Gearing up to leave Croatia!

Now, here's the thing.... We want to go south. We have been told that the prevailing winds for this part of the world at this time of year are north westerlies. What have we been getting for over two weeks now? Yep, southerlies and south easterlies! We have almost forgotten what the bits of cloth attached to the pointy bits on our boat are for!
We are slogging south / east at a rapid rate of knots now as we have made arrangements with a lovely English couple that we met in Sukosan (you know who you are, Keith and Sue from "Broke Aweigh", don't be shy!) to sail in tandem to Corfu, leaving on the 18th of May, weather permitting. The winds are looking favourable at the moment with some northerlies predicted around that time, but as we have seen, things can (and do frequently) change.
We have moved around a lot over the last few weeks and as usual have had some interesting and exciting things happen. After leaving Tribunj, which was a fantastic place and one of those lucky strikes that we seem to have, we headed south towards Sibenik as we wanted to visit the Krka national park near Skradin. We sailed down to the mouth of the river (Kanal Sv. Ante) and stopped off at an old Austrian fort from the 1850's. As is fairly common in Croatia, this ruin was just being left to rot and we were able to pull up in our dinghy and wander round free of charge. There were massive underground chambers and it would have been quite impressive in it's day. We went further up river to anchor that night and had to go under a 23 metre bridge. Although our mast is only around 16.5 metres I was having kittens as I was convinced we were going to hit!! It really is a great optical illusion. We anchored in a little bay in the middle of a village called Vrulje that night. It was like being anchored in someones back yard. We could hear chooks, dogs barking and the children being yelled at by their parents!
The next day we continued up to a place called Skradin which is the entry point for the national park. The scenery was amazing and we were basically in a gorge with massive limestone cliffs rising for 100's of metres on each side with 20 metres of depth for about 5 of the 10 nautical mile trip. We booked into the Skradin marina which was really nice. There were heaps of boats there and we actually got to do some socialising. On our second evening there, we dined on a neighbouring boat. On board there were Russians, Ukranians, Lithuanians, Serbians and Polish!! We had the best night with one of the Russian lads bringing out his guitar and singing Russian folk songs. We all agreed that Harold Holt was taken by a Russian shark!!! :-)) There were a few sore heads the next morning.
We travelled up to the Krka national park by ferry boat the next day which is a little like Plitvice but on a smaller scale. It has a working monastery on an island in the middle of the river which we visited also. What a beautiful, peaceful place. I might become a monk. Think about it: Free rent in the middle of beautiful surroundings and no one (but hoards of tourists!!) to annoy you...... We also met a lovely American couple, Elise and Del who were travelling through Croatia. Still a bit of a novelty to meet English speaking people at this stage.
As there were high winds forecast, we were a little concerned with how tightly packed the boats were in the marina and we decided to head for Sibenik. On the way, we encountered MORE 45 to 50 knot winds and we proceeded under motor up Sibenik to marina mandalina which was the first marina which we have encountered with finger pontoons (just like Australia!). We tied up stern to in 45 knot winds. The following day, the marina registered 68 knot winds at the end of our pontoon!! We were very safe, however we have photos of good old Shirley straining on her mooring lines and heeling over on our marina berth.... When is it going to end. Even the locals are complaining about the ongoing bad weather.
From Sibenik, we headed south to Primosten where we headed to marina Kremik which had been recommended by a friend. This marina was probably the best that we have encountered in Croatia. We went by bus to Split the following day and spent most of the day wandering around the ruins of Diocletian's Palace in lovely weather. It is an amazing place and there just happened to be a festival on to celebrate the patron saint of Split. What a day! I climbed all the way up the bell tower on rickety rusty stairs. For those of you who know of my fear of heights this was no mean feat. Craig told me later that he felt very unsafe because of the state of the stairs and the lack of restriction on the number of people!! Work place health and safety is non-existent in Croatia!
Still in Kremik, the next day we met Steve and Sarah from Portsmouth. Steve is the skipper of a 60 foot vessel which is owned by a British Earl of somewhere! We got a short trip on the boat (about 1 million pounds worth!) and I even got to steer for a while. What fun! They were a lovely couple and we hope to catch up with them later. They live aboard during the summer and cook, clean etc for the family when they visit. What a life, getting paid to live on someone else's boat in such a beautiful part of the world!
From Kremik, we motored to Hvar (the party island!). Croatia is getting better and better the further south we get and it seems so unfair that we have to leave! At Hvar, we moored in the town harbour about 30 metres from the town square. Once again, we scored a festival (another saints day) and wandered around the old town and up to the fort at the top of the hill. We spent one night there (downside was that it cost us $40 just to pick up a mooring, but what a view) and then the following evening, due to a heavy swell that was making for an uncomfortable night we headed 1 nautical mile across the bay to Palmazina on the island of Sv. Klement. The marina was in a beautiful setting and a short walk through woodlands across the island took us to the most amazing restuarants. Imagine sitting sipping a glass of red directly over a bay with clear crystal water lapping the shore.
From Palmazina we had to motor (again!) into head winds. I know, we could tack, however we now have a time line so need to push south east! We got to Korcula after six hours of motoring and anchored in Uvala Luka just south of Korcula town itself. I know I keep saying this, but Korcula is the best place we have been to yet! It is the place where Marco Polo left for his adventures and the arguement is whether he was born there are not. There is evidence of Venetian rule on and around many of the buildings in the old town. We have met more Aussies in the past 48 hours than we have since we left Australia! We met a group of 18 to 35's who were from a (bed bug ridden) Croatian cruise boat and they invited us to join in their drinking games. We had a few with them and then took our old arthritic bodies back to bed!! There was also another boat in our anchorage with a boxing kangaroo flag up. We didn't get to meet them but were woken this morning by a rousing "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi' but before we got on deck they were heading off.
Today we met a couple from Perth (Neville and Jill) who we shared a few bottles of red with in a restaurant on the battlements of the fort overlooking the strait between Korcula and the mainland. What a magical day. On returning to the boat, we decided to push a little further south and are now sitting at anchor on the island of Mljet.
Our hurry is that we have to meet Keith and Sue and prepare for our trip to Corfu. We have finally accepted that we are not going to do this part of Croatia justice this year and will just have to come back next year! There is so much still to see and the weather is definately improving. I have been tempted to swim but haven't taken the plunge yet. What a wee Jessie!
Ah well. Better get some sleep. We were going to laze around tomorrow and visit another national park, however the planned trip to Dubrovnik on Saturday will have to be brought forward to tomorrow due to predicted bad weather on the weekend.
Sorry this blog is so long. This is due to my laziness and won't happen again! We will keep everyone updated and will get photos up as we can.
Take care everyone and talk soon......
xxx Craig and Lesley (Shirley Valentine)