Minor disasters and a record breaking Bora!

Hi everyone... I actually wrote this on Wednesday however haven't been able to upload it till now. It is a bit long winded, however it was a really steep learning curve for us and I really wanted to share it. Yachties... would love some constructive criticism.

This is unfortunately not a very happy blog today, however we did want adventure and I guess you have to take the rough with the smooth!
We ended up not going ashore at Umag due to the weather (and the fact that we were too lazy to blow up the dinghy in the cold!) and left there in reasonable winds on the 5th of March after spending two nights there at anchor. We had a 6 hour sail / motor down to Pula in some of the most confusing wind patterns that we have both ever seen. The winds started off at around 20 knots and we thought we were going to have a great sail straight down the coast. A couple of hours later the wind suddenly swung around 180 degrees and then droped away to nothing in the space of about 30 seconds. This trend was repeated a few times more and we had the sails up and down over the next 4 hours so often that even thery were getting confused!
We got in Pula in Croatia around 4pm and motored into the harbour with about 25 knots of wind on our nose. I convinced Craig to blow up the dinghy as I really wanted to get ashore and stretch my legs and have an explore. We had a lovely time pottering around the town and had a nice and surprisingly cheap meal in a restaurant way too posh for us!
After getting back on board that evening, the winds started to increase and we had a fairly unsettled night. We were convinced that the anchor was dug in though with the normal amount of chain for the depth that we were anchored in, so we weren't too worried. In the morning I asked Craig to go on deck (I always get the poor soul to do the dirty work in the cold!!) to check the wind speeds. As soon as he popped his head up on deck he yelled out to me that we were dragging our anchor. We were actually already half way out into the harbour and with the depths that we were now in the anchor wouldn't even have been touching the bottom. When Craig pulled it up there was a fishing net wrapped all around it.
We anchored again and this time put out heaps more chain and sat on the anchor with the engine in reverse for ages making sure it was dug in. We stayed on the boat for a good few hours to make sure that everything was fine and then pottered ashore again that afternoon to explore the nearby Roman ampitheatre in Pula which is the 6th largest and one of the best preserved Roman ampitheatres in the world!!! (Don't you just love tourist blab!)..... It was amazing, however it got me wondering what the roman's wore under their togas in the winter?
Over the next night and the following few days the wind conditions started to deteriorate even more until we were getting regular gusts of 40 to 50 knots. Our anchor seemed to be holding fairly well, however we took the precaution of putting out a second anchor which wasn't much fun in the strong winds. As usual though, I got the comfortable end of the stick (why else do you have a man on board?). We were pretty well stuck on the boat, however we did manage ashore on Monday to do some shopping.
The winds here are the the infamous Bora which gusts from the North East mainly in the winter time. We had seriously underestimated both it's strengty and persistence and had made the bad mistake of not getting updated and accurate weather forecasts.
Last night was awful (Tuesday). We had phoned the nearly marina during the day to ask if we could move in there however they wouldn't let us in because of the bad weather. The winds seemed to be increasing every hour. We took it in turn to stay awake all night to do an anchor watch to make sure we didn't drag again. at one stage, Craig went on deck to check the lines and discovered that the winds had flipped the dinghy over and our new outboard had been immersed. This is really not good for outboards and not surprisingly it refused to start this morning! We were both then out in sleet and strong winds while we deflated the dinghy and took it below. What fun!!!
This morning (Wedneday) we phoned the marina again and they told us to come around to the town wharf. After a few stuff ups as we weren't sure where they wanted us to go (we got chased by a policeman at one stage), and a few small battle scars on poor Shirley Valentine, we finally got tied up alongside the town wharf. We couldn't have done it without the help of the sailors from the marina who were fantastic. They chastised us for not reading the weather better though, which in the circumstances is fair enough in my opinion.
We really have underestimated the Bora and we certainly won't be doing that again I can tell you!
We are now going to have a hot shower and try to get the outboard fixed. I am flying to Scotland tomorrow morning, mainly to buy a computer but also to pick up a few other things that we can't find here. It will be nice to get a break from the cold weather. Craig is staying with Shirley Valentine (the other woman!?!) and we now have a proper weather forecast which is indicating that the winds will ease tomorrow.
Anyway, going to go and get clean and warm now.... Talk to you all soon. Take care.

xx
Lesley