Holidaying with the Bachmanns

Susi, Till, Vivi and Emil have joined us for a holiday, we're travelling from Split to Zadar together. The girls are thrilled to be reunited.


More later...

Croatia

We had one last night in Brindisi which we spent anchored within the harbour, there was some gentle movement which helped us find our sea legs again after 6 nights in the marina. When we spotted people visiting the castle overlooking the harbour we decided to take the dinghy over to investigate. Our curiosity was rewarded with a free art exhibition and the opportunity to explore the old building which was fascinating.



The following morning we waved Islay Mist off before setting off ourselves, destination Ubli on Lastovo, Croatia. Once again after the first hour under sail we motored the rest of the 28 hours as outside the harbour the wind wanted to send us to Albania before dropping off altogether. We're getting used to overnighters now and this one was straightforward. We had anticipated that we would be crossing a busy shipping route but we only saw 3 boats in our combined watches. The morning of the second day was glassy flat and the dolphins came calling once again. We took the opportunity to get a bit of cleaning done - girls and boat.

Our arrival into Ubli did not disappoint. The island is heavily wooded and the trees were pulsing with the cicadas' call. The sea here is crystal clear and the anchoring safe and sheltered. This island used to be within a military zone and forbidden to tourists, and within the bay where we anchored there is still a dock tunelled into the cliff which was used for hiding submarines and torpedo boats - part of the camoflage netting is still visible.


This anchorage was the perfect place to launch our new kayak which the girls love, and we could recover from the lack of sleep with a lazy swim and paddle.

Since our arrival we have island hopped our way north to Solta and (about time) have had some good sailing conditions. It has been a pleasure to be doing short hops with flexibility of destinations.

We stopped for a couple of hours in the harbour at Hvar Town. This is one of Croatia's most popular tourist destinations and so we were expecting it to be busy. And it didn't disappoint. Colin didn't come ashore so as to keep an eye on Skyran. It's just as well he didn't: the water was constantly churning with the wake of boats criss-crossing and absolutely packed with charter boats attempting to anchor including one which tried to lay its anchor over ours.


Meanwhile onshore the girls and I were rapidly overheating in the late afternoon sun, and so after taking on a few supplies we headed off and found a peaceful spot in a bay a short distance away. We returned early the following morning for a bit of exploring - we thought that 8am would be pleasantly warm but not so, we'll have to set our alarm clocks even earlier if we want to escape the heat here. We only briefly explored, it's a pretty place but everything was so expensive, a bottle of water cost £3.50. Clearly the glamorous locations are out of our budget.

Croatia is shaping up to be a relaxed place to spend some time. So far the sailing has been good, the anchorages sheltered and the water deliciously inviting. We are all getting lots of swimming opportunities and the girls are loving it (& so are we!). And when they're not swimming they are sitting cooling off in salty sea baths. The people are generally friendly though after Italy they seem to lack a certain joy, maybe a legacy of their recent past, either that or they're suffering from the heat too!

Malta to Italy

Another update on our progress. Anna joined the crew in Valletta and after a night there we then anchored up in the Blue Lagoon. That night we had our first dinner guests on board with Peter, Ruth & Will from Time Warp, who brought some delicious food. The following day was a holiday in Malta and it seemed that everyone with a boat descended on the Blue Lagoon. The wake was insane! We set off that afternoon for Sicily with the intention of reaching Corfu and reached Siracusa on Sicily after an overnight passage. We enjoyed two nights anchored in this lovely town (note to anyone in our footsteps, following this town has the BEST laundrette ever, so friendly and cheap).

From Siracusa we set off for Corfu. During the day the conditions were very calm, the water barely rippled in places, and we were treated to amazing displays of agility by the tuna who were leaping out of the water. During the night however the wind picked up more than had been forecast and so we made the decision to divert to mainland Italy instead. We continued our passage through the following day, once again the wind dropped and the sea was glassy. This time we were treated to leaping Swordfish and more wonderful dolphins.

On the morning of the third day we decided that, rather than making for Brindisi we would stop at Otranto, on the southern part of the heel of Italy. After taking on water we moved to anchor in the bay and get some well-earned rest. And how lucky we did as we found ourselves anchored with another Scottish boat, Islay Mist from Shetland, with two girls Alisha (6) and Kaylee (5) on board. Since then we have travelled north to Brindisi together and spent a week in the marina due to strong northerly winds. The girls have been getting along fantastically as we are on the same pontoon only one boat apart.

We haven't seen much of Brindisi centre, but have found lots of goodies for the boat (and one or two things for ourselves) at the out of town shopping malls. We've also replaced the outboard which was stuck in reverse, and got the fridge fixed (it had expired its coolant gas in Tunisia). I think we have many reasons to thank the winds for blowing us off course from Corfu. And we couldn't have covered so much distance in such a short time without Anna on board helping out with the night watches. Thanks Anna!

Our onward plans are to Croatia to meet with Viv and family who will be joining us on the boat. And we'll undoubtedly be seeing Islay Mist again as we're more or less on the same schedule.