The island of Losinj is connected to the larger island of Cres by a bridge and they lie south east of the Istrian peninsula. We had arrived at the main town on Losinj, namely Mali Losinj to weather the next storm.

This provided an opportunity to get the bikes out and, as always, we managed to discover a bit more about the area. We took the coast path that hugged the inner bay of the coastal isthmus and found many derelict buildings probably of a WW11 era. More interestingly Nigel explored, as best he could with a small key ring light, a labyrinth of tunnels and chambers that seemed to wind right through the hill to the other side. He went in one tunnel and emerged from another, taking me by surprise!

We crossed the hill more conventionally by road, leaving behind the main harbour, windswept by the strong North Easterlies, passing huge derelict mansions, once so grand, and we descended on the other side to the fully sheltered bay of Cikat.

We were surprised to find here a major holiday resort with elegant hotels for elderly folk at one end and camper vans and tents for families and younger folk at the other.

It was like stepping into another world – it was great to have the bikes and be able to explore a little further afield.

On Friday 21^st September we left Mali Losinj and headed south, the direction of home.  Look what we sailed past!

 

Departing from Slovenia on Sunday 16th September, our first stop Porec, about half way down the Istrian Peninusular, where we checked back into Croatia. We chose to pick up a buoy so that we could all swim in the afternoon sun and then at 6pm we inflated the dingy and went ashore. It was another beautiful Venetian town with narrow streets, beautiful old church, shining cobbles that had been trodden for centuries, but with plenty of tourist shops, cafes and bars. It has been getting cooler in the evenings, so we hurried a quick drink in a bar atop one of the old towers, picked up some take away pizzas and then timed our journey back to the boat hoping to enjoy them hot. It took 19 minutes pizza oven to plate, not bad and very delicious they were!

Monday was to be Sue and Dick’s last full day and it dawned sunny and warm. We sailed south with the cruising chute, past Pula to Veruda where we tied up in the Marina there.

Sue and Dick departed on Tuesday 18^th in a taxi heading for Pula town so they could see the sights there before flying Pula to Stansted and then driving all the way back to Pembrokeshire. Forseeing another breakdown in the weather in the North Adriatic, we slipped lines same day and sailed, again with the cruising chute, down towards Mali Losinj where we planned to weather out the next Bora. We overnighted in the most peaceful anchorage on the island of Unije, woke to heavy cloud and increasing winds, so headed for the security of Mali Losinj town.

Here we are now safely tied up, catching up on the chores of cleaning and washing, waiting for the rain to stop, the winds to moderate before we continue on our journey back towards our home port of Sukosan.

Friday 14^th September, leaving Rovinj at noon, we embarked on our voyage north to Novigrad, some 15 miles distant.

Sailing gently for the first 5 miles, our complacency was soon shattered as we found the wind and endured a roller coaster ride beating into a turbulent sea with 30 knots of true wind on the nose. Needless to say our arrival at Novigrad was welcome and we were soon ashore exploring the small and quiet town. We found a delightful wine emporium which dispensed the local wine in large plastic bottles. We returned to the boat heavy laden with white and red wines filled into plastic bottles from a barrel which turned out to be excellent! Great sunset too.

Saturday 15^th we checked out of Croatia and motored north to Piran in Slovenia in windless conditions, arriving in time for lunch on board. Apart from being interested in the Slovenian coast, Nigel and Mo needed to declare another departure from Croatia, to conform with customs requirements, and Slovenia was just close enough to make this an obvious and easy option.

After clearing the immigrations formalities as we had now entered the EU we set off to explore the town.  The main claim to fame appears to be Tartini, 17^th century composer, violinist and general good bloke.  The centre of the town is Tartini square which is large, surrounded by magnificent Venetian style buildings and a floor of polished stone.

Moving ever upwards we climbed to the top of the town t see the old fortifications and enjoy magnificent views back over the town and Croatia to the South and Italy (Trieste) to the North.

We descended via the church which sports a campanile that is a copy of the one in St Marks square in Venice.  There was a wedding in progress and we peeped in just in time to hear a class rendition of Ave Maria by what sounded like a professional singer.

In the evening we dined in an excellent restaurant and then moved on to a bar which had live music. The performer was a capable one-man group, assisted by Yamaha.  His range of music was brilliant and we were riveted for a couple of hours, returning to the boat at past midnight.  Unfortunately our neighbours returned later and continued to talk and drink until dawn, disturbing our beauty sleep.

Sue and Dick, Nigel’s sister and husband, arrived on Tuesday 11^th, a lovely sunny day. We had planned a 2 day stopover here at Rovinj, to weather out the storm promised for the following day.

We all enjoyed exploring the town during Wednesday. The old town rises up on a peninsular with the church of St Euphemia at its crown and from there we explored the tangle of narrow streets carpeted with well worn and very uneven marble blocks and cobbles.

Billed as being one of Croatia’s magical places, we were not disappointed to discover a charming old town with a fun and friendly atmosphere.  The strong Italian influence was evident not only in the 18^th century architecture, but also in the shops and restaurants..loads of lovely shoes and pasta! We had a great lunch.

Aside from the usual tourist shops we found a fascinating range of real art and craft galleries in all sorts of unusual and surprising places.

Nigel was soon at the limit of retail endurance, so we headed back to batten down the hatches for the impending storm. What a good move that was.

By 8pm we were ravaged by a severe storm that lasted all night, so it was most definitely supper on board!  As the winds increased to over 50knots Nigel reinforced all the lines and we tried to sleep. It was like being in a washing machine despite being tied up inside the Marina!

Thursday dawned wet and cold, so books were read, the town was revisited and we found the most delightful Istrian restaurant for a very long lunch.

We all have our fingers crossed for some improvement tomorrow.

I do like Sundays in Croatia..and I was reminded of this on 9^th as we woke in Pula Marina to the pealing of chuch bells. They start in earnest at 6am and go on throughout the day.  It really is quite compelling.

Shops are mostly shut and churches are full of local people of all ages.

I found out recently that Croatia has 12 national holidays including Easter and Christmas when all public services are closed. The ones that caught my interest were: 22^nd June, Day of the Antifacist Struggle,

October 8th Independence Day

and 5^th August, National Gratitude Day!

There is always a lot to learn from other people and customs.

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.