SOUTHERN CROATIAN ISLANDS

Envoy is currently in Zuljana on the Croatian mainland north of Dubrovnik.

SOUTHERN CROATIAN ISLANDS
While the SeaPower alternator was being repaired we left Dubrovnik to visit some of Croatia’s southern islands.
A general impression is that the islands are fertile and lush with vegetation, have some great beaches, are not over-crowded (at this stage in mid-June anyway), and have picturesque small villages with plenty of interesting older buildings from Venetian times, although the later buildings have more of a European style about them than the postcard-friendly Greek buildings. The islands have been occupied since ancient times with successive inhabitants building fortifications against invaders and pirates.
First stop was Lopud with an excellent anchorage off a beautiful sandy beach.
This is one of the Elaphite group of islands, named after Greek elafos, meaning deer, although there are none to be found these days.

Envoy with other boats anchored in Lopud

We walked 2km across the island to the main town of Uvala Lopud to find a quaint village where there used to be a thriving community of several thousand (the island boasted 30 churches in the 16th century) based on fishing and coral harvesting.

By late afternoon the tourists had left our beach to walk back to their hotela at Uvala Lopud, and we had a swim in solitude in the crystal clear water, followed by a refreshing ale from a taverna.
Next day found us moored stern-to the old stone jetty in the small village of Okulje on Mljet island. This is a very small bay almost perfectly protected, and mooring is free if you eat at the nearby taverna.
Envoy stern-to quay in very-protected Okulje

This photo shows how small and sheltered Okulje is

 

 

This would have been idyllic but unfortunately spoiled by large amounts of floating litter. Today was our wedding anniversary so a perfect occasion to eat ashore, and we found the food basic but adequate and very reasonable at Kuna 155 (about NZ$34) for a full meal including some vin ordinaire.

Hand made wooden lobster pots

Here we met some Australians, Col and Pam Darling, cruising aboard their Lagoon 440 catamaran named “Finally My Darling” – the only boat we’ve come across so far carrying its own aircraft. Col is a pilot and has an Airborne XT582 Microlite powered with a 65hp engine and equipped with floats so it takes off and lands in the water.

Powered Microlite carried aboard Lagoon 440

Moving on to another bay on Mljet, Luka Polace, we found another perfect anchorage surrounded by forest and with a small village built around the ruins of a 2nd century Roman fortified palace (hence the name “Polace”).

Ruins of 2nd century Roman palace

Homer visited Mljet and wrote about this island, as did Apostle Paul, so we were in good company.

This fur-lined motor scooter with rabbit ears was for hire in Polace

We met up with some Australians, Kevin and Mae, who we’d met in Marmaris about three seasons ago, and had evening drinks aboard their yacht, Whisper.
Then to cap it off we again met New Zealanders Alistair and Viv from Largo Star, and had a great dinner ashore at a taverna where the specialty was various fish and meats baked under a large metal bell – delicious and tender.
Luka Polace is one of the entry points to the National Park Mljet, and we spent most of a day exploring it. The park is beautiful with unspoiled lush forests of Aleppo pine, some lakes and an island monastery accessed by ferry. Most people were hugely impressed, but it was a bit different for us, coming from New Zealand where this type of scenery is common place.

Typical scene in Mljet National Park

TECHNICAL – nothing to report
ENVOY LOG – up to 16/6/13 we had spent 80 days aboard and cruised 543 miles for 105 engine hours.

SMALL FIRE IN ENVOY’S ENGINE ROOM GIVES US A FRIGHT

Envoy is currently in Dubrovnik Marina.

This unusual cruise ship was anchored off Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik from the sea as Envoy cruises past

This reproduced galleon takes tourists sightseeing

We left our mooring in Uvala Tiha in perfect conditions to cruise around the nearby Elaphite Islands, but we were only about 15 minutes into our trip when we both heard an unusual rattling noise from the engine room. I say “both” because sometimes it’s easy to imagine you hear some different sound, but there was no doubting this one. I stopped the engine to look for a cause but could find nothing, and when I re-started the engine the noise seemed to have gone – all good! A few minutes later I heard the urgent beep of the engine room smoke detector, and on poking my head into the engine room could definitely smell something different – just a hot smell. I grabbed our infra-red pyrometer to check temperatures in different areas of the engine room and found the Seapower alternator’s case reading about 105dC whereas it normally reads about 65dC. I came up to the pilothouse and shut the Seapower down – that means I stopped it producing power, although since the unit is engine-driven by vee belts it was still turning over. Then the smoke alarm sounded again and I rushed back to the engine room to see flames in the entrance way. I quickly determined that what was on fire was a hat that I leave in the engine room and wear to protect my head from bumps in the restricted engine room space. I grabbed the hat and snuffed the flames out, then peered into the engine room to see if there were more flames – fortunately there weren’t. What had happened was the Seapower alternator was emitting hot sparks (actually pieces of red-hot metal) and one of them landed on the hat, setting it alight.

We quickly shut down the main engine to stop the Seapower alternator from turning, started the Yanmar wing engine to get us moving again and headed for a sheltered bay on nearby Kolocep Island. There I was able to remove the vee belts and isolate the alternator. After that I checked the alternator, finding that the drive pulley would hardly turn at all – indicating failed bearings. I have to say the incident was a bit scary, and later a couple of strong rums and coke were called for.

What the Seapower alternator does is enable the main engine to deliver 115 volts AC current through a special in-line inverter, so that we can run the refrigerator / freezer while under-way. Without it, we have to run our generator to produce 115 volts AC.

The next day we returned to Dubrovnik Marina to remove the alternator and get it checked, and it has since been repaired at a cost of 600 Euros (about NZ$1,000) and awaits re-installation. In analyzing this problem, it’s at least nine years since the alternator was serviced, and this is too long – in future we’ll disassemble and check it every four or five years.

TECHNICAL – see above

CRUISING NORTH TO CROATIA

Envoy is still in Dubrovnik Marina, Croatia.

I forgot to mention that in this area you see quite a few structures with bullet holes left over from what the locals call the "Homelands War".

Laurie points out what we believe are bullet holes in stone walls of an old shed

As we left the Gulf of Kotor we saw another Kiwi boat, Largo Star. Our friend Brooke Archbold knows these people well, and before we started our first cruise he suggested keeping a lookout for them. I remember thinking at that time the Med’s a very big place so that’s a long shot, but so far we’ve seen Largo Star once each year for the last three – in Turkey, Greece and now Montenegro, and I’m sure we’ll meet up with them in Croatia as they’re following us in a few days.
Croatia’s southern entry port of Cavtat is only about 25 miles north of Montenegro, and we were surprised to see several bird “work-ups” along the route, signifying fish activity – bait fish on the surface and larger fish cruising below. Although these work-ups are common home in New Zealand waters they’re rare in the Med.

Seabird "work-up" in Adriatic Sea

In Cavtat we used an agency, BWA Yachting, to organise our clearing-in, taking only about 30 minutes. The formalities seem less onerous here and when moving around there is no requirement to report to authorities. Only when visitors join or leave the vessel is there a requirement to submit a new crew list to the nearest harbourmaster.

Laurie on waterfront at Croatia port-of-entry Cavtat

We bought our Vignette (cruising permit) for Envoy and one for the tender, and these together with Sojourn Tax cost 2,885 Kuna (about NZ$640) for three months.

Adjacent to Cavtat is a great sheltered bay nearby called Uvala Tiha, from where we could see Dubrovnik just five miles away. Here we had our first experience of paying for a mooring. A small boat came out to us and the occupants told us very politely that we could either anchor or use one of their moorings, but in either case the cost was 140 Kuna (about NZ$31) for the night, or the same total cost for as long as we wanted to stay. This seemed reasonable enough and I checked out the mooring and found it to be OK.

While it took us a while to warm to Montenegro we liked Croatia immediately, and Cavtat is a very atmospheric village with mostly friendly and helpful people.
Communications are important to us, so the first day in Croatia we took a 45 minute bus trip to Dubrovnik to get a Croatian SIM card for the phone and a Mobile Broadband for internet access. The Broadband worked fine on my laptop and on the iPad, but not on Di’s computer. We were given the name of a computer service specialist, and he spent a free half hour trying to sort out the issue, concluding it’s the Microsoft Vista program in Di’s computer, and we ended up buying a separate USB which works fine.
We were able to leave Envoy on the mooring and visit Dubrovnik by bus. By now we’ve see more than our share of medieval walled-towns, but Dubrovnik is absolutely stunning – one of those must-see places, despite the crowds. The fortifications look formidable and the streets open up into beautiful courtyards. Narrow lanes with interesting tavernas and restaurants run off the main streets, and the place has a real “buzz’ about it.

Entrance to Dubrovnik's walled Old-Town

Dubrovnik has several squares ringed with stunning architecture

Dubrovnik's cobbled lanes drool with atmosphere

The next photo is here in error, and should be on the next posting. On the nearby island of Kolocep this is a defensive tower used in the Middle Ages as a refuge from marauding pirates. Pirates were a constant problem in those times throughout the Med

 We stayed four nights in Cavtat and then headed off to the Elaphite Islands – but we didn’t get far – read about it in the next post!

TECHNICAL – nothing to report

SUMMARY OF MONTENEGRO

Envoy is currently in ACI Marina Dubrovnik, Croatia.
Cruisers generally talk about Montenegro being expensive to visit but this is not really so. The Vignette (cruising permit) costs 125 Euro (about NZ$208) for one week – so that is expensive, but it only increases to 225 Euro (about NZ$375) for a month and 405 Euro (about NZ$675) for three months, although it’s hard to see why you’d want to stay more than a month in Montenegro as the total coastline is only 45 miles long (plus the Gulf of Kotor) and there’s only about a dozen locations for the cruiser to visit.

Apart from the Vignette everything is super-cheap. For example:
- The excellent local lager beer is called Niksicko and costs about 1.20 Euro (about NZ$2.00) for a large glass. The New Zealand wine industry was started by “Dalmatians” from this general area, and their wine is excellent to taste and a fraction of the price in New Zealand – we were buying 500ml bottles for around 4.50 Euro (about NZ$7.50).
- For breakfast at a very good taverna we could have Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon for 6 Euro (about NZ$10.00) or a Full English Breakfast of two eggs, bacon, mushrooms, sausages, beans, tomatoes and French fries for 4 Euro (about NZ$6.70).
- Shopping in the fresh food markets we find the prices very reasonable. We bought a selection of potatoes, asparagus, carrots, beans, lettuce, avocadoes, kiwifruit, strawberries, bananas, mint, parsley for 21 Euro (about NZ$35) and Diane says this would have cost about $50 in New Zealand. A whole salami cost 4 Euro (about NZ$6.70) and a litre of olive oil 7 Euro (about NZ$11.70).
- I got a haircut for 4 Euro (about NZ$6.70). Admittedly I don’t have much hair to cut, but in New Zealand get charged $10 to $15.

This market was only a few metres from Envoy's berth

And included a beautiful flower market

The main gate of Kotor's walled city is adjacent to the market

Our purchases from the market on Envoy's dinette table

We met some British cruisers who’d had a bad experience at a village called Risan in the Gulf of Kotor. They were moored alongside the town jetty overnight and awoke in the early hours of the morning to a loud bang. Some idiot had cast their mooring lines from the jetty leaving their boat to drift across the bay until it hit an anchored vessel. Little damage was done but it could have been a very serious situation. A few days later we visited Risan finding it has little to offer.

One morning we awoke to find this traditional sailing vessel alongside

We spent 16 days in Montenegro and it rained all but one of them, ranging from light showers to torrential rain with thunder, but overall we had a great time and particularly enjoyed anchoring in Bogova and mooring to the town quay in Kotor.
Another excellent reason to visit here is you can buy duty-free fuel on the day you leave (provided that you have a ship’s rubber stamp), and we bought our estimated year’s requirement of about 1,600 litres for 0.73 Euro (about NZ$1.22) per litre whereas the usual price is 1.22 Euro (about NZ$2.03) per litre. A large Italian motor yacht was fuelling next to us, buying an incredible 70,000 litres for a cost of 51,100 Euro (about NZ$85,800) – a good argument against large planing vessels.

This Italian motor yacht loaded 70,000 litres of diesel

The last time we bought fuel was 800 litres last August at NZ$2.76 per litre, and fuel we purchased during 2012 in Greece averaged 1.61 Euro per litre. That is NZ$2.68 per litre or 6.12 Euro per US gal or approx US$8.13 per US gal. Turkish prices are very similar.
It’s difficult to be specific about Envoy’s fuel economy as the diesel we buy is used in the Lugger, our NL 8kw genset (which probably uses about 3 litres/hour) and our Yanmar wing engine once a week or so. We estimate the Lugger averages about six litres per hour.
The most reliable info is that on the North Atlantic Rally the Nordhavn 46s reportedly cruised at an average of 6.3 knots and averaged 1.3 litres per nm, which is about 2.92 nm per gal. Patrick of Nordhavn 46, Frog Kiss, reports using two US gal per hour at 1,650 rpm for 6.2 knots – that is 3.1 nm per gal if my math is correct.
Anyway one thing’s for sure – with a Nordhavn 46 your annual fuel bill is not a major consideration in the scheme of things.

TECHNICAL – nothing to report

THE THINGS YOU REGRET ARE THE THINGS YOU DIDN’T DO

Envoy is currently at Polace, Mljet Island, Croatia

THE THINGS YOU REGRET ARE THE THINGS YOU DIDN’T DO - These are the banner words of Kadey-Krogen Yachts’ advertisement in Passagemaker magazine, along with “Working hard is one thing, living your life to the full is another. You get only so many spins around the sun – what will you do with yours?”
I was pretty impressed with this, and thought it nicely summed up why Diane and I are cruising at this stage of our lives. Of course your dream doesn’t have to be living on a boat, but whatever your dream is – do it, because your clock is ticking … tick, tock, tick, tock, get the picture? (quoting noted cruiser, Scott Flanders)

MORE ON MONTENEGRO
One of the rusting warships mentioned in the last posting

Kotor is a stunning medieval town where we spent four nights with Kevin and Diane moored to the town quay, waiting for stormy weather to pass.

Envoy moored stern-to in Kotor

Kotor has been fortified since ancient times but owes much of its present form to the Venetians. Extensive fortifications include a wall that stretches high into the hills behind the town, and we walked to the upper fortress for incredible views of Kotor and the Gulf.

The Venetian winged lion symbol is common throughout areas of the Med they formerly controlled

The Gulf of Kotor viewed from the upper Castel of St John. Envoy moored below

 

It takes nearly an hour to reach the upper fortifications up a steep winding track

The flag of Montenegro is a particularly attractive, but one that not many would recognise

Kevin’s birthday coincided with Kevin and Diane’s last night with us so we had a great last dinner together before they caught the bus to Dubrovnik the next day.

Kotor street scene

TECHNICAL - for the whole time we’ve owned Envoy, once in a while the Lugger doesn’t start first turn of the key, and this has happened twice so far this year. The cause is a sticking starter solenoid, and all we need to do is tap the solenoid with a plastic mallet, and then she starts. Reminds me of my friend Warwick Spedding’s saying about solving technical problems; “If in doubt give it a clout, the bigger the doubt the harder the clout”. If this problem occurs more than a couple more times this season we’ll fit our spare.

WINTRY MONTENEGRO

Envoy is currently in Porto Camaro, Mljet Island, Croatia. We've had a delay in Blogging while we arranged internet access for Croatia, but will now be back to posts every five days or so.
MONTENEGRO
When we first arrived in Montenegro we bought a SIM card for our iPad for 16 Euro (about NZ$25) giving us 3Gb and 30 days usage. There is no Vodafone here so we weren’t able to get a SIM card for our Mobile Broadband and solely used our iPad for internet. The iPad has been a great investment - thanks Brooke!
Bigova turned out to be a gem of an anchorage - well protected from all except strong SW winds with clean, clear water ideal for swimming.

Ashore was a rustic taverna called Grispolis, full of ancient relics from shipwrecks brought up in fishing nets over the years.

Grispolis had their own beautifully maintained fishing boat alongside the jetty and offered a large variety of freshly-caught fish as well as surprisingly large lobsters - looked the same as New Zealand crayfish.

When we entered the bay we saw several vacant moorings marked “Grispolis” and avoided them assuming they were something to do with Police. We later discovered they were owned by Grispolis and available for use by restaurant patrons.

Envoy anchored in Bigova

Kevin relaxing with a good book and cold beer in Envoy's cockpit

We were pleased to find the local people far more friendly and chatty than at Bar.
Cruising further north to the Gulf of Kotor we found a dramatic inlet that looks like a fjord, with three large bays surrounded by rugged mountains over 1,000 metres high.
This Gulf used to be a base for the once-formidableYugoslavian navy, but now you see rusting hulks of warships and abandoned submarine pens built-into the cliffs.

Submarine pen with blast protection

Unfortunately the Gulf is rather spoiled by large amounts of floating litter, but it’s still very picturesque with by far the most atmospheric town being Kotor – a very ancient settlement largely developed in its present form by the Venetians.
Here we moored stern-to the harbour wall for a cost of Euro 42 (about NZ$67) per night including power and water. Unlike Greece there is no requirement here to report to authorities when entering a new harbour, but only on arrival and departure from Montenegro.
After a promising start in Greece the weather has been surprisingly cold here at 16-20 dC, with persistent rain and thunderstorms, so we’ve been back to wearing jeans, sweatshirts and raincoats. The Gulf of Kotor is fed by many mountain streams reducing the sea temperature to a chilly 15d – too cold to swim.
Montenegro has a fragile infrastructure and power outages are common during these storms, causing havoc for tavernas catering for tourists.
But we made the most of it and enjoyed getting lost in Kotor’s narrow cobbled lanes, and Kevin and I also visited Kotor’s Maritime Museum while the two Dianes explored some of the quirky shops.
In Kotor we met an Australian couple, Greg and Julia from yacht Mojo, and have enjoyed spending time with them. They’re heading the same way as us so we’ll be seeing more of them in Croatia.

Australian yacht, Mojo, departing Kotor

TECHNICAL - nothing to report except that the saloon window seals Chris and I replaced have had a darn good test with lots of heavy wind-driven rain and don’t leak at all.

ENVOY LOG (TO 31/5/13) - 65 days aboard so far this year, 432 miles cruised for 86 engine hours.

ENVOY’S ROUGH TRIP TO MONTENEGRO

Envoy is currently in moored to the town quay in historic Kotor, Montenegro.
Before we left Corfu’s Gouvia marina we had some heavy rain bringing with it more brown dust, which quickly turns to mud. This stuff is like ochre and really marks the topsides so has to be washed off as quickly as possible. The dust is borne by southerly winds from the African desert, and stays in the atmosphere until it’s brought down by rain.
From Gouvia it was going to be a 180 mile trip to our Montenegrin port of entry - Bar. An option would have been to clear-in to Albania and cruise up Albania’s coast, but we needed to get to Montenegro quickly to meet Kevin and Diane just three days later. Maybe we’ll visit Albania on the way back south in September.
We decided to break the trip by stopping overnight at Erikoussa, Greece’s northernmost island 32 miles from Gouvia. On arriving, there was a strong onshore southerly breeze and a breaking one metre chop, but the wind was forecast to turn to the north so we decided to stay - in any case there was nowhere else to go except back to Corfu. While the wind remained southerly with Envoy’s bow to the seas the anchorage was OK, but as the wind dropped Envoy turned beam-on and rolled from side to side in the waves.

Looking ashore Erikoussa from Envoy at anchor – with the waves it was not the perfect anchorage!

The wind duly came up from the north but pushed a northerly swell into the anchorage making it worse - we should have used our flopper-stoppers to make Envoy more comfortable in the roll.
Leaving Erikoussa early next morning we headed directly into a 25 knot north-westerly wind with breaking 2-3 metre waves, and for the first time this year took waves over Envoy’s bow, two metres above sea level, sweeping across the foredeck and breaking against our Portuguese bridge. The Med seas seem to be more ferocious for any given wind speed than we’re used to in Auckland, and with the wind and sea directly on our bow we couldn’t make more than four knots. The Adriatic Sea runs from NW to SE, so with a NW wind we were at the end of nearly 500 miles of fetch, accounting for the unpleasant conditions. Unable to maintain a direct course we turned about 25 degrees to starboard taking the waves on our port bow, and then managed to maintain 5-6 knots with more comfort. The rough conditions lasted until early evening, but fortunately moderated for the overnight part of our journey, and we picked up a north-heading current, increasing our speed to over six knots and making up for some lost time. Two thirds of our 27 hour trip was pretty rough, and we were thankful Envoy performed superbly, not missing a beat.
We cleared into Montenegro at the commercial port of Bar using the marina as there’s nowhere to anchor.

Bar Marina, Montenegro - before the storm set-in

Envoy alongside jetty at Bar Marina

A local cruising permit is called a “Vignette” and costs Euro 225 (about NZ$346) per month. You are also supposed to buy a separate Vignette for your RHIB costing Euro 100 (about NZ$154), but you can only buy these if your RHIB has its own Certificate of Registration. Hardly any boats other than super yachts would have separate Registration of their tender, so strictly speaking we’re not able to use our RHIB in Montenegro.
After Kevin and Diane arrived 23 May we had to stay in the marina four nights due to gale force winds with rough seas, heavy rain and electrical storms.

Buying provisions at the Bar market – few spoke English but this girl did and was very helpful.
Everything was very cheap

We spent one day exploring Stari Bar – the Old Bar fortress, built 4 km inland from present-day Bar for protection against pirates.

Stari Bar fortifications

Stari Bar street scene

We explored Stari Bar in heavy rain - Diane, Kevin and Laurie

This 14 year-old waiter spoke good English and we had a traditional platter of cheeses, olives, ham and pickles for lunch

Another day we explored the narrow cobbled lanes of the Venetian walled town of Budra.

Kevin and Laurie examine old anchor outside Budra’s fortress

Laurie, Diane and Kevin on ramparts Budra's ramparts overlooking the sea

The Budra fortress offered protection against raids from pirates

Finally the gale and seas dropped, the weather improved and we cruised up to a protected anchorage called Bigova.
Formerly part of Yugoslavia, Montenegro is a mountainous country (Montenegro means Black Mountain) smaller than Wales with a population of about 700,000. It has some stunning places, both on the coast and inland, and many fascinating historical sites dating back to the Iron-Age, but so far the local people don’t seem to be as happy, friendly or helpful as the Greek people we’ve become used to. We hope to be proved wrong on this as time progresses.

TECHNICAL - Nothing to report (at last!)

ENVOY LOG (to 26 May) - 63 days aboard so far this year, 391 miles cruised for 76 engine hours.