Z E P H Y R

M y  S t o r y
P A G E   2 0


August 2008


Novigradski Channel
On the 1st of August we motored from Ist to Vinjerac and then onto Molat where we spent the night. In Molat there was an annual fishermans' carnival taking place and we had the biggest hamburgers I have ever seen, the size of dinner plates. The atmosphere was great with lot's of music and frivolity. We also noticed that our batteries were not fully charged so we managed to find a place against the town wall where we moored and plugged into their electric supply to charge up. The next day we went to Vinjerac and then onto Novigrad, going through the long and narrow Novigradski Channel. When we arrived in Novigrad, Helmut said that this town was not as big as what he had heard and could not understand why. A boater he had met previously had apparently told him how wonderful Novigrad was and said it was a "must see". I then looked in our Sailing Directions book only to find that the city of Novigrad was 120 miles to the north as the crow flies and that we had just gone 40 miles out of our way to get to "Little Novigrad" which was basically a small fishing village. Oh well.... it was a pretty area in any case...

By now I had noticed that the alternator was not charging the batteries at all. So we switched all unnecessary items off including my laptop which we were using to navigate with, and the autopilot. The only thing we left on was the depth sounder which is essential in these parts. So out came the paper navigation charts, ruler, protractor and dividers... it was time to brush up on traditional navigation. We navigated 45 miles of tricky inter island sailing to the nearest biggish city which was Zadar in just under 11 hours. In Zadar we found a nice place to drop anchor and set about finding somebody to fix the alternator. We dinghied over to one of the three marinas only to learn that there is only one place that fixes and sells marine alternators. We walked to this shop and we were quoted KN1,800 (€500 or ZAR6,000) for a new one which will take 7 days to be delivered. This is when I suggested to Helmut that we look for an auto-electrician to see if we can have ours repaired rather. A friendly taxi driver told us that he knew of such a person that worked from home. So he took us there but after looking at our 30Amp alternator he pronounced it dead-on-arrival saying it was beyond repair. I then asked him if he had either a new one or perhaps a re-conditioned unit, no was his reply but he had another plan - he took us in his own car to a Father & Son vehicle scrap-yard also run from their back yard. They had about 50 used car alternators on a shelf and we were lucky to find the only one that had the same bolt hole configuration. The Son part of the business could at least speak English so through him we asked the auto-electrician if he will be able to re-furbish the unit by installing new bearings and a new voltage regulator and to make sure the alternator works properly - he said it will be no problem. We went back to his shop and he did the necessary showing us on a test-bench that it put the rated 55Amps out.
Zadar's old church and bell tower at night
So now we had a bigger alternator, nearly double the output, and hopefully our electrical problems will be over, this at a total cost of KN600 (€160 or ZAR2,000) - 1/3 of the cost of a new 35Amp unit. On the way back to the boat Helmut also stopped at a sign making shop and had his boats name, German registration number and home port cut out of vinyl to replace the boats previous owners details. When we arrived back at the boat I set about fitting the alternator to the engine. As the body was slightly bigger than the old alternator I came up against two problems - there was an 8mm copper oil pipe coming out of the engine casing which was in the way and the fan belt was also slightly short. So I managed to bend the copper pipe down slightly which allowed the alternator to fit (only just...) but then I could not get the fan belt on again as there was no adjustment left. So I ended up putting the fan belt over the pulley first and then with the aid of two levers, wedge the alternator back in place to slide the securing bolt through. This worked but it took nearly an hour in 38°C and I was sweating like a sumo wrestler afterwards. I went and sat outside in the breeze and poured cold water over myself, I was seriously hot. I thought Helmut would at least thank me for fixing his boat but all he said was "let's run the engine to make the fridge cold" - yeah right... what gratitude!!!

The next morning we caught a bus to the old part of Zadar to look around and then we went back to the boat at midday because Helmut wanted to run the motor to charge the batteries so's that the fridge could be switched back on - no cold beers on board is a disaster for Helmut. After I convinced him that a tiny boat fridge does not work the same way as a domestic fridge and that running the motor for an hour won't cool his beers, he agreed to go into one of the nearby marinas for a while. We ended up staying for 4 hours but his beers were still not cold enough for him. I took the opportunity to do all my washing, fill the water tanks and wash the outside of the boat down. Helmut had a few cold beers at the yacht club and after we got back to our anchoring spot he went ashore for more cold beer. In the late afternoon I also removed the old boat registration details from the stern, cleaned the area and applied the new boat details sticker. We also planned our trip across the Adriatic Sea to Italy before going to bed.

The town of Biograd (formally Zaravecchia)
On the 6th August we left Zadar at 2pm and had a spirited sail to Biograd (until recently called Zaravecchia) and did the usual pilgrimage into the old part of town stopping at several watering holes on our walk. The next day we sailed and later motored the 57nm to the city of Split. Split was much more of a tourist place compared to the smaller towns and villages we had visited and although it has a very interesting history, for example Maxamillion, the Roman Emperor had a 748,000 square meter castle built for himself in Split which is still in good condition, but it is still a big city with all the usual tourist trappings and high prices. On the last night, going back to the boat after a trip to a "party beach", Helmut lost KN2,000 (about ZAR3,600 or US$450). He probably lost the money in the taxi or when getting into the dinghy. We left Split at 12:20pm on the 9th August in nice strong winds to sail to the island of Vis where we will clear out of Croatia. We dropped anchor at 6pm and went ashore to walk through the small town and do the usual...

The next morning we went to the harbor Police and Immigration to clear out of Croatia and by 1:30pm we were on our way to Italy across the Adriatic sea. Our destination was Vieste, some 78nm away and Helmut wanted to do a night sail to gain experience. So I made some calculations on our speed with the help of my computer navigation program, MaxSea, after having downloaded the latest weather file, and worked out that we will arrive in Italy at around 3am. Helmut did not think we will arrive so soon, he thought we will only get there at around 8am, so he said I should do the second and fourth watches (11pm to 2am & 5am to 8am) and he will do 8pm to 11pm & 2am to 5am. I agreed because I knew my calculations were more accurate than his which meant I will only do one watch, 11pm to 2am (hie hie hie....)
The town of Vieste in Italy
After a very good sail, averaging 5.7 knots, with a maximum of 8.4 knots GPS speed, we arrived in Vieste at 2:40am and had anchored in completely the wrong place which was very rolly by 3:30am (the captain is always correct...) At 8am we motored around the corner (200 meters) into the port of Vieste and tied up against a long wall which was very strange as there were no other boats in this area of the harbor. We dinghied across to the marina, which was crowded, and found a pub for Helmut. The lady owner of the pub also did the marina bookings and she said we could have a spot to moor the boat. So after trying to clear into Italy, EU registered boats don't have to clear in or out of any EU countries - even after I explained that I did not have an EU passport, we went back to the boat so's that we could come into the marina only to find that Helmut had locked us out of the boat. With no way of getting into the boat, we went back to the marina to try and find a pair of bolt cutters to cut the padlock. While in the marina I realised that we had left our waterproof bag in the cockpit with our passports, money, credit cards, cameras etc. etc. so I went back to the boat to fetch the bag. On arrival I was greeted by a police man who told us that this part of the harbor was out of bounds, despite being brand new with place for 300 boats, and that we had to move immediately or face a stiff fine. I explained that we will move just as soon as we get the lock cut. I
Part of the old fort in Vieste, Italy
then wanted to go back to the marina to see if Helmut managed to find bolt cutters but the police man said I can not leave the boat. Then a second police man arrived who spoke a little English and understood the problem a little better. He made a phone call and within 15 minutes a young man on a Vespa scooter arrived with a huge pair of bolt cutters which easily cut the lock off. Then the police man wanted my passport so he could make a note of my details just in case I was up to no good - he explained that as far as they knew, I could be breaking into the boat, I was also told to pay the Vespa Kid €10 for his services. When he saw that I had a South African passport he made another phone call and I had to wait nearly 30 minutes before my passport was cleared through international security - he explained that many African passports are forged and that there is a huge clamp-down by all EU countries - this was a huge contrast to the laid back attitude of the immigration people I had seen 2 hours earlier. I was then allowed 15 minutes to fetch Helmut from the marina so we could move the boat - but Helmut was nowhere to be seen. I hunted high and low in the marina for over an hour and when I did find him he was in very good spirits so I knew exactly where he had been...   We collected the boat and by 4pm had picked up a berth in the crowded marina. We both went for a nice shower and later in the evening we went old town waking again, stopping as usual at several pubs.

Clam fishing boats in Manfredonia, Italy
During the next morning, 12 July, I filled the water tanks and washed the outside of the boat down, especially the cockpit which was really dirty. We left Vieste at 3pm and headed for the next stopover, Manfredonia. This turned out to be the only really nice stop in Italy. We found a spot to anchor inside the harbor and headed for shore in the dinghy going towards some bright lights and loud music that Helmut spotted on the other side of the harbor, well we only went about 400 meters when we hit bottom. We had grounded the dinghy in what turned out to be a completely silted up part of the harbor, an area of at least 2/3 of the total harbor surface area. We turned around and headed towards the yacht club we saw from the boat. This turned out to be a private yacht club which is rare in southern Italy as most of the mooring places are municipal owned. We were taken to the Commodore's office by the security guard and after rather formal introductions we were very warmly welcomed and invited to free use of their facilities. They ran a very good kitchen as well so we stayed for dinner too. Our waiter was delighted to be able to serve us and practice his English at the same time. He was very good and doted on us like a parent looking after a sick child - and the prices were also very fair, my seafood pasta, ice-cream and 2 coffee's only came to €9.00. After a good nights sleep, we went walking through the very pretty and clean town the next morning, visiting the old part of town, a couple of big churches and a rather large fort guarding the old town and harbor entrance. When we got back to the boat, I sat and counted the bags of clams being unloaded off the clam boats with their huge grids on the bow, used for scraping the clams off the sea bed. Each boat made 3 trips per day and there were nine boats, each load was packed into 25kg bags and there were 250 bags per load - the season lasts from the 1st July until the 31st October - a total of 123 days. Do the math and one finds out that a total of 20,75 million kilograms (or 20,750 metric tones) of clams are scraped off the ocean floor just from this one harbor alone each year - frightening stuff. And you can imagine that there is absolutely nothing else left on the ocean floor once the scraping (raping) is completed.

A large church in Manfredonia, Italy
We left Manfredonia at 3pm heading south towards Barletta for the night. We dropped anchor at 9:30pm, I cooked pasta and we retired for the night. The next morning we went into town but it was disappointing as this town was dirty and unkempt. We left at 12:15pm for Bari, arriving in this big city at 8pm, just as the sun was going down. We had to anchor far from town on the opposite side of the harbor due to the many LARGE ferries coming and going. Again we stayed on board and again I cooked us pasta for dinner. In the morning, 15th July, we dinghied the long stretch to shore and I set about trying to find the immigration office to clear into Italy only to find that it was a public holiday and they were closed - very unusual. A lady at one of the ferry terminals suggested I try customs in the ferry terminal as they were open 24/7. This I did and after long explanations and drawing a picture of a sail boat, did the customs agent stamp my passport. At last, I was official and legal. As the shops and pubs were all closed, I had something to eat at the ferry terminal and Helmut had a few "liquid lunches". With nothing more to do we went back to the boat and left Bari at midday for Monopoli. Here we had the worst reception in Italy. A coast guard patrol boat had been shadowing us for the last 5nm and when we entered the small harbor we noticed that there were parties going on all over the place - on the shore and on many of the fishing boats. When we tried to drop anchor in a corner of the harbor, the coast guard put his siren on and in no uncertain terms over his loud-hailor, told us that we can not anchor inside the harbor. This focused all the attention on us and then the locals started waving their arms and pointed to the harbor entrance - they all wanted us to leave and anchor outside in very rolly conditions. As night had already fallen, we had a hard time finding the quietest spot. I dropped anchor but the rolling was bad so I dinghied a kedge (stern) anchor out and pulled us head-on into the swells. This was a big improvement but I was worried that the wind will turn as it usually does and make the small kedge anchor the main holding anchor. Well, at 3am my fears turned into reality and I had to buoy the kedge anchor line with a fender and let it go. The boat swung around 180° and we were now stern-to the swells, which was still OK. However by 6am the wind shifted 40° west and we started rolling again. Helmut had finished all the cold beer that was in the fridge and he wanted to go ashore for a cold one but I REALLY did not want to dinghy all the way into the harbor through the big swells just for cold beer. So I gathered the kedge anchor, lifted the main anchor, raised the main sail and we were off to Brindisi by 9am.

Brindisi fort and old town, Italy
The sail to Brindisi was a good run on the wind and we made the 37nm in 9 hours. Helmut decided to go onto the walk-on moorings as we needed water and the boat was also in need of a good wash. But before we went to the moorings, we filled up with Diesel. Once moored we first had a shower and something to eat. The restaurant was an outdoor affair with a live 2-man band playing soft background music. The setting was very nice and the moon was also playing it's part because it was full and rose behind a castle in a brilliant show of red. The next morning Helmut went into town to draw €uros, and to buy cigarettes and bread. I took a shower, cut my hair and did my washing, but when I wanted to wash the boat, I discovered that there was no water on the moorings (the pipe had broken) - so the boat had to stay dirty until we moored again. Helmut and I also discussed the sail to Greece (Corfu)... I had several reservations about going to Corfu: Brindisi to Corfu is 116nm and the wind was 5 knots or less so it would have taken about 36 hours of motoring or at best motor sailing. We would have had only 3 or 4 days in Corfu before we had to leave for Split in Croatia where we were to pick Vanessa up for another weeks sailing with us. The trip from Corfu to Split is 315nm and the weather forecast was predicting strong north to north westerly winds which would have meant we will be bashing into the wind and swells for over 110 hours (more than 4 days). Besides, on the way back we would have to sail close to Albania which was not recommended by anybody including one of the books we had on board. The alternative route is to go from Corfu, back to Italy and then to Split, a round trip of about 390nm. All this effort and uncomfortable sailing just to spend 3 or 4 days in Corfu so that Helmut can see two marinas he "heard" about. Besides all this, my gut feeling was not to go to Greece and I told Helmut this. He relented and we decided to sail to Montenegro instead. I know he was not happy with me but it simply was not worth it. I took another hot shower at the club-house and we left Brindisi at 4pm, heading for Ulcinj in Montenegro. We took 21 hours to reach our destination with good winds on the port quarter. The overnight sail was most enjoyable with dolphins, including their young, visiting at around midnight, under a full moon. We also saw quite a few ferries and cargo ships on our watches and one ferry crossed quite close in front of us. I was glad that I taught Helmut how to take bearings with his hand-held compass and to monitor the headings of other shipping to avoid collisions at sea - something he did not know about at all.

The pretty town of Bar in Montenegro
We arrived in Ulcinj at 1pm, dropped the anchor for 30 minutes opposite the swimming area but saw that this was going to be a rolly place to spend the night, so we moved off to the next town called Bar. We arrived in Bar at 6pm and Helmut headed straight for the swimming beach and almost rammed a large steel floating jetty that was painted bright orange. He then told me to drop the anchor and I could not believe what I was hearing - we were right amongst the swimmers, almost on the beach!!! Just then a speed boat operator who takes people para-sailing from the beach told us to move off as this was his launch area. After some tooing and frowing and me pointing out that the law forbids anchoring within 150 meters of a swimming area, we went into a little bay called Sutomorski just around the corner and dropped anchor in 16 meters of water behind the only other yacht in the little bay. The next bay looked much nicer but there was a pub on the beach at Sutomorsk so naturally this is where we dropped anchor. I cooked us a pasta dish with tinned pork meat balls which turned out delicious - Helmut did not even say thank-you for the meal, all he wanted to do was go ashore to drink. I told him that I was not going ashore because I did not have a visa and was not going to risk it until we had confirmation from immigration. Because he could not start the outboard, and was not prepared to row, he had to stay on board as well. I could see this did not please him.

We had a comfortable night and after morning coffee I took a cockpit shower and raised the anchor which was rather difficult. I made a mental note not to anchor at such depths again. We headed back to the Bar marina and on the way I sent Ann a SMS asking her to find out from her travel agent if I needed a visa for Montenegro. A few minutes later Ann replied saying that if we arrive by private boat and do not stay for longer than 90 days, I do not need a visa. I felt better with this news so we decided to turn around and headed north for Budva. We needed water, sugar, and bread so we tried to find a marina to go into but Helmut decided against this and we picked up a swing mooring instead. By 2pm we dinghied ashore and went to the police station at the harbor to clear in. There the police told me that I needed a visa, after I explained that I was told I do not need a visa the police commander telephoned "his boss" and I was told to come back in 1 hour. We went to a nearby chicken restaurant and had lunch. On my way back to the police station (Helmut stayed at the restaurant as he had just ordered another beer) I bought a Montenegro flag for the boat. The police commander asked me what our intended route was and how long we intended to stay in Montenegro. I told him that we intended to go up the Kotorska Fjord to the town of Kotor and then back, a maximum of 5 days in total. He then said I must check in at the police station in Kotor, and gave me my passport back. We took a stroll through the very pretty old part of town where Helmut also stopped for a few beers. On our arrival back in the harbor, we noticed that our dinghy was missing from the spot where we tied up. We went to the police and they told me that our dinghy had been moved to the fuel jetty. When we arrived there, a rather cheeky youngster told us that we have to pay €15 for dinghy parking. After some arguing I told the asshole to go to hell and that we will see his supervisor in the morning. We went back to the boat and Helmut had a couple of beers. We were also paid a visit by the mooring owner and he kindly agreed to let us stay on his mooring until the morning. Later we dinghied back to shore, beaching next to the marina to avoid any more un-pleasantries with the marina staff. We walked back to the pretty old town and had supper and a "few" beers.

Two submarines parked under a big tree
After fetching the dinghy off the beach we went back to the boat just on midnight only to discover that Ferilee was no longer on the mooring but was now rafted against a large power boat. Obviously the mooring owner changed his mind and brought his boat onto his mooring anyway. The next morning, the 20th of August, we woke up rather late but managed to leave the mooring at 8.20 am heading to Kotor which was up the Kotorska fjord. We arrived at the fjord entrance at 11.55 am and had a very enjoyable motor-sail up the 20nm fjord. We also noticed that the depth sounder was not working properly, in fact it was getting worse and worse. We dropped anchor outside the quaint town of Tivat at 2.00 pm. I took a boat shower and then we both had a little siesta. I noticed that there were two smallish submarines casually parked under some large trees nearby - weird. We rowed ashore at dusk where I tried to find an Internet café while Helmut had a few beers. We then took a walk along the promenade and bought a couple of hot dogs at one of the many stands on the promenade. On our walk we came across a nice restaurant where we had a nice supper. We dinghied back to Ferilee and hit the sack at 12.30 am.

Helicopter fighting a mountain fire near Kotor
The next morning we got up at 8.00 am, had breakfast, and motored further up the fjord, taking pictures of the two submarines as we left, heading towards Kotor. On the way we noticed that there was a fire on one of the high mountain peaks that surround the fjord, and not long after, a helicopter showed up and started scooping water into a big basket suspended underneath, flying very close to where we were. This chopper was a strange one indeed as it didn't have a tail rotor but two counter-rotating main blades instead. Kotor was situated at the end of the fjord surrounded by high green mountains (one of them on fire) and the scene was very pretty indeed. After mooring the boat against a wall we reported to border control as instructed in Budva. I was informed that I most definitely need a visa for Montenegro and that it will cost me €55.00. Helmut and I discussed it and we decided that as we were only going to spend one more night in Montenegro that €55.00 was not worth it. So we asked permission to fill our water tanks, have something to eat and then leave Montenegro. The older, more senior border policeman, was not happy at all but the younger, pretty, border policewoman persuaded him to let us go. We quickly filled the water tanks, rinsed the boat down and left for the border at 3 pm. Not far from Kotor, a police patrol boat flagged as down and asked Helmut for his boat papers as well as his Montenegro cruising permit. Boat papers he had but cruising permit we did not have as we were leaving Montenegro. I thought we were in a spot of bother but after explaining what had happened at the border control post, and after we promised him that we were leaving Montenegro immediately, he let us go on our merry way. We motor-sailed out of the fjord and turned north heading for the next town which was called Molunat, where we arrived at sunset. As this was a very small town and we dropped the anchor in the dark, we doubted very much that the Montenegro authorities would mind if we spent the night here. We waited until quite late before we dinghied ashore quietly to get something to eat and drink. After asking some of the locals for restaurant information, we walked a fair distance to a caravan park that had a restaurant as well. After ordering drinks, the friendly waiter gave us a couple of menus and Helmut noticed that the prices were in Croatian Kunas and not Euros as per Montenegro. We then called the waiter over and asked him where we were. He said Molunat to which I replied I know we are in Molunat, but what country is this. He gave us a very strange look and said we were in Croatia!! Helmut and I were very happy with this news and the reason why we did not really know in which country we were, was the simple fact that his paper charts and my electronic charts, did not show the border between Montenegro and Croatia. We thoroughly enjoyed our food and Helmut celebrated by having a few extra beers, so much so that he did not want to walk back to the dinghy, so after dinner I walked back, collected the dinghy and picked Helmut up off the beach in front of the caravan park. We hit the sack at midnight happy to be back in Croatia.
Two small islands and two small churches...


The next morning we were up at 8.15 am and realized what a pretty place we were in. After having coffee, and planning the day, I upped the anchor at 10.00 am and we headed north for Cavtat which is one of the clearing-in ports for Croatia. We arrived there at 2.30 pm and I had to eyeball the bottom before anchoring as the depth sounder was not working at all anymore. We went ashore to clear in only to be told that we must bring the boat itself to the customs jetty. So back to the boat we went, hauled the anchor up and got into the queue for the customs jetty. Just as it was our turn to go in, Helmut had to reverse a little and managed to get the dinghies towing line caught in the propeller. This brought us to a sudden halt as now we had no engine, no wind to sail on, and we were drifting towards some very expensive mega yachts. I hailed the boat that was just coming off the customs jetty and asked them to please tow us back to the anchorage. This they kindly did and once we were anchored again, I had to dive under the boat to free the line wrapped around the propeller and shaft. Thankfully I managed to do this quite easily, so once again it was up anchor and off to the customs jetty. We didn't have to wait very long before a spot became available, so in we went. Helmut went off to attend to all the formalities, while I stayed on the boat to fend us off the one mega yacht we nearly drifted into earlier. After Helmut got back to the boat, and we started moving away from the customs jetty, the skipper of a large catamaran started shouting obscenities at us saying we pushed in front of them. Firstly they wouldn't have fitted into the spot we took at the customs jetty and secondly they arrived in the bay after us. I don't know what his problem was but we told him to get lost anyway. So back to the anchorage we went for the third time in as many hours and dropped the hook. We then dinghied to shore, where we both drew some money from an ATM and I bought some more air-time for my Croatian Internet connection. After having dinner at a nice restaurant we went for a walk through the town, had a few drinks, and got back to the boat at 11.30 pm where I checked my e-mails for the first time in quite a few days.

Water fountain in Dubrovnic - built in 1378 !!
On the 23rd of August we were a up at 7.00 am and intended to have a relaxed morning. Helmut managed to get his internet working again and while he was busy going through his 130 emails, I made myself some breakfast which I ate in the cockpit. While sitting there I noticed that the boat was drifting slowly and we were getting very close to a small speedboat moored near us. I told Helmut that we were drifting but he was so engrossed in his e-mails that he did not respond. Eventually our dinghy touched the speedboat so I shortened the anchor line but we continued to drag the anchor. At this point the owner of the speedboat noticed our dinghy was touching his boat and started shouting from the shore which brought Helmut out and when he saw the seriousness of our problem we started the engine and I went to raise the anchor. By this time the owner had come over on a jet ski and was examining his boat and announced that we had damaged it. This was completely untrue and we told him so. However he said he was going to report us to the Harbour Master. As we were leaving the Harbour, we had by this time decided to head for Dubrovnic. Again the jet ski approached us and this time he had a passenger with him who wrote down the boats details and said we would hear from him later. We arrived in the very beautiful city of Dubrovnik at 2.00 pm, and dropped the anchor in a very rolly area. We dinghied ashore and went to the tourist information office where we got details and information on Dubrovnic. We then stopped at a Mexican restaurant and had a pizza at each. I took quite a few photos of Dubrovnic as it was a very beautiful old city.
A street scene in Dubrovnic
After some ice cream we headed back to Ferilee and noticed that the other boats that were anchored nearby us earlier had all left. We then noticed a no-anchoring sign on a nearby wall, so we also had to up anchor and went looking for another anchoring place. The next little bay looked ideal but we were informed by the police that anchoring was not allowed there. There was place in a nearby ACI marina but Helmut said €45.00 for one night was too expensive. We went up a nearby canal but there were no-anchoring signs all over the place. We eventually found a nice little bay at a place called Zaton. After dropping the anchor at 8.00 pm, I took Helmut ashore and dropped him off and came back to the boat. It was late, I was tired, and I did not feel like sitting in another pub for 2 hours watching Helmut drink beer. I made myself some sandwidges for dinner and checked my e-mails. Helmut gave me a missed call on my cell phone and I collected him at 11.00 pm and we both went to sleep. The next morning, the 24th of August, we were up that 7:00 am and as it was a Sunday there were church bells ringing all over the place which sounded very nice. As Helmut was running out of beer on board, there were panic stations, so I lifted the anchor at 9.00 am and we went up into the Dubrovnicka river and anchored just outside the ACI yacht club opposite the town of Rozat. We went into the club and had a welcome hot shower, a pizza for lunch, and then decided to catch a bus into Dubrovnic. We caught the bus back to Ferilee at 9.00 pm and were in bed by 10.00 pm.

One of the swans near the ACI Marina at Rozat
The next morning we were both up by 6.00 am and Helmut was not well at all. He was vomiting and had diarrhoea quite badly but what worried me the most is that he was also complaining of chest pains. He absolutely refused to see a Doctor and went back to bed where he slept until 9.45 am. He said he was feeling better so he rinsed some of his clothes and took them ashore to be dried but he ended up having them washed properly by the laundry which cost him KN100 which was rather expensive for the few items he had washed and dried. We had something to eat for lunch and we needed to do two things, we needed gas for the boat and Helmut needed to pay his account at the ACI Pula marina which is Ferilee's home port. Helmut said there was no way he was going to walk to have gas bottles filled, so we decided that I will walk to the gas filling station and he will catch a bus into town to go and do his business. The gas filling station was further than what we were told so I ended up walking about three kilometres there and three kilometres back carrying a heavy gas bottle in a temperature of 35° C. When I got back to the dinghy I was surprised to see Helmut had not left to go into town yet, instead he managed to pay his account at the Rozat ACI marina where we were. I said I was going to go back to the boat but he did not want to come with as there were no more cold beers on board. So he stayed behind and I went back to the boat to clean up. I also managed to update the Zephyr website a little and took a welcome siesta. In the meantime Helmut had bought himself some more beer for the boat and a Croation flag as we could not find ours. At 6.00 pm Helmut phoned and asked if I would collect him. While ashore, I bought a pizza for dinner which I brought back to the boat. While sitting in the cockpit eating my pizza, I saw some large swans swimming near the boat which was rather special. After checking his e-mails, Helmut went to bed at 9.00 pm and I hit the sack at 11.00 pm as I was busy reading a book.

The quiet town of Luka on Sipan Island
The next morning we were up at 7.30 am, had some coffee and planned the next leg of our journey. We filled up with diesel at the fuel dock and set off for nearby Kolocep and Lupid islands by 9.00 am. We motored past Kolcep and Lupid and went through a very narrow, but pretty channel on the north side of Sipan island towards the town of Luka which was very prettily situated at the end of a deep inlet. We motored past Luka and went across the Kolsepski canal to the town of Slano where we spent the night at anchor near a brand new hotel. On the 27th of August we left Slano at 8.00 am and motored along the coast going up the long and shallow Stonski canal where we met up with two German couples sailing on "Gal" an Elan 333 yacht that they were chartering for their summer holidays. This was the second time that we had met up with these people and they had some interesting stories to tell. The one chap was a leading glider pilot engineer and the other had held a multitude of businesses including the buying and selling of precious metals (gold and silver), oil marketing, and recently investment banking. What was even more interesting is that these two guys had married twin sisters. After we dropped the anchor off the town of Ston, an old man on a bicycle came rushing up to us on the nearby road and told us we were not allowed to anchor in the area despite our charts saying we could. So I had to raise the anchor and we went to tie up on the mooring wall only to discover that the same chap on the bicycle was in charge of the mooring wall and that we now had to pay to stay for the night. I am absolutely convinced that we were conned into tying up on the mooring wall. At Ston there is a famous fortress that protects the salt works there.
3rd longest walls on Earth - at Ston on the mainland
The walls of the fortress go right around both parts of the town as well as over quite a high mountain and according to the tourist office, is the third longest wall in the world. The Great Wall of China naturally being the longest. The six of us hiked up to the top of the one section that was open to the public. The view from halfway up the mountain was quite stunning. I ended up having a very interesting afternoon with the folks from "Gal". (Helmut was in town having a few "refreshments").

The next morning we left Ston at 10.20 am and motored around the southern end of the island into a swimming bay at Prapratina but as the wind was coming from the northwest, the bay was not comfortable, and besides we couldn't find a decent anchoring place. So we left the bay and crossed the Milketski canal heading for the island of Mljet where we went into the pretty bay of Okuklje and we noticed there were quite a few mooring walls but as it was still quite early we carried on and we went past Prozura and on to Sobra where we moored on the town wall and had something to eat. While we were eating the waitress said we have to move our boat by 5.25 pm as the ferry was going to arrive at 5.30 pm. So Helmut enquired about picking up a mooring buoy, as a few of them were vacant, and we were told it was fine if we only intended to spend one night. So we motored over to the buoys and picked one up on the second attempt. We got ready to go ashore and this was when I told Helmut that it was about time that he learnt how to start and operate his own outboard engine. He had tried on a previous occasion but was unable to get the engine started. So after a few pulls, he got it going and took us ashore. We found a nice restaurant where we had dinner and when we got back to the boat at 10.30 pm, Helmut went straight to bed and I lay in my bunk listening to some music on my i-Pod. About 45 minutes later I heard Helmut getting up and going to the toilet, and about 10 minutes later I heard him snoring but the snoring was not coming from his cabin, so I took a peek and saw that he was still sitting on the toilet, but was fast asleep! I found this quite hilarious because he slept on the toilet for about an hour before he woke up and went back to bed. When I mentioned this to him the next morning, he said I was talking nonsense. He could clearly not remember a thing about it.

Mljet lake near Pomena
We were up at 6.00 am to go and have a shower at the restaurant where we dined the previous evening. It's quite common for restaurants in Croatia to cater for cruisers as they often have facilities such a showers etc. for the cruisers. But on arrival at the restaurant we were told that it is a cold water shower and as Helmut refuses to shower in cold water, we went back to the boat where I had a boat shower and by 8.30 am I lifted the anchor and we were on our way. As there was no wind, we motored west of northwest to the end of Mljet island hoping to find the folks from "Gal". They never responded to the radio calls Helmut made so we went and anchored in the nearby bay of Pomena on the northern tip of Mljet island. We then went ashore and tried to hire a scooter but the chap at the hire placed did not want to rent us one as I was going to do the driving but I didn't have my drivers license with me and he wouldn't accept Helmut's license. So we ended up walking about 1 km over a hill towards a big lake where we hired two bicycles. We rode about 5 km all along the lakes shore, going past the Saint Maria Monastery which is situated on an island in the lake. We ended up at the very end of the lake where a narrow channel joins up with the Sea. Helmut remarked that it was the first time he had ridden a bicycle in about 30 years and that he was thoroughly enjoying it. I even had to take photographs and a video of him riding his bicycle! The lake was very beautiful and somebody told us that the Uglosavian dictator, Tito, wanted to have a holiday home here but because the channel entrance to the lake was too narrow, he would not be able to get his yacht into the lake and so he chose another place for his holiday home.

Once we had handed our bicycles in, we walked back over the hill into town and had a welcoming cold drink. Afterwards, Helmut went to the hotel to see if they would let him have a shower but they refused. We got back to the boat at 6.00 pm and I cooked us a tasty foil-grilled chicken and pasta dinner. Helmut apparently did not enjoy the chicken as he said it was "grossly over-cooked". I thought it was beautifully done as the meat just fell off the bone, but I don't suppose you can please everybody all of the time…

The view from the ACI Club at Curzola
We were in bed by 11.00 pm but at 4.30 am Helmut woke me up saying that there was a rat on board. I went outside to see and indeed there was a rat which I managed to kill with the bilge pump handle. It then fell into the chain locker but Helmut grabbed it by the tail and threw it overboard. How this rat got on board is not known but it must have swum over from the nearby island, or it managed to jump on board while we were tied up at the town wall earlier. After this little bit of excitement we went back to bed and woke again at 8.00 am. While I was having my coffee, Helmut thought that we were going to hit the rocks with the rudder and had a little panic attack. He instructed me to lift the anchor immediately, which I did, rather reluctantly, as the rudder was at least a meter above the rocks. Nevertheless, we left the bay by 9.00 am and we went just around the corner to the next little bay called Polace where we moored in front of a restaurant. The restaurant's food prices were absolutely crazy so I took a walk downtown while Helmut had a couple of beers and paid KN25 for a hot shower. We left the restaurant at 2.40 pm and motor sailed to the town of Curzola where we were anchored by 7.30 pm. This anchoring proved to be a little disaster because when Helmut told me to drop the anchor, I could see that it was much too deep and we were miles too close to another yacht, and told him so. He insisted that I drop the anchor, which I did, in what turned out to be in about 14 metres of water.
The tower in Curzola where Marco Polo
did his sea spotting from
Previously, Helmut and I had discussed anchoring in such deep water and seeing as that he insisted that I drop the anchor I told him that he was going to have to lift it in the morning (something he never did the whole trip so far). In the meantime, the boat next to us, a couple from Budapest, told Helmut that he was mad, and upped their anchor and moved to another place muttering all the while. After things had settled down, Helmut managed to make contact with the folks from "Gal". They were in a nearby ACI marina having their boat attended to as they were having forestay problems. Helmut must have thought that my chicken meal was really lousy because for the first time on this trip, he cooked us dinner, pasta with a tomato and tuna sauce.

On the last day of August we were up at 7 am and I had coffee and a boat shower. We left by dinghy to go to the ACI marina where we both had nice long hot showers plus some laundry done and then breakfast. Afterwards we walked through the old town of Curzola, which is where Marco Polo set off from on his epic overland journey to China in 1295. We then met up with the folks from "Gal" at the yacht club and had some coffee with them and caught up with their latest news. We then headed back to Ferilee after picking our laundry up at 2.00 pm. Helmut and I had words about lifting the anchor, but I was adamant that he had to lift the anchor. If he was not going to listen to reason, then he had to feel what it was like raising 25 meters of chain plus the anchor by hand. I will give him his due, he did make an attempt to raise the anchor but he couldn't even get the chain out the water so I had to relent and went forward to lift the anchor. By 2.15 pm we set a northerly course heading for the town of Lupis which is on the northern end of a long peninsula attached to the mainland of Croatia. We were anchored by 7.00 pm and then sat and watched a flotilla of yachts coming into the bay one by one and anchoring near each other, some of them on the walk-on mooring near a restaurant/pub on the beach. We could hear by their voices that they were all from England and that most of them were quite elderly. Their anchoring antics were hilarious. While Helmut went to the pub on the beach I stayed on the boat and updated the Zephyr site. He got back at 10.30 pm and went straight to bed.


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