SV ICE BEAR

Vessel Name: ICE BEAR
Vessel Make/Model: Privilege 39
Hailing Port: Victoria Canada
Crew: Don and Cindy
About: From Vancouver Island British Columbia. Retired and enjoying relaxing Cruising.
Extra: we were hard core racers having sailed many many miles and loved the Long distance races with our previous three boats and friends boats but now we are pulling the throttles back. Even though ICE BEAR has a very nice turn of speed.
27 July 2019
12 July 2019 | Nydri marine
30 June 2019
07 May 2019
25 April 2019 | Temple of Zeus, Olympia
11 September 2018
03 August 2018
13 July 2018
27 June 2018 | Nafplio
11 June 2018
01 June 2018
19 May 2018
10 May 2018
06 May 2018
25 April 2018
20 January 2018
06 January 2018
19 December 2017
08 December 2017
Recent Blog Posts
27 July 2019

Paxos / Corfu

The next morning we paid the new Greek cruising tax said goodbye to the guys on Mangata and the lovely town of Preveza. Our next stop was Paxos. The island of Paxos was only a short hop up the Greek coast. It was a great place to wait for good conditions to cross the Adriatic sea to Italy. The harbour [...]

12 July 2019 | Nydri marine

The Bank

With our return to Vliho bay the weather cooled back down and the rain returned we spent the next few days doing more boat jobs.Found the rattle in the steering system there was wear in the linear drive and to fix it we needed new parts sigh one more job for Tunisia. Replaced the fresh water pump, fixed [...]

30 June 2019

The Aussie

We motored to the stern of Mangata and knocked. From inside we heard a hello woohoo he was home well we kinda knew he was home the dinghy was tied to the stern. We climbed aboard and went below for a quick tour and drink. I always forget how much room is inside a Bavaria. There must be at least [...]

07 May 2019

The next ten days were spent in the boat yard. Unlike last year there was no red dirt but it was cold and wet.Fortunately we had a heater and electricity. When it rained we went to the stores for parts and food when it dried for a few minutes we painted the bottoms, serviced the engines, repaired [...]

25 April 2019 | Temple of Zeus, Olympia

Adventure 2019 begins

The 2019 travel season started on April 2nd with a ferry ride to Vancouver where wonderful friends put us up for the night before the flight to Greece. Thank you so much. The flight was just the way we like flights uneventful. Once we passed through customs and satisfied the man at the exit that the [...]

24 April 2019

Wrap up of 2018 sailing season

When we left our intrepid traveler Emmet he was in Poros waiting for a weather system to pass. While waiting food was consumed and roads were walked. One of the boats near us had its anchor lifted and ended up side tied to the quay which wasn’t a great place to be. The surge from the storm and other [...]

Porec

20 November 2017
Whatever the commercial fishing boats had come to catch was also attracting lots of sports fishermen. I would like to say they were everywhere but they wernt. Whatever they were catching seemed
to like certain spots. It is possible that the fish everyone was after was small and sardine like seeing as one day in pula we found something like that on one of Ice Bears trampolines.
no idea how that happened as the trampoline is atleast 5 ft above the water.
The small boats were anchored which made it easy to avoid them. One thing we have noticed about Croatia is they have rules and these rules are enforced. A couple of the
spots the fishermen seemed to want to fish at were on the wrong side of a park boundary. The fisheries guys seemed to take exception to the little boats and we could see them patrolling the parks border. Everyone seemed to get a warning but it was still early in the day. The mooring ball field in Ravinj was empty so we picked one and tied. The words painted on the ball instructed us to call
on the radio. The person on the other end welcomed us and said the night was free. woohooo. We dropped the dingy and motored into town past the ACI it had been closed all summer due to a
complete remodel it was going to be big all new docks and large buildings on land. We tied the dingy to the town quay and hoisted ourselves to the top. Ravinj was cute, small streets lots
of stores and food plus the remains of the days farmers market. After walking for an hour we circled back to quay and sat down for an early dinner. We chose poorly but being able to watch
the two barges of equipment set pilings in the harbour almost made us forget. The next morning we were off to Porec (porech) about 3/4 of the way there we passed through a large pod of dolphins
well over 20 animals and they seemed to be playing the few that swam near us had big scratch marks on them. The area they were in was quite shallow only 20 ft give or take and we wondered if the
bottom was a good place to rub that hard to reach spot. We took the opportunity to fuel before tying only 188 liters not bad the last place we fueled was Split two months earlier. We spent a few days wandering around the town checking out the old buildings and noting the towns daily progress at hanging Christmas lights. I suspect they weren't going to be lit until early nov as there was still
one more holiday to observe before Santa's big day. We watched a survey team slowly putter around the harbour getting the info to update the chart and learned maybe a little late that Spar with the circle/tree symbol is a grocery chain. Weird I'm positive its the same company that does lumber at home? oohh ya and we met a Canadian couple with their kids on a six month almost world tour they has started in south america and where on their way to Asia. How kewl is that. The day we left Porec is the day we left Croatia. We cast the lines off the Quay and shuffled sideways to the custom dock. The check out procedure was straight forward. They gave instructions on how to leave Croatian waters. typed some stuff into a computer and didn't stamp the passport I guess EU country to EU country no stamp? by 8 am we were slipping our lines and heading out to who knows where. Well actually we know where hehe.

When we talked to cruisers in Greece about going to Croatia we did not receive glowing reviews of the country. We were starting to wonder what we were getting ourselves into despite the enthusiastic endorsement from a friend from home. Everyone started with its really expensive there, Croatians are indifferent to travelers and will take your money before helping with your lines, there are no ship chandleries, the food is boring, they have lots of rules and will fine you at the drop of a hat and the process to clear in and out of the country is complicated. Generally it was felt Croatia was worth the visit because the islands are amazing but they are its only saving grace. After three months in Croatia I feel safe in saying ppffftt. The people were wonderful you just needed to make just a small attempt to meet them and by small I mean small often just saying hi was enough. It is more expensive to tie then Greece but no more expensive then home same with the food. We had no problems finding stores in the larger towns and as for rules all the ones we found were common sense they even pulled their cars over for emergency vehicles which while that seems normal to us go to Italy and see how far a siren get you. As for the food its not fancy but its good who doesn't like meat and fish cooked on a big charcoal grill. While in the Dalmatian coast peka is a must eat at least once and the truffles from Istra are to die for. And for those that drink alcohol everyone makes a home brew grappa, travarica, and rakija to name a few and they really love to share. We have no issues recommending Croatia as a place to visit many of the cruisers we met had decided that this was their idea of cruising perfection and we can see why. As for checking in and out once again follow the basic rules if in doubt ask oohh and They don't care what citizenship your tomato has.

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ICE BEAR's Photos - Main
16 Photos
Created 24 April 2019
46 Photos
Created 25 April 2018