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Published: April 15th 2008
Hello from Trogir (Just north of Split)
Tuesday the 15th of April.
Well I am sitting in my nice warm saloon with the heater running, nice hot cup of coffee, Debsy is tucked up in bed with her coffee and her book and the girls are sound asleep and it is ten past nine in the morning. Any idea what the weather might be like outside?? Listen intently and you can hear the wind howling through the rigging and the sound of rain falling onto the deck, if you try hard you might also feel the boat rocking beneath you. All in all, not one of the nicest mornings we have had. Being very fair though, we are looking out over the very famous town of Trogir, a UNESCO World Heritage Listed site, but more of that later.
We last posted a blog on the evening of the 12th of April when we were berthed up at the ACI Marina at Skradin. Thus far, Skradin was our favourite place in Croatia and we ended up having two nights in the Marina. As was forecast on good old reliable Split Radio, which broadcast our marine weather reports 3 times
a day, the 13th was not going to be a very pleasant day so when we woke up we decided we would have a bit of a look around Skradin, let the girls catch up on the net and generally take it easy with a view of going up to the Krka Waterfalls the next day.
Skradin is downstream from the waterfalls and the water is essentially fresh so quite a few boats, especially wooden boats, tend to moor up there during the off season to save on maintenance costs. The village, in various forms, has been in existence for almost 2000 years and has had a very colourful history of ownership with many different countries seeking to claim their right to the little piece of paradise. Turks, Romans, Venetians, Austrians and others (yes I know, I ran out of countries to think of) have all fought tenaciously to hold onto their ownership of the place.
It was and still is a place of importance for a number of reasons, including the fact that it is such a deep water port offering full access to the sea but also the waterfalls allowed the construction and continued use of
water mills that ground the wheat and corn, providing huge wealth to the owners. Apart from all of that, modern day Skradin is an incredibly popular tourist destination for Croatians and land based Europeans as well as the large number of visiting yachts that make this a relaxing stop off for a day or two or even longer.
Apart from the waterfront, the village is built on a bit of a headland with the obligatory old fort on top of the ridge and the clock / bell tower and beautiful old church in the middle of the village. As the tolling of the bells is somewhat foreign to us back home, especially in the manner of use over here, we are still being awoken in the early morning by the sounds. It is not an unpleasant sound at all and some days, especially Sundays, the bells are given a huge workout, letting everyone know, from far and wide it is time to come to Church and make up for all the sins committed for the past week.
Of course all the houses are made of cut stone, some painted, some not and the streets are paved either with
old cobble stones or new modern pavers, depending on the area of the village. The streets, for want of a better word in these very old places tends to be incredibly narrow with barely room for three or four people to pass each other and in some places, like where we are now, the streets are literally only wide enough for about two people to pass each other. Croatians tend to drive these little Fiats and I am sure the designers had these towns in mind when they drew up the plans, just big enough to fit two people and the fresh bread and just narrow enough to squeeze between the walls of the houses. There have been the odd occasions where we’ve had to jump into someone’s doorway just to let a car get past.
Anyway, back to the 12th of April. Debsy and I made use of the good facilities once again having nice hot showers and the use of flushing toilets (an absolute luxury for the girls after the pump toilets on board) and then decided to go for a bit of a walk up to the old fort and generally have a look around the
place. Just as we were ready to go, a beautiful big Hanse 470E came into the Marina and we were blessed with one of those travel moments where you meet people in situations where it was just meant to happen. Thomas and Rae are the owners of this beautiful boat and when they are not sailing her around Croatia, they live and work in Switzerland. Well you wouldn’t want to know it but Thomas is also an agent who works for the Royal Sailing Company that sells Hanse Yachts in Croatia and I have communicated with his boss Chris a few times over the past months.
Thomas and Rae’s yachts is called Sarabella and their web site is www.sarabella.ch They use their boat for private use as well as taking customers out for private charters and to Debs and my way of thinking, it would be a brilliant way to see the absolute best of Croatia, cruising around with two incredibly friendly and nice people who know the place back to front, all the time, being on board one stunningly beautifully luxury yacht. Now if you think Alsy could picture himself in a new job you are absolutely right.
Skradin Church
All Alsy did was walk through the doors!!!Thomas and Rae are very seasoned travellers and speak perfect English.
When the kind invitation to come aboard was extended we jumped at it and were suitably impressed at how good these bigger yachts are. At the time, they had two other couples on board who were gaining their sea miles for the purpose of furthering their Swiss Yachting qualifications and everyone it seemed was having a very nice time thank you very much. No disrespect to Holiday Coast Yachting but there was a tad of difference between B52 and Sarabella!!!. Friendships were formed quicker than you can open a beer and we were invited to go on board later that afternoon for a couple of drinks, an invitation that was accepted very happily by the Sparkes family.
So Debs and I then headed off and had a great time exploring the town and sites. From high on top of the old fort we could see a soccer game being played and we thought it would be nice for Nikki to check out the local talent so to speak. Of course we had to have a coffee before we got back to the boat and stopped off at
a local bar / coffee shop and met up with a couple of Kiwi ladies who were travelling around Croatia. They were ladies a bit older than us and were having a hoot of a time travelling around, catching buses and taking in every site they could. We had a good old chat to them, finding a bit of a relief being able to speak ‘normally’ in that we, especially me, didn’t have to ease up on the speed of conversation and make sure our pronunciation was spot on.
We went back to the boat, expecting to have to prise Nik away from the internet but when we mentioned the soccer game, she was up and ready in no time and we walked over to the soccer ground and took up positions right in the middle of the two sets of spectators. Obvious reason being we didn’t know which team was which and didn’t really want to offend any of the, at times, very passionate, supporters. The teams we were watching looked, according to Nikki, to be about under 16 boys teams and it was a really good game. They play the game in what I thought was a
very physical fashion but Nik explained that it was no more physical than the games she and her all girl team mates from her rep side play against the boys. We have been very lucky to have been kept up to date by Nikki’s Coach, Rachel, about the results thus far from Nikki’s team and it looks like they have been kicking a bit of butt back home: Go girls!!! While we were watching the game Nik realised how much she’s been missing her soccer and can’t wait to get back into it when we get back.
We saw one goal scored during the match and by the anger displayed by one team at the end of the game, it was obvious the one goal was the winner. Quite a few very unhappy little campers amongst the red team. It was good fun to watch the game, something we didn’t really expect we would be doing on the trip but we take what we can when we can.
We spent a few hours just chilling out, having a read or using the internet, playing cards and taking time out with the odd visit to the local bar for
a coffee. We have finally worked out the Croatian for a weak, white coffee and can now sit back and enjoy a good coffee without the massive caffeine rockets we were getting before. The coffee is very strong and we used to get a small jug of hot milk on the side to dilute it to our tastes but the good old phrase book has paved the way for coffee time bliss.
We grabbed a few beers and some nibbles and joined the crew of Sarabella for a few drinks and plenty of stories. We clicked really well with everyone and we had a really nice time on board and made tentative plans to possibly catch up with them when they come back on board after the 26th of April. They will be sailing up in the north of Croatia and whilst we had not planned to go up that way, who knows what the next couple of weeks will bring. I have a feeling that if we don’t catch up with Thomas and Rae this trip, we will see them either here or back home some time in the future. I am sure there would be no shortage
of volunteers of crew if they decided they wanted to bring their yacht to Australia and back to Europe again!!!!
After a few beers the thought of a nice hot pizza was very appealing so we headed off to the only place in town that sold Pizzas. We had dinner the night before at a place recommended in the guide book (note to self - forget guide book recommendations for eating out) and it was definitely not in the grand final of memorable places to eat. The pizza shop on the other hand was; we had these fantastic pizzas that were bigger than a large size back home for about $8.00 each. We thought the pizza’s we used to get in Italy were the best but I think the old Croatian variety might just have their nose in front. I guess the plus for the Italians is the wine that you can get with your meal there as compared to their friends across the Adriatic, and that might just get them enough bonus points to end up in front.
We had a very peaceful sleep safely tucked up in our mooring and woke up to an incredibly beautiful
Where's wally
(The fisherman) sunny morning. Our plans of heading to the waterfalls on a nice day were coming to fruition. We got ready and said our goodbyes to the crew of Sarabella and then we headed off for our walk up the falls which ended up being about a 5 klm walk along the river. It really was a nice walk with spectacular scenery to take in all along the way, amongst quite large river gorges and forested areas.
The Krka water falls (worth a look on the net) is an extensive series of falls that is all part of the national park. You can either walk to and or from the falls or catch the boat. Either way is the same price included in the admission to the park but the walk up was really a nice way to go. The Croatians have built an extensive boardwalk all through the falls and you simply meander you way around, taking in the sites and sounds of the falls and having a look at the old mills they still use for display purposes. We had a great morning wandering around before we caught the boat back to Skradin.
We were back in
time to get organised to make way and head back down the river and onto our next port of call. We had made a choice of either Primosten or Rogoznica having enough time and sunshine in the bank to make either. We headed off, sad to leave such a great place but looking forward to new experiences.
We sailed for most of the way down the river and when we got to the sea mouth the wind was getting up so we decided to practice putting up the main into the first reef for the first time. Obviously better to get to know how to reef the main before we actually needed it and found the new system we had not used before, quite easy to set up.
We had a really nice sail down to Primosten and berthed up on the sea wall right next to the village, yep another one of those very old villages built on a small hill right on the seashore. As soon as we berthed up and handed over our ships papers to the harbourmaster, we headed off to grab a slaba bijela kava (weak white coffee) and then went for a
walk around the foreshores. We found one of the many ice creameries that seem to found in every village (much to everyone’s pleasure). The ice creams generally cost about $1.25 to $1.50 each, a definite bargain in Debsy’s opinion.
We walked around to a indoor swimming pool which was attached to a very large hotel complex and the 26’C water temperature shown on the gauge looked very appealing indeed, especially to Layni who thought the most appropriate thing her Dad could do was to book a room so she could go for a swim. Needless to say another one of great disappointments in Layni’s life!!!!
Had dinner on board that night and settled down for another very comfortable snooze. The wind had dropped right off and there was no swell coming into the harbour. With two stern lines and two bow lines tying her nice and securely, the old girl was not going anywhere: and the boat was nice and safe as well!!!
We woke to one of those mornings the travel poster photographer’s dream of with absolute brilliant sunshine and not a cloud in the sky. The girls were still sleeping so Debs and I headed
off for a walk up to the old church on top of the island and a general walk around the place and of course our slaba bijela kavas. We found the local supermarket, being a Konzum brand market, a bit like our equivalent to Woollies but on a much, much smaller scale. We took the punt and bought a couple of cheaper bottles of red, saying a little prayer they were going to be consumable at some stage in the future. We also loaded up with our newly discovered favourite brand of Croatian beer, ‘Karlovacko’ and a few more necessities of life, especially the chocolate.
Had a great brekkie on board, soaking up the beautiful warm sun overlooking the village before we headed off. We were able to put up a full main and full headsail and set sail for Rogoznica further to the south. We head a great reach south with the winds from the north west, sailing through a very large race fleet that was heading to the race course being set to our north. Naturally the adrenaline surged a bit and try as hard as I could, my crew flatly refused to turn the boat and
Krka Falls National Park
The old water mill grinding corn join the fleet. I am sure we could have made Australia proud with our efforts but it wasn’t to be this morning!!!!
We berthed into Rogoznica and tied up the sea wall with the assistance of the harbour master. This was the first time we had the opportunity to see if we could just tie up for an hour or so and not pay any mooring fees so we could do a bit of sightseeing and have a coffee or both. Like all of the harbourmasters we had encountered so far, this one was incredibly helpful and friendly and there was no problems whatsoever about our intentions. The village is undergoing some major pipe laying at the moment and the road around the foreshore is very cut up and I would say would be keeping a few boats out of the place. Rogoznica is another of those V.O.T.O.T.S.S. (very old towns on the sea shore) which was epitomised by Layni who when she came ashore after being below during our berthing yet again, said, “Is this the town we left from this morning?” When we said, “no”, she said, “It looks just the same as the place where we
stayed last night!!!”
One incredibly happy and friendly café bar operator welcomed us, literally with open arms and the biggest smile I have ever seen. We had dva (2) slaba bijela kavas, a hot chocolate, an ice cream and a large piece of what I can best describe as custard slice for about $8.00. On top of that, old mate gave us two free ice creams when we left!!! Best bargain of the trip so far. There was a fair bit of swell coming in on the boat so Layni and I decided to stay nearby while Debs and Nik headed off for a bit of a look around. After having lunch it was time to set sail for Trogir and the harbourmaster helped us off as the wind was causing a bit of havoc. (We also got a great farewell wave from ‘Old Mate’ at the café.) The boat, with her layout and size has a lot of freeboard and of course windage so manouvering her around can be a tad tricky at times. I can see how handy a bow thruster would be.
It was about a four hour sail to Trogir and again we were
broad reaching and running before the wind almost all the way down. I am continually impressed with the boat as far as her sailing qualities are concerned and she sails beautifully on all points of sail.
When we were about an hour into the trip we could see a yacht off into the distance and on the same course as we were. The old adage of two boats at sea means a race came into play and the race was on. As it turns out she was a 45’ Elan sailing with a full genoa and full main up and we ended up catching up and passing her quite easily. Her crew was very nonplussed to say the least when we gybed down under them and went past their stern giving a good old Aussie salute as we went past, heading back into shore toward Trogir. They appeared to have the s#@*ts big time and would not acknowledge our presence in any way, shape or form which was in complete contrast to all the other charter boats and yachts we have passed on our travels so far who tend to wave quite enthusiastically as we pass each other.
We had the best sail of the trip so far and Debs became very adept at gybing the main and Nikki trimming the head sail as we made our way down the coast. I think there might actually be a bit of a racing crew developing in Debs and Nik as they seemed very chuffed with their efforts in cleaning up the bigger Elan and their extensive all male crew. Layni is contributing as much as she can and her enthusiasm and willingness to be involved cannot be matched by anyone on board. She is being given little tasks at a time and I am sure over time will become and incredibly adept crew person.
We made our way into the ACI Marina and berthed up in some pretty strong winds, dodging the shallow water and a very large car ferry coming up along side us. Boat settled, crew settled, ships papers handed over and time to walk over the bridge into this incredibly beautiful V.O.T.O.T.S.S. We had passed Trogir in the bus on the way from Dubrovnik to Sukosan and she looked to be pretty busy little place. As we had booked some accommodation here for the 7th
of May when we had made our original plans to bring the boat back here, we had done some internet searching and had a bit of a mental picture of the place.
I am happy to say Trogir has by far, exceeded my expectations as far as a V.O.T.O.T.S.S is concerned. It is quite busy but in a good, positive, buzzy kind of way. The town does not seem to have many tourists here at the moment but lots and lots of locals. The marina where we are berthed is full of boats being prepared and made ready for the charter season and we are the only visiting charter yacht in here at the moment.
We had a bit of a walk around the town and met the harbourmaster who looks after the town sea wall and visiting boats. His wife is actually an Aussie and they spent many years in the south of W.A. Really nice guy. Trogir takes the cake as far as narrow streets are concerned and it is strictly pedestrian only inside the town walls. It is like being in a maze inside the walls and the tiny streets are lined with cobble stones
worn smooth over the centuries of pedestrian traffic. Shops of all descriptions line either side and people are moving around in the streets, popping into and out of the shops like rabbits. Trogir is a really nice place and one we are really glad we made the passage to.
We had dinner on board with some nice tortellini and we opened our bottle of Croatian mystery red and are very pleased to report that our money was not wasted. After dinner, Debs and the girls sat up in the cockpit reading Czech Fairy tales overlooking the old fort which is brilliantly illuminated along with the rest of the foreshores.
Since starting on my blog first thing this morning everyone eventually all got up and about. Today has been a bit of a mish-mash with Debs and Layni heading into the old town and Nikki has been on the net for some time. I have had a chance to do some reading and making a nice big pot of soup for dinner. The girls have been making a ‘cubby’ in the saloon, passing a bit of time and being creative, all the while being carefully looked over by our
boat mascot, ‘Sparky’ a very cute little bear Debs and the girl gave me on my birthday. The weather looks like it might be on the improve a bit so we will have to spend a bit of time going over the charts and working out where to next: If only all problems in life were this exquisite!!!.
P.S Have uploaded heaps of photos tonight so make sure you go to the consecutive pages via the tool bar on the bottom of the images - Cheers, Alsy, Debs, Nikki & Layni xx
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patrick
non-member comment
Skypieeee
He Travellers, Doing great, right? Again it's great to read the stories. You're putting a lot of effort in it. we did the same and it's great to read it again after sometime yourself. We tried to call you on your ceelphone but it's not accepting incoming calles somehow, so I left a message on your skype voicemail. Hope to talk to you soon. EnjooooooooooooooY!!!!! Loes and Patrick