Korcula is the island adjacent to Miljet and is about 12 miles away. The marina can be very busy, so we decided to take the ferry from Polace to the main town (which is also called Korcula) - a 45-minute ride directly to the old walled town.
Korcula is yet another of the Venetian fortified towns like Valletta, Corfu, Dubrovnik and Kotor. It is hard to say which is our favorite. We like Valletta because it is so impressive; we like Kotor as it is the most characterful; but we like Korcula because it packs so much into its small size.
We have one practical mission today - establish wireless internet connection for the boat and for our first guests, Jim and Tracey, who will arrive in two weeks. It has been a mixed bag getting onto the internet in the countries we’ve visited. In general the service coverage is excellent with high-speed wireless available almost everywhere. In Greece we have a wireless hotspot and you can (with some difficulty) top up your minutes as you use them up. We never cracked the code in Montenegro but used the excellent facilities in the marina. As far as devices are concerned, here in Croatia a wireless hotspot is the way to go (or a USB stick for a computer). You can buy SIM cards in many stores and at the Post Office. It was there that we found the devices that we need alsoSo we’ll see how good the coverage is especially when we’re away from the main islands and towns.
Logistical task out of the way, we focus on wandering around the narrow streets of the little town and eat some lunch in one of the old restaurants inside the city walls. Korcula was the birthplace of Marco Polo (inventor of the game that bears his name and discoverer of the land trading route to China). References are everywhere but it’s not as bad as the Game of Thrones souvenir tidal wave in Dubrovnik.
After a relaxed afternoon, we take the ferry back to Polace for our last night in the park. Tomorrow we will set sail for Korcula (this time under our own sails) but aiming for the far western end
The trip is uneventful; very different from when we were here last year. Then a forest fire had taken hold on the south side of the island and fire-fighting planes were scooping water out of the sea and dropping it onto the flames. There is smoke from one fire this year but it seems to be small (at least for now).
Our target is a small bay at the end of the island which is supposed to be charming and quite protected from the moderate winds we will have tonight. It is certainly charming but the holding is not as good as we had hoped. We try to free-swing at anchor but it drags when we put any stress on it. Plan B is taking lines ashore in addition to the anchor. We do this but are not entirely sure that things are fine for the night.
We have dinner and talk with Lori’s mom over FaceTime. The connections is a bit patchy but it lets us connect just enough to be satisfactory. We are pretty remote, so this may be all we can expect. About 9:00 pm the wind picks up and the anchor drags sideways. It is getting dark; time to go to Plan C.
When anchoring, we always discuss what we would do in the specific location if just such a situation arose. In this case it was a pretty orderly exit. Lori did a great job grabbing the lines from the shore and bringing them back to the boat while I used the engine to keep the boat in place. Then it’s up with the anchor and on to our fallback location.
We had talked about this one as we came here. It is a “bay” formed by two islands and a sandbar. It does not in theory offer as good protection from the winds as our original spot but the anchor sets at the first attempt in 2.5 meters of water and we put out lots of chain. Despite winds in excess of 15 knots we are solid all night (though we do keep a wary watch on our position). It keeps you on your toes!
We had said that we wanted to spend this night under the stars in a remote location but our original anchorage was not quite that. However the second one was perfect, almost no lights to be seen and an incredible number of stars filling the sky. It is impossible to get tired of this.
In the morning, smoke from the forest fire on the island is spreading to the adjacent bay. It doesn’t look too bad yet and hopefully it won’t get too much worse.