We are on our own again; Jim and Tracey, with a few hiccups, made the ferry ride to Split and are starting their cycling tour.
We motored up to Frapa in winds that became increasingly strong. What started as 10 or so knots on our nose ended up at 25 as we turned into the marina. The sea was more rough than the winds would suggest and we were bashing through some surprising waves.
The marina is fairly sheltered so we were parking in about 15 knots. There were a number of boats in line and we just had to wait our turn for the marineros who were very busy. We parked very smoothly and Lori did a great job getting all the lines on. She now has a new skill added to her repertoire - here the marinero likes to throw the lazy lines to the boats. She was expected to catch them on the boat-hook! 2 for 2 - smooth! Can she add this to her Linkedin profile? The marinero remembered us from our previous visits and welcomed us back. They are good here; much better than many of the ACI marinas.
We met up again with Paul and Diane (the couple from Scedro) and had a pleasant dinner on the dock as thunderstorms grumbled over the mountains. We heard the final act of their GPS-based nightmare. Apparently the Garmin equipment had been installed incorrectly and not only was their GPS being inaccurate, but also their radar and AIS were not working. They had basically had to sail with a damaged boat and no reliable electronics all the way to Split at night. Well done!
We will stay here for two or three days to get things in order and plan our route to Pula. Lori is pleased for many reasons: 1. she will have air-conditioning while we’re here, 2. she can get a mani-pedi in the marina, and 3. the supermarket here is a potential source of her meat pastries!
Our first day here was one of disappointments: the laundry couldn’t do our laundry for 5 days and, more crucially, Lori didn’t get a pastry again. We did some of our laundry by hand and got the sheets dry on the lines on the boat - good drying weather.
It’s day 2 and it is starting off well for Lori. The supermarket had the pastries!!! Needless to say she enjoyed hers, and there is the prospect of another one tomorrow. On a more practical note, there is a Mercury outboard service center here and they are going to look at our outboard. It has not worked well (almost not at all) this year despite it supposedly being serviced at the beginning of the year.. We’ll see.
Day 3: Motor is fixed (but I haven’t had the opportunity to confirm this). So we are leaving and heading north to Kaprije again. A good sail for most of the way. The wind is about 10 knots and we are really pinching to try to make our destination without a vast amount of tacking. True Colors does really well in this kind of wind and we pass many boats on our way to the island. We are steadily gaining on a Sense that is larger than us and faster than us (or should be). Apart from my superior helming it is Lori's fine sail trimming that makes the difference.
As we near the island they take their sails down. Shame! We do not. However, we don't quite make the entrance to the little channel that takes us to the harbor. So we throw in two quick tacks - just as the ferry is coming in the other direction! But we are cool, pass port to port and slide smoothly into the bay leaving all our (unaware) competitors in our wake.
Kaprije remains one of our favorites - nothing fancy but a genuine charming family town. It’s also great for getting good walk up over the hill to a gorgeous bay full of islands. Just the thing you need before breakfast.
We retrace our steps one more time and move on to Luka Telascica. It is a great sail for about 2 hours with 12 knots of wind and we are close-hauled doing more than six knots. We park again using the lasso technique and it is smooth and perfect. Almost.
We get ourselves on the buoy easily and we launch the dinghy to make the final adjustments when we see than an oar is detached and in the water. Lori goes after it in the dinghy (with one oar) and despite super-human efforts fails to snag the oar and reconnect not to the dinghy. Oh, by the way, it is blowing 15 knots by now. Lori is adrift. Enter tall young German on jet-ski. He grabs the dinghy with Lori in it, tows it to the oar and returns all three to me on the boat with a big smile. This is why the Germans really should run the EU (if they don’t already).
We will hang out here tomorrow and do some planning for the next month.