Sailing with the Treleavens

Korcula jutting out into the Adriatic is on a peninsular surrounded by a fort. The old town inside is of stone with red roofs, complete with churches with spires. The huge lime stone mountains on the main land engulf this scene making this the most photographed place from the air I have seen.

The weather forecast isn't looking good, but with a southerly wind coming and our destination is north, we take the opportunity to run with it. Spinnaker flying, gybing three times, (excellent crew work from Janey and myself) flat seas, we sail passed the island of Hvar very quickly. 35nm in four hours; it's getting dark as we arrive. With no shelter in Hvar harbour we sail onto a small island to find good anchorage for the night. Or so we thought! Law of averages, when its pitch black and blowing hard you have to move. We face the wrong way due to a strong current between the islands
hitting another yacht and we all have to get up to relocate. Janey and I are now up and down all night pressing the anchor button. I must admit though, this is the first time for us this season.

Suddenly the islands loose all their charm as we are in for more bad
weather. Rain, thunder, lightning, I dream of a day in bed reading. With Split only 20nm away, Janey and I are kicked out of bed, let's go. Reefed down and no visibility we venture out of the bay into the canal.

Janey reminds us of the movie 'The Perfect Storm' where two backpackers nervously go along for the ride and the old man says "isn't this fun!"

Split Harbour and we are very excited to at least be picking up anchor windlass parts. No more arms being wrenched out of their sockets as I free run the anchor chain through my hands to stopping the bloody thing as I drop it. Ian goes ashore to collect the parts and wouldn't you know it, a huge storm blows through. Janey and I are on board, 40 knot winds, boats dragging around us and my head planning what to do if!!!!

The harbour turns from a beautiful blue to shit brown, but we don't move, someone is looking after me. Our day has not ended as we venture ashore to visit Diocletian's Palace. The Roman Emperor Diocletian, noted for his persecution of the early Christians, built the palace in AD 295 as his summer residence. It is among the best preserved monuments of Roman building heritage in the world. After having a meal ashore we return to the dock and an upside down dinghy with outboard completely under water. Oh no, Ian has
to row out to the yacht in head winds and blood pressure rising. This stops us in our tracks and Sunday is not a good day to get anything fixed. Ian, the frustrated mechanic, pulls everything apart drains every hole and you want believe it, but the Mercury, twice been upside down, has been going ever since.

Trogir is where we are to meet up with friends Bob and Sue Fraser who are coming on board for a week and Andrew Cochrane for two days. The wind, continual thunder and lightning are with us for a few days but we anchor off Trogir as it's very nice to just stay put while we wait for our guests. Janey leaves us after a superb lunch of scampi bouzarra and lobster at Restaurant Amor, a local secret, just outside Trogir. This is our best meal to date and the local bouzarra sauce was too die for. We have this year had some very good meals ashore and have also enjoyed the local wines.

Trogir is an island attached to the mainland by a bridge with a small canal that is very useful for us to get to the markets by dinghy. With its Gothic Style Church, narrow cobble lanes and forts you can very easily get lost in time.

All provisioned, sun comes out, guest arrive our cruising continues. I go to get the anchor up, talking of anchor we where still one part short so I am no better off, it won't work. The wire connections are corroded but this is quickly fixed. A serene bay for the night and next morning a loo is blocked. Ian in his element, loves fixing things, with shit around his ears theirs not a lot of detail required about the next few hours but the neighbouring boat was fascinated with the boys playing with thick pipes off the end of the transom. He wanted to know if Aussies were full of shit.

We discovered that the problem was a calcium type matter built up in the pipes and wasn't actually caused by what went down them.

Beautiful Hvar and the perfect day, we walk to the castle, drink at the Hotel Bar on the promenade and just take it all in. We have noticed a lot of Australian back packers here this year and were very annoyed to wake up in the morning to find our Aussie flag has been souvenired. We had replaced it this year with a beautiful hand stitched one and are know back to our faded model. National flags are compulsory on yachts and it is bloody annoying that they have no respect.

Another very good sea food meal at Hannibal's Restaurant in Hvar and Andrews's short trip has ended. Back swimming again, it seems clearer than ever after all that rain and then sail out to the island of Vis. The outer most island of Croatia.
 

With a chill in the air, the days are still hot but the evenings are getting cooler, we are now visiting the last country for this year, Croatia. Our port of entry is Cavtat, a gem of a town near the airport where we are to pick up daughter Janey. A permit to cruise for one year is now $400.00 for our size boat. We have no problem with this but we do have a problem when we anchor outside the old port of Dubrovnik and they want $50 for the privilege of a couple of hours.

Coming on board for the day is Trevor Richards from Yacht Grot, Fremantle, and his partner Marilyn. We spend a beautiful day on the island of Lokrum just off the medieval fortified walls of Dubrovnik which has to be the finest in Europe. Waiting to pick up their charter yacht, they have rented an apartment over looking Dubrovnik with its Romanesque, Gothic to Renaissance and Baroque architecture. Trevor remarks 'he has died and gone to heaven' it is such a beautiful sight.

After the usual supermarket shop, lunch of fried squid and mussels in the Gundulic Square, we head north to the pine forested islands and blue clear seas. This is our fourth cruise along these islands and as there are 1000 islands with only 50 inhabited we are sure to find somewhere we haven't been.

Its two years since our visit to the island of Sipan and it is surprising to see how Sipanska Luka has developed into a stylish port with very welcoming cafes, bars and restaurants, and all the cats from last time have disappeared.

Restaurant Kod Marka has been recommended but we are disappointed to find that bookings are essential so stay an extra day. When booking you give your preference and are served a set meal of only local fresh fish and vegetables. It is the best meal we have ever had in Croatia. Marka, the owner, shows us a book of top Adriatic restaurants he has featured in for the last 4 years, "A Gourmet Cruise -the Adriatic Good Food Pilot" and we now have a guide to follow for good eating.

During the night a light Bora blows through but next day with local
tomatoes, figs and apples from the village market under a 400 year old tree, we swim then move on to Ston where the salt works from Roman times are still operating.

Mljet national park with its narrow inlets resembles lakes that make this area a very safe anchorage.  Out to the east, 23 nm away is back to nature Lastovo which has only been open to the public in the last few years, as it was a strategic military base. The island, with a fertile plateau, is surrounded by very clear water and a stone town that came out of the 1500s. It is a peaceful holiday destination just developing and a great place for yachts with many sheltered anchorages.

Zaklpoatica port is an ideal anchorage for a night with a natural island for a break water. Lobster is still in abundance around the island as Ian selects two from the underwater cage at Restaurant Triton on the wharf. It's delicious, fresh but expensive. Tonight the restaurant is full and pulled up outside are NZer's Tony and Andrea Trubuhovich, Rick and Karen Woodroffe, and Brian Ward and Gaye Manson on their chartered Lagoon 440 catamaran. We may fly an Aussie flag but the Kiwi's still love a drink together.

The weather looks good for a crossing (10 knots if you are lucky) back to Korcula and spend a very calm night in the bay off a 14th century Franciscan Monastery and who should pull in the next morning… the NZer's! Rick had just bought 2.5 kilos of piper from a local fisherman, something he had been looking for the whole trip. You make your luck here; since fresh fish is hard to find, if you spot a fisherman returning to port make a beeline straight for him. Thanks to Rick, breakfast for all of us was delicious.

Korcula town is still as beautiful as ever. This year there are more yachts than previous years and the marina is full to the max including the outside wall. Luckily there is a very sheltered bay around the corner where we can commute by dinghy.

Oh yes, I did smell a rat! Thankfully it was easy to find.
 

A day holed up in the beautiful port of Lakka at the northern end of Paxos, while a nasty front goes through. Ian and Nick spend the day helping yachts tie stern too to the rocks, so by the end of the day we have quite a collection of appreciated wine. Next morning we find our navigation down and a passing joke; "maybe the rat ate it."

After a great spinnaker sail to Corfu and a photograph opportunity from the dinghy, by chance we moor alongside, Ray and Leanne Holland on their 44ft 'Ozsea' from Sydney.  Ray being a technical expert is only too pleased to find the fault in our navigation system. Reality hits when taking out the cable to the compass we find it had been chewed through. Now we have a real problem finding the little bastard and as the poison and glue, must be a Greek joke, hadn't worked, we go in search of a rat trap.

Dominating our time and remembering we are surrounded by cables, it takes several days before we are sure the rat has gone. In that time we never saw hi, but he tore at plastic bags, pierced holes in water bottles, tore apart sponges and ran around at night. I am quite amazed that in all that time Michelle and I slept on board. At first we thought it quite small but in the end we feel really cheated in not knowing how big it was. We are hoping that when the trap went off he got such a fright he left the boat, but everyday we wait in anticipation of a smell.

Albania was under consideration and as luck would have it Ray and Leanne have just come from there. They found customs agents and paper work a lot of work in every port but had no trouble with the people. It appears as though they are slowly realising the value of tourism, but in the end every one spoken to, spoke very highly of Montenegro but said why visit Albania.

Corfu is great and Ray and Leanne introduce us to an Italian restaurant La Cucina. Good food in the Greek Islands is rare so this makes our stay. The best bakery and butcher in the same street and all not far from our berth at the NOAK Yacht Club marina. Also along side are a kiwi, Diana, and her German husband Sven. It's quite amazing how we cross paths with others cruising and meet new people all the time, have a very social time, rat included and we move on.

Corfu to Montenegro is 160nmiles passing the high barren coast and mountains of Albania. We set out in beautiful weather but Mother Nature intervenes as head winds of 35 knots divert us to the Erikoussa Island 20 miles north of Corfu. It takes us 9nm off our course but what a wonderful sail. At 3am the next morning, the wind has died down so the men motor on up the coast taking
all day. If only we could sail. One day too much wind the next too little. No problem with pirates sailing up the coast but Ian eyes every boat that comes near and in his mind he knows where the flares are kept. It is amazing how lifeless the land appears, and they will take a long time to recover from communism.

Very sad to leave the Greek Ionian Islands where we have met some of the nicest people,but we pick up our daughter in Dubrovnik on the 6th September, so we must keep going.

Bar is our point of entry into Montenegro, and arriving in the dark in a place you have never been is always challenging, especially as the main light house wasn't operational. Very much the commercial port, Nick and Michelle board a ferry for Italy, already planning to return next year. Montenegro is also a country just starting to welcome tourists but their authorities still haven't worked it out. The ferry departs when it is full and this is sometimes 5 hours late. Customs take their time and a minimum 1 month cruising permit costs E90.

We are now on our own for a few days and head north for Boka Kotorska .This "fjord" of the Adriatic is very rugged and is surrounded by tall mountains up to 1700m high. In winter they are capped with snow. It is as beautiful as every one has said and as we motor in it is like another world. We pass ancient forts, camouflaged submarine hide outs and military areas that remind us there was a war here only a few years ago.

We have no wind; the sea is like glass as we enter the inner fjord that simply takes your breath away. The mountains straight out of the sea are like a painting, the shore lined with stone houses with orange roofs and churches everywhere. Two small islands occupied by a pale blue domed church and monastery sit as they have for centuries in this very serine area. The island Otak Gospa is artificial and was created by the people of Perast dropping stones on a reef. The church was built in the 1600's and has housed gifts from local sailors returning from world voyages.

Kotor town at the furthest point of the fjord is Venetian and surrounded by a wall that goes directly up the mountain from the town, 500 metres, loop's and comes down again. Three days are spent here just in ore of our surroundings. At Risan we visit the remains of a Roman villa with its mosaic floors still intact, but we must be getting spoilt, as they are not a patch on the ones we saw in Tunisia.

It is time to depart Montenegro and to revisit customs for clearance. Rather than tie up to the rough wharf with old tyres, I motor around while Ian goes ashore in the dinghy. He is soon back with the orders to come along side the wharf. "It is the law" he is told. All we get for our efforts is black marks on the topsides as then they didn't even bother to come and check us.

Montenegro is well worth a visit and a total contrast to the Ionians, but this is the joy of cruising the Mediterranean, there is always a surprise around the corner.