More stunning beauty and a fright or two!...

Photos include from the top...
Us having a drink ashore at Lastovo Island
Church in Hvar
Matelot tied ashore to bollard (on right of picture) where we later grounded during 15 min violent electrical storm and 40 knots on the nose.
Richard and Stephan's Great Uncle in Makarska
Entering Makarska harbour
Split at night
Matelot anchored in Split Harbour


9 Sept 08

Split! We anchor free in the harbour right downtown but there is a price to pay as the ship rolls violently every time a ferry goes by. We take the dinghy ashore and find ourselves in the Roman Emporor Diocletian’s retirement palace built in 295 – 305. Many descendants of early Romans still have their homes inside the palace walls which enclose a large part of the city. The antiquity of this largest Croatian city takes us by surprise and envelops us as we explore and enjoy its sophistication and I notice the wonderful shops… It is a very Italianised city with great slabs of pizza sold as fast food for 10 Kuna – around $3 NZ and wonderful coffee.

We find an internet café and spend a little too much time here catching up. There are no cafes in Croatia where you can take your computer, buy a drink and use the internet for free, so K20 per hour is the best deal we have found so far.

Later we sit in an outdoor café and eat dinner while we people watch until we are sleepy and head back to Matelot.

Wednesday 10 Sept

The rocking has got to us during the night as the boat suddenly goes from flat calm to violent rocking around 5.00 am so that our wine glasses fall over with a crash on the bench. We decide we need to move on, but I get a leave pass to explore the shops while Richard checks out the ships chandlery.

I spend a hilarious hour in a tiny boutique full of designer clothes with slashed prices. The Italian shop assistant keeps bringing me things to try on – we really hit it off. We laugh as I try on skirts, tops, trousers, belts and see myself transformed by these beautiful clothes. Other customers come and go and sometimes join in on the repartee. She is a saleswoman supremo! She tells me I must have zees and zat! “But I am living on a boat” I say! “ I do not need zees and zat! …only maybe zat!” Another customer says “Eef she eees living on a boat she does not need clothes – just a good man!” “Aha!” I say “I already have a good man, so I do not need anything!” (I am teasing her) She turns to her customer and says “Shut up!” and we all dissolve into hysterics – I laugh until I almost cry…and sooner than I want to, I must depart, but not without my Max Mara leather belt and Emelio cavallini strappy top. I left behind the Beeblos skirt and other items, but will never forget this interlude in Split!

There is plenty more to see in this region, namely the old city of Trogir and Roman sites inland, but we do hope to come back next year.

Onwards…until today 16 September 2008

The next few days are a blur of anchorages – all gorgeous in their own way. Highlights and Frights include:

• A visit to beautiful Makarska on the mainland and a quick catch up with Stefan’s great uncle.
• Meeting up with lots of other cruisers, Monika and Lars from Zurich, Jelte and Marijn from Holland but living in Scotland, John and Judy from London and Peo and Elizabeth from Stockholm living in Moscow. Thank you guys for all the English novels we now have on board Matelot!
• Going aground at 3.00 am in Šćedrow when we are hit by a violent electrical storm and 40 knot winds while at anchor and tied ashore.
• Heading west and exploring Hvar – the old city is amazing and the islands to the SW of Hvar.
• Palmizana Marina – a truly lovely spot except for the wasps and rats. We batten ourselves into the boat for the night as see a rat crawling into the cockpit of a yacht nearby. Our Swiss friends picked up a rat on their boat here.
• Lastovo Island south of Korcula. This island was open to foreign visitors from 1998 and is mostly unspoilt by tourism. It is still forested over most of it in contrast to the many Croatian islands which appear to be quite barren. It is fascinating to see the bunkers built into the hillsides by the military who occupied the island previously. Two wonderful harbours with all round protection.
• It is getting colder. We have had a marked temperature drop of around 10 degrees. However, we are still enjoying sunny days and the swimming is gorgeous. Richard has just walked past me on his way to his daily swim at 8.00am.
• Regular howling wind and thunderstorms in the small hours of the morning. I don’t really like that bit!
• Matelot is cosy and warm and we are loving being on board.

Today we are heading for Dubrovnic but will possibly stop at the island of Mljet for an overnight. The colder weather is giving us a clear message that we need to go south. We are planning our passage but have not settled on a final plan yet as it will depend on weather.

Internet access has been a difficult issue for us. There are many friends and family we would like to be in touch with and we are constantly thinking of you all. We have a Vodem card on the boat which we use for downloading weather forecasts and for posting this text only blog – photos to follow when we go ashore. The computer has 2 hours battery on it between marinas and charging on shore power. Same with the cellphone which we turn on once a day and check for messages. We are thinking of installing an inverter so we can charge items on board and also powering up the boat with solar panels. We have seen some very neat flexible panels on a boat which worked well at keeping the batteries topped up without constantly running the motor. They were called “Flexi Cell” and sit very unobtrusively on top of the bimini, but have not been able to research them yet (mainly can we afford them?) as need to get internet access to do it. This whole issue was ruling our lives for a while but we have let go of it for the moment until we get to Greece.

Pippy and Buck signing out for now….