Fast Passage to Split
28 May 2010 | Split, Croatia
I couldn't get out of Hvar quick enough. It was just like in Spain last year!! We would get all settled into our nice, quiet anchorage and as soon as the sun went down the rolling would start! We rolled a bit in Hvar during the day due to all of the boat traffic throwing up quite a wake. But we told ourselves it would settle down at night. Well, it got worse! We can handle that crap...but not for long!
So right after breakfast, I was up on deck ready to go. It was encouraging to see the Beneteaus out. The day before we saw something like 8 or 10 Beneteau First 45s flying their kites into Hvar. It looked like some kind of cruising club. All the kites were the same pattern but different colors and the boat hulls and sails had single-digit numbers on them. (We found out later it was a sailing school.) The boats floated in and doused in front of us. It made for great entertainment. But they all went to a marina across the way from Hvar, so I didn't get a chance to chat with them.
So you can imagine my excitement when they came out to play with us the following morning. We were running a reefed main and full jib wing-and-wing in 25k when they came out of their marina. I was all set for "game on"!! (You see, I am a frustrated racer looking for a little 'action'!!) Well, I guess they were staying locally to get some experience in heavy air, while we turned the corner on Hvar island and made for Split.
We were on a beam reach in 25k and it was, to say the least, a fast passage. We were pulling 8.5k on a reefed main and double reefed jib. Ruth was feeling a little, how shall we say, tense? But she eventually got used to it. We were reaching across this 9 nm slot, so it was all over about as quick as it started. We got through a little channel between two islands and then entered into a large, protected bay that Split is saddled up to.
The wind eventually settled down to 0-5k and we even had to motor for a short bit. But the seas were still big and sloppy - this time not from the left over wind so much as from all the ferry/commercial traffic. When we turned the corner around a small island to get to our anchorage we were greeted to the site of about 100 small dinghies. I could tell it was a Worlds race immediately. You don't get that kind of turn out for a Europeans or Nationals. It looked like Snipes to me, but I found out later they were running the Finn Masters Worlds. We had a chase boat come over to us to make sure we knew well enough not to cut through their course! ("Aw, come on. We are Amerikans!! We want to set up in the middle and take lots of photos for our magazines!!") Anyhow, we let them do their thing and headed for our anchorage. I was disappointed that they didn't recognize me and ask me to do a racing seminar or something. It must have been the sunglasses! :-)
We'll scope out the town today and report back. We have to move the boat closer to the restaurant to getter better wifi. I bought a Eurail pass yesterday for Italy and now we gotta plan. We are going to spend a ton of money the week of June 7-11 visiting Venice, Florence and Rome, and I want to be prepared!!