Stop press from NRMC

The above headline has caused a major EU rift with accusations from the southern states and new joiner Croatia who is leading the protest.  As temperatures in Scotland and Scandanavia soar towards an unseasonal 30^o the Eastern Mediterranean is shivering in cold and wet conditions.  A spokesperson for the Croatian government, which is leading the protests  said “we expected to make some sacrifices to join the EU and the cost to our people has been great with the imposition of new taxes as you can no longer fiddle your way into the Euro, but we are not going to permit the rich northern states to take away our weather.  Tourists are now expecting settled weather with temperatures in the high 20s not the low teens.  Normally we are facing water shortages but this year we have plenty of rain when it should be dry.”

Croatia has mobilised other southern states and has led a protest to Brussels asking for a return of their weather or more financial assistance will be required.  Brussels and many visitors to Croatia are hopeful of an early resolution.

A place we have visited many times before and always enjoyed, although it was a new experience this time with strong winds followed by continuous torrential rain.

The old town of Trogir, now a World Heritage Site, was once a Venetian stronghold made impregnable by impressive high walls. It was only a short walk across the bridge from the Marina we moored up in. The architecture is exquisite with even the most humble buildings boasting Gothic window frames and Renaissance portals. Peering through private doorways gave glimpses reminiscent of MC Escher’s graphic designs with ornate staircases winding up in all directions! Most of what we saw predated the 14^th century although there are some more recent additions.

We continue to get lost in the myriad of narrow streets, which is exactly what was intended in days gone by as it was designed to foil and confuse invaders! Nowadays at every turn are restaurateurs touting for business and there are some delightful and charming places to eat. Unfortunately this visit was less enjoyable than on previous occasions – the Deja Vu umbrella did not fit in the narrow streets and we did get very wet!

We were delighted that friends Roger and Vicky, staying nearby on a week’s holiday, joined us for lunch on board on one of the drier days. They left to explore Trogir as went out into the bay with 2 local instrument engineers to diagnose a problem with our autopilot compass. We ended up with a new compass, so great that another thing has been fixed!  Roger and Vicky are joining us later in the week for a couple of days sailing.

The bad weather did not let up so we decided to venture across the Bay of Trogir to Agana Marina at the Western end as it seemed slightly sunnier. Indeed we did enjoy an hour of sunshine in this pretty spot before the rain once again led us to baton down the hatches. No sign of much improvement in the forecast.

We then sailed off to Split – still cold and we had to don the wet gear en route.

Plan now, on May 24th is to meet up with Roger and Vicky at Marina Kastella just north west of Split.

All the anticipation, the preparation and the frustration of the weather was over as we freed our lines and set off in calm condition and sunshine at 9am on Thursday 18^th May. We found a cool Westerly breeze south of Pasman Island and had a cracking sail to Kakan, one of our regular stop overs. It is an uninhabited island that used to be called Children’s island, as in days gone by it was used as a recreational facility for the youth. Now it is a useful anhorage sailors as it affords shelter from most wind directions.

We had a fine sail until Nigel heard some very unnatural banging at the bottom of the boat. It was not anything falling off, thank goodness, but we soon realised we had run over a crab pot and feared for a fouled propeller. With reduced sail we sailed into the shelter of the bay, planning to pick up a buoy under sail – some feat that would have been, but in the event when Nigel started the engine, an enormous buoy maker popped out the back of the boat. We had control, so all was well. We decided to stay for the night and picked up a buoy the usual way, although it took a while as the buoy rings were so tiny, Mo could not hook it up! Suffice it to say, we got there in the end and had a happy overnight stay. The wind is still very cold, but at least the sun was shining.

Saturday 19^th May, we sailed from Kakan to Trogir and anchored up in a bay opposite the city.

Quite magical to be at anchor surrounded by natural coast,  within sight of the city, and Nigel managed a swim, just to check the bottom of the boat for any damage from the day before. It was clear the crab pot lines had snagged the keel , so apart from losing some anti-fouling, there was no damage.

An afternoon cleaning the decks and polishing, then dinner on board and an early night.   Alas the forecast is for more gales and lots of rain, so tomorrow we are heading into the fascinating town of Trogir, more on that later.

We launched on Tuesday 15^th May at 8am in calm conditions and it felt good to have the boat in her natural environment

Wednesday and Thursday though brought the dreaded bora, thunderstorms, strong winds and lots of rain, as well as plummeting temperatures.

We met some charming folk on other boats who had come in to shelter from the weather and found a New Zealand crew some of whom had association with Mo’s family. How small is this world?

We occupied ourselves with more jobs and as we had the car took at trip to Marina Frappa to meet up with Max and his crew for a very pleasant lunch. With an improving forecast we made plans to set off on Friday 18^th May.

We arrived midday on Wednesday 9th May to a sunny Sukosan. The drive through from Slovenia to Zagreb and down to Zadar was an easy breeze. We found Deja Vu II waiting for us on her cradle in the compound, ready antifouled and polished.

Nigel had a list of jobs that seemed endless, a lot of them routine when starting the season. They ranged from checking all the seacocks, mounting the new anchor, installing a new GPS aerial (the old one was damaged), checking out the house batteries – we discovered we needed to replace them, fixing the aircon pump, replacing radio plugs – to name but a few.

We had had problems with parts of the teak decks where some of the rubber strips had deteriorated (old age) and become sticky so needed replacing. We spent a while ourselves digging out the old rubber with special tools Nigel had brought from the UK, but it was soon clear we needed the help of the very efficient professionals. What a relief to hand that job over! Here it is filled and curing before cleaning up..we hope it produce a great result!

Recaulking the stern deck