Mljet, Badija, Korcula, Scedro, Marinkovac, Hvar, Pakleni island group
08 July 2015
Photo: 4th July drinks on Wind Pony
We had several periods of good, close hauled sailing on the way to Mljet, a charter yacht with young guys on board decided they did not enjoy being outpaced by a cruising boat, so put men on the rail and trimmed the sails until they passed us. We anchored in Polace, a national park, which has us a little homesick for Gt Barrier Island, as it is so similar. The Park Rangers came around the boats late afternoon and we paid our 80 kuna per person park fee, which enables us to stay the maximum of a week. The little village does not have much except restaurants, mini market and park information centre, but we went ashore and met some of the people of the other 3 kiwi boats in the bay. Tuesday we walked across the island to the salt lakes and took the ferry to St Mary’s island and visited the Benedictine Monastery. As we walked back to the boats, at the top of the hill, we noticed Wind Pony was alongside another yacht. We quickly went down the hill and Brian and Dick took the dinghy out to the boat. It transpired, Wind Pony had dragged her anchor and ended up alongside a charter boat. Luckily, Wasabi, Brian and Isabelle with Charlie and Linda on board, had arrived in the bay and managed to get onto Wind Pony and raft her securely. By the time we returned, they had been fed lunch by Isabelle and Linda and had drinks and nibbles from the Kiwi family on the charter boat. The boys got everything sorted and re anchored Wind Pony, all good. Not half an hour later, another charter boat arrived, anchored too close to Wind Pony and when they tried to lift their anchor, they picked up Wind Pony’s chain. More drama as Brian in our dinghy and Brian and Charlie in Wasabi’s dinghy managed to free the anchor chain and again re anchor Wind Pony. It was drinks on Wind Pony later with many tall stories told.
Following a day to recover and allow Dick and Lyn to regain confidence in their anchor, we decided it was time for some exercise, so went ashore and hired push bikes for 3 hours. The four of us set off to cycle around the lakes, an ok ride except for the big hill to get to the lakes and again on our return. As the lakes are salt water and open to the sea, we had to get a water taxi at Soline to cross the narrowest part of the large lake, allowing us to complete our circumnavigation. As a reward, we had ice creams back in Polace and that evening went ashore to try the local dish meat or fish “under the belle”, which requires two hours’ notice for cooking time. We had ordered the lamb under the belle before going cycling. The food is cooked under what looks like a klosh over wood fired embers and comes with vegetables and plenty of it, very nice and tender.
The following day we motored to Badija anchoring off the 14th century Franciscan monastery. Our friends Bob and Joanie “Nemir” were in the bay and after everyone was settled and happy with their anchors, we took the dinghy ashore and walked along the path circumnavigating the island. The monastery is now only occasionally inhabited, it had been confiscated and turned into a sports centre as was evident by all the old equipment lying around, but is now being restored. Saturday was Dick and Lyn’s wedding anniversary so we took the water taxi into Korcula to visit the old walled town. Similar to old Dubrovnik town, with its narrow streets, stairways and churches, we wandered around for several hours before having lunch and returning to Badija.
A quiet day on Sunday, with the quote of the day going to the Croatian weather forecaster on VHF who said “the cessation of the precipitation …..”, instead of “the rain will stop ….”. Monday we refuelled at the fuel dock which had easy access, then motored to Tri Luke, Korcula and anchored for the night. Motoring along the coast the contrast of the white stone buildings with their terracotta roofs against the green trees, fields and hills behind is quite stunning.
It took us 3 goes to get the anchor to stick, it looked like a sandy bottom but must have been very hard. We stayed the night, then motored across to Carijuna Bay, Scedro, stern lining to a tree. Carijuna or Ponderusa as it is known locally, is an isolated bay a little off the beaten track. Scedro is an isolated island just south of Hvar that has 30 residents in summer and 15 in winter. We loved the place and stayed 4 days, going for walks each day across to the north side of the island where there were a couple of bays with restaurants. Mostir had the ruins of Our Lady of Mercy church and a Dominican convent founded in 1465, we had a very nice lunch at the restaurant and chatted to the restaurant owner about the island before walking back across the island. In the afternoons we swam and used Lyn and Dick’s paddle board, which surprisingly both of us managed to stand up and paddle first go, although the conditions were ideal with flat water and little wind.
Finally on Friday 3rd July we dropped the stern line and motored 14nm around to the south bay on Marinkovac, part of the Pakleni island group. After lunch we took the dinghies around to Hvar Town, noticing as we entered the harbour how crazy it was, packed with small and large boats and craft of all shapes and sizes. We had heard that it cost 100 kuna to anchor in the harbour, but with all the boats plus ferries don’t understand why people would. The town of Hvar was first settled in 4th century BC by Greeks from Paros, one of our favourite Aegean islands. It is a picturesque and historic town with a large piazza, from which vehicles are banned. At one end stands St Stephen’s church and on top of the hill is a well preserved fort and we could not resist the temptation to wander through the narrow, stone building, marble stone streets and park up to the fort. The views from the top where superb, and probably the best part of the fort was the prison, none of us would have volunteered to be housed in the claustrophobic, small stone cells. It is a very popular holiday destination and a place “to be seen”, there were many large super yachts and well-dressed people in town compared to us yachties. We have also been surprised by the number of naturalists in Croatia, more than we have seen anywhere else in the med, the cruising guide even lists the naturalist islands and beaches. We also took the opportunity to get provisions from the fresh produce market and very good supermarket in town. Back to the boat for a swim and what we thought would be a quiet night until the duff duff music started and did not finish till 05:00.
We left the next day, moving 3nm further along the Pakleni islands to St Klement Island anchoring in Uvala Tarsce. On Sunday we walked across the island to another bay and had a drink in a small taverna. The owner was happy to chat to us about their boutique vineyard and the history of the island, despite what we had heard before coming to Croatia, we have found the locals warm, friendly and willing to talk about their islands and life. Back to the boats to watch the arrival of 13 charter boats who decided to raft together in a circle and party hard, which they did till 10pm when the music was turned off and we were all able to get a good night’s sleep. We had asked the organiser if the music would go all night and he ensured us it wouldn’t, he said we could join in the party or leave the bay, the cynics we were did not believe him, only to be proved wrong.
We are having a glorious run of weather, sunny days with no wind, we could anchor just about anywhere along the coast. We watched the sore heads of the flotilla raft leave, before motoring 14nm, stern lining in Zavala, Hvar.