We arrived late at night courtesy of the Stansted to Zadar Ryan Air flight on Thursday September 3^rd. We were craned into the water at 1030am the next morning and got moored up on Pier 16 just before the storm hit, about the same time that the dozens of charter boats were returning at the end of their weeks holiday. Chaos ensued for the next couple of hours as 50 knot winds chased torrential rain, thunder and lightning and visibility was reduced to a boat length. Boats were all over the place, we learned later that one sank in the adjacent bay. Then it was calm again underneath a still dark and angry sky.

We spent a couple of days organising the boat, getting a tiny Smart car to enable us to go shopping to provision the boat for the next three weeks sailing. Making good use of the car we went up the coast north of Zadar to visit the charming small town of Nin. Established in Roman times it was one of the first Croat settlements with a fine gated entrance and plenty of old town wall still standing. Cars were all parked outside the town walls which made for very pleasant wandering around even though we were dodging torrential downpours.

We took pictures of the small 9^th century church of the Holy Cross, a pre-Romanesque of typically Croatian style. The town had one main street, pretty with cafes and souvenir shops and the views out to sea were beautifully framed by the dark sky. The main business of the area established in Middle Ages era was salt trading and round and about was lots of evidence of this.

 

We had a couple of days in Sukosan, weathered another storm there, but most importantly met up with American friend John and his partner Isabella and enjoyed their good company. This included toasting John’s recovery from Hep C, going out for supper to a Thai restaurant in Zadar and catching a light entertaining film at the cinema as well as Mo taking advantage of Isabella’s new found skills as a professional masseuse with a massage delivered on the bow of their boat Forgiveness.

Friday August 29^th was warm and sunny with light northerly winds so we cast off for our last trip before returning around 13^th September to have Deja Vu lifted out before our flight home on 17^th.

Three hours into an otherwise pleasant and gentle broad reach, the northerly winds decided to freshen just as we hoisted the cruising chute about 10 miles north of Zirje. Unfortunately the knot holding the shackle on the halyard failed and seconds later our brightly coloured chute was in the water dangerously close to going under the boat. We retrieved the sail in the nick of time with a huge amount of pulling and tugging as the boat was charging off at 5 knots under just the mainsail. We realised that heading up too soon would increase the chances of losing the sail altogether and making a bad situation worse. All was well in the end except that we had a huge, wet, salty sail out of its sock to contend with on the deck.  Zirje made for a pleasant overnight stop to sort ourselves out!

We called in at Vinisce and then headed for Milna on the south coast of Brac, where we are now as an even worse storm is raging this Monday September 1^st. We took a bus trip to Supetar on the north coast of Brac,

We both had wanted to visit Vis and discover some of the WWII history of the island. Vis was the only part of Yugoslavia not occupied by enemy forces and so presented an opportunity for the Allied forces to use and transfer much needed supplies to the partisans, led by Tito, who were fighting a guerrilla war on the mainland. This desire was fuelled by us both reading Fitzroy Macleans’ excellent book recounting his experiences during WWII, including assisting Tito and the Partisans in their fight against the Germans

However our efforts to go further south are being thwarted by some atrocious weather that is covering the whole Mediterranean. The pressure plummeted from 1015mb to 1004mb overnight.

We eventually reached Vis on Wednesday 3^rd September and booked ourselves onto a 3 hour ‘military tour’ of the island. With a German couple as our travel companions (slightly embarrassing; don’t mention the war!) in a useful off-road vehicle, our guide, Robert, was suitably factual in showing us an interesting WWII operations site, the site of the Allied Forces WWII airstrip, Tito’s WWII hideout and then some of Tito’s Cold War defences of the 1960’s including a massive cave to hide missile ships in which was 120m long and 18m high.

Mo had to rein in her claustrophobic tendencies to explore the WWII tunnels but it was worth it as they were quite a revelation. The secret underground passages that led from a simple looking shepherds house gave way to living quarters, communication systems, (still in place and in remarkably good order), munitions rooms and stairways up to more than one Bofors gun emplacements. (Mo’s father had been a Bofors gun commander in Italy, at this same time during the war)

Neither of us really believed that Tito did live in his so called cave and according to Robert he actually spent most of his time in the nearby village.  We had a really interesting day and followed it up the next day by renting a scooter to see the remainder of the island.  Had an excellent lunch in a lovely bay to the South East of the island.

Time to head north again via Sesula Bay on Solta, Rogoznica, Kakan and Murter, and yet, another big storm with the usual sound and light show.

Next stop will be Sukosan where we clean up and lift out the new Deja Vu in readiness for her winter storage. We look forward to a new season next year.

Mali Losinj did indeed provide the shelter we needed from three days of strong winds and frequent thunderstorms.  We did our best not to get cabin fever and broke out for a few good walks and a couple of bike rides to parts of the island that we had not previously visited.

Other highlights included being able to watch both football world cup semi finals.  We only watched the second because the first between Germany and Brazil was so entertaining with a 7-1 result for Germany. Unfortunately the second match was dull in comparison but we stayed the course, in spite of the deluge, under the large umbrellas of a very accommodating outdoor cafe. We also met a charming Dutch couple with whom we shared our restaurant table and then spent the evening with a groovy Bavarian couple in a bar with a very talented Croatian duo playing brilliant guitar and singing many of our old favourite songs. It transpired later, when the Bavarian couple took the guitar and microphones, that they themselves were a famous Bavarian country and western act. It was a feast of music!

After the dark days Monday 7^th – Thursday 10^th July  in Mali Losinj, we set off on Friday 11^th for our next destination, the underdeveloped island of Unije, just 25 miles south east of the Istrian peninsular.  We stopped in the bay of Maracol, perfect scenery and lovely to swim off the back of the boat. It is unusual to have such a long run of disturbed weather and it was not over yet. Our three nights in Unije saw more spectacular electrical storms, fierce winds and torrential rain. In between times we did get ashore for a walk and found our way over the hill to the village, some 2km distant, where we located a restaurant with a TV screen. Here we booked our place for the final of the FIFA World Cup on Sunday 13^th July. Germany won, but only in extra time, after a tight and lack lustre match. But we are not experts! We walked back over the hill very late that night and the full moonlight illuminated the path superbly so there was no need for the plethora of torches we had carried.

Another walk on Unije led us to an extensive site of underground bunkers high on the hill overlooking Istria with gun emplacements. The Germans had occupied this whole area in WWII.

We left late, after lunch, for our sail to Istria as another squall ran through in the morning, but we had a quick trip under motor which was rather a disappointment after all the wind. Nevertheless we found an anchorage up the east coast of the peninsular and spent a couple of days exploring the area around Pomer, before rounding the point and visiting Soline on the west coast.

We are now in Pula which we have visited before and is well documented in 2012 and 2013 descriptions. The large harbour we enter to get to Pula still amazes us as there is so much dereliction and archaeology from World War II. Huge buildings lie empty, wharves are in disrepair, watchtowers and walls speak of military action and maybe a prison camp long since gone. Maybe one day it will be redeveloped.

Tom and Faye are joining us tomorrow, Saturday 19^th, to sail north up the coast for a few days and then we set them down on Thursday 24th and head off across the Bay of Trieste to San Giorgio, which is to be Deja Vu II’s final destination under our command. The next blog will document this and be the final Part 3.