Letter from the Med- Korcula-Split-Hvar

by Ian and Andrea Treleaven on 23 Sep 2006 Korcula jutting out into the Adriatic is on a peninsular surrounded by a fort. The old town inside is of stone with red roofs, complete with churches with spires. The huge lime stone mountains on the main land engulf this scene making this the most photographed place from the air I have seen.

The weather forecast isn’t looking good, but with a southerly wind coming and our destination is north, we take the opportunity to run with it.
Spinnaker flying, gybing three times, (excellent crew work from Janey and
myself) flat seas, we sail passed the island of Hvar very quickly. 35nm in four hours; it’s getting dark as we arrive.

With no shelter in Hvar harbour we sail onto a small island to find good anchorage for the night. Or so we thought! Law of averages, when its pitch black and blowing hard you have to move. We face the wrong way due to a strong current between the islands hitting another yacht and we all have to get up to relocate. Janey and I are now up and down all night pressing the anchor button. I must admit though, this is the first time for us this season.

Suddenly the islands loose all their charm as we are in for more bad weather. Rain, thunder, lightning, I dream of a day in bed reading. With Split only 20nm away, Janey and I are kicked out of bed, let’s go. Reefed down and no visibility we venture out of the bay into the canal.

Janey reminds us of the movie ‘The Perfect Storm’ where two backpackers nervously go along for the ride and the old man says 'isn’t this fun!'

Split Harbour and we are very excited to at least be picking up anchor windlass parts. No more arms being wrenched out of their sockets as I free run the anchor chain through my hands to stopping the bloody thing as I drop it.

Ian goes ashore to collect the parts and wouldn’t you know it, a huge storm blows through. Janey and I are on board, 40 knot winds, boats dragging around us and my head planning what to do if!!!!

The harbour turns from a beautiful blue to shit brown, but we don’t move, someone is looking after me. Our day has not ended as we venture ashore to
visit Diocletian’s Palace.

The Roman Emperor Diocletian, noted for his persecution of the early Christians, built the palace in AD 295 as his summer residence. It is among the best preserved monuments of Roman building heritage in the world.

After having a meal ashore we return to the dock and an upside down dinghy with outboard completely under water. Oh no, Ian has to row out to the yacht in head winds and blood pressure rising.

This stops us in our tracks and Sunday is not a good day to get anything fixed. Ian, the frustrated mechanic, pulls everything apart drains every hole and you want believe it, but the Mercury, twice been upside down, has been going ever since.

Trogir is where we are to meet up with friends Bob and Sue Fraser who are coming on board for a week and Andrew Cochrane for two days. The wind, continual thunder and lightning are with us for a few days but we anchor off Trogir as it’s very nice to just stay put while we wait for our guests.

Janey leaves us after a superb lunch of scampi bouzarra and lobster at Restaurant Amor, a local secret, just outside Trogir. This is our best meal to date and the local bouzarra sauce was too die for. We have this year had some very good meals ashore and have also enjoyed the local wines.

Trogir is an island attached to the mainland by a bridge with a small canal that is very useful for us to get to the markets by dinghy. With its Gothic Style Church, narrow cobble lanes and forts you can very easily get lost in time.

All provisioned, sun comes out, guests arrive, our cruising continues. I go to get the anchor up, talking of anchor we where still one part short so I am no better off, it won’t work. The wire connections are corroded but this is quickly fixed. A serene bay for the night and next morning a loo is blocked.

Ian in his element, loves fixing things, with shit around his ears there is not a lot of detail required about the next few hours but the neighbouring boat was fascinated with the boys playing with thick pipes off the end of the transom. He wanted to know if Aussies were full of shit.

We discovered that the problem was a calcium type matter built up in the pipes and wasn’t actually caused by what went down them.

Beautiful Hvar and the perfect day, we walk to the castle, drink at the Hotel Bar on the promenade and just take it all in. We have noticed a lot of Australian back packers here this year and were very annoyed to wake up in the morning to find our Aussie flag has been souvenired. We had replaced it this year with a beautiful hand stitched one and are know back to our faded model.

National flags are compulsory on yachts and it is bloody annoying that they have no respect.

Another very good sea food meal at Hannibal’s Restaurant in Hvar and Andrews’s short trip has ended. Back swimming again, it seems clearer than ever after all that rain and then sail out to the island of Vis. The outer most island of Croatia.