Hanging out with the Boys

The next couple of days we went up the coast to the top end of Mljet into the National Park. A very nice anchorage near the town of Polace, we stayed at anchor overnight and half way through the next day. One of the challenges of going 30 miles north is that you need to come 30 miles south again. We could have ventured a bit further but the prospect of coming back again – and so far our ability to pick a destination that we can sail to is … well zero. We’re either beating up wind or powering. Nothing much in between.

We did some marketing on Mljet, there is a small Suderac (mini mart chain) in town and we got some bacon, eggs, vegetables and some beer – though it pains me to say it, we might have actually figured out our capacity for beer. OMG say it isn’t true.

We sailed about half the way to Lopud – and then powered into the harbour Sunj on the south side. I was checking the weather and there was a big system – but I read the weather chart wrong – and the wind and waves are coming from the south – and the bay we’re in Sunj, is completely open to the south. At 22:30 this revelation hit and we picked up anchor and bugged out back about 5 miles to the island of Sipan. In the morning we decided to walk the 5Kms across the island to see what the wind was like on the other side. Thank goodness we moved because we had 20 knots of wind and 2 meter seas coming into the harbour. Made me happy that we did the ‘midnight move’ that’s for sure.  Later that night we went out to dinner to our favourite place and watched another World-cup match – they go at 22:00 in Croatia so it gets a bit late if the match goes to Penalties … but it is worth it to see Germany completely annihilate Brazil.

It’s getting to the end of when the boys are here so we head back to Cavtat. The waves are very high and there isn’t much wind, so we have to motor again argh! 2 meter waves and no wind makes for some potentially sea-sick passengers. Ross of course is completely unaffected. Matt and Mike were troopers but you could tell they needed a nap. Compared to a week before however they now have cast-iron stomachs – and if they spent the whole summer with us they’d have cast-iron beer-bellies.

When the waves get rough, the tough guys sleep on the floor

We made it into Cavtat and thought about parking in the main harbour but the surge was pretty high so we anchored on the other side.  Mike and Matt had a flight the next morning at 07:15 so they figured they needed to catch a cab around 05:00. I offered to take them to shore at that time but Mike reckoned he’d be up all night worrying so they took a room ashore. We bid them goodbye, had a pizza and a couple of beers and watched another football game – this one between Netherlands and Argentina. Another 0-0 tie which makes the games interminably long.

We met a couple of guys from a US boat that advised us to dig our anchor in good as the previous night many boats had dragged. We pulled hard on the anchor to set it and let out 40 meters in 6 meters of water. Sure enough during the night we had wind, rain, lightning and two of our neighbours needed to move during the night. What a drag – if you’ll pardon the pun. In the morning another of our neighbours went by us at about a knot. I hailed them and they came up – the French owner said “oh I don’t think we’re dragging … it’s just the way the boats are swinging.” I suggested that he watch a while – about 15 minutes later he picked up his anchor and moved a few hundred meters in and set his anchor again.

Unfortunately I needed to use my rain jacket regularly
during our time in Croatia

About 10 am the weather cleared a little bit and we set off for Dubrovnik. This time there wasn’t much wind and three meter waves. Geez, can we have some relief from this? About 2 hours of powering into the slop with our sails up, sails down, as well as half way we made it into Graz harbour in Dubrovnik. We’d powered for nearly 60 hours since our last fuel stop so we got some diesel at Graz and then decided to go to the ACI Marina Dubrovnik – which is a couple of miles up the river. We waited for Marina and Jessie after filling up with water and fuel, as well as a hasty cleanup of a decidedly male-occupied boat.

Entering Dubrovnik by the large yachts and cruise ships

The girls were supposed to be on a flight into Dubrovnik at 17:00 local time. I checked a number of websites and there was definitely something fishy with the flight. It wasn’t until about 21:00 that I got a text – someone lent Marina their cellphone – that they were in Zagreb. Apparently there was a blown tire on the runway at 5pm, so they diverted to Split, landed and got some fuel, flew back to Dubrovnik where there were thunderstorms, then back to Zadar because the crew needed a change, then finally to Dubrovnik at around 23:30. They arrived at the boat right around midnight … we had a happy reunion and brought them to Tara where we had some food and wine for them. By then everyone was really tired and ready for bed but our holidays are now officially underway.

We got up the next morning and bought a bunch of food, topped up the water tanks and headed off for the islands, stopping at Sunj on Lopud for the afternoon and then onto Luka Sipan which provided a secure anchorage for us. Since everyone was so tired we opted for safety and were happy that we did. We went in for dinner and Marina and I searched for a place to buy internet credits – somebody left automatic updates on their PC and downloaded a Gigabyte of OS upgrades … you forget about those pesky things when you are at home but a Windows update can wreak havoc on your Wireless Internet stick!