The Italian forecast for Wednesday August 13th was for no wind in the Bay of Trieste. We set off to return to Izola in Slovenia with low expectations of much sailing. As it turned out, no sooner had we set the sails in a pleasant 8 knots of south westerly breeze, than we were hit by 25 knots on a very close reach! Needless to say we learned about reefing very quickly and discovered what a fast and responsive boat this Sunbeam 42.1 is. It was a quick trip. We covered 20 miles in less than 3 hours!
Our time in Slovenia was to resolve the VAT issues around the boat, which we did, thanks to the assistance of Cedo, a very helpful Slovenian agent. We were held up there too waiting for a Bura to pass through before we set off to re-enter Croatian waters.
Whilst dodging storms, we completed immigration formalities in Umag, sailed nonstop down the Istrian coast, crossed to the pretty island of Unije and then onto Losinj where we stopped to celebrate our first 100 miles solo sailing.
Mali Losinj is a necessary stop over on this trip for provisions and shelter, but as yet another storm approached we were not alone heading there. We arrived at the town marina too late and were turned away. No room! We spent the night of Wednesday 20th August at anchor in the bay watching a spectacular 360 degree lightning show before the wind and rain kicked in in the early hours of the morning. We were well sheltered and survived albeit with less than adequate sleep! Our early arrival in the harbour the next morning ensured us a berth so we set about having a cleanup and reprovisioning for the remained of our trip. Imagine our surprise when another Sunbeam yacht turned up next to us, with Gunter Ambrosi, the Sunbeam sales director who had done the Déjà Vu handover with us, and his family on board. They were returning from their 2 week sailing holiday in the south! A very happy coincidence and we enjoyed a pleasant evening with him, his wife and children. The children loved “Talking Tom” on the ipad!
In between the storms we had some lovely sails as we were pottering south. We enjoyed the new sailing experience and learned a lot of new ways of doing things as, inevitably, everything is different and in a slightly different place.
We cannot let our day in Silba go unmentioned though. We were safely secured on a buoy and sheltered from the almighty north easterly storm that raged overhead for the best part of Saturday 23rd August. We agreed that we had not before experienced such a force of nature at such close quarters. Déjà Vu strained under 40knots of wind and was jet washed with stair rods of rain. It was sobering and a salutary reminder of what Croatian storms can be like, reinforcing the respect for the weather one needs to have out here.
To contrast the Saturday storm, Sunday was beautiful and we sailed about 15 miles to the island of Ist in brilliant sunshine and a pleasant wind. As Monday dawned cloudy we decided to climb the hill above Ist to the church on the top before the sun came out to make it too hot. We were not disappointed by the stunning 360 degree view from the top, but the path was difficult going and Nigel’s hip started to complain.
It is now Wednesday 27th August and we have called into our home port for a couple of days rest up. We have clocked up 240 sailing miles and all is very good. Sadly though we are still sheltering from another storm, they seem to come along every three days. This is not the Croatian summer we are used to.
Deja Vu 
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