Thursday 6^th September. We were promised a Beaufort scale force 5 – 6 on the beam to make the sail from Mali Losinj to the Istrian peninsular, so off we set. The direction was good, but we ended up with storm force winds, over 42 knots for a time, and we had to reef heavily. Thankfully we had a very fast trip, averaging over 7 knots and much of the time showing over 9 knots on our instruments, well in excess of our hull speed!

We had a truly stoic and uncomplaining crew Blake and Martha, both new to sailing. They say ignorance is bliss!  Needless to say the wine we enjoyed for our late lunch in the Marina Pomer, on the south eastern side of the Istrian peninsular, went down a treat.

Friday 7^th September as the winds were moderating we sailed 15 more miles round to Pula, famous for its Roman remains.

We spent 2 lovely days here exploring the pretty old town, the Forum, a 2^nd century amphitheatre, the old city gates and the piece de resistance, the fabulously well preserved 1^st century Roman amphitheatre, one of the largest in Europe, second or third in size to the Colliseum in Rome. We heard tales of gladiatorial contests but it was hard to imagine as the arena was being fitted out with a full sized ice rink to host Ice Hockey games!

Pula was also home for James Joyce as he taught in Pula for a few years around 1904. He is remembered fondly with a larger than life bronze statue of Joyce reclining in a chair at a kerbside cafe under the Roman arch in the Old Town.

Farewell to Blake and Martha on Saturday 8^th September as they left to start their journey back to Houston Texas.

In lovely sunny weather, we sailed 30 miles or so north to Vsar, a pretty hill town, where we spent a very pleasant evening and morning. Vsar’s claim to fame is that nearby it has the second largest naturist camp in Europe!

On Monday we returned south to the famous old town of Rovinj, picked up a buoy off the town and had a lazy day swimming. On Tuesday 11^th, we headed into the Marina. Sue and Dick have just arrived in glorious sunshine and we are looking forward to a good week.  As we have a couple of inclement days ahead, we plan to explore the very historic town of Rovinj together.

We arrived at Sukosan on Wednesday 29^th August and got ready to launch Deja Vu II on 30^th. Good to be back in the water, we got the boat ship shape and ready to go.

Our Texan friends Blake and Martha arrived on time Friday soon after noon, almost at the same time as clouds gathered overhead to obliterate the Summer sun we had previously been enjoying. Blake and Martha had never sailed before and we were hoping for settled conditions to introduce them to our world, but it was not meant to be as the weather was taking a turn for the worst.  It was not long before we had a full storm with monsoon style rain and gale force winds.  Consolation was a great fish feast at our favourite Sukosan restaurant Kod Guste…we had Mo’s favourite, a John Dory and  rather good bream to follow the mixed shell starter.

A trough of low pressure was settled over the Mediterranean pushing cold fronts over the Adriatic, and we just had to make do with cooler, fresher, wetter and windier weather than we had hoped for.

On Saturday, the first day of September, we agreed on a land day and took the umbrellas with us to inspect the Archaeological Museum in Zadar. It provided much needed shelter and plenty of interest and our visit there was followed by a very pleasant long lunch.

Sunday, although still unsettled, was brighter with more moderate winds, so we sailed 20 miles to Molat, picked up a buoy, swam all afternoon and had a great BBQ on board…yes more fish from a passing fisherman..was it a Grouper? and chicken…

Next day we headed north again, a 30 mile trip, part motoring, part sailing to Mali Losinj. We arrived at the Marina in another deluge.

Tuesday dawned sunny – Blake and Martha explored the town, but lunchtime squalls drove us into the nearby restaurant for platters of grilled sardines and very excellent chilled Zlathina. Blake and Martha were adjusting well to the boat and seemed to have no trouble embracing the new way of life!

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 21^st 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 24^th 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 27^th July.

Since we left UK on May 2^nd, 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.

Having spent 2 lovely days on Lastovo, we sailed north to the island of Vis. Vis is the largest of the western islands of Croatia with a long history from Stone Age, through the Roman Empire, the successive  usually short-lived rules of Austro-Hungarians, French, English and Italians.  In WW2 it was the main base for the partisan navy and British Special Operation forces were on the island helping the partisans against the Germans. Like Lastovo it remained a military bastion has only been open to visitors for the past twenty years or so. The main bay we went into on the north coast has the pretty village of Kut on the Eastern edge, linked by a delightful coast street path to the main town of Vis on the Western side.

Vis is famous for its wine and olive oil and we managed to leave with both on board!

Looking ahead to our last couple of weeks, we were aware of a northerly depression threatening in a few days time, so we decided to take advantage of the southerly winds and head north again.

We decided the north coast of Hvar that Mo wants to explore, would have to wait for another trip.

We ran the cruising chute again, then goose winged with the pole out and arrived at Sesula Bay on the Eastern end of Solta Island just south of Maslinica. A place we had visited a few times before with the attraction of an excellent fish restaurant, but this time we found it crowded with the mooring buoys reserved! We took the last buoy at the alternative, untried, restaurant and spent the afternoon watching dozens more boats come into the bay, circle round, either anchor, squeeze in somewhere or disappear off again. We realised we were in mid July and the charter fleets were out in their droves – time to head home! The alternative restaurant proved to be every bit as good as the other one, so we were not disappointed.

July 15^th. One more northerly run in freshening southerly winds took us, via a pleasant lunchtime anchorage in Stari Togir, to Marina Frapa, Rogoznica, where we planned to take shelter from the strong north easterly winds forecast for the next day. We knew friend Max was finishing his holiday with friends on board, so we took a berth in the Marina and were directed to the exact position opposite his boat. What a coincidence!

Needless to say we had a great time catching up with Max, Paul, Bertie, Martin and Keith, in the rather good restaurant Mario’s run by Mario’s wife.

Next couple of days forecast windy, so we ran up to Zirje, some 15 miles north, before the wind got a hold. Mo had to pick up a mooring buoy in 30knots, whilst Nigel kept the boat steady! Success and relatively easy, we were lucky as it was soon blowing 40knots over the deck. It did calm down late evening and we enjoyed the island with some good walks.

Only a few days to go now before we are back in Sukosan for the clean up before our drive home. Hoping the car will still have wheels!

Next update will most likely be The Road Trip return!

Lastovo is a gem in the Adriatic and we are so glad we have discovered it! There are lots of very sheltered anchorages and it is so unspoilt.

Today, Wednesday 12th July (I think) we rented a motor scooter and toured the island.  We went on every single road and travelled about 30km altogether. It reminded us of previous holidays on Greek islands! The roads were in fantastic condition and we went to the main town of Lastovo, high up in the centre of the island. Here are some pictures to describe our day

Lastovo used to be out of bounds to foreigners for military reasons, and it was only since the 1990’s that visitors could land there. It is a beautiful unspoilt island with a very fertile interior. Lots of vineyards producing some pretty good local wines.

July 4^th, we met up with our Farnham friends, Yvonne and Paul in Herceg Novi, Montenegro and the next day we checked out of Montenegro, sailed 25 miles up the coast with the cruising chute and checked back into Croatia at Cavtat on Thursday 5^th July. We had been away almost exactly a month. We spent our first night back at anchor in Tiha Bay, Cavtat and enjoyed a Cuthbert style BBQ.

Our time with Yvonne and Paul went quickly, it was only 5 days, but we managed some good sailing, visited Okuklje on Mljet, Sipanska Luka for another great gourmet fish dinner at Marco’s, an explore around Sipan and the adjacent mainland.

Our plan to drop our visitors off at Slano to get a taxi to the airport was foiled when our attempts to moor there were thwarted by unexpected 35 knot onshore gusts in the bay and a sudden failure of the bow thruster! Plan B came into play and we had a lively sail downwind to Zaton, close to the famous Dubrovnik Bridge, where we managed to moor up for their last night on board.

Yvonne and Paul left us on Monday July 9^th and we turned north once again stopping off at Polace on Mljet, then the delightful Racisce Bay, just south of Korcula Town in the island of Korcula.

Nigel’s investigation into the bow thruster failure took us into Korcula Town in the dinghy which proved to be a lively and exciting trip dodging waves, ferries and everything else! We went to see the engineer who had fixed our outboard last time we visited, who assured Nigel the part he had taken to show him was not broken, and we did not need a new pin!  Back to the diagnostic drawing board and as you know Nigel is not one to be defeated. He sweated buckets in the heat of the evening, reassembled the unit, realigning various parts, and success, it worked!

Very relieved this is fixed, although we do need more oil in the gearbox.

It is now Wednesday 11^th July and today we had perhaps the best sail of the trip, as we journeyed from Korcula to Lastovo. We covered just over 20 miles with 15 knots of wind, which started as a broad reach, bent round to a beam reach and finished up a close reach before it died 2 miles before our destination. It was perfect sailing, averaging 5.5 knots.

We thought we had seen most of Croatia’s surprises, but here at Skrivena Luka on Lastovo, we seem to have found one of the best places it has to offer. It is beautiful, unspoilt, quiet, roomy – it is quite perfect and we feel immensely lucky to be here right now. Look out for the next posting, all about Lastovo.