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