Korčula Dubrovnik and Cavtat

So in Korčula we had to anchor in the large bay of Luka after several days in bays and we had almost no water at that time. We decided we keep shifts till the morning because bad weather was expected and with so many boats anchored around us, we knew something would happen when the winds starts shifting.
Around midnight, the wind turned 180 degrees, no more than 15 knots but that was enough for some boats to drag their anchor and start moving around to reposition. At some point we saw a Spanish boat and another boat right behind it moving slowly towards the Princess Nayeli. The strange thing was that the boat behind had nobody out, only someone at the kitchen. A couple of minutes later they bumped into our bow and anchor chain while the four of us trying to avoid damage by moving around with fenders. Then, the other boat was released, started moving backwards – again with nobody driving it, and stopped right behind us. The Spanish boat was pushed away and they made their way to find a new spot to anchor. My understanding is that the Spanish boat was juggling between the anchored boats and just took the anchor chain of the other boat for a ride on her keel or rudder. There were a couple of Swiss guys on the other boat, that at some point popped up from the kitchen and just looked around as if nothing is happening. Yael asked them (when it was all finished) if everything is OK, and one of them said: “I think that now it’s OK”.
When it all finished, the wind died and we went to sleep in the cockpit hoping that we’ll wake up if something changes.
At 4AM, I woke up to the sound of some fresh wind. All was OK, except a catamaran that was trying to anchor over and over again. At some point they cut the bowline of a dinghy that was attached to a tiny 25 feet boat. I could see the dinghy traveling in the darkness deep into the bay. I didn’t want to leave the boat and go after it so I just sat there and waited for Yael to wake up. When she woke up, I took our dinghy and went into the bay to where I thought it could have went, and fortunately saw his dinghy floating there next to some fishing boat. I towed the dinghy back to him, woke him up and asked him if he had a missing dinghy. You could see him looking around, surprised, looked at me, saw the cut rope and then just thanked me for the gesture.

The next morning, we decided to take advantage of some drop in the wind to move from Korčula to Mljet.

We got into Pomena at about 10AM, and planned to moor at one of the restaurants. Usually, the deal is that the owner hands you a mooring line and helps you go in, and in return you eat at his restaurant. Surprisingly, none of the 3 restaurant was willing to let us stay. They were all waiting for a better catch. Something like a boat with 10 fat males!
Now, since we had no water – this was a little of a problem for us.
We anchored in a sheltered spot behind an island in Pomena bay and I went with the dinghy and a jerrican and some bottles and just asked for water from one of the boats that were moored there.
The following day, one of the boats left the small quay they have there and we moved over, to take water and wait for the weather to calm down. We took the time to walk to the nature reserve of Mljet.

On Thursday, a day before Yael and the girls had their flight home, we decided to ignore the forecast and just sail to Dubrovnik. There was no wind at all, only some clouds. We motored almost all the way to Dubrovnik.

On Friday 25/7 at 13:30, Yael and the girls took a taxi to the airport to take a flight back home. They’ll be back on August 6th and we’ll meet again in Corfu.

Cavtat

A new crew joined me to sail on from Dubrovnik to Corfu. Yoel, Roy, Gili, Doron and Roded.
We started with a short afternoon sail to Cavtat. 10 miles south of Dubrovnik. Yael saw Cavtat from the taxi to the airport and just called me to suggest we’ll stay there.
Cavtat is a lovely resort town in a beautiful round bay (something like Tigana in Samos).
We had a great night in the middle of the bay.
Roy and the other woke up and 6am and went for a swim. I woke up at 9am after a good night sleep.
Someone approached our boat with a white costume and said he is from the port authority and that we need to pay for anchoring in Cavtat bay. In my entire sailing career I wasn’t asked to pay from dropping an anchor in the middle of a bay… The guy’s name is Antonio, and he plays the sheriff of the bay. We asked him how much we need to pay and he said: “Oh, you will pay! This is Cavtat, it is a very expensive place, but you get 50% discount if you just anchor in the bay and 30% if you go bows to the quay (and not long side).
When Roy returned from his swim he told me that there is a small hole in the rudder (2m under the water level) that I should look at.
The one problem with this bay is that the water is only 18 degrees. I’m not sure why.
Anyway, I went down and saw this smash in the rudder. I don’t know what it is and how it happened.
Today a 78 feet yacht anchored next to us. It’s a huge sailing boat (as you can see in the pictures). A few boats down there is a big Swan and a lot of big power boats all around. It the first time, I felt really small with my 45” Grand Soleil.

Tomorrow we plan to sail down to Montenegro and make the entrance in Kotor.

Princess Nayeli - Korchula Dubrovnik Cavtat

From Noga’s bay to Corčula

We arrived at Noga’s bay (on the Klement islands near Hvar) on Sunday afternoon. The bay was crowded with boats, mostly small power boats. We had a nice afternoon swim and had dinner at the restaurant that views the bay. At night the bay looks like sea of candles with all the anchor lights of the boats. This time the restaurant was disappointing and also the most expensive restaurant we had so far in Croatia. And as a punch line we smelled a very string smell of sewage flowing to the bay from the restaurant when we turned back to the dinghy. At 5am we were waken by a swell that entered the bay and rolled us badly. We left to Corčula later that morning.

Sailing to Corčula was probably the best sail we had so far. It started with no wind and ended with 24 knots straight on our head. We tacked 37 miles (that became 45 miles). Many boats did this path from Hvar to Corčula. There was only one other boat that sailed with us. It was some ketch rigging boat that very quickly started to motor up. The wind grew stronger and stronger till at some point Yael started to ask about reefing. To the girls’ disappointment we decide to do one reef at the mainsail. We didn’t lose much speed, and then later on we rolled some of the genoa as well. When we got closer to Corčula three more boats decided to put up some sail as well and sail up with us. We bit them by far!!! We were so much faster and tighter that at some point they all gave up and started motoring again.
The whole team including the older girls and the younger ones performed very well, so we could do whatever we wanted very easily!!!
There were only two problems:
We didn’t catch any fish, despite the high expectations we had this time.
When we got to Corčula, the marina was full so we turned to the adjacent Luka bay for the night. Yael and the girls took a water taxi straight from the anchoring boat to town and I stayed on the boat to write this story.

There is bad weather expected tomorrow so we’ll probably stay here another day.


Some pictures in the following link (note that I pinned the pictures to the map so you can see where the pictures were taken):

Shibenik to Corchula

From Zadar to Šibenik and Noga’s bay

We sailed to Šibenik today (pronounced Shibenik). We had the feeling of returning home. After all, we’ve already been here 4 times before (We chartered a boat here twice), we like the place and the people, and this is where we got to know Grand Soleil. We chartered a twin boat to Princess Nayeli here – the Matterhorn.

Zadar is a nice old city, where you can still see Roman and Venetian construction. We had a surprisingly great time walking around the old city at night. The one BIG problem that they have here is the smell of the water. It seems like sewage flows straight into the bay. We met in Zadar a French guy (in his late 60’s I believe) named Jean Claude Maman. He has a twin Grand Soleil, same design as Princess Nayeli. He became extremely nice to us once he understood we’re from Israel. He happens to have cousins in Netanya.

So we left Zadar early in the morning of Wednesday the 16th, and stopped for a morning swim in a small bay on Ugljan (pronounced Ulian). The bays in this area have the clearest water I’ve ever seen. You could see every stone on the bottom from the deck with depths of 10m.
From Ugljan we started the tour on the national parks of Dogi Otok and Kornati. The south bay on Dogi Otok is a national park with beautiful high cliffs rising from the sea, and a salt lake. Tons of excursion boats take hundreds or thousands of tourists over here every day. We didn’t find it so attractive. The water in the bay was not clear at all and the salty lake was not something to write home about… It was also when entering that bay that I got a little sick (a little bit of nausea and maybe some fever), and the following day Noga Shaulsky had the same thing. A day later, we all recovered.

From Dogi Otok, we sailed along the long Kornati island in the west channel between Kornati and the hunders of small islands to its west. We sailed close hauled all day, in a low wind day, and were almost the only boat sailing. All the rest of the boats, and there were hundreds of them, just motored up or down the island.
We ended up in a popular, but very nice bay on the island of Kakan. There were maybe 70 boats here, but it’s such a large bay that it’s not a problem. The bay was crystal clear. We could see some starfish, some huge shells (about 10cm), and some sea urchins.

Starting from Šibenik, the wind really got better. We sailed from Šibenik to Drevnik with the Spinnaker the whole day. We were running 6-8 knots in a very pleasant sail. Then from Drevnik to Noga’s bay we did 5-6 knots on a 6-7 knot wind. This boat is fast!

Fishing doesn’t go so well so far. We haven’t fished a single fish from the drag fishhook. We did catch some on the dock but nothing significant.

We’re starting to see the end of the first leg. We should be in Dubrovnik by the end of the week. Naama says that it’s unbelievable that already a month has passed. Time passed so quickly. In Dubrovnik we’re changing crew. Yael and the girls are taking a 10 day break at home and I’m sailing with friends to Corfu where I would meet the family again.

Some pictures from this period:

Princess Nayeli - from Zadar to Sibenik and the Kornati

From Pula to Zadar (Croatia)

Hi All,

First, we have a Croatian phone number at last: +385-997-235-411.


On Sunday, July 6th we sailed from Pula to Cres. What was supposed to be a 35 mile trip became 44 miles of true sailing.
The first 10 miles were with 10-12 knots of head wind so we decided to tack to Rt Kamenjak (the south east tip of the peninsula). The boat sailed beautifully at around 30 degrees to the wind. At maybe 5 miles out, we suddenly saw a small fender floating on the waves, with nothing attached to it. We decided to practice a little and pick it up. It took us 4 times, where on one we went too fast, on another the hook was too thick for the fender’s hole, on another Naama almost fetched it with the small net we have. The main problem is that the fender was moving so fast with the wind and waves that we didn’t have much chance. Eventually Yael decided to jump to the water and pick it up. This time it worked!!
We ended up in Cres, the main city on the island of Cres.
That evening the weather started to change. A trough over the north Adriatic brought in strong south winds (25kts at the marina), with thunderstorms. This means waiting a couple of days in Cres. The old city here is very nice, built around a small fishing port, with narrow alleys and many small shops.
We could spend time sitting at the finishing port, in one of the coffee shops while Noga and Yasmin were practicing crossing a street full of bike rides. It was amusing seeing the 7 year old village girls, trying to find their way through some bike traffic.

From Cres we motored east to the Island of Krk where we met Gal and Michal. We sailed together with them through the islands of Rab and Pag to Zadar. We had everything on the way, from storms that we had to stay in port, to dolphins that we saw a couple of times. We sailed from close hauled to butterfly on 6-20 knots of wind.
We spent one of the nights in a lovely bay on the island of Rab. This bay is unique for its sandy beach. Real sand for a change. So we were anchored in the middle of the bay, could swim in crystal clear water, and spend some time on the beach.
When we were about to leave, we saw a family, with a beautiful 12 year old girl that just set-up a windsurf with a child sail. The whole family was trying to teach the girl to surf, but obviously they knew nothing about windsurfing. Yael decided to help. She jumped on the board, demonstrated, and taught the girl how to surf. In 5 minutes, the girl was on the board, windsurfing…

The sail from Pag to Zadar was fantastic. It all started a couple of days earlier where we had a gale warning and winds of 35-40 knots. We decided to find a marina where we could hide from the storm. We found it in a little ACI marina on the island of Pag in a place called Simuni. Since we were waiting for the storm, we rented a car and drove to Plitvica nature reserve. Plitvica is really beautiful. BTW, we met an Israeli lady there that lost her group, had no money, no cell phone, she knew no number she could call. All she knew is that she was with a group from “Ofakim”…
Anyway, after hiking around the lakes, we sat for a few hours, relaxing, and having lunch/dinner in a lovely hotel at the resort, where we could relax, chat, some of us could even play the piano that they had in the dining room, Jasmine was dancing to the music. It was really a lovely afternoon.
So back to our sail from Pag. The next morning, we decided that a forecast of 12-24 knots of back wind, with a low possibility of gusts, is good for us, and we sailed out to Zadar, which is only 20 miles away.
Princess Nayeli sailed nicely on the deep blue water, mixed with white caps. At some point we decided to put up the Spinnaker. Unfortunately, for a reason I don’t yet know, it tore while taking the snuffer off!
3 miles before Zadar, a heavy rain started. We’re not used to having rain in warm weather in the middle of the summer. It was nice scenery.

Gal and Michal left us today so we’re 6 again, planning to sail to the national reserve of Kornati.

Links to new picture albums: (the pictures are still uploading so I hope I got the right links to all the albums)

Princess Nayeli - Rab to Zadar_1

Princess Nayeli Cres to Krk

Princess Nayeli - From Pula to Cres

From Slovenia to Croatia

The Slovenian coast is very short, so after picking up my mother from Lublijana airport, we sailed out of Croatia. We had to go through customs in Piran because I wanted to detax an outboard engine that I bought in Portoroz. The guys from customs were very nice, but after a few seconds of looking at the papers he said - where are your export documents for the boat? How stupid I am to go into this can of worms... I wasn't sure I was allowed to go through a an EU customs after leaving Italy. Anyway, at some point the customs-officer joined me to the boat to see the new engine, and told me on the way: "You know you made a mistake"... My heart sank... "But it's not a big mistake, it's a small mistake"... "You should have checked into Croatia first, and then get back into the EU, but we won't do you any trouble...". To make a long story short, I got the detax and sailed on to Croatia.

BTW - to all the LP developers, the name Piran drove me crazy. I kept thinking of "prun"...

Some pictures from Portoroz and Piran:

Princess Nayeli in Slovenia - Portoroz and Piran

So, from Piran we sailed over to Rovini in Croatia (about 15 miles). Rovini is a picturesque old town that was a built on a tiny Island and in later days the channel to the Island was filled up and is now part of the mainland. We moored at the North mole of Rovini which is wide open. It's very nice in calm weather, which is what we had there, and in the heart of the city, but every 10 minutes another tourist boat came by, full speed, and uncomfortably rolled our boat.

After Rovini, We spent a night in a bay. Water was cristal clear, 25.4 degrees, and great for swimming. It was the first time we pumped the dinghy, and tried it for the first time. It works great.

We are now in Pula, at the south west corner of Isteria, in an ACI marina.

Some pictures from Rovini and the bay:

Princess Nayeli in Croatia - Rovini

Have fun,

The Halahami family + Noga Shaulsky