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After our surreal experience meeting up with the Sunbeam Yacht rally in Marina Veruda, we spent an afternoon cleaning up the boat before Peter and Sharon arrived fresh from the Stansted to Pula Ryan Air flight. It is to be their first sailing adventure, so we hope for fair winds.
Wednesday 22nd May we headed round to Pula, a short hop as the crow flies but a journey we extended in perfect sailing conditions to introduce our new crew to the rudiments of boat handling. We close hauled, tacked, took a broad reach, turned onto a run and enjoyed a great sail, with Sharon proving herself to be a natural on the helm. This and a perfect anchorage for lunch convinced our visitors that sailing was indeed a brilliant activity!
We approached the Marina in Pula with the backdrop of the famous Roman Amphitheatre, 6th largest in the world.
Once again we enjoyed exploring Pula with its exquisite Roman remains, quaint streets and impressive bronze of James Joyce, once a resident here. We also restocked our fruit and vegetable supplies in the colourful local market.
As forecast, various storms came through one after the other with high winds, plenty of rain, thunder and lightning and we ended up staying put for 3 nights until a suitable weather window presented for us to travel further north. Whilst we waited for the weather to improve we rented a car and took a quick tour of Southern Istria visiting some lovely villages and towns including Vodnjan, Svetvincenat and Labin. Unfortunately it rained torrentially most of the day and whilst sheltering in a cafe in Vodnjan, a hail storm brought the ambient temperature down to 9 degrees!
In Labin we braved the elements and ventured forth clad in several layers of waterproofs and under our umbrellas, to explore the labyrinth of narrow streets awash with rain water.
The streets climbed up the hill to afford a view towards Cres where we could see foaming sea swept up by the gales raging across the whole area. We found a warm restaurant in Labin and enjoyed a long lunch. The return journey was drier, thank goodness, and we stopped off to see the Kingdom of Festini Cave, an unusual and totally uncommercialised attraction hopelessly signposted within some sort of farm complex but when we finally found it , it was well worth the detour.
Saturday dawned dry and offered a half day weather window to move on, so we took it, sailing 20 miles north on a close reach to Vrsar. Another lovely sailing day with some much needed sunshine! Peter took the helm and looked very much at home!
The forecast is still promising storms, cool and unsettled conditions, but we hope to make Rovinj our next stop.
Deja Vu 
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