AN UNPLANNED RETURN TO NEW ZEALAND

Envoy is now at Split.
Our next stop heading north from Dubrovnik was Nature Park Lastovo Archipeligo, consisting of one island about five miles long, and numerous smaller islands.

This unusual lighthouse marks the eastern-most point of the Lastovo Archipeligo

First we anchored in a bay on the southern coast called Skrivena Luka, which is almost perfectly sheltered, but doesn’t have anything special to offer. In the early evening a boat came alongside with park rangers collecting anchoring fees of 25 Kuna (about NZ$6) each. Next day we moved to the northern side and anchored in another very sheltered, small, and more interesting bay called Zaklopatica.

Envoy anchored in Zaklopatica

From here we walked about 3km uphill to the medieval village of Lastovo - this was delightful with a relaxed atmosphere, more residents going about their daily business than tourists and some very interesting ancient buildings, including a small church dating from the 16th century.

View of Lastovo with obligatory hill-top fortress ruins

Houses in Lastovo are noted for their unusual chimneys as shown in this picture (centre), designed to dissipate smoke in very windy conditions

That evening some park rangers came alongside, and I explained that we’d already paid yesterday and showed them the tickets. They told us the charge is daily, not one-off, but nevertheless let us off, saying if we’re still here tomorrow we’d have to pay the grand sum of 25 kuna again. We wished we had stayed … read on.
Next port of call was a village with the unpronounceable name of Brna on Korcula island. Korcula is one of the most popular, picturesque and historic areas of the Dalmatian Adriatic. Although it is not certain, the legendary 13th century explorer, Marco Polo, is reputed to have been born here. There is also a link with another legend, James Bond. A Scottish adventurer, soldier, writer and politician, Fitzroy Maclean, owned a house in Korcula before WW2, and during the war carried out several daring missions with the SAS in this area, as well as handling negotiations between the British Government and partisan leader Tito. Some of his exploits are said to have inspired Ian Fleming’s stories of James Bond.
Like many parts of Croatia olives are grown on Korcula. I thought there were only a few varieties of olives – mostly just black or green, but there are over 40 varieties grown here, of which the most common is the oblica.
But today was not going to be a good introduction to Korcula. Unlike other bays we had anchored in Brna is a proper harbour with jetties for fishing boats and ferries. In the early evening a small boat came alongside and a harbourmaster told us the cost to anchor here was 336 kuna (about NZ$75). He must have seen the shocked look on my face because he pulled out some English language documentation and a price list to explain the charge of 24 kuna per metre, so we either had to pay or move. He did offer us the chance to anchor in a nearby bay for half price, but it was getting late and our anchor was well set so we elected to stay. Now we knew why we were the only boat anchored there!
Other cruisers had warned us about Croatian anchoring fees, but this was the first (and we hope the last) experience of feeling the charge was totally outrageous.

Envoy expensively anchored in Brna

Laurie in RHIB coming in to meet Di and pick up groceries at Brna

The next day we were determined to find a free anchorage again and headed to the eastern end of the island to anchor near the village of Lumbarda, well-sheltered by surrounding islands. Here was a great free anchorage, which also has reasonable access to Korcula town where we planned to visit the next day.
Late the next morning however we got a call from New Zealand advising Diane’s 90 year-old Mum was rapidly fading, and we decided to head back to New Zealand. We were surprised how quickly we were able to organise our return, making a seven hour cruise back to Dubrovnik marina while Diane booked our flights on-line. This marina is one of Croatia’s most popular and heavily booked in what was now high season. Our agent, BWA Yachting, went to see the marina management to explain our circumstances and half way back to Dubrovnik we received confirmation of our berth, albeit at a horrible cost of 110 Euro (about NZ$185) per night.
Entering the marina we saw a silver fern flag flying from a yacht, which turned out to be owned by Simon Penlington, someone we know from Auckland.
We decided to turn off our refrigeration while away, and gave the contents of our fridge to Simon. Then we went to a nearby restaurant, explained our circumstances to the manager and asked if they could store our frozen food in their freezer. Although he declined, one of the waiters offered to store it in his freezer at home, earning himself a huge hug and kiss from Di.
We also had to find someone to be responsible for Envoy during our absence, and the marina’s head marinara, a qualified captain, agreed to do this for a fee of Euro 100 (about NZ$167).
Next morning we shut down everything aboard Envoy and left the marina by 10am for the long trip back.

TECHNICAL - nothing to report
ENVOY LOG – up to 22/6/13 we had spent 87 days aboard and cruised 656 miles for 126 engine hours.