We had about one day to prepare for the next crew: my brother and his family, total land-lubbers, were joining us for a two-week visit. We were all excited and a bit apprehensive about them adapting (or not :-) to life on a boat. We waited for them in Cavtat, the same bay where a day earlier we had dropped Will, Andrew, Eric and Effie off for their return trip to Boston.

We knew the first few days of their visit were going to be cloudy and rainy with possible thunderstorms. On their arrival day the clouds were thick, black and angry looking. We picked them up, gave them the boat tour and the safety prep talk. We had just finished lunch when thunder and lighting broke out all around us. The wind was about 20 knots from a southerly direction and the rain was pouring. We were well protected from that wind direction on this bay. As the thunderstorm was moving away from us, the wind changed to Northeast and started to pick up. The bay was relatively open to this wind direction but we had checked that the anchor was well buried when we first arrived. Then the wind went to 30+ knots, the anchor held. The wind increased to 40+ knots, and other boats started to drag; our anchor held. Then, the wind picked at 52 knots and our anchor let go. Por Dos was dragging … quite quickly! . It was mayhem, all the boats around us were dragging, trying to pick up their anchors and move away. It required a surprising amount of engine revs to turn upwind in 50+ knots. The waves were short and sharp with white foam everywhere We motored upwind and away from the bay searching the protection of the shore where the wind was coming from. The rest of the boats in the bay were dancing around and with us; we all seemed to be safe so we all relaxed and waited for it to end. About two hours later, the wind and waves had dropped to nothing. We motored back to Cavtat and anchored again; this time a bit farther away from the shore and other boats. I looked inside Por Dos salon where Felix, Lourdes, Irene and Laura were sitting and keeping out of the way; they were all still smiling and wondering when they would be able to go swimming :-)

The next few days were also rainy and cloudy; the worst weather we had so far in Croatia. Nevertheless, we sailed to Dubrovnik and while my family was visiting the old town and walls, Roan and I went to the small Maritime museum and Alec and Mark stayed with the boat. Next stop was Otok Mljet. The west part of this island is a national park with geological and biological interest. We climbed Montokuc peak which had great views of the park lakes, the bay where Por dos was anchored and the neighboring islands. We hiked to the lakes and visited the 12th-century monastery building in a tiny island in the middle of the biggest lake, and, of course, we had fun playing with kayaks and paddle boards.

After a couple of days in Mljet, we motored north to the cute Venetian town of Korcula. We tied stern-to in the Korcula ACI Marina. At 190 euros the night, this was going to be our only marina stop in Croatia. A stop just long enough to have shower overdoses and have dinner out in one of the thousand restaurants that peppered the old town. We had thought on doing laundry too, but at $20 for a 5 Kg load (Outrageous!) we decided to use our new camping washing machine to do a mini load for our guests. We wandered the town streets in the morning and climbed up the narrow stairs of the cathedral tower. We liked Korcula town even better than Dubrovnik.

We stopped in two quiet bays, Loviste and Scedro, before arriving at Hvar town where my brother and family were taking the fast ferry back to Dubrovnik and the end of their sailing vacation. Hvar town harbor was buzzing with activity: ferries, water taxis, charter boats, big power boats, …, so many boats around that there was a substantial chop in the harbor. It was really busy so we decided to anchor in what looked like a quiet bay in a group of islands south of the town, about one or two miles from the town and an easy dinghy or water taxi ride. The bay, Uvala Stipanska, was beautiful. It had clear waters, only few boats, and a restaurant on the north side. From here we took the water-taxi and visited Hvar town, had lunch in the main square and climbed to the fort for views and a bit of history. Back at Por Dos, we congratulated ourselves on our choice of bay “instead of the super-busy party town of Hvar”, and went to bed. We were rudely awaken at midnight with loud disco music. Initially, I thought it was a party boat just cruising the bay, but when the music did not go away I got up to discover that what we thought was a tranquil lunch restaurant was in fact a booming discotheque that, we found out later, can host up to 1,000 people and water-taxis ferry people all night in and out of this hot-spot. The music, with each song sounding exactly like the one before, did not stop until sunrise, around 5:30 a.m. Only Alec was able to sleep oblivious to any noise. Lourdes had some suggestions on where they could put their loud music and disco lights which I would not utter here in case that young kids read this blog :-) One can only laugh at our choice of “quiet bay”.

In Hvar town, we had our third and last change of crew in Croatia. Tim and Gail were coming from Split in the same ferry that was to take Felix, Lourdes, Irene and Laura back to Dubrovnik. We say good-bye to my family, picked up our new guests, went back to Por Dos, quickly lifted anchor and departed in a hurry. There was no way that we were spending another night in the "quiet" bay of Stipanska.