Heading South to the Outer Croatian Islands.

Dobra dosli! Yes, my Croatian is improving very slowly. At this rate I will have to stay in Croatia until I am about 109 before I can have a decent conversation! Anyway, we are getting by and can normally mange to make ourselves understood enough not to starve! It was funny yesterday however trying to buy credit for our mobile phone. We found a post office on Otok Silba which is a really remote little island where we managed to buy some credit at the post office. We didn't know how to put it into the phone and the lady behind the counter only spoke German, so we had to stop a young lady in the street who very kindly did the deed!
Anyway.... I am going to start some travel tips when I blog so I hope people like them. Travel tip number 1 is: If you are a middle aged woman (this may apply to middle aged men too, however I can't comment on this - I have other thoughts on middle aged men and toilets, but they will follow at a later date!).... NEVER miss an opportunity to go to the toilet! You just never know where you will find another one and they may not always be where you think they logically should be. It seems to kind of defeat the purpose to buy a coffee in a caffe bar to go to the toilet 'cos then you just need to go more!!!!
We are now moving south into the outer islands of Croatia and it is absolutely beautiful. We are trying to reduce our dependence on marinas as the fees are quite steep and we would rather spend our money on other things, however things still don't go as planned all the time and pilot books should not be taken as gospel in our humble experience. Last Sunday we motored all the way down from Veruda, just south of Pula to Mali Losinj (pronounced low shin) on the island of Losinj as there was no wind. We entered the bay there which is very sheltered and headed for some pontoons in the harbour which our pilot book told us we could tie up to. We thought these were little basic town pontoons which would be cost effective for us, however the harbour appears to have been privatised and the pontoons are now a marina. As we weren't allowed to anchor anywhere in the bay we had little choice if we wanted to stay in this delightful spot and we ended up paying just slightly less than a marina fee. First time we have felt a little ripped off, however this was more just that our expectations were different than the reality, and in all fairness there were fairly good facilities. We were also right in the middle of town and there were actually other boats around and people to talk to into the bargain! Craig was hilarious as he was standing in the cockpit of the boat basically accosting people as they walked past just to have some social interaction. We ended up chatting to a pleasant Austrian fellow by the name of Fre(e)do who was taking photos of the town from our pontoon and he spent the evening on board with us having a good chin wag.
The next morning we went exploring and thoroughly enjoyed walking across the island and up to Veli Losinj along a beautiful 'sea promenade'. The water was crytstal clear and we actually saw some people sun bathing (think they were Germans!). We also however was Germans walking along in winter gear with snow poles, so you can never be sure just how to dress! (I apologise to anyone who takes offense at me having a go at the German's all the time by the way, but we saw some swimming today while we are still in 3 layers, so you can probably sort of see my point!). We still pack an extra layer when we go ashore just in case. We had a late lunch in a beautiful setting on the harbour at Veli Losinj before walking home via Cikat.
We returned to Shirley Valentine late in the afternoon. We still weren't sure if we were supposed to stay in the marina for more than one night, but it wasn't too busy and no-one had told us that we had to leave, so we decided to stay as there were heavy winds forecast for the next day. We had an early night and woke the next morning to find that the forecast was accurate and there were indded strong southerly winds. We decided to take a local bus to the island of Cres to pass the day. We got chatting to a lovely Irish couple (Nicholas and Elizabeth) who were from the Eliza K. It was really nice to chat to them as they were the first people we had met whose first language was English and they were great company into the bargain.
The bus trip to Cres was lovely. It was a little local bus which wound through all the little villages. When we arrived in Cres, however, the forecast 50 knot winds had arrived and we were blown around town for a few hours (see, I told you the extra layer comes in handy!) before heading back to the bus stop. The little caffe bar which we found at the end of the caravan park will always remain in our memories as a little haven in the storm! Now I know how Eddie the Eagle felt.
That evening we caught up with Nicholas and Elizabeth and had a bit of craic. We weere gald we had stayed put that evening.
In the morning I went to find the supermarket and after the equivalent climb of about 4 Jacobs Ladders I found it! After getting some provisions and stumbling back down the hill, I went gratefully aboard and we headed off. The winds were 15 to 20 knots mainly from the west so we pulled up both sails and got crackingt. There was a regular 2 metre swell, at times up to 3 metres, which added to the fun. The winds died off in the early afternoon and we slopped around a bit but we persevered and managed to sail all the way to our destination, tacking the last few nautical miles into Luka Silba on Otok Silba. We dropped anchor in a perfect little bay in 4 metres of crystal clear water and had a big sleep.
In the morning we prepared Costas (our dinghy) and went ashore. The perfect thing about the island of Silba is that it has no cars. You wander around little streets and the peace and quiet is only disturbed by dirty great tractors which move construction equipment etc around town. I will try to attach a lovely photo of one of the tractor drivers with a load of timber on the back. All the locals have little trolleys which they pull around everywhere. Once again, howeve, there wasn't much open and we had to come back aboard to eat. The winds got up a little in the evening and swung around to the south east so our anchoring was a little sloppy but secure.
At the momrnt we are heading south to the island of Ist. We are pottering along (I do like that word 'pottering' don't I!) at about 3 knots with just the genoa up, heading in a southwards direction in a north westerly breeze of about 5 to 7 knots. Lovely and peaceful! Bad weather expected again on Saturday night through to Monday so will try to make to most of this sunshine and the little warmth that we are not getting.
Hope you are all well. Thinking of you all as always. Take care and we will keep in touch as able.
xxxx
Craig and Lesley