Bern with Dubrovnik in background

Our first morning in Croatia, is spent in the pretty coastal resort town of Cavtat checking into the country with all the officials. Many cruisers have warned us that sailing in Croatia is a much more expensive exercise compared to Greece or Turkey. So we are not totally surprised when we go to tie up at the Quarantine dock that we are to pay a young man $8AUD for taking two lines and tying us up, something that we would normally do as a matter of course! Welcome to Croatia!! Cavtat is just 7nm south of Dubrovnik and is a very clean, orderly town set into the surrounding hills overlooking two bays. It seems a popular spot for the many tourists that swarm into Dubrovnik on cruise ships. We meet many Australians on the dock who are interested to know how we arrived in Croatia!

We finally anchor in the bay on the north side of the town where it is a little more protected. We have many goes at getting the anchor to set as the bottom is extremely weedy with random patches of sand. It finally hooks in and on reflection that evening, we are glad we took time to make sure it was holding fast. We notice a few charter boats arrive, and anchor without doing a check to see if it has held. That night the wind really pipes in (unforecast) with gusts up to 27 knots, due to the katabatic effect of the mountain range around us. Bern thinks anchor watches are a good idea and in his first three hour watch, sees many of the boats around us drag anchor and having to reset, which isn't much fun in the early hours of the morning. Not long after, Bern checks that the dinghy is sitting OK under the stern ladder, he gets quite a shock to look up and see it being blown towards the rocky shore. Swimming after it is out of the question as the wind is blowing it away faster than Bern could swim. Di's watch ends just as day is breaking and the dinghy is spotted nestled between rocks, but still upright and floating. Just as we are discussing options for retrieving our tender, a local fisherman motors his little boat our way, all the while feeding out a line in hope of a bite. After a few blasts of our airhorn and frantic waving, we catch his attention and he comes alongside. Bern jumps onboard and is delivered ashore and checks out the dinghy. It is still inflated, so he quickly bails out as much water as he can, before the next wave comes along and paddles out away from the rocks. Once clear, he fires the outboard and breathes a huge sigh of relief as it starts first go!

Meanwhile our guest on board, Roger wanders up on deck oblivious to the dramas that have unfolded during the night! By 8am the wind has stopped as quickly as it started. Roger & Bern hoist the dinghy on deck for a closer inspection for damage. Miraculously apart from a little chafing on the bottom,there is no damage to either the dinghy or outboard. From now on the dinghy will spend each night on the deck - one less thing to worry about if the weather turns!

Following our adventurous night we take a local bus in to visit the city of Dubrovnik. Roger will stay behind and watch over the boat which takes the worry out of leaving the boat while on anchor. The old medieval walled city of Dubrovnik is very impressive considering that parts of it were damaged by the Serbs during the conflict of 1991-2. Due to international and local efforts it has been restored and is now the most famous city in Croatia and the most visited. Even though it is shoulder season, the city is teeming with tourists. The old town has beautiful wide marble walkways from which narrow streets lead off. There are many churches, monasteries and museums to visit. What strikes us most, are the number of restaurants-the streets seem to be full of them. We guess it is indicative of the number of tourits that visit, they all have to be fed!
We visit the Catholic Cathedral of Dubrovnik and the Dominican Monastery which is impressive because of it's architecture and beautiful garden setting. The old city is down at water level, so it is quite a steep walk halfway up the hill to catch our bus. There is now a cable car near the bus stop that you can catch a ride in to the top of the mountain and castle that towers over the old city.
We spend a few more days in the Cavtat anchorage, as it is here that we say good-bye to Roger, our guest and very skilled helper onboard for the last seven weeks. We have really enjoyed his company and his great help-we will miss him! The airport is only 6kms from the anchorage so a very convenient spot for his flight back to Oz.