spongebob took up another mooring. Spongebob had an Australian couple on board – chartering they explained – who would call their boat Spongebob they replied when we asked them if it was theirs.

So invites went out and all was set for a few late afternoon drinks on La Mischief. The Austrians brought over some wonderful Austrian wine and Geringer, their nominated skipper turned out to be a real character – slightly mad with a laugh that his whole body engaged in. Late afternoon turned into early evening, with a small break where everyone when off to do some cooking and bring it back to La Mischief. Then early evening turned into late evening with Geringer’s lederhosen, which was made of deer leather, moving from his person to Brad first then Bec.

About 11pm, we spotted a visitor in the water, completely nude, except for his cap, yelling party. It was a pretty dark night with no moon so we hadn’t seen him until he appeared at the back of the boat. “Party boy” clambered on board and pulled out a t shirt from under his cap. He was from Slovenia and completely off his tree and we gave him a towel to wrap around himself. It took us a while to impress upon him that the party was pretty well over and perhaps he needed to go back to his boat. In the end we managed to bundle him into Spongebob’s dingy and take him home to his boat.

But our party wasn’t quite finished as around midnight, we all decided it would be a good idea to swim from La Mischief to the Austrian boat for some late night snaps, followed by a swim back again.

Next morning …. never mind.

For photos of Vis see https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10200268972839891.1073741868.1620379103&type=1&l=e930ae623d