Hello Greece!

Today I write from Nisos Kerkyra, or the island of Corfu as us English speakers know it. Corfu town is a delightful place imbued with character that can only be acquired over a time – a long time - and with contributions from many invaders and occupiers including the Ottomans, Italians, Venetians, French, the British (who continue to have quite a presence here) and, of course, the Greeks themselves. This is Homer’s ‘beautiful and rich land’ and Odysseus’ last stop on his journey home to Ithaki.

There are beautiful museums, palaces, villas, forts, winding lanes, colourful back streets, flat topped apartment buildings covered in antennae with washing lines strung between them, the bluest sky and the vibrant sea. The best thing is wandering through the old and new parts of the town and looking at the people, observing everyday life, the multinational force of tourists and the architecture which illustrates the tale of the town’s colourful history.

Back to Montenegro
Many miles have been travelled since the last entry. We ended up spending over a week in the Gulf of Kotor, most of the time in and around Kotor town where we climbed to the top of the fortress which made it’s way up the steep mountain behind the town – if you click to enlarge the photo and look closely you will see the ruined walls going up the hillside. The views from almost every where in the gulf area were spectacular.

After a day or two of thunderstorms and changeable weather (including a couple of water spouts, one of which flicked our fenders back over the life lines and tossed us around for a bit), we dingyed around the bay to take a closer look at some of the many churches and old sea captain’s villas which dot the shore. There were also little villages with holiday apartments and the odd hotel. There are no beaches as such so people swim from and sunbathe on concrete and rock platforms on the water’s edge. It was a bit too cool for us to be doing this but those hardy Europeans will not miss out on a minute of sun shine.

We had the feeling that this place would be the next next thing for tourism in Europe. Although that being said, almost every day a huge cruise ship would slowly make its way into the dwarfed port and disgorge its contents into the town.

Cetinje
We took the local bus to the old capital, Cetinje, to have a bit of a look around inland. The country is incredibly mountainous and picturesque. Apparently transport and communications through out the country are quite difficult because the coast is cut off from inland by the mountain range. The road system is limited (which we experienced first hand with narrow windy mountain passes, precipitous drops from the roadside and commensurately astounding scenery). The main road has barely room for two vehicles to pass around corners and, of course, there’s the crazy driving - overtaking with scant regard for what might be coming the other way. Hair raising! Curiously, there were car yards hidden high in the mountains just out side of Cetinje. We cynically speculated as to the source of these vehicles (hmmm… the streets of western Europe?).

Centije, tucked high in the mountains, was quite a contrast to the sea side. It was the home of the last Montenegrin king, Nicola Petrovic. We visited his old residence which was partially restored to its former glory. No wonder the peasants revolted! The former parliament building houses the National Museum of Montenegro which has a wonderful collection from ancient times to World War II but with little interpretation in English and many lights not working. Nonetheless we were impressed. A few other grand buildings, now museums, and churches and a monastery were all impressive and, interestingly, many of the grand buildings were set amongst the very ordinary every day houses. It was quite higgledy piggledy in many respects. Wide tree lines streets, some free of cars with a few tourists wondering around, spacious parks and a mix of old, stately and not so stately and modern buildings.

We came across the local market where we tasted delicious local cheeses straight from the barrel and mistakenly purchased a huge quantity that kept us in cheese for weeks. One of the best things though was lunch. We happened across a very traditional looking restaurant full of locals, with no English menu and no English spoken, that did a set lunch; bean soup, steak and salad. It was so delicious. When we returned to the boat I immediately embarked on a lunch inspired bean soup – it was also delicious.

In Kotor we met Richard from “Marionette”; intrepid sailor, organic farmer and philosopher. We shared a few meals and told many stories (Richard had the best hair raising sea stories), discussed the sailing life, current affairs and many other topics. We first met Richard with Betty, the delightful 77 year old artist and photographer who had recently completed her MA (which was quite inspirational) and was still sailing (but she was heading off back to Dobrovnik the morning after the evening we met). One of the wonderful things about this sailing life is the people you meet. At these times I consider myself incredibly fortunate. Of course, when the weather is shithouse and we are being tossed around in the middle of the night I occasionally think otherwise.

Max emailed us after the last blog entry with a comment on his experience of Montenegro in a combi van with his family some years ago:
“ Ah, more adventures! Makes me recall our now - oh so long ago - drive down that coast. Dubrovnic (in the days of less crowds), and deserted towns (they had all vamoosed to Australia), and barren cliffs.

I particularly remember our shock when we got to Montenegro and couldn't even read the labels on the food products in the shops. And, as you experienced, the population looks more rugged. In fact they looked and dressed as if it was the 14th century. Rather haunting, actually."

Max, we fully concur on all fronts except on the dress front. I guess it could be described now as generic euro fashion.

Budva
We left the seclusion of the fiords for Budva, the beach resort town. It was great to be back on the open sea. While the weather was a bit warmer on the coast I was chomping at the bit to heading south to catch some warmer weather and to be away from thunderstorm territory.
Budva was a contrast of old and new. The old walled town was delightful, if a little contrived, and very well restored after massive earthquake damage in 1979. The new town was a mecca for eastern European tourists. The sand and pebble beaches were crowded with sun beds and beach umbrellas for hire, but not so many people now the season is near its end. Lining the beaches were restaurants, parks, temporary amusements, fun parks, pool halls, internet cafes and extensive souvenir shops full of kitsch land fill.

Things were winding down quickly. In the evening there was even a Macdonalds – the first we’d seen in months. By mid morning it was packed up as were many of the amusements.

We had hoped to stay a night in a smaller lest touristy town further down the coast but the anchorage and the winds were not favourable so we ended up in Bar, our last stop in Montenegro and where we would clear customs.

Bar
Bar was quite a functional town. Once you got back from the sea front, which was largely comprised of big ferry warfs, ship yards, customs buildings, and a few marinas, it was a shopping centre (with the biggest supermarkets that I had seen in months) surrounded by apartment buildings. It was enjoyable in a strange way as there were no tourists and it had a ‘real’ town with ‘real’ people quality to it. We had dinner on the recommendation of the security guy at the Samba Restaurant and it was really good, but on the way home as we were walking along the poorly lit wharf Ross fell down a pot hole and seriously cracked his shin, taking out a gouge of flesh. Now, there is not a lot of flesh on the old shin so you can imagine the pain. This time I managed to do the cleaning and dressing of the wound without feeling faint (yay!), but we decided to see how he went for the night before taking further action. After making it though the night with the help of pain killers we figured that there may be bruising of the bone but no fracture. For the next day Ross was out of action as he really needed to keep his leg up and heal. It was the longest he sat still for on the whole trip.

At the marina we had internet access so after extensive weather research we found that we had a great window of opportunity to make our journey from Montenegro to Greece. Depending on the state of Ross’ injured leg the next morning was the ideal time to depart. We rose before dawn and after his day of rest Ross declared himself fit to sail. We were through customs by 7am - Farewell Montenegro!

I will leave it to Ross to tell the tale of our longest voyage, but I should note that it was a bit scary at times and I have survived to tell the tale with an overnight sail under my belt. I have seen the mysteriousness of 'ships passing in the night' and was awstruck by the stars. The dawn was cold but the sun rise was pretty darned exciting. Would I do it again? – hmmmm…. I guess so.

Hello Greece! I love Erikoussa!
We decided to make Erikoussa Island our first stop in Greece. After the sun rose over Albania we could see Erikoussa’s striking cliffs and peaks in the distance. The Croatian islands often looked formidable from a distance but this island was verdant and inviting.
Although we hadn’t cleared into the country we followed the tips of other yachties who used this place to break the long journey northwards or to Italy. It was great to stop after the overnight haul and get some sleep. It was also unlikely that we would be back this way so we made the most of it by staying a couple of nights. There were only a few other boats which transited in and out.

An Australian yacht flotilla leader who we later met in Corfu described Erikoussa as like the Greek islands 20 years ago. It was very laid back and friendly, there was only one restaurant as part of a small hotel, a couple of cafes and the one village or hamlet which spanned out from the southern bay. The water was absolutely crystal clear but bloody freezing and the weather was gorgeous with the blue blue sky melting into the sea. The quality of light in Greece is different; brighter.

Ross was delighted to be able to see how well the anchor was dug in without having to dive on it.

Kerkyra
So back to Corfu with its narrow windy lanes with bougainvillaea and jasmine and grapevines gracefully draped; the friendly dogs, sublime views and bakeries full of Greek delights; motorbikes zigzagging around people up the narrow windy lanes and crazy driving on congested roads. We both sense a simplicity to life here. Things are not so complicated (unless they involve paperwork). It is very easy travelling (English being widely spoken helps). It is also the end of the tourist season so it seems that the island is being returned to the Greeks.
Over the last week the delights of civilization have been indulged. We have been to the cinema, I have done the museums and galleries and checked out the produce market, we took a bus to the other side of the island and spent a day at the beach (which strangely enough we have not done the whole time we have been away), we have savoured taramaslata, tzaziki, moussaka, pastitsio, galaktobouriko and other classic Greek dishes.

We had one night of bad weather (middle of the night all hands on deck adjusting mooring lines and wondering if we will be bashed against the breakwater) and winds from the south for the last few days, but tomorrow the wind should be back to the north and we will leave for Paxos – the next island down the Ionian Sea.

Good bye to Cofu and its museums and art galleries and forts and cafes. This has been a wonderful place to settle into Greece. I hope to return again one day.

And now from Captain Ross...


The Shipping News

At anchor, Gulf of Kotor, Montenegro, 11/9/07

On beer, weather, anchoring and anchor drag alarms
A thunder storm rolled through this morning. Pretty dramatic and with heavy rain. In fact, very heavy. I left the window open overnight in ‘my’ bathroom (we have his and hers) and found the toilet bowl filled with rain water.
Looking back at our logbook, since leaving Slovenia it shows that we have anchored out at night around 80% of the time. We have spent 82 nights at anchor in a wide variety of weathers and locations.

When the weather is reasonable or good, anchoring out in a quiet remote location is most enjoyable - sometimes sublime.

It’s interesting, when on land and you think about the weather you are normally thinking about whether it is sunny or cloudy, dry or rainy, cold or hot. But when living on a boat, most of those aspects of the weather assume a much lesser significance. Your overwhelming interest is in the wind; how strong it is and what direction it is coming from.

It could be cloudy, rainy and cold but with favourable winds for your sailing or anchoring you start to think of the weather as being ‘good’ or at least ‘not bad’. The converse is also true. Get sunny, warm, dry days with unfavourable winds and you think of the weather as being ‘not so good’. When the wind blows strongly at night here, as it occasionally does, it is good to deploy everything in your arsenal to ensure you get some sleep. Expectations in this regard has been lowered somewhat – you can forget about getting a ‘good’ night’s sleep when the wind is howling and you are swinging around on the end of an anchor chain with (invariably) rocky shores within close proximity.

So what’s in the ‘arsenal’? Not enough, I sometimes think.

Firstly, we try to find somewhere to anchor that is potentially sheltered from the expected wind direction. Expected wind directions don’t always materialise so this can be a bit hit and miss, although more often ‘hit’, so it is worth doing. This strategy doesn’t so much protect you from the wind – high strength winds will whip over an island (for example) and sometimes can be just as strong or even stronger on the leeward side of an island (particularly on mountainous islands – the katabatic effect). But if we can anchor on the leeward side we are generally protected from the waves that are whipped up by the wind. So, we may still be blown around at anchor but the bouncing around will be reduced.

Then, to the extent possible we make sure that the anchor has set well – that is, dug into the seabed properly. We have 50 metres of chain and let out as much as possible – five or more times the depth ideally. Sometimes you are restricted in the amount of chain you can deploy due to limitations in your boat’s available ‘swing’ area. Lots of chain out adds to the overall weight of the anchor and also creates a more horizontal - rather then vertical - pull on the anchor (the catenary effect). This effect of a horizontal pull digs the anchor in more when significant pressure is put onto it rather than pulling it upwards and potentially out. Also, the chain itself will absorb a lot of short duration pressure from gusts of wind by it being pulled up from the seabed and flattening its curve, before pressure is put onto the anchor proper.

To set the anchor we reverse back slowly as the chain is being let out then when we come to a stop we slowly increase revs in reverse to dig the anchor in and to make sure it is not dragging. Interestingly, because we have a Kiwiprop feathering propeller the maximum revs achievable in reverse is around 1500 even though the motor will rev to 3000 when the boat is moving forward. The reason is that the propeller blades have a very significant ‘bite’ in reverse – the opposite of conventional fixed propellers.

We generally alternate tasks; sometimes I drive the boat and Carolyn operates the anchor winch, or vice-versa.

Much shouting from one end of the boat to the other during setting and retrieving the anchor has been circumvented since we devised our own set of hand signals for forward, back, stop, neutral with more revs, etc.

Carolyn has added to these with a special hand signal using just her middle finger. This is normally only used when I am proffering helpful advice and instruction.

All going well we then attach a ‘snubber’ to the anchor chain. This is a 10 metre length of nylon rope with a chain hook on one end and the other end attached to a strong point on the front (o.k. bow!) of the boat. The pressure is then taken by the rope and the last 10 metres of chain hangs loose. A couple of reasons for this: unlike chain, nylon rope stretches and absorbs some of the load as the boat moves about on the anchor and also, the pressure is taken off the windlass (the electric winch that the anchor chain is attached to).

Some ‘old hands’ won’t use anchor chain snubbers – anything that potentially prevents you quickly retrieving your anchor in an emergency is verboten.

On balance, I think the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

There are a lot of things that are not black and white in sailing – other than ‘don’t run out of booze’ I suspect! Internet sailing chat rooms are full of people interminably debating the pros and cons of different strategies and equipment. Some of them spend that much time online I sometimes wonder if they ever actually do any sailing – maybe principally the virtual kind.
Notwithstanding that, we have at times garnered useful information from these chat rooms – for example I posted a query about suggestions for a good place to overwinter the boat in Greece and got some good leads, one of which is where we will be storing the boat in Preveza.
See http://www.ybw.com/ go to ‘forums’ and then to the ‘liveaboard’ forum if you are interested.

So, back to anchoring. We often then set an anchor drag alarm. We didn’t use to do this but after dragging anchor on two occasions (in extreme conditions) a month or so ago it changed our minds – in the interests of getting a better night’s sleep. The alarm is GPS based and will sound if your boat’s position moves outside of a range that you set.

We have two anchor drag alarms. The principal one is an integral part of the chart plotter, which is connected to the boat’s main GPS. Alas, there are a number of shortcomings with it. You push a button on the chart plotter at the moment you drop the anchor to set the alarm. However, we drop the anchor from the front of the boat and the antenna for the GPS is mounted at the very rear of the boat. So because of that, the chart plotter already thinks the anchor’s position is 13 metres away from where it actually is.

Because you need to leave the chart plotter and the GPS powered up to run the alarm you use a lot of battery power, even with the chart plotter screen faded to black. Of course you don’t need the alarm to be on all the time, mainly just when you sleep. The problem is, if you temporarily turn off the plotter to conserve power it loses its memory of where the anchor is – not the smartest of programming of the software from the Raymarine people!

Also, the alarm sounds in the cockpit and we sleep in the bow cabin - the wind blows the sound away from us. Carolyn did, and I almost, slept through it once (in the event, a false alarm).
Fortunately, we also have a ten (?) year old hand-held GPS. We can set the anchor alarm on this one at the bow when we drop the anchor so it starts off with a more accurate anchor location. We also keep it in the cabin with us so that we will hear it if it goes off. Lack of an external aerial is a bit of an issue. We place it underneath a deck window (ok, hatch) and it seems to get a reasonable enough strength signal. Two AA batteries will power it for around 10 hours so it is quite power hungry (although not compared with the chart plotter) but you can turn it off and on again and it will remember the anchor’s location – unlike the plotter.

All up, quite an old hand-held GPS that cost maybe one tenth of our whiz bang plotter/GPS combo does this particular job better. However, the plotter is principally for navigation and it is excellent for that – we are not about to dispense with it.

One final but important strategy in our anchoring ‘arsenal’ - when you have done all you can, sit back, crack open a beer or a wine and hope for the best. It works most of the time.

On local beverages
The Montenegrin brewery is called ‘Nik’. ‘Let’s get Nikked!’ we cry before imbibing of the product. There are a couple of Nik brands: ‘Gold’ – the export brand (funny, I can’t remember seeing it in the Acland Street bottle shop that stocks the range of 200 or so imported beers) and the cheaper, more widely consumed ‘Sicko’ (sic).

Notwithstanding the name, Nik Sicko is a good drop in relatively moderate quantities. Somewhat regretfully I can confirm that too much of it and it lives up to its unfortunate name.


Montenegro to Greece - an overnighter
It’s a trip of around 160 nautical miles (300 km) from Montenegro’s southernmost port of exit (Bar) to Greece’s northernmost port of entry in the Ionian Sea (Isle of Corfu).

Bar is Montenegro’s main commercial port and a small industrial city. Accordingly, we were not expecting much but surprisingly really quite liked the place. Tourism hasn’t yet arrived in Bar. I suspect it may never do so.

The town is close to Albania and has a significant Muslim population. We were out for a drink on our last night there and sat at an outside table at a large, busy and quite funky bar. We gave the waiter our drinks order and he then informed us – in a slightly derisive manner, he had obviously marked us down as non believers - that they don’t serve alcohol. Bugger me, it’s a dry bar in Bar! On taking a much closer look around I noticed that it was soft drinks that all the patrons were drinking. They all seemed to be enjoying themselves. Overall, it’s a dentist’s dream town.

We could happily have stayed another few days - we subsequently found a real bar - but the weather forecast was for northerlies which were what we wanted to push us down to Greece.
So, up at dawn the next morning and over to the customs wharf to clear out of the country. The half-asleep officials were friendly and efficient – as they had all been in Montenegro. Half an hour later some helpful wharfies who were waiting to dock a ship pushed and waved us off and we were on our way to Greece.

A further half hour later and our journey appeared to be over almost before it had begun. No wind at 7 a.m. so we had motored out of Bar and about two miles down the coast our motor almost stops. I had done a minor service on the motor the day before and my first thought was – oh beauty, I have stuffed that up. However, it would rev freely in neutral but almost stall in forward or reverse. Of course, a fouled propeller. We were around 300 metres off shore, too deep to anchor, and with virtually no wind (to sail us away from the shore) it wasn’t a particularly comfortable situation.

So, no choice but on with the snorkel and mask and over the side. A large section of fishing net was completely fouled around the prop. It took half an hour and many dives to cut it all free. The (sail drive) prop is down deep under this boat and once you get down there you only have maybe fifteen or twenty seconds of cutting time before you have to surface again for air. Of course although no longer a smoker, 25 or more years of smoking stands me in good stead for such activities – not! It was slow going but progress was being made. Fear (well-founded or not) of shipwreck is a great motivator and it is surprising what you can do when you have to.

With prop eventually cleared we set off again for Greece – feeling buggered but somewhat ecstatic bizarrely. In retrospect I don’t think that we were in danger – Carolyn was continually monitoring our position and there were fishing boats around that we could have hailed or radioed to tow us further offshore had we needed to. I can imagine that conversation – ‘hey guys, look really sorry about the net and hope it wasn’t one of yours and all that but how about a bit of a tow offshore?’

The northerly winds kicked in soon after and were with us in strengths of 5 to 25 knots for the remainder of the trip. We had charted a course via the Straits of Otranto (the entrance to the Adriatic between Italy and Albania) that kept us at least 12 nautical miles off the Albanian coast (their territorial waters) at all times.

Considerable commercial shipping activity kept us wide awake (alert not alarmed!) through the latter stages of the night as we sailed close to a shipping lane (as you have to to head for Corfu) with some large high speed ferries lit up like Xmas trees passing flying past us at close quarters. Are we on a collision course? Have they seen us in the dark? Should we turn our navigation lights on? (joke!)

9.30 a.m. saw us pulling in to anchor in the bay of the small Greek island of Erikoussa, 10 miles north of Corfu. Thanks to some strong winds at times we had covered 150 n miles in around 26 hours; 4 hours faster than we had allowed. And, we had eluded the infamous (mythical?) Albanian pirates. I think they are more interested in people smuggling into Italy than robbing yachts these days - and so to bed.

On awakening later in the day, what a lovely little island and introduction to Greece it turned out to be. The season is practically over here now and there were few visitors – just the way we like it. The manager of the only hotel on the island told us he was closing for the forthcoming winter in a week’s time.

Two day’s R&R (albeit illegal, we hadn’t officially entered the country yet) on Erikoussa and then we sailed on to Corfu to clear into Greece – better late than never! “Yes officer it took us three days to sail to here from Montenegro; we’re really not very good at it.” Actually, they didn’t even ask.

Comments

Hi All

I have made a few changes to the blog "Comments" settings and I think I now (finally!) have "Comments" a little better organised so that they will publish in the right place.

Here is the first publishable comment, but because I only changed the formating now I've pasted it in here...

Richardrmf said...

Hi.

Thanks for the tip about the "comments" button. And I see you'vebeen using one of those interesting keyboards, or have you changed thespelling of your name?

Good comments on Montenegro, and the Google mapis ggrreat! What patience you have. But it really does add a nicefeature to the Blog.

See ya later.

Richard.

Posted by Richardrmf to Extreme Sea Change at 7 September 2007 11:43

Make a comment by clicking on the word "Comments" below. A pop up window will appear for you to fill in.

The computer keyboards here interchange the Y and the Z key so yes, I have a Montenegrin version of my name with a Z and and the standard old Australian version.

Cheers
Carolzn

Kotor, Montenegro

New!

I have had a fiddle with Google Maps and we now have a map of the trip. You can use the tools to move around, zoom in or out, view a satelite image of the map and much more, but it may be a bit slow depending on your connection.


View Larger Map

3 Months, 4 Countries
It feels like a bit of a watershed. We have now been living onboard for over 3 months and we are in our fourth country, Montenegro. I love the name, "Black Mountain". It is the newest country in the world with a population of about 700,000. It has an air of mystery as it is far less travelled than where we have been. In fact, everyone we have met coming up from the south has avoided Montenegrin waters.

Our first night was lovely. We were in the first basin of the Gulf of Kotor (Boka Kotorska), U. Krtole. The day had been a long one with checking out of Croatia, good sailing for about 30NM down the coast, checking in to Montenegro (which was very straight forward, the officials even gave us a Montenegrin courtesy flag as it was impossible to get one in Croatia - see the pic of Ross raising our Q flag; a Q flag indicates that we seek entry and that we are free of disease and that sort of thing) and then the search for a suitable anchorage.

When we finally anchored, the weather was fine and we took the bimini and sprayhood down so that we could fully appreciate the panorama. We had dinner in the biggest dining room in the world. The skies were huge, with 360 degree view of islands with dramatic mountain back drop in this waterway known as the fjord lands of Southern Europe. We were the only yacht in the bay.

I found this lovely image of near where we stayed: http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Europe/Montenegro/photo551359.htm

It was, in some ways, a relief to be out of Croatia. The last month had been rather harrowing with the volume and often franticness of boat activity. Also, we have been on the move since leaving Vis as there were a number of places to visit and our 3 month visa period rapidly drawing to its end.

After the wonderful Kut quay on Vis (if you click on the photo there is a white house in the middle and Mike, who was mentioned in the last entry, standing on the top balcony waving us off) we planned to go to Korcula Otok, Lastovo Otok, Mljet Otok and finally to Dobrovnik then out of the country. All ‘not to be missed’ destinations and all in 12 days - not our usual pace!

Korcula
The approach to Korcula from the west was very impressive with the mountains of the Peljesac Peninsula to the left and the fortified town of Korcula to the right. Apparently it was a favourite holiday location for the Greeks 2000 years ago. It was certainly the greenest island that we had seen. If you are interested you will find some information about the architecture and design of the town here: http://www.korculainfo.com/arhitecture/korcula-old-town.html.

I have been generally amazed throughout Croatia by the Venetian architecture and the preservation of the mediaeval towns, the Roman ruins but these southern islands and Dubrovnik are just incredible. If we had anything like this in Australia it would be cordoned off and opened to limited numbers of experts one day a month. Here there are derelict Roman ruins with animal hutches in them, medieval houses lived in and next door roofless with trees growing through the windows and left to decay – renovators delight! – walks along tumbling down fortress walls, but you can go almost anywhere exploring: occ health and safety nightmares for Australia.

We anchored amongst some small islands at the eastern end of Korcula, south of O. Badija on the oorstep of a Monastery which we explored in the evening. The next day, we dingied into Korcula town for a bit of exploration, to get a feel for the old town with its very impressive Venetian architecture. It claims to house the birthplace of Marco Polo although there is no real evidence for this, nonetheless we payed 15 kuna to see the old family home and climbed to the top of the tower where the view was very nice. There was the inevitable food shopping to attend to and on return to the boat we swam in the clear waters.

The following day we moved a bit further south to a lovely spot near Lumbarda. In the evening we walked through the old residential area of the town which folds around the bay. The views to sea were gorgeous; the inevitable church on the hill, big old houses along narrow windy roads, gardens lush, lived in terraces, yards with the standard and substantial Croatian brick barbeque in each, the smell of ripe figs heavy in the air and on the inland side acres of grape vines filled the valley.

After a night in an uncomfortable swell we made an early start for Lastovo. As we rounded the south eastern corner of the island we looked back to a very picturesque view of green hills, coves, the golden sun waking Lumbarda village and scattered islands. Korcula, the island was deserving of more exploration but you have to save something for next time. We were keen to make our way out to the more remote Lastovo Island.

Lastovo
After a very gentle morning sail we tied up to a quay in a small bay on the north side of the island, Zalopatica (see pic). There were a few restaurants, houses and holiday apartments; no shops. In the coolness of the evening we walked about 5km to Lastovo town which is a fantastic hidden away, amazingly preserved, mediaeval town surrounded by vineyards, olive groves, fruit orchards and vegetable plots.

Many of the towns in the outer islands are inland, hidden away from pirates and other invaders and this one is truly tucked away. Like so many of these island towns Lastovo is mostly derelict as the population has moved away, but still lived in and incredibly intact and now foreigners are buying and renovating classic buildings as holiday homes and getaways.

Miraculously we found Kornoba Bacvara, hidden in the twisty windy lanes at the bottom of the old town. In an ancient building, it felt rather like a cave; acoustically and visually with its hefty raw stone walls, the rustic tables and decoration. It felt authentically Croatian and the food and wine were good.


The next day, the woman in the tourist office said that the people of the island were pirates, so I guess they had the best strategies for dealing with same. She also pointed out the unusual chimneys on the houses, unique to the island. Horns were sometimes put on the top to ward of evil spirits and if you fell out with a neighbour the horns get tilted in their direction. We immediately went in search of a horned chimney and, yes, they continue to exist.

Apparently this island was also where Odysseus was held captive by the nymph Calypso. I could think of far worse places to be stranded with a nymph, but it is a long way from the hustle and bustle – as one of the tourist brochures says, “for those who do not mind silence of the closest hamburgers being over 100 kilometres away!”

We hired a motor bike to further explore the island further and it was lovely, hardly any vehicles and the road wound through forests and coast, few people, secluded bays with crystal clear water, a smattering of small islands and the oldest light house in Dalmatia. Unfortunately the bike ran out of puff going up hill so we did not get to the top of the highest mountain to check the view (no we have not been piling on weight). Apparently on a clear day you can see all the way to Dubrovnik – another thing to save for next time.

Mljet
Mljet Island is mostly national park. Whilst quite a small island, it especially known for the wild life and its picturesque two lakes, one with the island Benedictine Monastery of St Mary which is very remote (and would have been more so in the 12th century when it was first established) and has an exquisite church. We did a big walk the next day around the lakes and to the other main bay (Pomena) and saw many butterflies.

We anchored at the head of the very protected Polace bay, a serene spot, mostly surrounded by forest but with the village activity visible. It would have been good to stay for a few days to do more walking and generally lap up the peace and quite.

It was nearing the end of the month and there were far fewer boats than we have been used to, so that made this island all the more relaxing. There were, however, some amazing cars and motorbikes available for hire - reminiscent of Zafari Art. Here is the white cat car but my favourite was the tabby motor bike with matching helmet with ears.

As we left for Dubrovnik in the morning there was an amazing super yacht anchored in the outer bay. Its back end was open and on one side the standard deluxe tender was tethered and on the other a hard top speed boat modelled on a classic Rolls Royce - forgot to mention the super yacht in Korcula with its own helicopter – what ever takes your fancy!


Dubrovnik
Initially, we anchored in Slano Bay, north of Dubrovnik. After being out in the islands we thought we would slowly transition in to the hustle of a big town. The 20 minute bus ride into town provided an excellent tour of the dramatic coastline from the cliff tops and we checked out the river and marina alongside Dubrovnik where we intended to base ourselves next for refuelling and restocking.

Dubrovnik is a beautiful intact and substantial fortress town; a world heritage site. It was sooo busy. Tour groups galore, back packers, the wealthy, the glamorous, fashion tragics, the regular all nation assortment of families and people speaking all languages; a people watching feast.

This town is largely built out of white stone with marble streets, large elegant plazas, baroque palaces, churches, cathedral, fountains and monuments. The finely carved stone recalls an eventful history and a cultivated artistic tradition. It is amazing to imagine that the town sustained incredible bomb damage (over 2,000 bombs and guided missiles) during the war with Serbia and Montenegro in 1991/92. It has been immaculately restored, although the scars are there. We walked all the way around the town along the top of the fortifications and viewed from all angles the infamous orange tiled roof line - yes, that is us smiling and sweating like mad on the walk, it must have been 38 degrees. With the bomb damage it has been difficult to replicate the traditional roof tiles so the re-roofing of the town has been a restoration project in its own right. Interestingly the town has been rebuilt on a number of occasions most notably after an earthquake in 1667.

Much more time could be spent exploring this amazing place but in cooler weather and with fewer tourists would be best.

We ticked Dubrovnik off the list and headed down the coast to Cavtat, our port of exit. It is a picturesque little town on the site of Epidarium, a Roman town destroyed in the 7th Century. We thought we would be spending one night only and had a bit of a farewell dinner at a nice restaurant, but in the morning the wind came up and then blew relentlessly for the day. The next day the wind was slightly milder but coming from where we wanted to go so again there was no point in leaving until it calmed. Incredibly, to anchor in the Cavtat harbour incurred a 20 euro per night fee, so we were not keen to hang around. We moved to the next bay and spent another night on the boat on anchor watch as the hold in the bay was unreliable.

Kotor, Montenegro
So here we are in Kotor at the head of Southern Europe’s deepest fjord. Another walled town but far more rustic than Dobrovnik, and in many ways I prefer this. It is more modest but has many eye catching architectural features; from the middle-ages to the days of the Austro Hungarian Empire, former aristocratic mansions, a Venetian arsenal, an award winning restoration of the elegant St Tryphon cathedral originally built in the 11th C and a city wall which scrambles up the mountain under which the town is nestled – yes, we did climb to the top and the views were spectacular.

Montenegro feels further east. There are more Albanian looking people, less English is spoken, more eastern European languages which I cannot distinguish take its place, the people look like they have worked hard and that life is tougher here, the cars are older, the churches are a mixture of Catholic and Orthodox, the towers no longer have spires but are onion shaped, the signs are in Cyrillic and roman, our first coffee out was Turkish. The beer is good and reasonably priced and the wine is good (yay!). The Croatians have a noble history in wine making going back over 2,000 years, but I think the methods may need a little updating. Ross describes it as cat’s piss. The Montenegrins are leaps and bounds ahead on the wine front.

I have spent the last two nights staying in the Hotel Marija, finally indulging my urge to spend some time on land in a room that does not rock. It felt terribly decadent but it was great. My sister was going to be in London for work and I had planned to catch up with her there for 4 days at the end of August, but at the last minute it fell through. I was so looking forward to it and we were both terribly disappointed. So, I think this took the place of the cancelled trip in a small way. I could get up in the morning and have a hot shower and not worry about the amount of water being used. I could read until late and use my computer at any time and not worry about using up the power. I could go for a walk without wrangling with the tender. I didn’t bang my head or elbow on anything – not once! Breakfast was included and here they know how to do a cooked breakfast. That being said I am very happy to be home again, replenished. Do you think I will now be forever excluded from Amazonian ranks?

Today it is quite cool, the coolest in months and the atmosphere with dark clouds whisking the tops of the mountains is quite Wagnerian. It has rained so when the sun comes out everything sparkles. Apparently it has snowed in Croatia so we expect that it will cool further over the next couple of days. And, yes, there has been more storms. Thank goodness we are heading south where it is still warm, well, hot – I hope.


And from Ross…

Another Fairground Attraction. 23/8/07
A bit melancholy as it’s my mother’s birthday today and now almost seven years since she died. I’ll make sure to have a drink to her tonight.

Life on a boat isn’t filled with the relentless activity, diversions and distractions that you normally have when living at home (e.g. we haven’t watched TV or listened to a radio for 3 or 4 months now) so there’s plenty of time for reflection – there’s mostly good but some challenges in that.

So, an inter-island run of around 25 nautical miles (45 kilometres) today. We head south with Dubrovnik the goal in a couple of days time. The wind was bang on the nose so we motored into it. A swell was running and I spent an hour or so in a favourite spot on the boat in these conditions – sitting on the pulpit, a wooden platform that slightly overhangs the front of the boat.

It’s reminiscent of an amusement park ride. The bow gently rises and falls around six feet or so through the swells and you go with it up and down. A couple of cushions make for a comfortable seat and an enjoyable ride.

Meanwhile Carolyn reads a book in the cockpit and - after we dialled up the course - the autopilot steers the boat. We like the autopilot! After crewing a boat to New Zealand from Australia earlier this year that was not fitted with any self-steering system, I have an all too intimate knowledge of just how arduous hand steering a yacht for hours on end is.

Of course whilst we sip gin and tonics and let the auto pilot do the work we still need to be cognisant of its limitations and that it will quite happily steer the boat straight onto rocks or into a collision with another boat if we don’t program the right course into it or omit to keep a lookout.

It was an unusually eventful hour on the bow today with sightings of a pod of dolphins, a turtle, flying fish and some weird fluorescent green/yellow jelly fish the likes of which I hadn’t seen before.

We are now anchored in a protected bay within a national park on the isle of Mljet, with Roman ruins on the shore.

After a few beers ashore, dinner was a great seafood pasta on the boat made with fresh prawns given to us this morning by a Croatian/Australian woman, Maria, that we met on the Isle of Lastovo. She was born in Melbourne and migrated to Croatia 19 years ago, when in her late teens, to live on the island her father migrated from post WW2. It’s an interesting reversal of the normal migration pattern. All of her family have now returned to Lastovo and although Maria has not been back to Australia for 10 years she still had a strong Australian accent and turn of phrase – “see youse later”.

Fortunately for us she now owns/runs a little marina on the quay of the bay where we stayed and a wholesale seafood business – hence the prawns.

29/8/07
Leaving Dubrovnik today and when we arrived a few days ago we sailed adjacent to rampaging bushfires which have ringed the city on and off for the last few weeks. It has been so hot, dry and at times windy here. That, combined with regular shortlived storms that produce a lot of thunder and lightning and little rain no doubt produce ideal conditions for the fires. A British guy we met told us of fires a couple of weeks ago adjacent to the marina we stayed at that were close enough for the locals to be taking their boats out of the marina and heading to sea. He did the same. The aftermath was certainly evident with a ring of charred hills around us.