Day 6 onward...

Quick links:

Day 08 - Monday - Day 2 of sailing - Destination Hvar

After another great breakfast ala Simone, we were off for Hvar. We anchored offshore and tendered in for the afternoon. It was a great little town. The likes of Tom Cruise and Kevin Spacey have been known to hang out here and enjoy the lively nightlife. We climbed the hill to the fortress above. Seems every town has a fortress atop a hill. The view was

spectacular.

When we returned to the bottom, after seeing several bike tours entering town , we stopped for pizza and a pivo, did some walking and browsing, and were ready to be picked up by Simon.

We then set sail for a point along the route to Korčula so that we could get there earlier tomorrow. A small cove sheltered from the sea. A place to honker down for the day. Since we were not in a marina, first task was for someone to grab the line and swim for shore where it would be wrapped around and tied to a tree using the bowline knot. Well, Wayne's the better swimmer, but he was knot paying attention when we were learning the bowline. So he was to drag the line while I tagged slightly behind for the knot tying. The bowline, the most useful sailing knot, works like this. Grab the end of the line in your right hand, and a point 2 or 3 feet down the line in the other. |With your right hand, reach over to the other hand and give the line a clockwise twist so that there is now a loop in it. Call this a hole. Now

take the end, call it a rabbit, pull it up the loop from the bottom. The rabbit comes out of the hole. Then take the rabbit and go around the other end of the line (call it a tree), and then back down in the hole. Pull on the rabbit and the tree, presto. As you remember, I tied it with my eyes closed. And now I was required in this operation for my brains, unlike Wayne for his swimming. So into the water I jumped, down I went under the surface, didn't expect that, yet not sure why, and off I went. Wayne followed and passed me. On shore, I tied the line around the tree using the bowline knot. We now had one point secure. Our main anchor would not catch, the sea bed was very weedy, grassy and not wanting the catch the anchor. Simon used the alternate anchor and presto we were secure. I suggested that Simon go inspect my knot. He did.

Then we all got back in the water for a nice swim. The water was great. The weather today was fine. There was some cloud, some sun (especially in Hvar where they brag it gets more sun than anywhere else), and no rain as we had expected. But not much wind for sailing.

At dinner in a family owned "diner" (there were only two eating establishments in this cove), where we all had pork chops and salad and beer, we also (some of us) downed some nasty moonshine called travovitsa, not ŝlivovitce. And then back in the tender and off to sleep.

As we dozed off after midnight, the sea got rougher. And rougher. And then the wind started to blow. And howl. And then rain, very hard. I heard Simon go

above to check on things. Seems one of the other boats in the cove got loose and collided with another. Did not properly set his anchor, and did not double up by tying up to shore. We were fine. We were tied to the shore. Oh, did I mention our knot held perfectly? And did I mention Simon on my request went over to it after we were secure earlier in the evening (on my request) to check my work? And did I mentioned he retied my knot? Yep. Don't know why, mine could have held? LOL.

Anyway, except for the noise, the rocking of the boat and ocean was still plenty easy to sleep through, not bad at all. All night you can hear a noise sounds like tiny firecrackers going off. We are told that is the sound of small critters, mussels, etc feeding on the stuff on the bottom of the boat and on the rocks along shore. Cool.

Day 09 - Tuesday - Day 3 of sailing - Destination Korčula

We woke up to sunny skies, a bit cool, but nice. We untied the line, pulled both anchors and were off. When the sun came out, it was hot, when it went behind a cloud, it cooled off. To our port side, was the mainland and the mountains. I don't think I would have appreciated hw tall they were without the clouds. Large dark and high puffy clouds, hiding some of the peaks. Giving hint to the sheer height of those mountains.

We

tried to sail, we did for a while, we even jibed a few times (since the wind was on our backside). But there just was not enough wind. So back on came the engines and we pushed on toward our destination.

You should check a map, the town of Korčula on the island named as such, is so close

(maybe a kilometre) to the mainland which extends out as a peninsula for miles and miles.

Anyway, the sail in was spectacular, the view from the sea is not to be missed. We sailed across the front of the town and around back to the marina. Very cool. We docked, showered and were of to explore the town. Similar to Trogir and many of the small towns we saw in the Dordogne region of France. Each town with its fortification, usually near a hill, and the town square around the Catholic church. Here to we saw many cyclists with their tour groups.

Tonight we went for pizza. The gang thought it funny when I ordered mine. I asked if I could order a custom pizza and so ordered "the vegetarian pizza with meat and hot spices". What's wrong with that? Finished the evening off with a tri (pronounced "tree" with the rolling of the 'r') scoops of limon (lee'-mun) sladolat (slaw'-doh-late). A cup of tea aboard and off to bed.

Go to Day 10

Quick links:

Photo Gallery