Primosten
02 October 2017
From Pucisca we continued north and stopped at a place called Drvenik Veil. We med moored to a concrete breakwater. You could tell whoever made it had a plan but it just didnt happen
there were posts for power and water but neither thing was plumbed in. There were rings for lazy lines but no lines hence the med moor ( drop anchor back up tie to dock ) It was a quiet town
a small store a ferry terminal and two restaurants. Perfect for more boat jobs we took the opportunity to re seal two more windows. Watched as two sailing schools used the breakwater and Ice Bear
to teach the new sailors how to park with only a few bumps and grinds during the side tie portion ouch. This was the place we saw a person try to tie their boat to the pilars holding the porch roof
of a house. We figured they must have owned the house we were wrong and with the direction and strength of the wind they abandoned the attempt and tied next to us. This was also the same evening we helped teach two different boats how to med moor. To be fair except when we tied to an island near Hvar and when we picked up mooring balls everywhere we have been here has used lazy lines so this break wall was a bit of a surprise. The funniest part was the crew on the first boat 3 of the 6 were not happy and they were not hiding the fact. Once the boat stopped moving they were off like a shot. I didn't think the docking was that bad so it must have had something to do with the white caps we could see outside the bay. The 3 remaining crew realized they were in trouble and set to making dinner and cleaning the boat. When the 3 crew returned they seemed to have calmed down a little and a clean boat and hot food went along way in what looked like was going to be a complicated apology process.
Our next stop was Primosten a really cute walled city. We chose to grab a mooring ball instead of try to tie to the town quay it was a good choice. When we arrived the weather wasn't to bad. We drove up to the mooring ball and with little fanfare grabbed it and tied. To be fair we have two engines and the ability to let the ball go a little bit between the hulls if we overshoot. which gives us a second chance to grab it if needed. Once we were all secure we dropped the dingy and checked out the town lots of restaurants, bakeries and a nice big grocery store what more could we ask. We even finally got to try peka. Which is a whole meal prepared in a single pot/dish then placed in a fire with a bell shaped lid then its all covered in coals and left to cook for several hours. It was really good. Back on Ice Bear we decided that this would be a good place to stay for a few days. The Warfenger came out and we had a chat about the weather and other boaty things he mentioned that a Jugo was on its way. Hmm a New type of wind for us
a little one would hit tomorrow with 2 meter seas and rain he recommended we move to a different mooring. Ummm we were in a bay and with the direction of the predicted wind there was no way 2 meter waves could build so we figured it was a translation thing and he ment 2 foot no big deal Ice Bear doesn't really feel 2 foot waves we decided to stay put but we have learned to never dismiss local knowledge so someone dove to the bottom of
the mooring ball and connected a line to the concrete anchor. He was right about the wind and rain. The next day we had wind coming from the south I think for the first time since we arrived in Croatia. We spent a portion of the day watching boats grab their mooring ball we learned several new techniques. Several boats chose the back up to the ball careful to not spook it method. I have never seen someone back up to the ball and not once did it seem to go all that well. Admittedly it did seem to be an easy way to get near a ball but once you had it then what? With the wind and waves getting the line to the bow and cleated seemed very difficult
Every boat that tried this method had their lines pulled out of their hands. Leaving the captain to contend with a mooring ball, excited crew and a line in the water near his prop and or bow thruster.
The other popular method was to come alongside the ball and grab it midships. The boats that tried this all had the end of the line cleated to the midships cleat so all they needed to do once the caught the ball was get the other end cleated to the bow.
This seemed to lead to the boat being side tied to the mooring ball and with the wind and waves I couldn't imagine that being comfy. I guess the plan was to end up with both ends of the line cleated to the bow but this caused its own issues. One boat somehow managed to tie the ball under his boat another found a way to tie it around his keel through much of this the Warfenger was out in his dingy trying to help untangle boats. He also took advantage of the waves to launch himself over the waves and generally have fun in the wet and wild weather. For lunch we went to an Irish restaurant and had a very nice bacon cheeseburger and enjoyed a different view of the quay and the carnage the wind was causing there. The dock had mostly powerboats tied to it most of them have electronics to help them park but even they were getting pushed around by the wind one side swiped a day rental boat on a mooring ball near the beach nearly sinking it. We shared the restaurant with two Italians they seemed to be enjoying the chaos as much as we were. The waves were bigger then 2 foot but nowhere near the 2 meters predicted but the wind definitely made the 25 kn +. The fun stretched into the night. I really felt for the crews trying to grab balls in the dark. On the third day the Warfenger strongly recommended we leave for a new place he said that the next Jugo was going to bring potentially
50 kn winds. We didn't fell the need to doubt him. He showed us a video on his phone of a similar wind and the carnage it caused at the Quay it was awful one sailboat tried to climb sideways onto another sailboat. They were both about 40 ft long so there really was nothing the crews could do but watch.