Adventures at sea

Seadog Finn at the helm of A Pound of Flesh

Leaving Esther to the biennale dogs, I took off for a week of nautical adventuring. My second such escape from Venice since we've been here (the first being a trip Florence with my folks), I took an early train south to Ancona, from there an overnight ferry to Split in Croatia, and then a bus to Murter where our chartered yacht awaited. My crew for a week of sailing around the Croatian coast was cousin Joe, his partner Jill, and their flatmates Ben and Zoe. They were all travelling across from Portugal where they'd been participating in the world underwater hockey champs. With Zoe and Jill playing, Ben coaching, and Joe providing essential moral support, the NZ women's team won third place.

Beginning at the beginning and taking you through the obligatory first-blog photo essay, here goes.

I got into Ancona at about midday and, like always when I'm in a new place, I walked, walked, walked, and walked. They even had hills for me to climb, and then descend.

A church façade held up by lions on top of the hill.

Looking back at the church from another hilltop.

A lovely curving tunnel I walked through on the way up a differnt hill.

Where I eventually got to this Roman-period Jewish cemetery.

Then down the hill to these weekend holiday bunkers -- ex-fishing sheds originally constructed as military infrastructure.

Fitted out with fully equipped kitchens, essential beach furniture, and obligatory old turtels.

Day 2

Disembarking from the ferry in Split, I was greeted with a harbour full of party boats. My guess is that groups of about 20 young people sign up for a week of 'free living' by the droves. Amongst all this kerfuffle I met the others, who had flown in that morning, and we all piled onto a bus that was to take us... somewhere close to where we wanted to go... I thought. 

Did I say that I landed in Split or Spit?

After a couple of hours on the bus the driver tells us that this is our stop and we get off in the middle of nowhere. A crossroads with a couple of drive-in resturants with these spit roasting animals facing the road. Anyway, the staff there were very friendly and they called us a cab which took us the 20km or so further to our marina. 

When we first arrived to the office of the company that we were chartering the boat from (at about 2pm) they said come back at 5. So we walked around the township.

Figs drying in a backyard.

There was also what looked like a wooden boat graveyard but on closer inspection there were about 12 people fixing them up. Pulling apart some boats for parts and fixing up others. There was an engine and enginering shop on the other side of the road. It felt good to see people fixing up things that would just be dumped in richer places. 

At last we got our boat.

But it turns out that there is a lot of paper work one must complete before setting sail...

Anchor... tick

Main sail... tick

Rope 1,2,3,4   tick,tick,tick,tick...  and so on.

Then you wait around and someone from the charter company comes to do it all with you again. So Joe, Jill, and I left Zoe and Ben to it went to the supermarket to stock up. Who knew how much food and drink for 5 people for a week looked like?! Whooo eee. 

By this time it was about 8 o'clock and there was no way we were leaving that night so we went back into town and got stuck into a family size pizza sitting on the waters edge.

Day 3

Quick shop for fresh fruit and vegies at the morning market, and then after a brief briefing from Skipper Ben we throw off the ropes and we we're away sailing! 

What are all those piles of rocks?

A monastery, no a lighthouse, oh I don't know, but it is on an island.

Dry stone walls right next to the sea edge.

A shrine at the edge of the water. 

So we sailed around some of the local islands and then almost returned but anchored in a bay of Ziminjak, a small boomerang shaped island. That evening Joe and I went ashore for a bit of an explore.

View back to the bay. Our boat is the one on the far left.

Joe found a hobbit hole.

Looking up from inside.

The walls were made of flatish rocks and had pebbles on the inside so that they all sloped down at the front,
directing the water to run off the outside.

Then it was back to sea.

Day 4

We had lunch in a sheltered bay and I walked by myself to the top of Jancar, an island nearby. It had about half a dozen rock piles (one meter tall) and the remains of a 3 room dry stone wall structure. 

We ancored in the bay of another island, Otocic Ravni Zakan. In the morning, just after having breakfast, the ancor came loose and we came about 1 meter from crashing into the rocks before a very quick motor start and off to safety.

Day 5

We sailed up the outside of an island group with the Adriatic on one side and cliffs on the other.

Cliff.

Cliff.

Lots of cliffs.

Stone walls dividing up the hill.

In the afternoon we moored next to a small village on the island of Otok Kornat and again Joe and I went ashore.

"So Joe, do you think that she lives in that house?"

"Eeyore."

Up the shoulder of the hill looking back at the village.

Along a lovely path.

Past a feral sheep.

To a little church built on top of some very old ruins.

And then up another hill to some more ruins.

Some 3000 year old ruins

With great views out to the other islands.

What a good spot.

Weathered hill, mmmmm.

Day 6

Moored off from the small town of Kaprije, I walked over the hill on the island of Otok Kaprije.

Kaprije, a fishing town with heaps of these tiny little moorings.

A prickly pear which was delicious, but they have a lot of prickles that are very difficult to remove from your hands...

At LAST! An answer.
A stone wall protecting an olive tree from the wind, and giving it a fantastic crew cut.
(The question being - why why why so many rock walls?!)

Locals playing a round or two of petanque in the cool of the evening.

Day 7

A week in and it's Seadog Finn and the helm.

Past the watchful eyes of the guards at the fort.

Past Sibenic.

Up a valley.

And finally, our destination, but who put an onion on top of that church?

Anchoring off from the town of Scradin, about 20 killometers from the headland that fort was on, up the Krka river. Here the whole crew went ashore and hired bikes to ride a little further up-river to a national park.

Lots of little waterfalls slowly depositing calcium carbonate and forming travertine terraces.

The propellers of an old hydroelectric turbine.

Looking back down to some of the waterfalls.

The valley we had just ridden up.

Another long day and as the moon comes up I need some dinner.

Day 8

Joe and I are up early to get us back to Murter in time for our shuttle to Split and the ferry that evening. It was our first early morning but I should've done it more often, it's a magic time to be on the water.

Back down the river.

A little bit of racing on the way...

Sibenic emerges out of the mist

Castle on top of the hill.

Over the last week I had been swimming most days and saw little fish, long fish, red fish, blue fish, sand eating fish and fish hoping to eat what ever the sand eating fish missed. Then on our last leg back to the marina, with a fairly good wind and travelling at about 4 knots, we threw a long rope off the back (with one end still tied on of course). Keen to cool off I jumped in after it and got dragged along after the boat; before long there were 3 of us being pulled through the water, slowing the boat considerably but still at as fast as I can swim speed. You could let go of the rope and swim beside it until the novelty wore off and you could garb hold of the rope again. This may have been the most fun bit of the whole trip and if you ever find that you have the opportunity to be dragged behind a boat.... TAKE IT.

And that was that. We got to Murter before we knew it and Joe, Jill, and I had to disembark for the last time and were rushed off to Split in a taxi (the speed limit was 130km/h and I'm sure that we were at it the whole time). Onto the ferry and back in Ancona before even a single moment had passed, then I got to check on the progress of a little project I had started a week earlier.

And it was finished, tip top job.

A short train ride and I'm back to Venice and Esther. It was a lovely trip and it is also lovely to be back so... 

Perfetto, perfetto!

16 September 2011