We were moored up in Marina Seget, at Trogir to await the arrival of our guests. Deja Vu was gleaming inside and out when Ken and Cathy Otto arrived at 2.30pm Saturday May 24th. Our American friends had just driven up from Dubrovnik to join us for a few days sailing, to end their three week trip to Eastern Europe from Houston, Texas.
Ken and Cathy arriving in Marina Seget.
With fair winds in the forecast our route was planned to visit Brac and Hvar in the time available. It was great to have Ken and Cathy on board. Both keen to sail, Ken had grown up in a sailing family. His father had built boats and taken his sons out both in Chesapeake Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, offshore of Texas, in all sorts of weather by all accounts! They have both enjoyed skippered sailing in the Caribbean with friends in recent years and although it had been a few years since Ken had sailed himself, he clearly knew the ropes and was soon at home on the helm.
Ken happy at the helm
We had a real mixed bag of sailing weather from little wind on a run to a fair breeze on the nose. We visited Lucice Bay on the south coast of Brac where from a buoy we swam and sunbathed before lighting up the BBQ for a great supper washed down with the local wine Ken and Cathy had bought on their travels in Croatia. From Brac we sailed south again, tossing up between Vis or Stari Grad as our destination. The lack of wind favoured Stari Grad which was a new port even for Nigel and Mo. We moored up on the quay in the very pleasant town and explored the old streets, church and museum which housed some interesting Venetian paintings including ‘The Adoration of Christ’ by Tintonelli. What a treat to find so many lovely treasures in this quiet town on this lovely island!
Detail on the ceiling of church in Stari GradMuseum gardenBackstreets in Stari Grad
A happy stay in Stari Grad with some great meals in the local restaurants, first Konoba Zvijezda Mora and secondly Junin Podrum, the latter being voted the best food!
Crew in Stari Grad looking like American touristsSupper in Stari Grad
We spent an extra day here and took the bus across the island to visit the historic town of Hvar. Much exploring and a long lunch was much enjoyed by all. From Stari Grad we had a great beat up to Milna on Brac as we started our return journey. More on the next blog!
Having enjoyed a couple of days on the water in Sukosan, socialising with old friend (well not so old!) John from Forgiveness and new found friends Pete and Pat from Independent Feeling, the weather improved enough for us to set off on Saturday 17th May.
We motor sailed to Biograd and then set the sails for a brisk close reach down the coast of Murter to the southern most tip then round to the Marina at Jezera.
Mo at Jezera
Although we had visited Murter before we had not been to Jezera, so we were keen to explore this end of the island. We were rather underwhelmed by what we found in the environs of the Marina, but the highlight of our visit was meeting Norbert from the boat moored opposite us on the Marina pontoon. Norbert, from Munich, was a wonderful character with a face that told a lifetime’s worth of tales. Over a glass of wine on board Deja Vu he shared many of his stories with us and we felt as if we had stepped into his shoes and shared many good and sad times with him. We hope we might meet him again one day.
The winds remained lively and we decided to head off again the next day, now Sunday 18th May. We reefed both sails for our close reach to Sibenik and delighted in our speed, touching over 8.5knots in 20knots of apparent wind.
A brisk beat8.7 knots!Nigel enjoying himself
Needless to say it did not take long to get to Marina Mandelina which although remote had good facilities. Recently acquired by D Marin, the same Turkish company that now owns Marina Dalmacija, our home port, we had the promise of concessionary mooring rates!
We took the taxi boat in the company of several Slovakian visitors to the main town of Sibenik and enjoyed re-acquainting ourselves with the fascinating back streets and beautiful buildings. The cathedral boasted unique architectural features including a frieze of 70 carefully sculpted heads.
Detail on Sibenik CathedralSibenik cathedralSibenikRenovation opportunity in Sibenik
We especially enjoyed visiting the medicinal gardens at the monastery of St Lawrenece. The roses in the garden flanking the herbs were spectacular and had the sweetest of scents and we must find out what medicinal qualities Artichokes have!
Medicinal gardens at the monasteryArtichokes in the medicinal garden
Unfortunately upon leaving the Marina we discoverd D Marin had withdrawn all the reciprocal concessions we had expected, so we ended up with a more costly night than expected! With the sun shining and the winds moderating we set sail for Kakan and enjoyed two very peaceful days, almost alone, in the bay where we caught up with boat polishing and reading!
Deja Vu on Kakan
Rogoznica was our next destination where we reprovisioned and had a delightful supper in Marco’s Konoba. We met up with a delightful family from Hertfordshire and exchanged stories with Jane, Vernon and daughter Amy. It was a great pleasure to meet them.
Next stop Vinisce and another night at anchor. By this time both of us had been swimming in spite of the unexpected cold temperatures. Hope the water temperature warms up soon!
From anchorage in Vinisce
The time had now arrived for us to get to Trogir and prepare for the arrival of our US visitors, Ken and Cathy Otto. Previously a colleague of Nigel, Ken had meticulously planned a road trip around eastern Europe with Cathy, in the early stages of his recent retirement. We were so pleased that we were able to rendezvous and take them out sailing to a few offshore islands. More about their visit on the next blog.
Deja Vu was still under her winter cover when we arrived on Sunday 11th May and in spite of this protection, the decks were covered in a deep layer of local and saharan dust some of which seemed to have penetrated below decks. With plenty to do involving cleaning up, unpacking and installing the re-assembled anchor winch, we were busy right up until the planned launch on Tuesday 13th midday. Boats should be on the water and Deja Vu immediately came to life again as she was scrubbed up again, equipped with her sails, sprayhood and all the other goodies that had lain sleeping all winter. Unfortunately as the boat was ready the weather took a serious turn for the worst, with Bura style strong northerly winds, rain and cold! Friends back in the UK boast of warm weather and BBQ’s; we are cowering in a mere 12degrees keeping warm on hot soups. The high pressure over Britain is forcing a series of depressions over the Mediterranean, but it does look set to change next week. Our plan is to set off on Saturday 17th May and sail to the island of Murter, just off shore close to the port of Sibenik. Although we have visited the north of Murter a few times, we have not been into the port of Jezera in the south, which we are setting as our destination, about 25 miles south.We have a good few days to get to our rendezvous in Trogir, close to Split by 23rd May.
It is May 5th and our thoughts have turned to the Summer sailing season. There is always more gear to take than we expect and this year is no exception. There will be maintenance jobs to do when we reach Deja Vu in Sukosan on Sunday 11th, but we hope to launch during the follow week, provision up and, winds permitting, set off south. We are meeting up with Ken and Kathy Otto, American friends from Nigel’s former work life, in Split towards the end of May. We look forward to some good sailing with them and showing them some of Croatia’s lovely islands.
We collected our additional crew on Saturday 17th August. Faye and her partner Guy arrived at the ACI Marina Dubrovnik at about 8pm and we were all looking forward to a good week together. We planned to sail north so that they could catch their return flight from Split. Both Faye and Guy were both really tired from work and just needed a week to unwind and relax.
Faye asleep on Deja Vu
We set off early on Sunday morning and over the course of the week we visited Polace on Mljet, Korcula town and Vela Luka on Korcula island, Vis, the north coast of Hvar and ended up on the mainland in Trogir, close to Split. The weather was good to us and we managed all points of sailing at some time or other!
Quiet anchorage on MljetKorcula Old TownVela LukaKut on Vis
Here is the evidence that we all enjoyed ourselves
Faye on day oneFaye in charge!In the dinghyDinner in Vela LukaFaye and Guy in KorculaGaining on the racing fleet
We had good sailing, swimming, bbq’s, explored some historic places, went wine tasting, played games on board and had a lot of fun. Nigel and I enjoyed Guy and Faye’s good company and I hope you will agree they looked more relaxed every day!
Guy and Faye in Vela LukaGreat fish off the BBQBBQ night group photoWine tasting in KutSwimming with the noodleGuy helming and Faye helping?
We certainly all laughed a lot and we hope they returned home refreshed.
When Sharron arrived on Deja Vu back in mid June, she had with her a ‘noodle’. Actually it was Peter who had painstakingly carried this said blue, semi flexible noodle in his luggage, which at a length of 1.5m and diameter of 70mm, was no mean feat. It sprung out of his luggage with much relief on the part of both the noodle and Peter!
Look at the size of it!
The noodle was to be Sharron’s swimming aid and it was duly deployed on several occasions. However Sharron was not entirely happy that it was giving her the buoyancy she needed and it failed to enhance her swimming experiences. Mo even offered to lash it into a permanent horseshoe life belt, but in the end we ran out of time for serious modifications of this sort. When packing up to go home Sharron, and importantly a very enthusiastic Peter, bequeathed the noodle to the miscellaneous toy collection aboard Deja Vu.
It was not easy to store the noodle, but it has taken pride of place on the top shelf in the main saloon and after a few days Nigel decided to launch the noodle and see what it could do. He has devoted some considerable time to this project and the following discoveries and results are presented here in honour of Sharron and as a thank you for this lovely gift.
The pictures of the Karma Noodle!
Western saddleRecumbentTorpedo
ArmchairThe swingWalking on waterPillow
The project to investigate advanced uses of a noodle is underway and for the large part has involved not only Nigel but also Mo, amid squeals of laughter. Unfortunately, or actually fortunately, there was no one around to take any photos!
Montenegro is a small, rugged and beautiful country. The country covers just less that 14,000 square kilometres, has 293 km of coastline, 70 mountain peaks 2000m above sea level. Made up mostly of hills and mountains, it is dramatic, unforgiving terrain that supports a population of about 600,000. In the north of Montenegro, the River Tara runs in a canyon that is the deepest in Europe and claims to be second deepest in the world after the Colorado Canyon. It is 78 km long and 1300 m deep. In the south of Montenegro, on the coast, the famous Mediterranean fjord that is the Gulf of Kotor is a stunning sight which cannot fail to impress.
Mountainous interiorGulf of Kotor
Montenegro claims to be the first and the only ‘ecological’ state in the world, receiving this acclaim in 1991. We have read that out of 2800 plant species in Montenegro, 22 are unique and cannot be found anywhere else in the world and similarly many unique species of eel and carp can be found in the inland lakes.
One has to have a permit to cruise around the Montenegrin coast and you can either have one valid for a week or a month which we ended up with as a week was not long enough. We will have spent about 3 weeks here. We checked into the port of Bar on 24th July and stayed a couple of days then moved on up to Budva, party capital of the coast. The old town is exquisitely beautiful as we discovered last year, and the rest of the town is lively and very full of holidaymakers from Russia and many European countries. Beach space was at a premium so the boat came into its own to go and anchor off the shore to ensure essential swimming for maintaining a cool body temperature. It was 30 degrees most days. The problem with Budva was incessant music. During the day there is a relentless diet of Europop from the beach bars and just when folk like us are thinking of going to bed the discos start up and bash out relentless head banging noise that thankfully stopped like a bad headache, between 1am and 1.30am. We became more nocturnal in our habits and stayed up until 1am most nights, along with the rest of the population. Bars never seemed to close, ice cream was still being sold and it seemed it was only us beginning to tire. Must be something to do with our age! The big advantage of this need to stay up late was the fact it enabled Mo to phone New Zealand after midnight which was an acceptable morning time there and Mo managed some good calls to her Mum, still in hospital. We found the Guinness Bar had the best wi fi connection, except on the day that Montenegro was playing Italy in a water polo match. We had not seen such fervour amongst the spectators since football in the UK!
We rented a car for a day to explore beyond the coast and, in spite of the lunatic Montenegrin drivers, whose frustration at driving on very winding mountain roads is vented by random overtaking attempts on blind bends, we had a great day.
Driving inland from Budva
We visited the city of Cetinje, the old capital famous for never having been conquered by the Turks, despite several attempts! A very religious city, the centrepiece is a fine monastery with chapels claiming to house many important religious artefacts, including a part of Christ’s cross. Unfortunately we could not find this!
Cetinje MonasteryMain street Cetinje
We drove past the more modern capital city, Podgorica, apparently the hottest capital in Europe, regularly clocking over 40 degrees, and we went north on the main road to visit the famous Ostrog Monastery.
We found the Monastery high up the mountain side, 8 miles off the main road, and accessible only by the most diabolical winding road that snaked up the mountain with more hair pin bends than we have ever seen before, pot holed with no crash barriers, few passing places with cars and coaches to negotiate in both directions! We were grateful to arrive unscathed if not very hot and weary!
Ostrog MonasteryOstrog Monastery
Even though we drove as far as we could, we still had a load of steps to negotiate in the searing heat before finally arriving at the monastery which had been built in this inhospitable place in 1650. We joined a queue which we thought was the entrance to go in, but as we ducked our heads and entered the cool mountain chamber, we realised it was for the privilege of kissing the rosary held by the Orthodox priest and receiving either a blessing or some absolution. We offered our respects and retreated to explore the rest of the Monastery open for us to view.
Bell Tower at OstrogView from Ostrog
We chose the ‘new road’ as an alternative to return south to Podgorica, and what a blessing as it was tarmaced and had two clearly marked lanes!
Zara Valley looking towards Podgorica
Our day was running out but we made it to the head of the huge inland Skadar Lake, the largest lake in the Balkans with over 40 islands, now a national park, two thirds of which belongs to Montenegro, one third to Albania. The scenery reminded us both of New Zealand, a long lake flanked by high olive green hills dropping down into glass blue water.
Lake Skadar
Lake Skadar
We drove a little way around its edge on a highly dodgy road passing local vineyards and were tempted in to sample some local wine. Very abstemiously we only bought one bottle of red at a vastly inflated price!
Wine Tasting
This was a beautiful area and we could have spent more time exploring, even taking a boat trip, but our time was up and we had to return the car to Budva.
Back on the boat, we noticed a sudden pressure drop on our barometer on board Deja Vu and it was not long before a full blown gale ensued whilst we were tied up in the Marina at Budva. We reinforced lines, positioned many more fenders, lashed the dinghy more securely and had to eat down below as the glasses were being blown over and Mo’s lettuce was taking flight! It was a rough night as the wind raged, peaking at 45 knots. We had to stay on board and listen to the wind and the disco music. We were not sure which was worse!
From Budva we sailed north to Bigova, a charming fishing village, calm and quiet after the noise of Budva. We spent two nights on a buoy here, exploring in the dinghy and swimming a lot.
Now we have arrived in the beautiful Gulf of Kotor which is well documented from our visit here in 2012. We will spend a few more days before leaving Montenegro and going back into Croatia. We are meeting Faye and Guy on 17th August in Dubrovnik and they will be sailing north with us towards our home port. We plan to drop them off in or around Split from where they will get their flight home.
It all started one morning when the recent Christmas present Mo had given Nigel in the shape of a top of the range Remington razor, simply fell apart in Nigel’s hands, honest guv!
It was early July and we were nowhere near shops that sold food let alone electric razors. With no back up wet shaving gear on board either, a few days of the unshaven look (and feel) had to suffice.
Five days into the new growth it was decided to persevere and cultivate a new look (at least for Nigel) although many an old salt sports a lengthy sprouting.
After 5 days
Nigel soon discovered that growing a beard is a high maintenance activity. Whilst still in Italy he managed to find razors and shaving foam and thus equipped he sculpted a fine shaped beard .
It was in fact a very soft beard and quite a novelty, but as the beard established, so Nigel’s head of hair grew rather out of shape. He was missing our hairdresser friend Yvonne.
The 3 week beardIn profile
Beard and unruly hair is not a great combination and all sorts of nicknames started to be applied. Caveman, wild man from Borneo, were just two.
Three weeks later, what sealed the fate of the beard was its colour. Nigel was affronted and disappointed that the white in it far outweighed the sandy brown peppering.
A rough cut took place at an anchorage in Jaz bay, Budva, Montenegro, famous for the Rolling Stones having once performed a beach concert there, some long time ago. Nigel stopped to consider keeping a goatee, but Mo’s uncontainable shrieks of laughter urged Nigel on for a full removal.
Jaz Bay, Budva, MontenegroTime to take it offA goatee?Perhaps not?
We have Nigel back, now wet shaving and everyone is much happier. In Budva, a town famous for macho Russian male holidaymakers and model women, Nigel finally betrayed Yvonne and got a haircut. He came out of the salon looking fairly Russian having had to stop the hairdresser from using the razor too aggressively on the crown of his head.
Wednesday 24th July dawned bright and sunny with a good forecast of moderate North Westerly winds arising late morning and lasting overnight. We were up early preparing for the 120 mile passage from Bari in Italy to Bar in Montenegro, just dropping an ‘i’ in our destination. We left Italy soon after 9am.
In spite of the forecast we had North Easterly winds for a large part of the day which sent us off course towards Durres in Albania, but instead of steady winds from the right direction as promised, the North Easterlies died altogether early evening which gave us the opportunity to correct the course as we motored north.
The first part of the passage was uneventful apart from great excitement when a pod of some 20 or so dolphins swam alongside for over an hour, playing in the bow wave and doing all sorts of acrobatics. It was a wonderful sight and a great treat to brighten up the journey.
We found the North Westerly wind in the early hours under a full moon on Mo’s watch, so sails up again and then Mo was entertained by the dolphins once again. It was quite eerie with them leaping about at night! Later at 0545 came a brilliant sunrise over the Montenegrin coast.
Sunrise over Montenegro
As we got closer to land we hit a large coastal fog bank reducing our visibility down to yards. Fog horn out and radar on, we crept forward, sailing silently towards the harbour entrance. The harbour at Bar loomed out of the fog that was falling off the mountains and we tied up on the customs quay at 8am to check into Montenegro, a process that involved waiting at the harbour office for an hour, visiting the bank to make payment and then off to the port police and finally customs. In all this took nearly two hours. After all that we were ready for a swim so motored the boat round to a nearby bay where we anchored and swam. Water a lot colder than in Italy!
It was an early start for us on Monday 22nd July as we had to get a taxi to take us to the bus stop by the railway station to catch our bus to Napoli, due to leave at 9am. Fortunately we had bought our tickets the day before, a frustrating exercise that had taken nearly 40 minutes, for reasons best known to the bus company’s computer system! Unfortunately the bus was very late and we waited on the hot and dusty road until well after 9.30am, very Italian, we understand.
Waiting in Bari for the bus to Napoli
The journey west across southern Italy showed us olive groves, vineyards, sunflower fields, massive wind farms, few solar farms and much flat and barren land. It got more interesting as we approached the west coast as the landscape became more undulating and old villages with church spires were evident on the tops of the hills. As we approached Naples, Versuvius loomed over the city, a still active volcano so close to a massive urban sprawl with acres of run-down residential tenements crammed together for as far as the eye could see.
We met up with Nick and Elin in Garibaldi Piazza by the main railway station and took the R2 bus to see the wonderful historic castle, Castel Nuovo and Palace Piazza close to the wharf area of Naples. The 12th century castle, adorned with a triumphal arch added in the 15th century by Alfonso the Magnanimous, was most impressive. We admired the beautiful theatre, gallery and 19th century palace and looked out over the harbour with Versuvius once again dominating the skyline.
Castel NuovoNaples Historic districtView from the Palace in NaplesVersuvius in the background
It was excessively hot and the bus journey back to the station was a drama as Mo had an attempted raid on her rucksack. Thankfully the attempt was foiled before anything went missing, but a salutary lesson to us all.
A train ride to Maria’s home town of Marcianise and we received a very warm welcome from Maria, Mia and Maria’s parents into their lovely home.
It was a fleeting visit, but we thoroughly enjoyed seeing them all and enjoyed some fun with the girls, Elin and Mia, who were a great delight.
Elin and MiaMo and the girls
Nick and Maria took us to Caserta old town, and then showed us the palace in Caserta, which unfortunately was closed, and before long we were doing the journey in reverse to take us back to Bari.
Palace in Caserta
We got back to Bari on Tuesday at 16.30, having enjoyed our trip to Naples. Mo was pleased to have seen just one of the places her Dad had talked of in his wartime reminiscences of Italy. It was so good to see Nick and Marie, Elin and Mia, at home in Italy, and to see Maria’s family home too. I cannot believe that we failed to take a family photo of them all, that was an oversight!
Deja Vu 
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