DUBROVNIK
6/27 After 24 hours and 120 miles we pull into Dubrovnik, clean ourselves
up, collect our paperwork and head for the port captain's office. We explain to him that we have just pulled in and
he asks where we are docked. When we told him that we were on the town dock he looks down and starts shaking his head.
We're in trouble already! I'm a little more nervous in this country as it is known for its paperwork and rules.
It appears we should have pulled in between the two HUGE cruiseships at the Q dock. We should have known that.
So get back on the boat and go way over to the other side of the harbor to try to sneak back to the beginning and come up
on the Q dock properly. They called us on the radio within minutes. So we just told them we were having trouble
finding where we were supposed to dock. They directed us and had a man out there to get our lines. No problem
as long as Glenn could clear in before the cruiseship left at 12:30. He did and we had 15 minutes to spare. In
that time he went to the police, then harbormaster, police, customs, police and done. They were actually quite organized
and provided us with a chart of Croatia and all of the rules in writing. It was a pleasant experience. When we
went in to clear out of Italy it was the usual situation of them not knowing what to do with us. There are a lot of
boats that go to Croatia from Brindisi so I don't understand their confusion. It took 5 people in uniform to finally
complete the form properly. They still deal with these huge paper ledgers, nothing was entered into a computer. One
person spoke broken English. Croatia was totally computerized and everyone spoke perfect English. I'm not complaining
about Italy, it's just interesting, the differences in the countries. I really like Italians. As a matter of fact
when we were clearing out one of the men was admiring the photos in the new American passport. We thumbed through the
whole thing with him looking in admiration.
After clearing in we moved back to the town dock and headed for the
butcher, bakery and outdoor fruit and vegetable market. All of this was right across the street. The convenience
of the bakery could be a major downfall for me. (It was great for breakfast the next morning. Glenn popped over
and got us two filled croissants to go with our tea.)
We then walked to the old town. This is a large town
surrounded by walls with two forts and, of course, many churches. The first museum we went in explained about the Home
War in 1991 and 1992. There was a map of the areas destroyed and damaged and the amount that they have rebuilt is just
amazing. You really can't tell where repairs were made. We went to several museums and a palace. We also
walked the wall for a short distance. The many narrow, winding alleyways are really neat. Glenn actually got lost
twice which never happens. There are also cats all over the place. The two mile walk back to the boat and we were
done for the day. I'm sure we'll sleep tonight considering last night's passage making.
NO PLACE IN EUROPE
IS FLAT.
6/28 We woke up at 8:00, which is late for us. Today we are walking back to the old town as
we didn't get to see everything yesterday. We found a deli type store that had home prepared foods so we decided to
try some Croatian food. Glenn picked smoked fish, fried anchovies and fried calamari. I had a potato stuffed pepper.
Glenn liked his and I liked mine. I can't say that I liked Glenn's. We also bought some cheese that is a traditional
Croatian cheese with the recipe handed down through the decades. It was really good. We'll be snacking on that
for a while. On our route back to the boat we walked over to a fort across from the old town and then through a park
along the coast. It is really beautiful here. The scenery reminds us of Maine, very green with rolling hills and
mountains. The water is quite clear. Tomorrow we run in to setup up our Croatian phone and internet and then on
our way to anchor overnight in Sipan a small island 10 miles away.
6/30 What an adventurous sail today. Our
starboard motor started surging from 2300 rpms up to 3000 and then back down. Black smoke came out the exhaust when
it did this. Glenn checked and found the transmission oil low so he filled it. We seemed okay and then all of
a sudden it went up to 4000 rpm (as high as our instrument reads), smoke was billowing out. I threw it in neutral and
pulled the fuel shutoff. Nothing happened. It kept racing. Glenn ran down and put a towel over the oxygen
intake and finally the engine shut down. Major problem. We putted our way on to our next anchorage on one engine.
Glenn did some research and found that the fuel pump diaphram was bad and it was pumping diesel into the engine oil and the
oil and fuel pumped into the air breather. Glenn changed the fuel pump and then changed the oil twice while we were
underway. Problem solved. What a relief. It could have meant a brand new engine. I don't even want
to think about the cost and time of that job. Glenn does come in handy.
Mjlet National Park. What a
pretty anchorage. We visited the bakery and got a toasted sesame seed covered thing with goat cheese in side.
Yum! As penance we walked to an old town that is strictly into agriculture. Just a lot of old houses and fields
of grape vines and olive trees. We passed an elderly Croatian woman in a long skirt, long sleeved blouse and kerchief
on her head. She greeted us with "dobar dan." I wish I could have gotten a photo of her.
7/1
Today we are walking into the main part of the park to one of the inland saltwater lakes. There is an island in the
middle with an old Benedictine monastery. We took a small boat over to the island. Most of the people on the boat
with us headed right for the restaurant. This would be a nice way to get away and have a nice lunch. We headed
back to the main park area and started walking on one of the many trails. It ran a long the lake where we stopped, sat
on a rock and ate our sandwhiches. Our getaway lunch. We continued walking until we came to the main road the
headed back to Polace where our boat was anchored. We came upon a short .8 km trail up to a viewpoint so we decided
to take that for a detour. Quite a scramble up but the view of the lake and the island was nice. Back down to
the road and a pleasant walk to the boat. A total walk of 6 miles. As soon as we got back to the boat I just took
my clothes off, left my underwear on and went in the water. I did it! July 1st and I finally got in the water.
It was still cold. Everywhere we have been people are jumping in off their boats from 7:30 in the morning to night time
and swimming all over. I don't know how they can do it. Most everyone goes in nude. Glenn and I are working
our way up to it. Prudish Americans. We headed off for the island of Korcula. We anchored and a little while
later the port authority came over and charged us for anchoring. First he said it was 150 kuna (approximately $30) because
we were a catamaran. I must have looked a little surprised and commented that this was the first time we had been charged
extra for being a catamaran when anchoring. He dropped the fee down to 120 and said, "Now you know what time I
come, tomorrow you should be off the boat when I come, no charge." I couldn't believe he said that. He and
Glenn got into a fishing discussion, he was really nice. Again perfect English. It's a good thing all of these
people speak English because there is no way I could pronounce Croatian.
7/2 We went in and explored the medieval
section of Korcula. It is nice, but I think Dubrovnik spoiled me. This isn't nearly as large and the churches
aren't very impressive. It's still neat to walk around all the narrow alleyways though AND Marco Polo was born here.
We explored and shopped for groceries and went back to the boat. We planned our escape before the 7:00 time when we
were charged for anchorage yesterday. We even skipped dinner and made peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches as we
weren't hungry yet. We got in the dinghy and headed for the dock. As we came around one side of the boat we saw
the port authority at the boat next to us collecting his fee. We just kept heading for the dock. I sat behind
Glenn and sneaked a peak at him. He was across the waterway with his hand shading his eyes looking in our direction.
Sure enough he came up to us as we tied to the dock and pulled out his receipt book. He was early today!
No fair we did what he suggested and he chased us down. He only charged us 100 kuna today. We can't afford
to keep paying for an anchorage though. We decided we might as well stay in town since were there and I'm glad we did. We
found out that here was a program going on in the summer theater at 9:00. It was a beautiful harmonizing group singing
Croatian national songs and then they did the Moreska. This is a traditional sword dance done as a storytelling of a
battle between the Moors and Christians over the kidnapping of a Christian woman. The dance was amazing. They
were really swinging the swords at each other, you could hear the rhythmn of the clangs as they hit. The dance went
on for a half hour and by the time they were down they were all breathing heavy and covered in sweat. The entire dance
had to be exactly choreographed or someone would have been hurt. Then we walked back through the town in the night,
a unique experience for us. What a pleasant day.
7/3-7/5 We waited around until 5:00 to pick up a fuel
pump that we had overhauled and then we were getting ready to move on as we didn't want to pay another night anchoring fee.
It really bugs us to pay to anchor. Our faithful port authority guy was headed for us and we were excited about telling
him he couldn't charge us. He came alongside and we told him we were leaving and he said, "I came to have a beer
with you." So we gave him a beer! He really is nice. We talked for about a half hour and then he suggested
a nice bay for us to move to. And what a nice bay it is. Well enclosed and the water is crystal clear. There
are a couple of vacation homes here. One of them is modern looking and quite beautiful. What a lovely spot for
a home. We will spend the next couple of days catching up on our maintenance work. We bought some blue and white
striped fabric to make an awning across the back of the boat to shade the cockpit. Glenn has engine maintenance and
I have the usual laundry. We took a break the second day and went snorkeling around the bay. There isn't much
marine life besides grass and sea cucumbers. The water was a little warmer but it still takes a major effort for me
to get in. We have hot dogs and beer for the 4th of July. Hurray! By the way we are frequently stopped by
tourists from different countries and Croatians and asked about Obama. Everyone thinks we did a good job voting him
in. I find it interesting that he is seldom referred to as President Obama. Personally, I think he deserves the
title.
We had an interesting visit by another sailboat while here. Two couples, totally nude and totally shaven
came into the bay. We noticed the guy in the nice house pulled his binoculars out on that one. Usually nudity
is totally ignored here. I guess we didn't look like fun as they left after about a half hour. The guidebook refers
to people in Croatia as very tolerant and with a lot of naturalists. What they mean is full nudity of ALL ages and both
sexes. Nothing is thought of it and we are working at the same attitude. We passed a nude couple who had swam
in to shore to do some early morning exercises as we were leaving and they just stood up and waved good bye to us. We
smiled and waved back.
7/6-7/8 We anchored in another small harbor and then on to the town of Omis.
The river Cetina flows right into town and we have come here to dinghy up the river. It is very pretty, with a waterfall
in the middle and whitewater rafting at the mouth of it. It is part of a national park. We dinghied up it hoping
we would know when to get out before the rapids began. Well it was quite obvious, a dock with three tour boats, a restaurant
and of course, gelato. We walked up the river a bit to see the fall and the rafting area. What a pretty place.
7/8-7/10
We next went to the town of Split. We spent most of the first day walking around looking for replacement fuel hoses.
We seem to be having occasional trouble with our starboard engine. This time the fuel hose developed a hole. We
smelled the diesel and Glenn found the hose. Fortunately, it occurred about a half hour before we got to Split.
We bumbled along on one engine. Split is probably the only town in this part of the coast large enough to find a replacement.
We finally found a guy who said he would make a replacement for us, we got a spare for the other engine while we were at it.
And, ordered a new fuel pump. Glenn doesn't trust the overhaul that was done in Korcula as he didn't change the diaphragm.
A fuel pump costs $80 in the US. We paid $223 for this one. BUT it came from a far north town, the only Yamaha
dealer in Croatia and we can't move without it. We have had a pump go each year so we bit the bullet.
This
town is definitely underrated. It has better looking Roman ruins than Rome does. We went into a church built in
the 300's and a lot of it was still the original. The majority of the downtown area is actually built up in the middle
of a palace that was completed in 354. The four gates and most of the wall still remain and as you walk around you see
many buildings with the old walls or the occasional arch still standing. We went to a museum made from the house of
a famous Croatian sculptor named Metrovic. What a beautiful house and grounds. A lot of the sculptures were made
of bronze which I don't particularly care for but his work was amazing any way. We also went down the street to another
house that he had bought and converted to an exhibit hall. There was a small chapel in it with wooden carvings all around
of the phases of the life of Jesus. It was spectacular. This house was on the beach. What a nice spot.
We have noticed a lot of water polo nets in the ocean in several cities that we have been in. They all seem to do a
lot of swimming also. Glenn saw a couple of guys pull up to the dock on their bicycles, jump in swim, get out, strip,
towel off, get dressed in work clothes and head off. When they swim they swim quite far with seemingly little effort.
We also went to the ethnographic museum here which has so many examples of the embroidery and lacework that Split
is famous for. We also visited an archaeological museum and the zoo. The zoo was quite a hike out of town and
up a hill and was quite depressing. It is one of those old fashioned zoos with small cages. There were three wolves
in a small cage with their ears all bloodied and chewed up, constantly twitching from the flies that kept landing on them.
They had a lot of peacocks and peahens and, would you believe, a cage of guinea pigs.
There is entertainment every
night along the harbor. Folk singing and dancing the first night was followed by an orchestra, choir and ballet ensemble
rehearsing the second night. I recognized the music though I can't name it but I didn't really care for the dance.
It looked as if they were moving from position to position instead of the graceful ballet that I love. There is also
a large open market on the side of the palace. Glenn keeps saying this is his favorite town and it is really pleasant.
Lots to do and also quite pretty.
7/11 On our way to another national park. This one is quite far up the river
Krk. There are supposed to be two different waterfalls. You can only anchor during the day at the town outside
the park entrance. There are several tourboats leaving from here to take people to the falls. Our guidebook mentioned
that if you were too lazy to canoe up you could bring your dinghy. We weren't sure if it was allowed but I noticed one
dinghy that went up in the direction of the park and didn't come back. So up the river we went. We saw two tourboats
but no one else. At the falls there was a dock to pull out. There was a nice walking path to the falls, a bridge
and lots of people in the water at the base of the falls. We started heading to the dock and an official shook his head
and pointed towards the end of the dock. We figured he meant to go around the back of the dock so we wouldn't block
the tourboats. As we started to tie up there he came up and told us we had to leave. He said, "Didn't you
see the sign?" And we both said "no". He told us, "We weren't supposed to be in the park and
if an authority or the police saw us we would be in trouble." So we turned around, ducked our heads down and motored
as fast as we could back to the boat. Now, to be honest, right as we went under a bridge at the beginning of the park Glenn
saw a sign notating the park entrance and a picture of a motorboat with a line through it way up on the bridge. With
my sunhat I hadn't noticed it. But he pointed it out to me as we went under the bridge. I confess, we just
kept going. I told Glenn it was a good thing we both said "no" when he asked us if we had seen the sign.
I later thought up a better answer would have been was it in English? That way he would think we really didn't see the
sign. We're such criminals.
Anyway that river was kind of disappointing. It was wide and the falls weren't
very high. Our next national park, that I had planned on seeing, was a bit difficult to get to the port and then we
couldn't finad any anchoring nearby. Glenn is getting psyched up for Greece as he thinks the water will be clear and
warm there. So he decided to just move on to Venice with no more parks. We had a disagreement on this one but
since my schemes would have cost money to get to the parks, he won.
7/12 Happy Birthday to my sister, Marlene.
7/13-
7/15 Just sailing along stopping to anchor at small islands. A walk on the island, a freezing swim in the water
and back on the boat. I have realized that we are on a latitude with northern Maine. No wonder I can barely get
in the water. We are also being charged to anchor or, if we have no choice, to moor at every single spot we stop.
This is pushing us on towards Venice.
7/16 We are in the large town of Pula. There is a huge Roman amphitheatre
visible from the harbor. We visited an archaeological museum, walked all over the town and visited a really nice open
market. We found nuts by the pound here and stocked up. For some reason we couldn't find much in the way of nuts
in Italy. One extra day here for bad weather and on to Umag, our departure point for Venice.
7/20 Up at 6:00,
clear with the police in two minutes and we are on our way. There was hardly any wind so we motored the whole way.
We arrived at Venice around 4:00 and motored right up the grand canal. This place is busier than the New York city harbor.
We went to the place our guidebook told us had tie ups for visiting yachts and they were huge. There must have been
a 100 feet between the poles and they said "no Mooring" anyway so we headed back out and went to the first harbor
south, 12 miles, Chioggia. We got there around 8:00 p.m. and attempted to tie between poles there. They were set
up in a way we had never seen before with lines hanging off all over the place. Just as we got in place a local boat
came up and told us that was his spot. As we hovered there talking we managed to get the prop tangled in two of the
dangling lines. We tried to get loose and then the local marina guy came over in a boat yelling away in Italian.
Glenn had to dive in and finally cut a line as it was too tight to untangle from the prop. Well that really pissed our
guy off. We kept saying no capisch and he kept yelling in Italian. We were trying to tell him that it was dark
and we would go to the marina tonight and Glenn would dive for the line in the morning. He hung on to our boat continuing
to yell and 50 euros later he let us go (still yelling). At least we entertained the people in the restaurant across
the way. The entire situation was very stressful, probably the worse since the beginning of our trip. I think
what made it so bad was not that there was any danger but the scorn and anger of the guy because we couldn't speak Italian.
It wasn't pleasant at all. Finally we tied up, in the dark, at the first dock we came to in the marina. Now,
we had to go clear in. We found the nightguard and he gave us a key to the gate and directed us to the Coast Guard.
20 minutes later we went inside and explained our situation. Three people later they told us to come back in the morning
when the main staff was there. We walked back to the boat and collapsed in the salon at 11:15, waay past our bedtime.
What a day.
7/21 Up bright and early to clear in to the marina. We adopted a "don't ask, don't tell"
policy and didn't mention that we were a catamaran. We were docked alongside any way so our width didn't really matter.
We got a great price of $62 per night. To the Coast Guard where they found someone who spoke English and the clearing
in process began. After much use of the calendar on the wall and pictures of Croatia and Italy with arrows going back
and forth we got out paperwork completed. I noticed that the journal that was filled in had the previous Russian boat
clearing in in 2007. Our problem is that we're not an EU boat. The young man was so nice. He told us that
we had to come back when we wanted to leave and have our paperwork stamped and entered into the joual. We said that
we would see him and we all had a good laugh. He wrote us a list of instructions as to what else we had to do and so
we walked back to the marina to be cleared by customs. The woman at the marina said it wasn't her we had to go to customs
ourselves. This time it was too far to walk so she called us a taxi. After several phone calls Customs didn't
want us, they pointed out the window and told us we had to go to the National Police. Back in the taxi to this beautiful
building with no one at all in the first floor. Upstairs, in a huge office, the receptionist called someone to take
us back downstairs to discover that the National Police office was closed. This is a Monday. Back to the taxi
we go to the police station in town. We explained our situation, much discussion, come back tomorrow at 8:00 a.m.
So we got bus tickets, walked 15 minutes to the bus stop and off to Venice!
(cont. top of next column)
