Pucisca
26 September 2017
We were headed back to the island of Brac. The town of Pucisca. The first thing that you see as you near the opening to the towns harbour is a big quarry they were mining large slabs of limestone
to be shipped to building sites all over the world. Once past the quarry it didn't look much different than any other town. On the hill just inside the entrance to the bay there was a restaurant
and as we continued towards the town center we passed several well marked swimming areas and lots of the small fishing boats we had seen all the way up the coast. They were signs of active
improvements to the quay side they were building moles. A breakwater that the water cant flow under. The completed one had limestone benches and limestone street lights and a small limestone building that turned out to be the bathrooms and showers for probably anyone using the quay actually if you really looked at the town you noticed there was a lot of things built with limestone.
The warfenger had seen us coming and was on hand to help us tie. The town had lazy lines for our bow but they had intentionally installed them angled to the prevailing wind so we couldn't tie square to the quay. It took a little fiddling with the lines to get our starboard stern the three or four feet away from the quay to make the passerelle work right. As well as give the stern enough room to move when the next boat came in and lay on us as they tied. long live big fenders.
The town of Pucisca's claim to fame is all about limestone the quarry at the opening to the harbour has provided stone to the The palace in Split as well as Vienna, Budapest and the Whitehouse to name just a few. It seems if you are going to ship stone all over the world you might as well send stone cutters to work the stone as well and where are you going to get stone cutters ?
You have a school to teach them of course. On the other side of the Quay was a high school ages 14 and up for people that want to learn the stone cutter craft. Unfortunately while we were here the school was closed for the summer but during the school year they are more then happy to give tours. In front of the school were examples of the types of project the students did in various states of completion. There were a few I would have loved to see completed. Maybe when the student comes back this year. As well we were told that the graduating class project was to design and create a window for the school which explained why some window frames were made of wood and others were quite ornate. It looked like the school was expanding there was a crane and partially built addition to the school. I'm not sure if this construction project had become a teaching opportunity for the kids or if the construction workers were off doing summer jobs. Due to weather and a lack of desire to leave we spent 6 days tied here it gave us time to check out the local stores and walk around the town. There was an area with stalls set up to sell local things mostly smaller pieces of carved stone but some olive oil and carved olive wood to the other side of Ice Bear there was the local church with a bell tower a small market that sold local produce and a few step further there was a restaurant and bakery. The Bakery had 4 or 5 different pastry type thing including one that looked like a cherry strudel and mmmmm a donut, how could we resist. While exploring the streets we came across a store displaying carved wood. Once inside
we realized the store was connected to the workshop. Some one was in heaven and he and the craftsman talked for quite some time. This is also the town where we discovered green pepper
sauce on steak. I ordered it first at a restaurant buried in the maze of streets. I was expecting a steak with green peppers something that I hadn't noticed on a menu since we left Greece but I was wrong it was green peppercorns in a very light gravy omg sooo good who knew. Side note after we left the restaurant we passed a group of about 20 people from a flotilla wandering around lost looking for the same restaurant one wrong turn and they were done. You could tell by the way they had started to string out mutiny was in the cards. One morning when we opened the front door we noticed we had new neighbours on both sides. We needed to double check the one on the port side we could see a mast but that was all. Omg a shark. A shark is a 24 ft sailboat and this one had been lovingly restored they even had a outline of a shark in the material they used on the cockpit deck. Later that evening we hosted the crews from the boats on either side to pick their brains about where to go it seems the shark people had just begun traveling Croatia they were in the unique position of being able to trailer their boat to where ever they wanted to sail and the people to our starboard had cruised for years in central Croatia but hadn't gone south. We all had info to share. On a trip back to the market we found bacon and had a our first bacon and eggs since leaving home as well they had a lovely looking pork roast which we couldn't resist throwing into the oven nothing like a home cooked meal.
From Pucisca we did a quick motor to the south to Luka and stayed on a mooring ball for a few days and resealed the first window on our list. Then back to Pucisca for one day to restock the food and water. It was weird we had been sailing in Croatia for a month and had seen very few catamarans but as we entered the harbour we could see 5 heading towards the town. Turns out they had reserved space but there was still room for us. They were a flotilla of Cats full of people from California. Ok whatever. I guess if your going to travel with more then 30 of your closest friends a flotilla of Cats is the way to go. On our way to the store we passed by the church where a man popped his head out a door and said ooh no you don't.. get in here and enjoy. It was the man that carved the wood he was hosting a little get together for some friends from California and felt we couldn't be left out. So we drank his grapa ate his wonderful food met his friends and listened to some locals sing. Seems he cats were only in town for a few hours and then the
flotilla left with plans to return for a few days at the end of their trip. How kewl was that.