SV ICE BEAR

we left Sali and spent time at mooring balls in Brgulje and Ilovik then stern tied to a dock in Mali Losinj a larger town with lots of restaurants and stores. We took advantage of the time in Mali Losinj to re work how the passerelle connected to the stern. Gone are the blue lines that tied it to the boat now we have a proper looking connection that has easy to remove pins for the times we side tie and need to step sideways off the stern step.
Even though the cruising season was just about done there were still a couple classic rock bands playing in the evenings. Our next stop was Pula.
Pula was placed deep into a bay and very protected from weather. It has hosted navies, fishing fleets, trading vessels and tourists from early Roman times.
President Tito used one of the islands just off of Pula to keep the exotic animals he was given as gifts from world leaders. The island is now a park where a small number of tour boats take people to see the animals. Once past the long break wall there was nothing really remarkable about the bay don't get me wrong there was lots of stuff to look at old buildings, bridges, boats, parks, swimming areas but as we neared the back of the bay we started to see tall structures and big cranes. Pula it seems had a very active
ship yard and they were in the process of building at least three what we guess were oil rigs and two container ships. There were tug boats scooting back and forth with barges of boat parts
and four tugs were repositioning one of the oil rigs. The first thought was kewl the second was ohoh we are here for two weeks how loud will this be? Once again we chose an ACI marina
it was right at the old town near all the things we wanted to see plus they were offering an off season rate how perfect. We were surprised when we arrived. The marina seemed
full of local boats all the other ACI were full of charter boats but like other ACI they were clean and felt safe. The weather was cool enough that we decided that we didn't need the sun shades
so once we were tied and had checked into the office we went for a walk. The first thing we noticed when we pulled up to the marina was the big colosseum situated right behind it so that's the direction we headed. Like many of the cities it was built on a hillside the streets were narrow and if you walked away from the water you went up. We did a short tour of the town to get our bearings and then stopped for dinner. Lucky us there was a band playing in the square. It seems a local School was celebrating its 150 anniversary. They threw a party and we caught the last 1/2 hour
of music. We walked back to Ice Bear and couldn't help but notice all the cranes in the ship yard were covered in red lights it looked really neat then we noticed the lights on the smaller cranes
(still really big) were slowly changing to other colours this went on late into the night. Pula's colosseum wasn't huge just big the exterior ring was pretty much complete but the structure
inside had been scavenged for parts. The seats facing the water were still there and it didn't take much imagination to see the layout of the rooms and halls that would have been under
the colosseums original floor. Through the summer gladiator demonstrations and concerts are held as long as there no really really loud sounds. We walked into the old town it wasn't hard to find the missing pieces of the colosseum all you needed to do was look at the older churches and civic buildings. Along the outside walls you can find carved bits, stones with words carved into them and pieces that should have been a window or door sill stuck in seemingly random spots. It kinda took us off guard but once we noticed them it became a game to see who could find something that didn't belong. Pula is also home to several Roman arches, town walls and a temple that was bombed during WWII then rebuilt as a way of saying sorry. At the highest point in Pula is a castle. It has gone through a few total remodels over the years and now it looks kinda like a smaller version of the fort in Halifax. It has a commanding view of the harbour and surrounding area and just below it not far from one of Pula's arches was an amphitheater it looked like it was still used but it wasn't really being restored. I guess when you have so many historical structures you
cant restore them all at one time. And that kinda got me thinking about the poor guys trying to restore the colosseum they know where a lot of their stone is but how do they get them out of the
churches and buildings? And how would the guys restoring those buildings react if they did try to take them ? While in Pula I found a hairdresser who didn't really speak english and got my hair cut. She did a really nice job I guess she must be good at playing charades and only 70 kuna so around 15 dollars. The weather was starting to get quite cool in the evenings so we decided it was time to get some heat. so we crossed the road walked three paces past the bakery to the marine store which didn't have what we were looking for hmm. The gentleman behind the counter suggested we try the Bauhaus a few km down the road.
The next day we made a list and grabbed the little cart (best purchase ever I should do an ode to a little orange cart) and trekked off to the store. In case we needed more evidence of fall the sidewalk was littered with chestnuts almost the whole way. 3/4 of an hour later we ended up in a big store area three large grocery stores something that kind of resembled a Canadian tire and the Bauhaus.
Wow a Croatian Home Depot. They even sold Ryobi and an orange house brand that looked remarkably like a Ridgid tool... In the garden center was everything you needed to make wine or olive oil
a claw thing to pick the fruit, presses to get the juice, big vats, bottles and corks. more bits then you could imagine for setting up garden irrigation systems plus all the stuff you expect from a big home improvement store. We found the heater, some calking, assorted hose clamps. I tried really hard to justify bringing home a peka (cast iron dish and bell top designed to go into a charcoal oven) but at over 50 lb it was just to heavy maybe Capital iron will have one. On the trip back we hit the biggest grocery store in search of turkey and the fixins for a thanksgiving dinner. What we found was turkey bits? There were several legs and some breast meat smashed like a cutlet. I'm not sure where the other bits were? We chose two legs found the ingredients for poultry seasoning who knew there was nutmeg in poultry seasoning and a loaf of bread for stuffing. FYI turkey legs make a great Thanksgiving dinner there were even leftovers. Two weeks flew by. One more trip out to the Bauhaus and we were able to complete some of the bigger boat
jobs like re seal the large windows above Ice Bears cabin and fix the galley sink faucet, replace the hose clamps on the hoses you never want to break eeewwww and re run electrical cables
so all the outlets would work ie the new heater. Something thing we didn't expect was the commercial fishermen. One day they all arrived and then everyday after. They were fairly large boats and most had two smaller boats. The whole fleet smooshed themselves onto a section of quay side they were so tight together that we noticed one of them shifting the position of its anchor so it could slide into a spot. They used their small boats like little tugs pushing and pulling the larger boat into and out of its berth. All the yelling and gesticulation attracted its share of attention the boat two births away from us even planed a wine and cheese break around their arrival time. We were even able to attend a craft fair before we left. There was fresh pasta and smoked meats ( boar, llama, bear, horse and elk to name a few) as well as all sorts of sweets and crafts made from olive wood. Plus the standard home heating and cooling options, banks and local environmental initiatives so similar to home yet so different. Two weeks was a long time to spend in one place and we were ready to leave however I'm not sure why most of the guide books gloss over Pula we really enjoyed ourselves and probably could have spent more time exploring the area.
oohh and by the way the ship yard was really quiet we know they were working we could hear the whir of electric motors and the odd thing banging together but for the amount of work being done it was amazing. The main thing that gave them away was the siren I'm guessing it was for beginning of shift, end of shift and lunch break.