We spent a few days in Split, Croatia, with anticipation of having Zelda hauled for prop work. With great relief, this was not needed. Instead, we had a diver check out the prop who made a few adjustments (tightening some screws, etc.). We do not feel that our vibration problem was significantly resolved and will address it while wintering in Turkey. Split is a beautiful city, well worth the time there; great outdoor market for fish, fruits and veggies, homemade cheeses, clothes, shoes, you name it. We visited Split with three other sailboats that we have been cruising with this season.
From Split, we began our northern route throughout the islands of Croatia. Given that there are over 1500 islands, we hoped to at least see many of the more popular ones. We gave ourselves 6 weeks to sail the islands. We stopped at Vinisce where we anchored with about 8 other sailboats we met this season. When boats meet in various anchorages, there is always a get together. This time, we had a potluck BBQ that was held on the beach; there were about 18 of us.
Our next stop was Sibenik and Skradin. This was a great change of pace in that in Skradin there is a national park that features beautiful waterfalls (see photo) and trails through the woods. We anchored near the falls along with friends on another sailboat. As we made our way to the falls, off the river shore we found hundreds buoys that marked mussel and oyster farms. We saw a sign advertising these for sale so we motored close by and waved. The young helper rowed out to Zelda (see photo), took our order, rowed back to pack the mussels and oysters and rowed them to our boat. This was a real treat as we both love mussels and oysters. We decided that on our way out of the river, we would stop again and buy more, in fact, we bought 12 kilos of mussels and 4 kilos of oysters. We packed them in net bags and towed them in the water behind Zelda for about week; we had fresh shellfish whenever we wanted.
After Sibenik, we headed for Stupica Vela then Strizida in the Kornat, then onward to Uvala Svezina on the island of Iz, then Uvala Ilovik, and Uvala Kanalic near Pula. Next stop was Pula where we anchored for several days. Most of the more southern Croatian islands were lush with trees and shrubs. As we headed north, however, the Kornat islands were what some call "moonscape" islands; that is, very few trees, mostly barren. We enjoyed the contrast.
Pula was a lovely city that has the most spectacular amphitheater (see photo) and roman temple. We took advantage of this stop to take Sophia, our kitten, for the "fix" event. She came through it with flying colors. Pula was our kick off point to do an overnight crossing from Croatia to Venice, Italy. We left Pula with two other sailboats for the night crossing. We had a safe passage but had to deal with numerous thunder and lightning storms that surrounded us all night. The people of Croatia are most welcoming and courteous. We found English spoken in Croatia but not everywhere. In any event, we could always communicate.
After the overnight crossing, by 9:00 am, we all made our way into the Venice harbor and safely settled into our slips at the St Elena sailing club. Even though we called ahead to be sure they could accommodate the length and width of Zelda, we couldn't make it into the slip (their widest). We actually got stuck between two of the pilings and had to pull ourselves into and out of it (not a pretty sight); luckily no damage. We thought we would spend about a week or less in Venice but actually stayed almost two weeks. The sailing club slip we had was only a 15 minute walk to St. Mark's Square (see photo) and a 5 minute walk to the vaporettos (public boat transports). We took these boats all around Venice including the Grand Canal. We also visited the nearby islands of Murano (known for its beautiful glassworks) and Burano (known for its handmade lace). From Venice, we also took a day out to take a train to the fantastic city of Verona; there was tons of historical buildings to see including the house of Juliet, you guessed it the Juliet of Romeo and Juliet.
We parted company with our friends in Venice as they returned to Croatia and we headed south along the east coast of Italy. We stopped in Ravenna to meet up with our friends on Meg. Together, we drove to Bologna for the day and stopped at a hipersupermarket (something similar to a Walmart Superstore but with a hugh food and wine section) to reprovision the boats. We left our friends on Meg in Ravenna and sailed to Rimini for the night. Although the Italian marinas are well organized and run, we did find them to be a bit expensive. The highest slip fee we paid was in Rimini, 75 Euros per night for a boat our size; needless to say, we only stayed one night. The weeks we spent in Croatia allowed us to anchor wherever we went; so we got a bit spoiled about not having to pay for marinas.
Our next stop was Ancona, where we took a nice bus ride to Urbino and the next day a train to Assisi (see photo) to visit the beautiful St Francis Cathedral. Both trips took us through the breathtaking Umbrian countryside. It was spectacular to pass medieval towns perched on hilltops with their beautiful walls and churches.
As I write this, we are underway on an overnight trip of about 150 nm from Ancona south to the Vieste, Italy, where we will spend a couple of days or so before heading to Bari and then onto Brindisi, Italy. There we will reprovision the boat before crossing the Adriatic from Italy to Corfu, Greece.
We try to minimize overnights, but when needed, we go for it. It works out quite well with two of us onboard. We each take a 3-hour watch usually starting at 9 pm (9-12; 12-3, 3-6) and try to arrive at our destination early in the morning with plenty of light to navigate into either an anchorage or a marina.
PS We have arrived and are anchored in Vieste. With the completion of this passage we have traveled over 10,000 nautical miles since leaving RYC in July of 2000.