The Charter is just about over

Well hello Blogettes. It is with a heavy heart that I am writing my blog this morning. It is the morning of the 10th of May and we are sitting inside the Astra Yachting section of Marina Dalmajica and we have to leave the boat in a couple of hours.

We arrived here last night, opting to have our last night in the marina; get the boat fuelled up and fill her with water and have a chance to get packed up, and organised in some form of orderly fashion rather than a last minute panic and *^$% fight.

Taking up from Split; the washing wasn’t finished until 12.00 noon but it was worth the wait. Nice clear plastic wrapped packages of sparkling fresh and clean clothes were picked up from the laundrette and I’ve got to say, they looked and smelled fantastic!!!. I think we were all suffering from the ‘getting near the end of the charter’ blues and were not all that enthusiastic about where to go after we left Split. We text Allard (his correct name, not Alec as I thought) and Inga and it was agreed that we would head to Trogir and have a night hooked up with them.

We left Split Harbour and started to motor as there was little to no wind and sent a text saying we should be there within the hour and to try and save a spot for us next to them on the town quay. The harbours and marinas have suddenly become very busy with heaps more boats looking for places to stay. If it is this busy now, so far out from the main season, it must be total bedlam in July - August.

As luck would have it, no sooner had we sent the text than the wind started to spring up to a very comfortable 10 knots so Nikki took the helm and sailed the boat for quite some time before the wind started to come in a fair bit harder. It was still great sailing conditions and to make life very comfortable we put in a reef and Nik took over again, being a bit surprised at how different the boat feels with another 6 or 7 knots against her bow.

We were having a great time sailing toward Trogir and received a polite little text from Allard and Inga asking if an Australian hour was a bit different to the rest of the world. We had lost track of time a bit, having a ball sailing along to our hearts content, racing another yacht who also appeared to be heading on their way to Trogir. We were able to communicate what we were doing and made an adjusted E.T.A and continued on our merry way.

Naturally we declared ourselves the winners of the inaugural Split to Trogir race and headed up Trogir Harbour, dropped the sails and motored into the town quay. As luck would have it, another yacht was leaving just as we arrived (we heard later they didn’t want to pay the fee to stay there) and we tucked in amongst all the other boats, getting a bit of a helping hand from those ashore. The quay was ‘chockers’ and there was just enough room for us to fit in between another yacht and a very large stink boat.

Allard and Inga and the kids were waiting for us and even though we had only seen them a couple of days before, it was like catching up with long lost friends and we very quickly took up from where we left off at Milna.

It wasn’t long before we had decided that we would cook dinner for the adults on board our boat and Inga would cooker dinner for the kids on their boat. We had thawed out our big steaks the previous day and Allard and I made up a huge Greek salad and before long, the four of us were sitting down to a nice dinner and a couple of bottles of red while the kids enjoyed one of Inga’s wonderful pasta dishes. It was so good to catch up with these guys again.

After dinner we grabbed the younger crew members and went inside the old walls, bought some ice creams and went for a bit of a wander around the narrow maze of streets that make up this incredibly intriguing and beautiful U.N.E.S.C.O. listed town. We went back to the boat and had coffees and grappa up on deck. Being hooked up to the town wall meant the night sights of Trogir were oh so close and pretty specky I have to say.

The next morning was a bit overcast so we cooked up a huge batch of pancakes for everyone and had a bit of a cruizee start to the day, waiting for the weather to fine up a bit. That morning, Allard and Inga had bought Debs and I a huge bottle of Lozavaco, a particular type of grappa I had taken a fancy to which was very much appreciated I have to say.

I had started to come down with a bit of a head cold and went to the Chemist and was told that most of the town had the same symptoms. I was advised of what to buy and the first chemist I went to had run out of stock and I was given directions to try and buy some from another pharmacy. The route took me through the morning markets of Trogir and the sights and smells of everything on sale started to perk me up as it all looked so good and so fresh.

I was able to buy the last packet of medication in the town and was soon starting to feel a whole lot better. Over a couple of coffees we started to make passage plans to start to head north, dreading the fact that this meant we were really on our way back to the last marina of the trip. Allard and Inga and the kids got organised and made way, with plans made to catch up in another day or so, further up the coast. At least we had that to look forward to.

Eldin, the yacht broker who we had booked the boat through had made contact and he met up with us and we had a couple of coffees together. Not only did he provide incredibly good service to us, he is a really nice bloke and it would have been very easy to spend the whole day sitting down and chewing the fat with him. He had things to do and we had places to go to, so we ended up leaving Trogir about 1.30 and left the harbour with no real definite destination in mind but a number of berthing options along the way.

We sailed north for about 4 or 5 hours, under absolutely brilliant conditions. Around 5.30 we decided it would be a good idea to think about pulling up for the night so we could go out for a bite to eat and get in an early night. Primosten was on our starboard beam and as we had really enjoyed our stay there before, we opted to tack over and stay there the night.

After we got the boat tied up I talked to the crew of the boat that pulled in behind us, displaying an International Association of Yacht masters Flag. It turned out they were from Moscow and the skipper was a nice bloke who had obviously done a lot of sailing in many different parts of the world. They were sailing a Jeanneau 42 I which is the performance version, with a deeper keel and bigger rig. I have to say they are a beautiful looking boat and when the invitation came to have a look on board, it wasn’t long before I was on deck and down below checking the boat out. The skipper was very happy with her sailing performance and overall she looked the goods.

After having a chat with them for a while, we went for a walk in the afternoon sun, taking in a coffee and doing a bit of re-provisioning. We ended up having a Pizza at a Kanoba overlooking the harbour and went to bed to try and catch up on some lost sleep care of our partying with our Dutch cruising companions.

The next morning we rang Allard and Inga and made plans to meet up where we were berthed and sail to the Island of Prvic where we had planned to spend another night together. They had spent the night at Rognica, another place we had called into, about 5 miles to our south. We sent a text to Rob and Chrystal and advised them of our plans and they got back to us to say that they might also make Prvic their stop for the night as well.

Inga and Allard were on their way so we had a quick brekkie, got the boat organised and headed out with them into a beautiful sunny morning. They are sailing in a Bavaria 32 and there was no way that we had any plans of doing any sort of race to Prvic as the boats are just chalk and cheese as far as performance is concerned. Having said that, Allard is a very good sailor and had the smaller boat humming along very nicely. We had a reef in our main, not because of the conditions but because it meant we could sail along with them and enjoy the ride so to speak.

Along the way we spotted a pod of dolphins and both boats ended up spending about an hour sailing in and around about 20 very friendly and playful marine animals. It was an absolutely incredible experience and I think the screams of delight are still reverberating around the islands of Dalmatia!!!

We got into Prvic about 2.00pm and spent another great afternoon wandering about the village, having a coffee or two and making plans for dinner. Rob and Chrystal arrived not long after and we quickly became one big group again. I wanted to make a big pot of chicken soup but when the only market on the island didn’t have any chicken, our plans of a dinner on board rapidly changed to dinner on shore. We had a few beers on the boat and headed off to a local Kanoba and had a very nice dinner overlooking the harbour and out to the islands.

Back to the boat and more coffee and grappa meant not such an early start the next morning. The weather had finally taken a turn toward brilliance and we relished the opportunity to soak it up. The kids had a bit of a paddle / swim and Debs and Inga took to the guide books and organised our next stop for the night, a bay called Kosirina on the island of Murtar.

We all headed off and put up the sails and made our way north. Not far up the course, we spotted our old mates from Moscow on the International Yacht masters boat a few hundred yards off into the distance. Debs was on the helm putting our boat through her paces in great conditions and when the Russians started to cover any tacks we made it became very obvious they did not like the idea of a cruising boat being helmed by a bikini clad skipper catching up to them!!!

I think it is fair to say that a race was well and truly on and whilst we had planned to have a nice relaxed sail with Allard and Inga and Rob and Chrystal, the thought of taking on a performance boat full of Yacht masters had too much appeal!

We raced them all the way to Kosirina over a couple of hours and I am happy to say it was our stern that was in their view as we turned off to drop the pick in the bay. The wind had just been strong enough to make the smaller headsail on our boat work well and the speed at which we are able to tack with the self tacker compared to the regular genoa configuration helped us overtake them and hold our lead. It was a hell of a lot of fun and the big waves they gave us when we turned off indicated they had enjoyed the sail just as much as we did.

We all rafted up together in the bay and spent the afternoon chatting away, having a few drinks and putting together a meal from whatever food each boat had left on board. There were quite a few boats also anchored in the bay but one left quite late in the night. I don’t know whether it was a coincidence or not but they left about half an hour after we had started singing the night away, bringing out all the old favourites from the memory banks!!

Rob and Chrystal had to leave earlier than us the next morning as they had things to organise with their boat back in Sukosan so the Krijt family and us ended up having a big cook up brunch of bacon and eggs followed by everyone going for a swim in the crystal clear but not so warm water. I don’t think anyone wanted to make the decision but it had to be done and the time came to say goodbye.

The Krijt’s were making for Biograd where they had picked their boat up from and we had decided to come back to Sukosan. After quite an emotional goodbye we realised that Inga had left her thongs on board so we had to motor up to catch them to pass her foot cargo over. We had 20 odd miles to go so we motor sailed for a little while until the breeze came in and we spent the final afternoon having one of the best sails of the trip getting back to the marina about 7.00pm.

We fuelled up and berthed and went to the restaurant at the marina for dinner and got to bed about 10.30 feeling very sad that our charter section of our holiday would soon be over.

Debs, as usual, had done a great job getting the majority of the bags packed up and we will get off the boat soon and probably get a hire car and make our way to Plitvice National Park.

I have to say, this has been the best experience I have ever had with my family. It has been a real adventure and we have all grown so much closer. Debs and the kids have taken to the boat like you would not believe and I can only wonder how amazing it would be to take on a cruising life that so many families opt to do. Who knows!

It won’t be the last blog as I will probably blog from Amsterdam where we are going to catch up with Loes and Patrick and we are so looking forward to seeing them again. We are blessed to have all of our friends, our old ones and the new ones we have made over the past few weeks.

Alsy is very sad this morning.

Blog ya later.

---

---