Our last week has been spent in Sukosan, in Marina Dalmacia where we have kept Déjà Vu for the last 4 years, and indeed where we originally bought her back in 2008. It is the largest marina in Croatia and has many charter fleets operating from here. In spite of its vast size we have found it to be friendly, well equipped and very well organised. We have discovered on our return this time that the Marina has just been sold to a Turkish organisation and will, in future, be known as Dalmacia Marina, or D Marina. We wonder what changes are going to occur.
We are impressed with the DHMZ Croatian Met Office as their forecasting is most of the time spot on. It was their warnings of a Bora that brought us back 2 days earlier than planned.
We moored up about 4pm on Saturday 21st July and by the evening we sat watching a spectacular electric storm. The light show spanned 180 degrees with a fantastic display of fork and sheet lightning. Thunder followed then rain and then wind. A Bora, the famous Croatian storm, was underway. The Bora lasted over 48 hours with sustained wind speeds of 50-70 knots. Croatia was brought to a standstill with the mountain roads closed and ferries cancelled. Wild though it was it did not stop us doing loads of cleaning and maintenance jobs.
On Tuesday 24th July, in much calmer conditions, Déjà Vu was lifted out of the water and parked on her cradle. More work to do, but we did manage a daily bike ride to the beach for a swim.
We leave tomorrow, Friday 27th July.
Since we left UK on May 2nd, we have spent 64 days at sea, travelled 1343 miles, visited 3 new countries in addition to Croatia, met up and sailed with several friends and family. It has been great and we are quite a bit browner. Now we leave behind our small and simple world aboard Déjà Vu and look ahead to a bigger and much more complicated world awaiting us in Farnham. Best of all will be seeing all our family and friends again.
Deja Vu 