Hello to You All Again

First I must apologise to all who have written, for not getting back to you sooner.  I have had a MAJOR disaster – my computer decided
I had bashed it around for long enough and given it too much sea air, so gave up totally.  A trip to an Italian specialist where he worked on it for a week trying to revive it, made no difference. But he did manage to transfer my photo file onto an external hard drive thank- goodness, otherwise I would have had to make Alec retrace our WHOLE trip so far, to replace them – Yeah Right!!!!!  Then we had a few issues with Alec’s computer which he has finally sorted thank goodness, so I will be using his till I can replace mine.  I won’t do it here in Italy as my Italian is not quite up to explaining what I would like.  In fact my Italian is all of two to three words!! But I do have all the hand waving etc. and to date are getting along just fine.  Hopefully I can add another three words to my vocab soon.  OK now back to the matters of our Adventures to date.

Venice

Hello again

 

The morning of Thursday 20^th September saw us departing Rovinj - Croatia, and 10 hours later after 60nm, dropping anchor in the Lagoon of Venice just off Treporti and Marina Fiofita.  We were able to sail some of the way but the winds were light and the seas a little lumpy.  The last few miles was slow going as we navigated our way along the canal system inside the Lagoon avoiding the ferries transporting visitors to and from Venice and the surrounding Islands.   This was my third visit here.  Alec and I passed through Venice doing a ferry flight from Europe to the Middle East in 1987, but never had time to venture into the old city.  I returned in 1999 with my good friend Helen on our European trip, and loved it then. So to come back to this wonderful old seafaring port in one’s own boat was quite a buzz.

 

The birth of this city begins sometime in the 4^th century with the collapse of the Roman Empire.  The invasion of Italy by the Barbarians ( Huns ) forced the people on the mainland to seek refuge on the Islands in the Lagoon. It did not take the Venetians long to develop trade, first with the mainland selling salt, then moving down the Adriatic and then soon further afield.  Over time they also conquered lands and built forts and cities as they went.  Hence today we have been able to visit some of these wonderful old places as we have moved not only up the Adriatic, but all around the Mediterranean.  One can always tell where the Venetians have been as there ‘stamp’ is left in stone in the form of ‘The Lion of St. Mark’ as a plaque on all their fortresses.  See photo.

Croatia No 2

Hello Again

 

First many many thanks to all who have written of late to keep us up to date with what has been happening with you.  Love getting your news.

 

Well a few more miles have been covered and lots of interesting places have been visited since our last letter went out.  We left you in Split – Middle Croatia.  From there we sailed towards Trogir, stopping off for a night in a delightful bay towards the north western end of the Island of Ciovo.  This was the first time since arriving in Croatia that we were able to anchor in sand – wonderful holding.  We could see the anchor well dug in at 11mt.  The water temperature was 27.7 degrees so swimming was a must.  Then it was on to Trogir. Here we were to wait for Wendy and her boat ‘Selinaris’ who had sailed into the Red Sea with us.  She was dropping off a crew member and picking up another, both who were also on that Red Sea trip, and with whom we wanted to catch up with again. Kerry from Wales. This time he had his wife Pam with him, they were leaving the boat, and Wendy’s partner John joined the boat.  It was a fun catch up time.

 

Croatia No.1

Hello Again

 

Croatia, what a night to remember !!!   We arrived at  6 PM at a small town called Cavtat.  Cavtat is just 8 miles south of the old walled city of Dubrovnik. Dropped anchor in 6 meters of water amongst a dozen or so yachts in a nice big bay.  Jumped into our tender and off to check in. Very efficient but rather expensive.  Navigation fees, light dues, Govt. admin fee, chart and cruising permit for 3 months, a total of  NZ $ 400.  Back to Shamal on dusk at 8.30 pm.  The dreaded Bora  wind starts to increase.   The Bora ( Katabatic mountain wind ) is a “ speciality “ of the eastern Adriatic coast and can be very dangerous. It can blow with sudden NE gusts.  The wind by 10 pm is now increasing to 25 Kts  so the skipper decides to put more anchor chain out.  Another 10 meters so now we will have 45 in total. As the chain was going out we started dragging  and got rather too close to a yacht moored behind us.  An Italian yacht next to us also was dragging. Several yachts were also trying to re anchor which made for a very busy bay.  So up anchor and out of here !!!  But we also lifted the anchor of the yacht behind us.  Now the wind is 35 kts.  If that wasn’t bad enough we were towing him to our new anchorage !!!  Alec wondered why at 2600 rpm Shamal was only making 1 kt into the headwind. I took the helm while Alec managed to drop the other yachts  anchor.  Really surprising nobody came on deck of the yacht that we were towing being  totally oblivious to the drama that was unfolding.   Now at midnight, after being at our new anchorage for two hours, we again started dragging - bugger !!!  We wanted to go to bed.  Finally we re anchored again in deeper water,  15 meters, amongst  the Super Yachts. 

Corfu - Albania - Montenegro

Hello to You All Again

Well what an interesting month July turned out to be.  On Friday 13^th while we were still in Corfu I flew out and left my cousin Simon and his wife Kay with Alec while I went off to Dubai to help Brigitte pack up her apartment and get everything into storage.  Dan had already left for the States where he was doing a flight rating ( Dash 8 ) followed by a job to get his flying hours up.  The plan at this stage is for Dan to return to Abu Dhabi by the end of the year and for Brigitte to follow when the twins are old enough to travel.  Alec and I plan to fly out to the States and help her take them back to Abu Dhabi.  Plan A !!!!