An early departure from Hvar turned late as the anchor winch again played up and we pulled up 60m of line and 30m chain by hand.. Again! However, we enjoyed the motor through the islands to arrive at Korcula marina by lunch. With a hole in the tender we needed to stay in a marina though our preference would be to anchor. As tempting as the charter docking spectacle was for the afternoon; watching the charterers' antics as they approach the marina entry at full throttle in a race to be in first we decided to leave the marineros to their unenviable task of managing the queue of boats and enjoy the town. Korcula is delightfully picturesque and happily we were there for the "masked welcome of the half of the new year." The locals put on a fantastic effort with costumes and cavorted about the town for much of the evening. We enjoyed cocktails on the Marco Polo Silk Route Road overlooking the coast and then watched the fabulous parade. The evening finished as we dined on the aft deck with fireworks.

If you're familiar with the Hamble Scramble (where thousands of boats share the Little Hamble River and suffer highway quality traffic jams as they try to get away on Saturday mornings or return Sunday evenings) then imagine the Hvar Hustle. In Hvar harbour, which I'm learning is similar to many of the Croatian yacht charter destinations, they have 'safety officers' in RIBs advising yachtsmen against anchoring in the ferries' paths. Sadly they do not advise charterers on not anchoring with their bow 5m from another boat's bow, or not to anchor close enough to pass the coffee between boats. It was so amazing; we enjoyed the spectacle with a San Francisco couple anchored on their Lagoon close enough to chat from our respective back decks. Really, some charterers are fine but the rest give chartering a bad name and it is incredible to think how these boats survive. We all had fenders around our yachts, which were needed and of course, a RIB tender makes for a good big fender to o. Earlier in the day we had finalised clearance formalities at Vis and paid Euros250 for the annual cruising permit, even though we are only staying a week. En route we stopped at the Pakleni Islands for lunch and a swim. Well, I got my feet wet as it's just too cold to swim up here. Phil won't even put his big toe in! We love these late dusks. Still sitting on deck relaxing at 7pm then going ashore for drinks and dinner at 8pm and still having hours of light - Lovely. Hvar town reminded me somewhat of a film set at first look - just too picturesque, but as we got around the town. the local characters, be they old women all in black or the professional bar flies and gorgeously diverse tourists, made me realise it was all genuine. Hvar was a pretty town and the tourists were still partying as we raised the anchor at 5am. As much as we are revelling in our cruising life there is the reality of boat maintenance as a counterpoint to the day. During the morning's motor from Vis the stern drive played up causing Phil to spend an hour with his head down in the engine room; then at our lunch time anchorage, the anchor winch which had been repaired in Italy gave up the ghost so we pulled up the anchor by hand and to top it off the tender developed a leak after it's close encounter with the rocks as Phil took a line ashore as we anchored. Some days are just like that.

I have been asked about fishing... is the fishing any good over here? Well...at the outset we spent about the same amount on fishing gear as we spent on the boat...zillions!!! We have deployed the said equipment as advertised in innumerable locations in the Atlantic and the Med. We've towed the bloody [...]