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Published: October 10th 2007
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Sunday October 7th
An early rise today saw us ready to leave by 7.30am. We had only been ready for a couple of minutes when Peter called out and we proceeded to pack our luggage into his car. We made a stop at a bakery before arriving at the ferry terminal. Rags was surprised at the size of these car ferries even though we had seen a couple on our way past on the bus over the last week.
Although our ticket said to be there at 8.00am it was typically almost 8.30am before the gates opened and we were able to board. However, it did promptly leave Dubrovnic at 9.00am.
There were plenty of seats and we found a comfy one in the bar area. Here we spread out and passed the time reading our novels. After a while we struck up conversation with people near us who were on their way to Stary Grad on Hvar Island. They were travelling in a group of 6 and were from Illinois, USA. Others joined the discussion and we learnt more about destinations in Croatia. Sometime during the morning we decided this was a comfy way to travel and
made the decision not to stop at Split as originally intended but to carry on to Rijeka. Rags made inquiries about upgrading our ticket but nobody wanted to deal with this on board and it was suggested he should get off and re-board at Split. Mmmmm...
We saw some magnificent coastline stretched out before us as we silently made our way south. Our first stop was the island of Korcula. There was a fairly strong side current as the ship docked and we watched the crew as they threw the ropes onto the wharf and then winched the ship to the edge. What a show they put on! Firstly, the two attempts to throw the line for pulling in the main ropes missed the shore, and secondly, when they did get a line there the knot holding the rope broke loose. Rags watched how they knotted the ropes and he was disgusted. Eventually they started winching the ship in and Rags made Judy move as she was in line for the rope to hit her if it snapped. Occupational Health and Safety could have a ball here.
It was after 4pm when we finally arrived at Stary Grad
on the island of Hvar. Here, all went well as there was virtually no wind or current. After unloading most of the passengers, including our new friends who tried to entice us to join them, we were then besieged by a tour group who had spent the day here. There being few restrictions here on smoking, the lounge soon became filled with smoke, making us look forward to reaching Split within the next hour.
We saw sunset at Split where the boat was docked for over an hour.
At 7.30pm the boat cast off and we were on our way. There were now no more than 20 or so people in the lounge area and some in the forward area as most newcomers had cabins for the ensuing night. Some trickled in to have a drink or watch TV. We pulled out the cards and Judy proceeded to beat Rags in our version of Coo and Can 500.
As we had taken “possession” of one of the corner areas with bench seats we were able to stretch out in relative comfort and both of us had a few hours sleep during the night.
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