Friday, July 15, 2022

Stormy Start in Slovenia - Smooth Sailing in Croatia

In June in Marina Izola Felix Yachting mounted our new Propeller, a brand new Maxprop Easy 4-blade E90 18" and accurately applied two layers of Antifouling of Seajet 034 Emperor white. Peter from Supreme Sails refurbished our Sprayhood and inserted new plastic windows. I scrubbed the deck and all teak parts while my wife Ilse thoroughly cleaned the interior of our boat.

So we were ready to sail when our son Matthias arrived with our grandson Jonas on Thursday, July 7th, 2022. We first motored to Koper to refuel at a price of 1.80 Eur per liter diesel. Then we sailed to the pleasant bay of Strunjanski Zaliv and anchored carefully. Weather forecasts announced a maximum wind of 20 kn. But at 18:00 suddenly strong gusts arrived and a thunderstorm began. Our boat rocked in brutal high and irregular waves. We recorded max wind of 48 kn. Woefully we had to witness a boat moored at a buoy with nobody on board suddenly cutting loose and finally smashing on the rocky shore. Our heavy plough anchor fortunately held tight. After two hours everything was over and we had a simple meal with cooked potatoes and tea.

Next morning we crossed the border from Slovenia to Croatia and declarrd entry in Novigrad. To the harbormaster we payed the yearly "boat arrival notification fee" of 662.- Kuna in cash and the tourist tax we paid online per person on the new web page. With smooth westerly winds we sailed further south and anchored in Uvala Sv. Martin for two placid days of swimming and snorkeling.


On Sunday 10th we moved 6 sm to the crowded bay west of Funtana, got our dinghy ready and bought some bread in the nearby village. As we noticed a small leak in our dinghy we looked also for a proper glue, but could find none. Also in Marina Vrsar, where we motored next day, no glue was available. Monday evening we had a typical Croatian dinner at Konoba Kod Luce. After buying some food next morning we found a place to anchor in the crowded bay east of the small isle Cavtat north of Vrsar.


Wednesday we sailed northwest with nice southeasterly winds into Uvala Tarska in Luka Milna, where we spent a quiet night at anchor. Early morning when the quarry north of Luka Milna began to work loudly with a lot of dust we motored into Novigrad, declared exit and sailed back to Slovenia. Near the Bay of Piran we saw some dolphins, took a final swim and moored our boat back in Marina Izola. We celebrated our small cruise with a fine dinner at Gostilna Doro 

We sailed 25h and logged 78sm in 8 days. 


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